7 Ways to Reduce Hazards In the Workplace

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Whether you work in manufacturing or a similar warehouse or factory environment, you know that safety is of the utmost importance. Without it, there is a great risk of injuries and accidents that could cause severe delays or worse issues for the workplace.

As the manager, you need to do everything possible to ensure your team knows how to act when on the factory floor or operating heavy machinery. With that in mind, how can you reduce hazards within the workplace? Here are seven tips to consider.

Provide Workplace Training

Workplace training is essential when cultivating a safe and hazard-free environment. This can include everything from forklift training to knowing what to do in an emergency to prevent further problems.

Every new employee should undertake rigorous training lessons but you can also provide retraining to employees who have been there for a while. They may not have forgotten, but they could have become complacent and are [prone to taking shortcuts that could put them and their coworkers in danger. Retraining will help avoid any problems that could disrupt your efforts.

Supply Protective Gear

Some businesses expect their employees to purchase their safety gear, but this isn’t always convenient, and you miss out on their skills and contribution while waiting for them to purchase suitable attire.

Instead, your company should offer industrial safety equipment as soon as they are hired. They can buy their boots, but the standard gear should be part of the job. This includes everything required to carry out the job safely, but also additional essentials like gloves, high-vis jackets and hard hats if they need to work outside.

Identify Hazards and Risks

Carrying out a risk assessment will help identify [potential issues within the warehouse and ensure you can solve problems before they become too significant. As the manager, you should highlight these risks, and identify ways to solve them.

You can also work with risk assessment consultants who can identify even more issues that can cause problems. This approach can help you change the culture around the workplace to promote better safety and more maturity about how everyone does their jobs to ensure safety from top to bottom.

Hold Emergency Drills

You should not disrupt the workday too much, but you can still hold emergency drills throughout the year to ensure everyone knows what to do. Once every quarter should suffice as this will keep the actions fresh in everyone’s minds so they can act quickly when required.

Understanding and sharing the fire drill benefits should also avoid too many complaints. Everyone knows they should be aware of the protocols surrounding emergencies, so practising regularly means everyone can respond appropriately in a genuine emergency.

Assign Supervisors

You know you cannot be there at all times, so assigning supervisors to oversee the workday and highlight any issues will help you keep the factory and your employees under control. This approach is even more effective if you have multiple sites. Since you can’t be in two places, having a supervisor you trust will prevent too many safety problems and guarantee a more productive work environment.

The supervisor you select should be someone with plenty of experience and who gets on well with the rest of the team, but they can’t be too buddy-buddy as this could impact their judgement if they need to report anything.

Prevent Overworking

Overworking can have a devastating effect on your team’s safety. It doesn’t matter how desperate you are to complete the project, you must remember that everyone has a 48-hour week maximum policy to prevent overworking, tiredness, and mistakes. Keep a close eye on everyone’s hours and send anyone home at risk of exceeding their weekly allowed hours.

Dispose Of Hazardous Materials Correctly

If you work with hazardous materials, you must dispose of them correctly. Otherwise, you risk putting your team in danger or negatively impacting the environment (or both). Therefore, learning how to dispose of hazardous waste when necessary will help your business avoid hazards and also prevent charges that could damage your reputation and affect your budget for the coming years.

Properly disposing of hazardous materials will help your business maintain its standing in the industry and help your employees appreciate the best practices to prevent significant risks.

Hazard-Free

No workplace will always be hazard-free. There is always something that could cause an injury if misused. However, taking the correct approach to reducing hazards and ensuring everyone knows what to look out for to stay safe will go a long way toward minimising hazards at work to protect your employees and any visitors to maintain productivity and guarantee the safest experience.