As an employer, it's your responsibility to ensure your employees are safe at work. Providing a safe working environment isn't limited to ensuring the physical safety of employees but it also addresses the work policies, office equipment, and procedures that could put employees at risk of physical, mental, emotional, or psychological stress.
Gone are the days when employees were seen as paid servants whose health and safety were unimportant. Today, workplace safety is one of the most important features that employers must ensure to incorporate into their workspaces. A safe and healthy work environment fosters a healthy, happy, and highly productive environment that equally benefits employees and employers.
If you've never thought about making your workplace safe for all the workers, now's the time to do so. Employers around the world are adopting an employee-centric approach, and those who aren't are losing their employees fast. Employees today are more conscious about their health and safety, and they aren't willing to put that at risk for an employer who doesn't pay heed to their well-being.
This blog post highlights why workplace safety should be your top priority as an employer and how you can ensure your employees feel safe and healthy at work.
How Can Ensuring Workplace Safety Benefit You?
It's human nature to look for incentives in everything. They don't want to invest their time, energy, or money into anything that doesn't pay off in any way. Well, workplace safety is definitely not one of those things. Investing your time, money, and energy to make your workplace safe for your employees will benefit you and your business in more ways than you can ever imagine.
Let's look at how ensuring workplace safety can benefit you, your employees, and your business.
Enhanced Employee Productivity
One of the biggest benefits of making your workplace safe for your employees is enhanced employee productivity. When employees know for a fact that they're safe at work and there aren't any safety hazards lurking around, they'll be less stressed and anxious and will be able to focus on work better.
For example, if your workplace isn't safe and there have been a few incidents at your workplace in the past, the employees will be constantly stressed, knowing they could be in an accident at any time. This is particularly common in workers who work on machines.
As for employees who use computers, an unsafe work environment puts employees at a high risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The constant discomfort and the fear of falling sick will come in the way of productivity.
However, when employees know that their employer has adequate safety measures in place for them, they'll feel safer at work, and this will lead to enhanced productivity.
Higher Employee Retention
Let's say there was an accident at work that led to one of your employees getting seriously injured. The incident might have traumatized your employees, but what will be worst is giving your employees a sense that they could be next. Employees would seize the first opportunity they'll get to get away from a workplace where their safety isn't guaranteed. However, if you actively work towards mitigating the safety hazards so that the chances of workplace accidents are reduced will make your employees feel valued and important. Knowing you care for their safety and well-being will result in a higher employee retention rate.
Happier and More Dedicated Employees
As we said earlier, when you implement relevant safety measures to make your workplace safe for your employees, the employees will feel good. They'll not only be more productive and less stressed, but they'll be happier too. Happy employees are the most productive and highly dedicated to their work. Happy employees will put their hearts into their job and ensure they get the best results. This attitude of employees is what will get positive outcomes for your business.
Lower Healthcare Expenses
You'll have to bear the healthcare expenses if your employee gets injured or sick due to unsafe working conditions. If your employee gets into an accident that results in injury or they develop work-related musculoskeletal disorders due to poor workplace ergonomics, you'll have to bear all the expense of their treatment. However, you can save this money by ensuring your employees are at a minimum risk of work-related injuries and health conditions. You can save millions of dollars in healthcare expenses by making your workplace safer for your employees.
Positive Brand Image
Prioritizing your employee health, safety, and well-being will bring your company name in a positive light. A positive brand image will attract more clients and more competitive talent, resulting in your business flourishing.
How to Improve Workplace Safety
Improving workplace safety is a win-win case for employees and employers both. A safe workplace will lead to happier and more satisfied employees, which in turn will mean all the good things for the business.
Below are some ways to improve workplace safety for your employees and ensure your employees are safe and healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically.
Identify and Mitigate All Workplace Safety Hazards
The first step towards making your workplace safer for employees is to identify all possible workplace safety hazards. These hazards include dangerous chemicals, mechanical issues, electrical hazards, and poor ergonomics. Once you've conducted a thorough risk analysis of your workplace, you can address each hazard individually and ensure all aspects of workplace safety are covered, and your employees are truly safe at work.
Provide Proper Safety Training
If you implement workplace safety measures but don't educate or train your staff about why they've been implemented and what could happen if they don't follow the new safety protocols, your workplace safety strategy is bound to fail. Employees won't put in any effort to adopt new practices if they aren't trained and educated about them. Safety training is a critical factor in ensuring employee safety at work. Without proper training, whatever you do is of no use.
Improve Workplace Ergonomics
Poor workplace ergonomics is one of the most common and biggest workplace safety risks. Most jobs today require excessive use of computers, and most of the time, employees work sitting in bad postures. Sitting in an incorrect posture for long hours puts employees at a high risk of developing posture-related musculoskeletal disorders. These disorders are characterized by back, neck, and shoulder pain. If employees continue working in poor ergonomic conditions, they might have physical disabilities.
One way to make a workplace safe for employees is by improving workplace ergonomics. You can do this by providing the employees with ergonomic furniture and equipment. The most promising ergonomic furniture and equipment pieces for your employees include ergonomic office chairs and work desks.
Ergonomic office furniture encourages employees to sit in the correct posture, thereby minimizing the risk of posture-related musculoskeletal disorders. The employees are able to work in greater comfort with ergonomic office furniture and equipment, which has a direct positive impact on their productivity, efficiency, and morale.
Establish a Proper Safety Accident Reporting Mechanism
Making a workplace safe for employees isn't something you can achieve overnight. It's a continuous process. This means you'll need to stay ahead of all the possible safety hazards in the workplace so that you can address them before they become a problem. Establishing a proper reporting mechanism will be of great help. Through this portal, the employees would be able to highlight any safety hazards that they feel can put their or others' safety at risk.
Reduce Workplace Stress
As we've said earlier, workplace safety doesn't only mean physical safety. It also encompasses emotional, mental, and psychological safety. To ensure your employees are doing well in all these areas, you've got to take the necessary steps to reduce workplace stress. You can do this by offering flexibility in work schedules, encouraging employees to take breaks between work and avail their leaves, and ensuring healthy competition among employees. This would change the air in your office. The employees will appear happier, fresh, and a lot more active. And as you know by now, happy employees perform the best!
Design Relaxing Rooms
Working non-stop is bound to make your employees feel tired and exhausted. Not only will they feel burned out physically, but they'll also get exhausted mentally. This will affect their mood, morale, and performance at work. You can design relaxing rooms in your office where employees can go between work to relax and freshen up. Given an opportunity to refresh, employees will return to their workstations with their energy stores replenished.
Final Word
A safe and healthy work environment is a right of every employee. They're giving you their time, energy, and skills and helping your business move forward. The least you can do for them is to make them feel safe at work. By taking the right steps and implementing the right safety measures, you can make your workplace a safe and healthy place for your employees!
