Maintaining workplace safety ensures that your employees are more productive, healthier, and happier. Robust workplace safety measures also protect you from costly liabilities relating to workplace injuries. This is why as a business owner, you should continually foster a safety-conscious culture in your business.
Here are 10 safety tips from OSHA that can help you ensure greater safety at work.
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Regularly Train Your Employees
Before a new team embarks on a work project, ensure they are well-trained on your safety protocols, as well as equipment and machine safety. Additionally, promptly inform the team of any changes in the safety guidelines and continually conduct refresher training.
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Deter Falls
If your work entails working on elevated surfaces such as a roof, scaffolding, or ladder, ensure you have fall prevention measures in place before you embark on any project. Besides, the cost of fall prevention equipment should be part of your job estimates. Get the right equipment early and ensure your team is well trained on how to use it.
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Watch out for Weather-related Illness
If your employees are exposed to extreme weather elements as they work, you should protect them from illness, injury, and heat exhaustion by providing emergency heat training, shade, rest, water, and tools that can help them identify heat-related issues.
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Wear PPE
According to OSHA, PPE (personal protective equipment) is worn to protect against hazards that can cause severe workplace illness and injuries. This includes safety shoes and glasses, earplugs or earmuffs, hard hats, gloves, vests, coveralls, respirators, full-body suits, and more. Make sure that your team has suitable safety equipment for each job.
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Detect Hazards
Ensure your team is well trained on how to identify and resolve biological, chemical, and physical hazards. Conduct frequent professional inspections and run-throughs. Assess equipment hazards, injuries and illness, close calls, and workers’ compensation reports.
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Stay Prepared for Emergencies
Your team should know how to react in case an emergency such as a fire, flood, or natural disaster strikes. OSHA provides useful tips on how to respond to emergencies in its Emergency Preparedness and Response information.
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Check Ventilation
OSHA shares that poor air quality is linked to symptoms like fatigue, headaches, trouble concentrating, as well as irritation of the nose, eyes, throat, and lungs. Your workers will be healthier and more productive if you ensure their airflow and environment are clean and up to code. Check out OSHA’s standards list for ventilation standards for your industry.
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Keep a First Aid Kit Handy
OSHA requires employers to maintain a healthy and safe workplace. However, even if you do your best to eliminate occupational hazards, accidents can still happen. Therefore, as an employer, you must provide first aid supplies that are commensurate with the occupational hazards that your employees are exposed to at the workplace.
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Encourage Regular Breaks
Many Americans work irregular and long hours. In turn, this leads to employee burnout and an increase in workplace accidents. To promote your employees’ wellness, you should ensure they get enough breaks during work hours.
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Empower Employees
Encourage your workers to maintain workplace safety standards. Additionally, your employees should be free to report hazards in line with their rights. OSHA recommends that safety training should be conducted in languages that the workers understand. Additionally, they should work with safe machines and suitable safety equipment.
Use these top 10 safety tips from OSHA to improve safety in your business. At Modab Insurance Services, we are committed to helping businesses find commercial insurance policies that bolster workplace wellness. To get started, contact us today.