Writing a health and safety policy for your business is vital to minimize accidents and injuries and to ensure that your employees, clients, and the general public feel comfortable within your premises. Once you have created a health and safety policy that meets the risks of your workplace, it is important to understand the best ways to implement this policy in order for it to be effective.
This article will cover some of the best ways to put your health and safety policy into practice within the workplace.
· Test for Drugs and Alcohol
Drugs and alcohol have the potential to harm both your employees and others around them. When an employee is intoxicated, this can leave them unable to use equipment or carry out their duties in a safe and effective manner. If you have reasonable grounds to suspect that an employee may be using drugs or alcohol, or wish to test employees before they enter the workplace, you should consider running a drug testing program design that can suit the needs of your business and your employees.
· Commit to Health and Safety Training
It is vital that each of your employees understands the health and safety policies of your business, and that you are able to refresh their knowledge of them on a regular basis. In order to ensure that every employee commits to your new regulations, you should set up a health and safety training scheme for both old and new employees. This course should cover aspects of health and safety such as good lifting practices, learning how to use the equipment, and comprehensive emergency training.
· Maintain the Right Equipment
One of the greatest dangers in the workplace is the equipment that you use, especially in a warehouse or factory environment. To ensure that your tools and machinery are safe, you should research the right equipment for your workplace before deciding to invest and you should also regularly maintain and service them.
If problems are found, it is paramount that you call in professional help to fix your machinery as soon as possible. You should bar your employees from using the equipment in question until it is properly fixed to prevent common workplace injuries, such as loss of limb and lacerations.
· Comply with Legal Requirements
As well as ensuring that your policy aligns with your business’s needs, you must also comply with legal requirements. In the USA, although most health and safety policies are regulated by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, some regulations may be different according to which state your business is situated within. Additionally, according to The Occupational Health and Safety Act, there are industry-specific health and safety guidelines that your business must implement, which work alongside job inspections and training programs to ensure that workplaces are safe spaces for all employees and those with access to your premises.
· Remember to Audit your Policy
Not only is it important to implement an effective health and safety campaign, but you also need to remember to audit your policy on a regular basis. Rather than conducting this yourself, you should look at employing a professional health and safety inspector who can help to highlight hazards in an unbiased fashion. However, if you are conducting this audit yourself, you should isolate workplace risks, such as equipment, chemicals, and trip hazards, as well as the processes that have been put in place to manage them. If these are not effective, then you should make changes to your policy that can help to reduce these risks in the future.
· Check for Hazards
As a business owner or manager, it is not only essential to provide your employees with the information that they need to follow your health and safety policy, but you also need to ensure that your employees are practicing these regulations. To do this, you should regularly oversee your employees when they are carrying out potentially dangerous tasks to ensure that they follow your regulations. You should also make sure that your employees are recording any breaches in health and safety, such as accidents and injuries, when they occur.
From drug testing to hazard supervision, implementing an effective health and safety policy in the workplace is vital for the smooth running of your business – and your own peace of mind. Not only can an effective policy ensure that you are complying with legalities, but it can also prevent workplace injuries and unnecessary insurance claims against your company.
