If you manage an office or an industrial plant, your employees’ safety is your first priority. One of the best ways to establish a healthy work environment is to build a workforce culture based around safety. Providing employees with PPE and training will allow them to achieve the company’s goals while preventing illnesses and injuries.
To create a productive workplace, allow your employees to participate in the decision-making process by connecting employee safety with corporate culture.
1. Identify Hazards Before Implementing a Safety Culture
Winter storms, driving safety, trip hazards, and other factors can threaten every business. The good news is that everyone can contribute to the solution and share the burden of safety. Each employee in your company can participate in safety and wellness programs, practice safe behaviors, and keep an eye on coworkers and customers based on your business’s specific industry and niche.
Attitudes toward collaboration are one of the most important factors to consider when developing your corporate culture. By putting safety measures in place to protect employees, you are showing your commitment to employee health, happiness, and satisfaction. People look for these qualities in an employer and, especially, in a workplace culture.
2. Leadership Must Participate in Safety Culture
OSHA recommends corporate safety and health programs be developed and implemented with the support of management leadership. OSHA advises all managers to:
- Safety and health should be your company’s top priority.
- Establish targets and goals for safety and health.
- Outline the objectives and responsibilities of the program.
- Support the program with sufficient resources.
Safety becomes a company’s goal when top management shows that it is important for the company to improve safety and health, even if it isn’t in its mission statement. Safety programs at your company must be readily visible. From posters around the office to email campaigns, workplace safety communications can raise awareness, reinforce key messages, and promote workplace engagement.
3. Bring Safety Messaging Front and Center with Tech
As part of a safety and health program, management must be made aware of workplace hazards and workers must be provided with skills to make safer decisions.A comprehensive safety solution can help improve your organization’s safety and health programs through data-driven decision making.
To respond to emergencies and make quick decisions, emergency management teams require gear, software, and data. For instance, gas monitoring systems can alert workers to toxic chemicals before they are released. Furthermore, a safety and health program can also include having the appropriate PPE for all workers, including ensuring that the PPE fits everyone’s unique body shape and size.
4. Promote Safety Through Two-way Communication
By participating in health and safety activities, employees can fulfill their own commitments to safety by communicating ideas and concerns to their supervisors and executive leaders.
Regular in-person and virtual safety meetings for the entire organization can be beneficial. Make it easier for your team members to set personal goals, support team goals, report accidents or near-misses, and modify their conduct for the greater good without fear of reprisal.
Employers can reward positive behaviors from their employees by acknowledging and celebrating safety accomplishments and milestones and emphasizing the importance of doing so. Many businesses display posters showing how long it has been since a workplace injury occurred. A simple “thank you” might be enough to make the workplace safer. Creating positive feelings about safety activities will help to change people’s perceptions of safety.
5. Develop a safety training program that includes safety education
Educational safety programs are a fantastic way to foster a safety culture, whether they are conducted online or remotely. These programs not only encourage employees to share responsibility for safety, but also give them the opportunity to work together to improve their skills.
Most safety programs center around teaching workers how to use certain tools and developing safety protocols for each tool. Walk them through the dangers of not following safety procedures and the possibility of harm.
In cases where employees have trouble learning safety procedures, you can use existing safety equipment, such as gloves, or take precautions, such as wiping up spilled liquids so they will not slip and fall. It is likely that these workers already have a variety of safety procedures in place.
Employees who understand why safety standards are so important will be more inclined to follow safety standards when you explain the risks of not following safety measures. You can easily include lunch, guest speakers, or other fun elements relevant to your safety and wellness program in ongoing training programs.
Invest in Safety Education
Safety practices and safety gadgets and equipment will take time for workers to learn. In order to learn safety tools and processes effectively, there must also be a willingness to change. Learning about safety is not about taking part in a program; it is about every employee’s wellbeing. A safety education program ensures that everyone can do his or her work safely, which in turn means a better quality of life.