3 Safety Features That Every Business Needs

Contributed Post, January 29, 2018

The most important part of any business is its employees. Without them, it’s just you sitting in an office coming up with ideas that nobody ever puts into practice. They are the nuts and bolts of your company which is why it’s vital that you manage them properly and look after their health. If you don’t take care of them and make sure that your office is a safe working environment, you risk illness and injury which is bad news for everybody. If one of your best employees is out of work for a while, you’ll soon see a big drop in productivity which will be reflected in loss of earnings. If you’re setting up a new office or you think yours could do with an update, here are some of the safety features you absolutely have to include.

First Aid Kit

A first aid kit is absolutely vital in case of injury around the workplace. You need an easily accessible first aid box with bandages, tape, splints, antiseptic wipes and burn treatments. You should also consider having an aed (automatic external defibrillator) in case somebody experiences a serious heart problem that may otherwise be fatal. It’s important that your employees are aware of where to find all of the first aid equipment and you have at least a few people that are first aid trained working for you so they can offer initial treatment if anything were to happen.

Safety Manuals

Any equipment that employees are using in the office is a potential risk, particularly anything electrical. Even if it’s something fairly common, it’s important that people know how to use things properly. Make sure that your employees always have access to the safety manuals for equipment and that they are encouraged to refer to them before using any piece of equipment for the first time. It stops them from getting injured and it can also save you a lot of legal hassle. If an employee is injured by something because they have not been taught how to use it safely, they have a case to make a compensation claim against you. However, if you provided all of the relevant safety information to them, the fault is with them and they cannot make a claim.

Hazard Signs

One of the most common injuries in any workplace is slips and falls. Sometimes, this is the fault of the employees themselves, but in some cases, it might be because areas of the office are dangerous. Where possible, you should obviously try to make things safer. But if you can’t make any changes, for example, if you’ve got a narrow walkway that is a fall risk, you need to put up hazard signs so employees are aware that they need to take extra care. Again, this reduces the likelihood of you having to pay a large compensation settlement to an employee that injures themselves.

The safety of your employees should be your number one concern. If your office doesn’t have any of these safety features, you need to rectify that right away.