No matter the sector or industry you operate in, it’s likely that your business has health and safety measures in place to protect your workforce and customers.
Whether you boast a warehouse or office space, industrial kitchen or retail establishment, making sure you’re working safely and protecting everyone around you is vital. Let’s take a look at what you should be doing as a business owner to ensure you’re covered.
A health and safety officer
You don’t need to hire a new member of staff, but having a health and safety officer in the business can really help. A few key people in the business can be trained up on all of your existing or new policies, and their responsibilities would include ensuring that when health and safety problems arise, they’re able to effectively reduce the risk and danger posed to other members of staff.
Your equipment
As far as the general day-to-day running of your business goes, you’ll need to make sure that all of your equipment is regularly maintained and looked after appropriately. This might be as simple as storing it as per the manufacturers instructions or putting safety caps onto sharp equipment.
If you’re office based, this may mean making sure your store cupboard is stocked with the key things you need to clear up small scale issues, such as broken glass or spillages. You might want to keep a stock pile of paper towels to hand ready for when something happens – being able to act fast will help to avoid unnecessary injuries!
Health and safety policy documents and policies
Having policies and procedures in place can often seem like an endless back office task, but it’s something that businesses should have. Not only will they make you accountable, but they’ll also encourage you to keep your staff trained regularly and clued up on their responsibilities. Your workforce will be able to refer back to the information during their usual day-to-day operations, and they’ll keep everyone singing from the same song sheet.
Keeping your facilities safe
Whether you have regular visits from customers or not, making sure your workplace has safe facilities for everyone to use is vital. You’ll need to put policies in place to ensure they’re checked regularly. For example, electricals should be PAT tested, bathrooms should be clean and safe and any wiring should be kept neat and tidy.
Having a first aid kit and accident book
Your first aid kit and accident book can be life savers, literally. This is one of the simplest health and safety measures that you can implement and will cost next to nothing. A first aid kit can help you with any minor problems or injuries that can occur during the working day, and an accident book will keep anything logged that needs to be. There might seem like a lot to think about when it comes to health and safety, but getting it right from the very start will help your business to be responsible, and to also act professionally and with the best interests of its workforce.
