Workplace safety is an issue worldwide, with 6300 people dying daily across the globe. If you are not compliant with workplace standards, you are going to experience legal problems, regulatory problems, and the fact that your employees are putting themselves in danger every single time they come to work.
To avoid making any critical mistakes, you need to know what those mistakes are. This guide is going to show you the big mistakes companies are making when it comes to global workplace safety.
Creating More Work than Necessary
Safety is a topic most companies don't like to talk about because it requires time and money to improve workplace safety. But you also have to remember that safety shouldn't mean more work. If you are constantly typing reports and conducting audits, the chances are you are not making a positive change.
You shouldn't be creating more work than necessary when ensuring your workers' health. Keep the administration to a minimum and concentrate on making some actual change. Spend more of your time crafting safer systems.
Harness the People Working for You
It's false to believe that your health and safety policy is the job of a specific department. In order to maintain a safe workplace, you need to harness everyone. If you are implementing corrective actions all the time, the chances are you are not addressing the root cause of the problem.
Make sure you invest more in the training and development of your staff to ensure that you are making a real difference in the long-term. The workers within the company are the ones who must avoid their jobs becoming hazardous to their health, so it makes sense to consult them in relation to these matters.
Not Following Through
A big part of your health and safety strategy will revolve around the reporting of incidents. All employees should be encouraged to report such incidents to the relevant department. Once you convince your workers to do this, you have to follow through on your promises.
Once a report has been filed, you should follow through on it. Furthermore, you should inform the person who reported the incident that action has been taken. If you don't, you are going to have a hard time getting your employees to report problems in the future.
Why Do You Want to Focus on Health and Safety?
It's not something that many companies consider. Think about why you want to focus on health and safety and what your main motivations are. What prompted you to focus on this part of your business in the first place?
If the main driver was that inspection report from the regulators, the chances are you are just trying to check a few boxes. This is the wrong way to look at health and safety because it means you are only going to do the bare minimum so you don't receive a fine.
Organizations should want to focus on health and safety because they understand how important it is for the well-being of their employees, rather than because they have to due to the fact the law said they have to.
Does the Safety Culture Last?
It's a traditional trend that a company safety plan will be a priority for approximately one week after the safety inspector has written their negative report. Once the company has made the relevant changes, people start to forget about safety until they stop taking it into account. Consequently, the cycle continues and the company never actually gets safer.
The safety sign experts at Clarion Safety Systems say that clear, effective signage can help to be a visual reminder of safety best practices. Signs communicate safety information that reinforces training for employees, subcontractors and visitors. Helping to ensure safety remains a priority, signs are critical to maintaining a safe work environment and minimizing liability exposure.
Is the Safety Team Doing the Work for You?
Sometimes the safety team can cross over from a purely advisory committee to actually implementing change themselves. This may sound like a good thing, but actually this is problematic because it means that the managers are having the work done for them.
This is not going to create lasting change because your workforce hasn't been taught how to maintain high safety standards. They have always had someone else do it for them. It doesn't take much for the safety team to become the department that solves everyone else's problems.
What do you think is the greatest workplace safety problem today?