Dealing with hazards in the workplace is one of the most important parts of being a manager or supervisor. You want to make certain that your employees are protected. If you don’t, there’s always the chance that you could be sued for a worker’s compensation claim. You may train your employees to watch out for basic safety violations but you also often have a supervisor or employee who is responsible for doing risk inspections on a regular basis. While this is certainly a good move, it doesn’t always protect your employees.
Train Everyone
While it may take more time and require additional training, teaching all of your employees to identify potential dangers will create a team of risk inspectors. Everyone will be able to spot things that could be harmful to the workplace. This way, you don’t just have someone doing risk inspections every week or month. You have everyone in the workplace looking for safety violations every day. You’ll find that you learn about and can immediately correct any safety risks as soon as they materialise rather than waiting until after an inspection. This can prevent accidents and fines.
Have Resources Available
Training, of course, is often a one-time event. Over time, some people will slowly forget some of the lesser-used training instructions, while others may not have learned everything the first time around. This can lead to rare safety issues being overlooked because few people remember them from training. To help combat this, you will want to have safety information available for all of your employees.
One of the best resources to provide each employee is the Take 5 booklet safety list These booklets contain lists of everything that employees should do when they identify workplace dangers. Employees can carry these small booklets with them wherever they go and you can also leave some in the work area or in each employee desk.
Continue Regular Inspections
While having every member of your team trained in how to identify workplace hazards and safety violations will help cut down on accidents, you don’t want to discontinue your regular inspections. That’s because most employees aren’t actively looking for safety violations or checking areas for hazards. A trained individual who has this specific task will be looking at everything. He or she won’t be focused on another project so he or she will be much more likely to closely examine everything related to safety and look for potential dangers.
Take Action Right Away
When an employee does identify a potential safety risk, you need to take action right away. First, verify that what was found is indeed a safety risk. Then make certain employees know what has happened and how to handle the risk until it can be repaired. In some cases, you may need to restrict access to the area or use of the equipment until it can be repaired or replaced. In other cases, the repair may be something that can be done right away. Whatever the case, be sure to note what has occurred and, if needed, provide additional training related to the issue to all employees.
