What Should You Do If Your Work Environment Is Unsafe?

What Should You Do If Your Work Environment Is Unsafe?

As an employee, you have certain rights in the workplace. It’s up to your boss to make sure that you’re being treated fairly at work and you’re getting paid properly. They also need to make sure that they provide a safe workplace for you, which is why health and safety regulations exist. Unfortunately, not all employers meet their responsibilities in the workplace and sometimes, you might find yourself in a dangerous work environment. This can cause a lot of problems for you as an employee because you’re risking injury or illness, and it can cause tensions with your boss if you bring it up. So, what should you do if your workplace is unsafe?

Source

Refuse To Continue Working

The first thing that you should do if you feel that you’ve been asked to complete a task that is unsafe or you don’t believe that health and safety regulations are being met and it’s putting you and others at risk is to refuse to continue working. A lot of people worry about the repercussions of doing this but your first priority should be protecting yourself at work. In most places, it’s your legal right to refuse to work if the conditions are unsafe and your employer is not allowed to penalize you for this. You should explain to your superiors that you don’t feel comfortable working in unsafe conditions and you will not continue working until the issues are resolved. Hopefully, this will be enough to solve the problem, but that isn’t always the case.

Gather Evidence

If your employer isn’t willing to make changes, there is a chance that you will need to take legal action against them. If you’ve already been injured as a result of unsafe conditions, you’ll definitely have to contact an organization like the Hannon Legal Group to help you make a claim. As soon as your employer finds out that you’re taking legal action against them, they’re going to fix all of the health and safety violations and you won’t have a case. That’s why you need to gather evidence beforehand. Make sure that you photograph the dangerous areas and speak with other employees that feel the same as you so they can back you up.

Contact Labor Organizations

Unless your employer is willing to deal with any health and safety violations, you will have to report them to a labour organization. In most cases, you’ll need to get in touch with OSHA and report the problem to them. They will be able to conduct an assessment of the work environment and order the company to make the necessary changes.

Explore Other Job Options

While your employer can’t fire you for reporting a health and safety violation, it is going to cause some tension in the workplace and they may look for other ways to get rid of you in the future. If the violation is particularly bad, there is also the chance that the company will be shut down, at least until the work environment is deemed safe enough. That means you could end up out of work and you need to be prepared for that, so now is the time to look into other job options, just to be safe.

If you follow these steps, you can deal with an unsafe work environment in a professional way.

6 Simple Ways to Make Voting Easier for the Public

6 Simple Ways to Make Voting Easier for the Public

When our friends, colleagues and family members head out to vote on Election Day, there is always a sense of community spirit in the air. The democratic process is an integral part of society and should be made accessible to everybody, no matter what. Unfortunately, not everybody feel confident to head out and make their vote, which means a lot of votes have been wasted over the years. Every eligible person should feel able to make their mark without any hassle, but how can this be made easier? Encouraging people to vote is constantly in the forefront of the media, but there are a few ways in which the process could be made hassle free for all.

1. New Technology

There is something about putting a cross or a tick inside a box that seems quite ancient to us all. Why not shake up the way voting happens and use smart technology to create a smoother, simpler and most honest process. Smartmatic creates and offers voting technology and services designed to make elections more auditable and transparent. With their robust portfolio of election solutions it gives authorities all of the hardware, software and services they need to successfully manage each phase of the election process. They focus on designing technology that guarantees more efficient elections, which will improve the experience of all poll workers and voters.

2. Registration Help

Automatic registration isn’t in play in most states, however California recently automated their voter registration through the DMV. This means that when people review their driving licences or change their address, they are automatically registered to vote. This reduces a tonne of paperwork and hassle, so people are free to go out and vote whenever necessary.

3. Reduce Waiting Times

Understandably many people are put off the idea of voting as queues can get extremely long at the various polling stations. These long wait times are avoidable as long as the states can plan ahead and get the right resources in place before voting day.

4. Election Day Should Be a Holiday

If we were to make Election Day a federal holiday, people would see it as a much bigger deal. Most of the time it is a working day for most people, so it really isn’t convenient. If it was a holiday introduced by the national government people would have the day off work and have more chance to vote.

