Owning a business comes with a whole host of responsibilities, but one of the most important is the safety of your employees. Your employees are the lifeblood of your company. Without them, you wouldn’t even have a business. Which is why you need to retain them – and one of the easiest ways to do that is to ensure that they are happy and feel safe in their work environment. Besides, any safety precautions that you can take can only benefit your business. Plus, a safe and happy work space will draw people in and inspire loyalty where an unsafe company would drive existing and new employees alike, out the door.
There may be extra, or different health and safety regulations that your company has to abide by depending on where you are in the world and what industry your company is in. Before you can even think of extra measures for your employees, you have to have the legal bases covered, or you won’t be able to be in business anyway. Once you have the bases covered, look at your premises; what physical changes can you make that would improve the safety of your staff? If you’re renting, you will need to have the landlord’s approval before making any changes.
Your staff are always going to be entitled to multiple fire exits – but not all governing bodies enforce the need for extinguishers and fire blankets within the premises, which is something that you should definitely be looking into having regardless. Extinguishers need servicing each year to check that they are still in date, and still functional, and they should be dotted about where appropriate. You will also need to think about the type of extinguisher you need – the main types are CO2, foam and water. If your company deals with chemicals then you will need to look into which ones would be the most effective, and which would cause more trouble than help.
If your company operates overtime or carries stock, then you might want to look into security companies. Security guards are great for large buildings where staff work late at night, and where there are large amounts of stock held. CCTV cameras should be installed within the building as well as the outside.
No matter what you should have all the electrical equipment within your company PAT tested. Many third-party companies are available to come into your office and check your electronic devices. This usually only needs doing once a year, and whenever you acquire new equipment. Speaking of equipment – protect what’s within your computers too. A decent security system installed on all devices and hard drives could save you a massive headache if ever you got a virus or hacked. All of your employee’s addresses, payroll details, and emergency contacts can be easily protected with an additional anti-virus software.
