Encouraging employee health and safety in the workplace is crucial to the functioning and overall satisfaction of staff. This is because when employees get sick or injured and can no longer work, other employees have to take on their duties. As a result, this may cause production losses, possible damage to equipment, and a potential increase in the cost of hiring and training new staff. Therefore, ensuring workplace health and safety can safeguard employees against costly negligence risks. Within this article, you will find four key steps that will help you promote employee health and safety, making your business safer and a more pleasant workplace.
1. Conduct Risk Assessment
Performing a risk assessment is critical in creating, developing, and enhancing your company’s health and safety policy. This step is essential as it can help you evaluate business risk and improve awareness in your organization. It identifies who is at risk by suggesting steps to improve current measures. Risk assessment can also help you prioritize the type of hazards that need to be addressed as soon as possible, ensuring compliance with state and federal rules on health and safety. You should conduct risk assessments regularly and especially when your business is about to introduce new rules or processes.
2. Get Workers’ Compensation Insurance
In some states, such as Oregon, the law requires businesses to have workers’ compensation insurance, as employees face different risks, including workplace injuries or illnesses. You can obtain Oregon workers’ compensation from The Hartford to provide benefits to sick and injured workers. This can support your employees in recovering from their work-related injuries or illnesses, ensuring they can return to work faster. Oregon workers’ compensation covers illnesses caused by exposure to harmful substances, accidents or injury due to an employee’s work, and repetitive strain injuries.
3. Maintain a Safe Working Environment
It’s crucial to provide a safe working environment, along with compliant welfare facilities. Ensuring the right environment creates the right setting for employees to follow health and safety procedures, enabling them to remain compliant. Moreover, this will help you establish a more robust health and safety culture, where employees are more likely to support organizational objectives. To begin with, it’s advisable to display your health and safety policy, keep traffic routes obstruction-free, and maintain a reasonable working temperature. This process can bring various benefits, such as increasing employee morale, setting higher standards, and equipping employees with the right resources and tools to stay safe.
4. Improve Employee Engagement
Employee engagement promotes a two-way commitment between the organization and its employees, encouraging mutual understanding and active participation in business goals. Furthermore, engaged employees understand the importance of adhering to health and safety procedures. As a result, they are more likely to encourage others to do so as well. As an employer, you should focus on communicating health and safety benefits to your workforce. It’s also essential to hold regular health and safety meetings and listen to and share employee feedback. You can also reward good health and safety practices and conduct opinion surveys.