5. Make Early Voting an Option

Election Day is only one single day, where everybody is expected to make their way to a local poll. However, most people might not be able to get there on that day due to commitments, appointments and vacations. If every state offered early voting as an option, many more people would be able to cast their vote.

6. Improve Portable Registration

Most people will move house at some point during their lives and every time this happens you need to re-register. This means a tonne of forms and headaches every single time you move house. Portable registration means that voter’s registration could be kept active when they move within the same state.

With these six simple methods voting can be made much easier for the public and voters can feel at ease when Election Day rolls around.

Choice, Select, Decide, Decision, Vote

Image

Convincing Clients To Choose Your Business

Convincing Clients To Choose Your Business

It’s one thing to rack your brain over how to find customers, but it’s a different kettle of fish when you’re on the prowl for clients. Be careful, clients and customers are not the same and nor should they be treated as such. What’s the key differences then? Well, customers are independent consumers, they are part of the mass market. They might not have a knowledge about business but they know what kind of products and or services they need to make their lives more comfortable and easier. Clients on the other hand are in business, they know the ins and outs of various industries and they have their own standards. They might not own a business and purely be on the investment side, either way they are entities that can help you grow your business either by monetary means or by way of collaboration. So how do you convince clients to choose your business instead of a competitors?

Personalized advertising strategies

For the mass market you’ll design a marketing campaign that is going to try and fulfill a pleasure or a need to make life simpler, easier, more enjoyable and generally speaking just more fun. However for clients, you’re specifically looking to fulfill their desires to improve their own business or financial future. This is why personalised advertising is needed because you’re targeting their strategic and global needs too. For example, a distributor needs to plug a gap in their sales market. Other stores who they are competing with already have a number of products in a particular category such as sneakers.

However some clients may want to improve their line up or make their way into a consumer trend and also begin to sell sneakers. You need to convince the distributors that are looking to do this that your product is by far the best place to begin. Work by showcasing your best attributes, such as unique product design. Then you can go into logistical support such as contractual agreements that offer help in the way of goods transportation, and delivery etc. Strategic pricing is an incredibly powerful tool at your disposal to convince clients that they will get their bang for buck working with you. Each advertising strategy is going to be unique for each client, so pick a few and create campaign strictly for them.

New and emerging needs

As ever, Google plays a massive hand in how clients find their desired business partners. Keywords and search results are changing all the time which is why you need to design content that is geared toward the key searches that clients are making. But these can be separate from the masses, so contacting a company like SeoExplode is a wise decision as they know how to go about content marketing and perform local SEO strategies. The key thing here is ‘local’, because all too often small businesses cast the net too far and wide. They also keep up to date with all the latest changes that Google performs to stay on top of the SEO challenge. If international clients is your aim then you need to work on pumping up your size before you can have any chance of success. International clients will almost always first look at a medium sized business instead of a small business, so it’s best to search for local clients that are in your region, state or city.

Don’t be afraid of flying

Even though you may be a rising entrepreneur with limited funds, you should see yourself as a bigger entity. For example, clients that are abroad and looking to expand their export and import operations will be more comfortable working with a medium or large business for two main reasons. For one they think they will be more capable of meeting demand and have the funds to meet expectations when it comes to increased demand and delivery. The other reason is because they think they will be more internationally capable, meaning able to travel and meet with them in person to discuss things. Never be afraid to fly out and meet a client that has contacted you and wants to know more about what your business can offer them. Showing up in person will impress them and change their perception of your capabilities as you are willing to fly potentially thousands of miles to greet them and have serious meetings.

Customers and clients present similar yet very different challenges. The art of persuasion is in full effect, but instead of mass advertising, you should personalize your campaigns to each client and offer to meet their specific requirements. Be willing to travel around the world to meet them and give them another reason to take you seriously.

Start-up Business Costs that You need to Plan For

Start-up Business Costs that You need to Plan For

Starting a business can be difficult to say the least, and the main reason for this is because there are so many expenses that you need to plan for. If you want to get some help planning out some of those expenses, then you can find out everything you need to know, right here.

