Workplace safety is a topic often discussed in today’s business circles – but the problem is, it’s too often discussed in the safest environment: that of the office. Too rarely are conversations around employee safety conducted with the more hazardous jobs in mind – like in factories and on production lines, where there’s a real risk of serious injury if staff are poorly trained or poorly behaved. In this article, you’ll learn how to keep all your employees as safe as possible when they’re working on your production line, understanding how best to map out your business to maximize safety in 2020 and beyond.
Training Modules
The bottom line with safety in the workplace of a manufacturer is the training that employees undergo. Training should be rigorous and well-tested to ensure that all the machinery and all the safety mechanisms that are in place in your workplace are fool-proof and known company-wide. It’s no good simply to let employees in and assume they’ll know not to stick their hands into a moving part of a machine, or not to wear a tie near machinery – it’s up to you to hammer these points home, for their protection. You need to train staff in:
- Fire routines and escapes, in case of a fire in your warehouse or factory
- First aid, to help stricken employees as quickly as possible
- How to use machines, and the way to remain safe while around large machinery
- Where the kill buttons are located for all machines in your building
- How to respond if someone is injured in your workplace
- The conditions you need to keep your warehouse ensuring it is clean, tidy and safe
- All the other health and safety requirements that make up the modern risk assessment requirements
Trained staff are savvy staff, and such staff will be able to avoid all the kinds of mishaps that there is even the slightest risk of in your place of work. Get these training sessions mapped out and fool-proof to protect all your staff.
Hazardous Materials
There is a likelihood that in your production process, your staff will be exposed to many hazardous materials – even if those materials are only hazardous on repeat exposure over many years. You have a responsibility to help them understand these materials, and how best to avoid exposure to them, if you’re to adequately keep them safe in the face of dangerous and difficult circumstances.
When you’re packaging materials that may be hazardous, you must place these in containers and other packaging materials that are robust and completely safe. You can find these containers sold on the HazPlus platform, where hazardous materials are the expertise of specialist manufacturers. You should also ensure that hazardous materials are labeled well and kept in the safest possible place in your business: chemical leaks and gas leaks can be catastrophic for health and your business.
Safer Processes
There’s also an element when you’re making your way through your business on a safety audit of making your whole system and process a little safer – and more efficient at the same time. It’s here that you can instruct managers to oversee an overhaul in your production process to give each employee a specific job that’ll keep them in a safe place, and a predictable pattern of work for longer. All this will mean is that there’s less likelihood of human error in your work and that employees will be able to concentrate on the tasks at hand instead of being concerned by the ramifications of their actions when walking around on the job.
Taking a systems-view of your business can help in any case, finding inefficiencies and tighten up gaps in your production line. It’s a healthy part of business improvement and should be conducted every quarter, with safety as your primary concern, to improve your business. Remember, though, that there’s no substitute for good, safe processes. If you chase profits over safety, you may contravene the law – and threaten your whole business as a result.
Insurance and Legal Cover
Sometimes, injuries at work are inevitable. It is true of the very safest workplaces, as well as those in which there is significant room for improvement. In these cases, it’s best to have an insurance policy that covers your staff to help them in their recovery – and with their medical costs if they do have to have some medical attention. Workplace insurance can be a seriously useful safety net, for those who are concerned about the ramifications of an injury on their whole business’ finances.
Meanwhile, legal cover can help instruct you as to the best way to deal with tribunals and other legal challenges related to the safety of your business. Your lawyer will be able to build a case that you have observed excellent standards of safety in your business and that you are therefore not negligent in the case of injury in your place of work. These dual areas of cover will help you protect your business, and your employees should an injury happen in your workplace.
Environmental Concerns
Finally, you cannot claim to be fully abreast of staff safety without being also concerned about how you deal with the environment in which they live. As a manufacturer, you may be contributing a fair amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, as well as a decent amount of waste, and a fair amount of packaging that will end up in a landfill. As the world becomes more eco-conscious, it’s time to face the facts: you need to go green, or you’ll be punished.
Keeping the world safe is your responsibility, and you can do this in several ways. You can audit your processes and your production lines to find points of wastage and attempt to tighten these up. You can change your machines for new and more efficient models. You can attempt to set up renewable energy sources to power your business – and you should make sure your packaging is recyclable. If you achieve all these steps, you’ll be on your way to making your business as safe as possible.
These tips will help you improve workplace safety measures in a factory or warehouse, ensuring that you’re taking your obligations towards your staff, and the planet, seriously.
