In a world of child labor, overworking, and a total disregard for the rights of employees, businesses that actually prioritize the health and safety of their staff members stand apart. Observing labor laws is the bare minimum. You need to think about the well-being of your employees from the moment they step foot on your property until the moment they head home at the end of each day.
A lot of the time, employers have a misconstrued view of their employees. Whether consciously or subconsciously they think to themselves, “My employees are here to serve the business.” And while this is technically true on some level, it’s not the entire truth. As an employer, you also have a duty to serve your employees. You have an implied responsibility to care for them.
The average employee will spend more of their waking hours at your business each workweek than at home. You can’t afford to give them anything other than the best. The question is, do you have a plan for keeping them safe?
4 Tips for Protecting Employees
Keeping employees safe at your place of business essentially comes down to one important word: planning. You have to be able to identify and predict the biggest risk factors your employee’s face and then plan ahead to mitigate or remove those risks as best you can.
Here are several tips that may help you (depending on the type of business you’re in):
1. Define Safety Policies
Start by very clearly defining your company’s safety policies. It’s not enough for you to know your safety policies – every single employee should as well. (After all, they’re the ones who are tasked with actually following the protocol outlined within.)
According to research from McKinsey, an audience must hear a health-risk-related message somewhere between 9 to 12 times in order to maximize the perception of that risk. It’s not enough to tell them once or twice. They should be reminded over and over again.
Important safety policies have to be constantly reiterated to the point that employees have no choice but to observe them.
2. Train Employees Well
Make sure you’re implementing training materials and opportunities for your team with the intention of helping them properly observe safety policies and various risk factors they face on the job.
Comprehensive training is especially important when it comes to preventing workplace injuries. If your business uses heavy machinery, chemicals, or anything else that could put your employees in harm’s way, on-the-job training plays a key role in keeping them safe and sound. Never assume they know something – always show them.
3. Upfit Your Facilities
There are countless opportunities to upfit your facilities to ensure your employees are as safe as possible at all times. Here are just a few ideas:
- Prevent the spread of germs with proactive solutions. For example, if some of your employees are in customer-facing roles where they interact face-to-face with numerous customers throughout the day, equipping their workspaces with Covid glass screens is a must. In fact, many employers are installing these screens inside open air workspaces to provide additional protection against the potential spread of germs between employees. This may be something to consider.
- Enhance signage around key areas like stairs, doors, equipment, elevation changes, etc. When designing your workplace, always assume that employees are walking and texting. In other words, your facilities need to be so safe and clearly marked that even someone who has their nose in a screen can safely maneuver.
4. Don’t Overwork Employees
An overworked employee is always more likely to hurt themselves and others on the job than an employee who is working normal hours. In fact, there’s a pretty linear relationship between the increase in work hours and increase in injury risk. Those who sleep less than seven hours per night and work more than 40 hours per week face a significantly higher risk of being hurt than those who get eight hours of sleep per night and work 40 or fewer hours.
Interestingly though, employee injuries happen 20 percent more often during evening shifts than they do during daytime shifts – even at the same place of business. And when it comes to overnight shifts, there’s a 30 percent increase from daytime shifts. Regardless of the time of day, 12-hour shifts result in a 37 percent increase in workplace injury risk.
The moral of the story? Try to limit the hours employees work. And, if possible, prioritize daytime shifts. Overnight shifts should only be used when absolutely necessary (and 12-hour overnight shifts should be prohibited).
Adding it All Up
Identify what can help you keep your employees safe, but don’t stop there. Take some time to analyze your business and the risk factors your employees face on the job. Then use these insights to plan ahead and develop a proactive strategy.
Not only will it create fewer legal and financial issues for your business, but it’s the right thing to do.