Equipment

Nearly every small business will need to finance some equipment. If you are starting your own moving company then you will need to obtain a truck, or if you are starting up a restaurant then you will need some commercial cookware. Either way, these costs need to be covered in one way or another. The amount that this will come to will largely depend on the scale of your company and the industry that you work in, so take the time to really work everything out.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/flat-lay-photography-of-macbook-pro-beside-paper-1509428/

Incorporation Fees

One of the first things that you need to do when you start your business is choose an entity. This will determine how you pay your taxes, and it will also affect your business loan application too. It’s so important that you decide how you want to incorporate your business so that you can make it a completely different legal entity. If you’re not incorporating your business then you may still need to pay out for some kind of permit. This can include a sales tax license or even federal licensing. Again, this will depend on the type of business that you are starting.

Office Space

Renting an office can be expensive. You will need to cover the space needed for each employee and you will also need to take into account any perks and convenience too. If you want to mitigate some of this cost then it does help to work from home in the beginning. You might also want to look into co-working spaces. These are great for small businesses. Of course, it’s also a good idea to price up office equipment too. If you are having computers then an IT service will be required to maintain them, you can learn more about that here.

Photo

Inventory

If your business happens to provide a service, then there is a chance that inventory costs won’t apply. If you are in the business of distribution, manufacturing, wholesale or even retail however, then you will need to get this organised. It can be difficult to know how much inventory you need to carry because if you carry too much then you risk spoilage or even damages. If you don’t have enough then your customers probably won’t be willing to wait for a product to come back in stock. If you are just starting out, then it helps to allocate around 25% of your budget to your inventory. You never want to turn down a customer when you first open up because you don’t have a product. If you do then there is a chance that they will never come back, and this won’t be giving your business a very good start.

Guide To Mobile Crane Hire

Guide To Mobile Crane Hire

Photo

If you operate in the field of construction then it is likely that you will require the use of a crane on a frequent occasion. There are lots of different types of cranes available, yet in general, these can be split into two groups; those that are mobile and those that are not.

Mobile cranes prove to be the more popular of the two because of the convenience associated with them. As you may have guessed from the name; a mobile crane is one that can be easily transported to different sites. They require little set-up and they can be used with an array of different cargo and array of various loads.

There are lots of diverse types of mobile cranes available. You can select between truck-mounted cranes, tower cranes, rough terrain cranes, side life cranes, pick and carry cranes, crawler cranes, all terrain cranes, carry deck cranes, railroad cranes, carry deck cranes, telescopic handler cranes, and so on and so forth. The possibilities are vast.

The smallest mobile crane is the mini crawler. This is a caterpillar track mounted crane. The purpose of using this is having the capacity to operate in small and / or awkward areas. On the other hand, the largest type of crane is mounted on several axles. The reason for this is so that ease of manoeuvring is provided. As you may gather; these cranes are used most frequently when extremely heavy weights need to be lifted.

Nonetheless, no matter what crane you use at your business, the main reason for using a mobile version is to be able to access sites with ease. Not only this, but you can substantially cut in half your construction period because of the lack of set up needed. This is particularly important in the field of construction whereby time is of the essence. After all, most people want their jobs completed yesterday. Cranes that do not boast the mobile quality can add a significant amount of time onto your project period.

When it comes to the use of mobile cranes it is highly recommended that you use a hire service. A mobile crane hire allows you to reap the gains of cost efficiency. Investing in a crane yourself will be extremely expensive. You also need to bear in mind the fact that there are various different types of cranes available and so you may not require the use of the same kind for every project.

In addition to this, convenience and efficiency is enhanced. You only need to hire the crane for the days of use required. It will be delivered to you and picked up to. Therefore, mobile crane hire benefits you as it causes no inconvenience to you or your workers. Don’t forget that this is something tax deductible. CIS registration is vital for anyone in construction, and with expenses like crane hire, you will probably get a good rebate in the end.

If you are involved in the construction industry then you will definitely require a mobile crane at some point. Whether you need a mini crawler or a larger crane; one thing is for sure – hiring is the best option. You will reap the benefits of cost effectiveness as well as time efficiency too, and isn’t this what every business wants?

Pin It on Pinterest