Every year in the UK, more than fifty thousand injuries are reported under RIDDOR. Moreover, 1.7 million people are suffer from work-related illness. This is a problem that employers have every incentive to solve. Doing so will require instilling a workplace culture which emphasises safety.
Why is Safety so Important?
There are three main reasons for employers to take safety in the workplace seriously.
Firstly, it’s ethically desirable that workers are not injured or made ill, if it can possibly be avoided. Suffering is bad and we should look to reduce it.
Secondly, workers who are injured need to take time off work. When they return to work, moreover, they’re often unable to work at their full capacity. Injuries can also instil a culture of nervousness, which in turn reduces the amount of work that gets done. All this amounts to a reduction in productivity.
Thirdly, failure to adequately protect employees might lead to legal risk. Under the law, employers owe a duty of care to their staff. Failure to provide said care could provide grounds for legal action.
Tips for Cultivating this Culture
Building a workplace culture takes time and energy. Let’s run through a few of the ways in which the process might be accelerated.
Lead by Example
If higher-ups in the company don’t take the problem seriously, then it’s difficult for those at the bottom to accept that they must. When management visit a building site, they should take all of the safety precautions that everyone else does – especially if doing so is inconvenient. Making exceptions will only get in the way of widespread adoption.
Have in place a clear accident-reporting system
However stringent your new workplace safety culture and procedures, it’s inevitable that accidents will occasionally occur. What’s essential is that the causes of these accidents are identified so that they can be prevented from recurring. For this reason, accidents should be logged, and a person should be assigned responsibility for taking corrective action. This, along with regular risk-assessments, will reduce the likelihood of accidents happening twice.
Provide Plenty of Training
Workers should be apprised of what’s expected of them. They should receive regular instruction on the basics of health and safety. This means being vigilant against potential sources of accidents, and holding one another to account. Training should be provided as part of the onboarding process for new recruits. It should be provided at regular intervals as a refresher, too, and after accidents happen.
Provide PPE
The right workwear can often spell the difference between a serious injury and a minor one. It should be provided wherever appropriate, and instruction should be given about how to use it. PPE comes in a variety of different forms.