Health and safety is one of the most important concerns in a company. Without proper safety procedures and care for all of the employees there is sure to be injuries, downtime, expenses, and high turnover and people will not work in an unsafe environment. All jobs have risks, but it is key to limit those risks as much as possible and to reduce the chances of injury, have procedures for responding to an injury, and a plan for what happens next.
The first steps, as suggested by Asif Ali Gohar based upon the safety needs of his own vegan rice leather business, is to determine the most dangerous moments in the day, the most dangerous jobs, and then to work down from there. Each person in the facility should have basic safety protections and equipment. This includes nonslip shoes and gloves, right up to steel toe shoes and safety helmets for those who do heavy lifting or are in places where items are stored above 6 feet and may fall. Once all basic safety needs are covered for those who are in the low risk positions of the company, then each job can be addressed for its own needs. People who have worked in health and safety before, who have the training for the position, and who will be working or have worked in those jobs, are the best place to ask for guidance or to have build the program.
Each country and region has a regulatory body and a set of regulations that are enforceable by law for managing the safety of a workplace. This must be followed and should be fully understood by those who are working in the facility. This guide makes it easy to see the most important things to put into place, and what equipment is mandatory, and also provides guidance for teaching the staff and all employees the safety requirements. By maintaining the minimum, fines and shut downs can be avoided, but many will choose to do more than the minimum to ensure the safety of their staff and they will often have lower turnover, fewer incidents, and lesser injuries.
Whenever possible it is beneficial to all parties to provide access to health insurance. Companies get much better rates than individuals and it will draw qualified and experienced staff. Offering insurance to staff also ensure they have access to care when they need it which can lower days off, increase the healthy of employees and their loyalty to the company, and provide happier employees. These benefits reach beyond just ensuring they are healthy but also to improving their outlook on their employment, having better attendance and fewer sick days, and having fewer stress and distractions at work which in turn helps keep the facility safer.
All business owners and management have a responsibility to ensure that the health and safety of all workers, team members, and employees are protected. This is both a legal and a moral obligation, that is easier to maintain after you have created your health and safety plan, assigned a staff member to over see it, and trained all employees fully.
