5 Ways To Improve Your Workplace Safety Record
by Arnab Dey Business Development 18 November 2022
Workplace safety is one of the most challenging areas you will ever have to manage as a business owner.
It can feel like no matter what you do to make your company see safety as a top priority, you always find out about someone getting injured on the job.
As you grow and add employees across various departments, you might see injuries and workers’ compensation claims increase, which will ultimately hurt your bottom line.
Checkout Five Best Steps To Improve Your Workplace Safety Record
Here are five ways you can improve your workplace safety record.
1. Evaluate Your Workers’ Comp Process
The first step you should take is to evaluate your workers’ comp process to see where there are weak points. For example, if employees aren’t reporting minor injuries and those eventually turn into serious issues that result in larger claims, you have to deal with this problem as soon as possible.
If your workers’ compensation program and claims process aren’t working the way they should, you have to address this first.
You can get extra support by working with a pharmacy benefit management company. That way, you can rely on experts to evaluate the clinical approaches used to treat injured employees to ensure the use of proper medicines and that prescribed treatments are appropriate. This can save your company money in the long run, and it can also help employees get back to work faster.
2. Stay on Top of Equipment Training
Regardless of how busy your company is at different times of the year, you have to stay on top of training that’s related to equipment use and workplace safety. The better you train your employees and staff, the better your safety record will be.
One of the quickest ways to accrue injuries on the job is to breeze over training for newly onboarded employees.
Sure, you took safety training seriously when you were starting out, but now you can’t be sure if your current department heads are keeping up with it. Make it a point to attend departmental training and keep an eye on onboarding procedures when it comes to safety.
3. Increase Transparency Around Safety Reports
When you’re managing a large company with a variety of different types and levels of safety concerns, you have to make sure your reporting procedures are easy, effective, and transparent. You can reduce a huge amount of work-related injuries by making sure you know about any workplace dangers as soon as they happen.
Sometimes equipment breaks down or there’s a spill or accident at work. These are unfortunate but unavoidable circumstances.
If your employees find the reporting process difficult, time-consuming, and opaque, they might decide to skip it altogether and find a solution that doesn’t involve management. But documentation is critical, which is why you have to streamline your process and make it as transparent as possible.
4. Hold Regular Safety Meetings
Training is always important, but no amount of training can replace regular safety meetings. No matter how difficult the scheduling becomes, you have to talk about safety if you want your staff and employees to take it seriously.
This includes holding regular seminars about workplace safety and how your company treats instances of sexism, racism, and other types of discrimination as well as discussing topics related to mental health awareness.
It takes strong leadership and vision to communicate the importance of safety in the workplace. You probably know that this isn’t the most exciting topic for your staff and employees.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be interesting and informative. Ask for feedback from various departments on how you can make safety meetings less of a chore without sacrificing your priorities to reduce workplace injuries.
5. Take Safety Hazards Seriously and Act Quickly
When you make safety a priority, you have to act fast when you learn of a hazard or danger in the workplace. If your company has a history of pushing safety concerns to the background, then you need to work quickly to change this aspect of the company culture.
When employees report safety hazards, you have to take their reports seriously. In some cases, you may see overreporting, which can be frustrating. But it’s better to navigate more paperwork than see an increase in workers’ comp claims.
Communicate this to your department heads and appropriate team leads to shortening the response time when it comes to reports of safety hazards in the workplace.
You should feel proud when you achieve a stellar record of workplace safety. Not only are you protecting the people who matter in your organization, but you’re also protecting your bottom line and making investors happy.
Read Also:
Related
