Keeping employees safe—during a crisis or even just in everyday situations—can be a challenging endeavor. But it’s an employer’s moral and legal responsibility to maintain a safe environment in the workplace. When was the last time you performed a safety assessment?
Bill Turner, contributing writer, offers some valuable advice on this topic in a feature article for the October issue of LPM Online. A safety assessment of your existing procedures is a good idea.
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From the article:
To promote general employee safety, all businesses should have, at a minimum,
procedures, policies, and guidelines in place that provide for or address the following issues:
- First aid kits
- Blood‐borne pathogens cleanup kit and procedures
- First aid, CPR, and blood‐borne pathogens training
- Office safety guidelines
- Sales floor guidelines for retail
- Proper operation and storage of tools
- Ladder safety
- Compactor operation and safety (if applicable)
- Hazard communications (safety data sheets or material safety data sheets) Lockout‐tagout requirements (if applicable)
- Personal protective equipment (if applicable)
- Fire prevention procedures
- Fire extinguishers and training on how to use
- First aid procedures for serious injuries
- Back safety and lifting guidelines
- Slip, trip, and fall prevention guidelines
- Overall location safety program and active safety committee
If you’re addressing all of these issues in your safety policy already, you’re doing pretty well. But accidents still happen. That’s why Turner goes on to discuss the top causes and costs of workplace injuries, as well as ways in which to handle the immediate aftermath of a major crisis. Check out “Keeping Employees Safe in General and in Crisis” to read the full article and make sure your safety assessment is a thorough one.
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This post was originally published in 2017 and was updated December 6, 2017.