Workplaces are getting safer – yet accidents still happen. When it comes to ensuring workplace safety, no one can afford to be complacent.
Creating and maintaining a safer workplace means ensuring your team is always alert to and mindful of the potential hazards around them. One way of doing this is through including health and safety information reminders in team meetings and other communications. Regular exposure to relevant safety information will ensure your employees are well-informed on how to identify and avoid accidents, and well-prepared for how to handle one if it happens.
In this blog, we’ve compiled a list of 12 ideas for creating a safer workplace. Why not use it as a checklist and tick off one area of focus per month for the next 12 months?
Creating a safer workplace
#1 Hand protection
Ensure your employees are provided with good quality safety gloves that will protect their hands while providing the grip and dexterity they need to perform their work, and encourage them to not only wear them at all times, but to take good care of them.
Our tips:
- Discourage a throwaway culture by restricting how often replacement gloves may be ordered
- Provide employees with a belt clip that they can attach their gloves to during breaks, to prevent them getting lost
Resources:
#2 Safer cutting
A good follow-on topic from hand protection, safer cutting should reinforce the importance of wearing safety gloves at work as well as address the need to use safety cutters, handle sharp objects with appropriate care, and to follow safer cutting methods.
Our tips:
- If you haven’t already, invest in safer cutting tools. At iSB Group, we recommend Slice® knives, whose ceramic blades cut with their hardness rather than their sharpness. These innovative safety cutters all-but-eliminate the risk of accidentally cutting skin during use. Find out how.
Resources:
#3 Temperature control
Educate employees on how they can maintain a comfortable core body temperature at work – especially during the changing seasons – through appropriate choice of clothing, application of layering, and micro-adjustment.
Our tips:
- Provide employees working in warm environments, in variable temperatures, or in very active roles with the option of moisture wicking workwear to keep them cool and dry while they work.
- When the weather turns cold, thermal underwear or base layers will help to keep your workers warm without being bulky or making them sweat
Resources:
#4 Hi vis
Most logistics workers will be familiar with the requirement to wear hi vis clothing, and happy to comply. But do they know how to take good care of their hi vis, and when it should be replaced?
Our tips:
- Store hi vis clothing out of direct sunlight to reduce fading
- Keep it clean – but check the label before washing
- Hang it, don’t screw it up!
Resources:
#5 Safety footwear
Make sure your employees understand all the different ways in which safety footwear is designed to keep them safe and healthy at work.
Our tips:
- Talk about how wearing the right safety footwear can prevent fatigue and reduce the likelihood of injuries.
- Make sure your teams are equipped with the right safety footwear for the demands of their roles, whether they stand still for most of the day or are always on the move.
Resources:
Click here to read more: 12 ideas for creating a safer workplace: Pt 2 →
To review our extensive range of site safety equipment to help you achieve this, you can also visit our online store here.
Posted 28 Mar 2023
