If you run any kind of business, you need to be sure that you are protecting your staff, your customers, and yourself from any accidents. Not only do you have a duty of care to make sure that the workplace is safe; it could be very costly to your business in the event of a claim against you from a personal injury attorney. Payouts can run from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands. And worse than the financial cost, they could end up spelling the end for your business.
There are a few ways that you can ensure that you are doing everything that you can to avoid putting your company into this kind of position.
Training
Make sure every member of staff in your organization is fully trained on how to deal with any emergency. Where possible, send your team on training days. Try to have a member of your team trained in first aid. Be sure and review all of your training every year. Don’t forget that when a new employee joins your team, they will need health and safety training as a matter of priority.
Assess The Risks
Whatever the type of business you run, there will be risks. They may be the risk of a small injury, or there might be a potential for a fire. Whatever the worst case scenario, you need to plan for it.
Take the time to do a thorough risk assessment covering all aspects of your operation. You cannot be too detailed here; ensure you include any risk to injury through performing part of a job role right through to making sure that there is adequate fire protection available.
Use your risk assessment to highlight any training requirements in your company, as well as highlighting any maintenance that needs to be undertaken.
Your risk assessment should be reviewed regularly to make sure that there are no new hazards, or worsening of existing risks.
The Accident Book
All accidents, including near misses, need to be recorded in an accident book. This is as much for your protection as it is for the person who has had the accident. Make sure you get as many details as soon as possible after the accident and ensure that if there are changes that need to be made around the workplace following the accident, that you get them rectified as soon as possible.
Maintenance
Falling behind on the upkeep of your equipment can cause accidents or fires. Make sure that you have service contracts and that you are keeping up to date on making sure all equipment is tested. If an item is faulty or damaged, ensure that it is not used until it is repaired and safe again.
Ensuring the safety of your team should be one of your main priorities. It might be easy to brush it aside as being unimportant because you have never known one of your staff members to have an accident in the workplace. However, one small accident could be catastrophic for your staff member and could cause you more problems than you would ever wish for.
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