Here’s the thing – if you’re not safe in your place of work, where can you be safe? Home? People spend a large portion of each and every day in their place of work – and if you’re a business owner, you need to do one thing and one thing only – ensure that your workplace isn’t an active danger to your employees, in more ways than one. At all points, you need to be a responsible business owner. The consequences of not being one? It could be the end of your business, a court case – or both.
There are a number of dangers in the workplace to keep an eye on – and it’s your job as a business owner to resolve them, create safety, prevent them and find solutions. The very first thing that you need to keep an eye on? It is the physical place of work. There are plenty of nasty dangers in the physical world and these translate to the place of work.
Now, there exists a set of rules to protect you and your employees – and it’s the health and safety legislation. This has been seen by detractors to have created ‘red tape’ culture – but the truth is that it exists to protect businesses. All the little pointless problems documented in H&S rulebooks are points which can see a business tore apart in a court of law. Simply put, abide by it to a point, no matter if it seems pointless.
The place of work can present plenty of dangers. Spills, structure issues and faulty equipment are but a few. It pays to be vigilant at all times and fix these issues on sight. What you could also do is hire a site manager to patrol around and repair issues.Some of these structural issues might be a huge problem, and it is especially worth concentrating on the dangers of exposed and poorly installed electronics, which can be fatal. Read more to find out how you can get stuff like this installed properly so you don’t need to worry. If you can’t fix the issue on installation, get it ripped out and start again – a good facilities team will help you here and they are worth their weight in gold. The cost of hiring them is better than the cost of any potential legal issues that may arise!
Other issues are about mental safety. Your employees and clients shouldn’t just be safe when they are in your business, they should feel safe. Your employees should not have to endure any discrimination, harassment or workplace bullying at all. If these actions happen under your watch, stamp them out – if you’re carrying these behaviours out – quit it. Failing here can take you straight to court, so avoid it at all costs and actively act to prevent it from occurring within your business.
You’ve probably had your fill of health and safety at this point, but it cannot be ignored. Not ever. If you do so, you’ll be in big trouble. Protect your business by protecting your workforce.
