What Employers and Employees Can Do for Workplace Safety
Workplace safety is the responsibility of everyone on the job. No matter what your description entails, there are always things that both employers and employees can be doing to make the office a safer place.
Here are ten tips that can be utilized in any workplace to prevent injuries.
5 Tips for Employers
Even if the size of your company or role limits your daily interaction with employees, it is still the employer's responsibility to ensure they are protected. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has standards for preventing workplace hazards and helping employees understand how to communicate risks effectively. Upholding these is just one of the many things you can do to improve the environment, but here are five others you can add to the list:
- Enforce mandatory breaks to decrease the risks of repetitive stress injuries.
- Keep your employees up-to-date on changes in hazard communication.
- When walking through the workspace, be observant, watch, and listen for anything that may be dangerous to workers.
- All employers should create an injury prevention training and include it in the employee onboarding process or handbook. It may also help to review and update this training annually as the workplace and staff change.
- Be open and accepting of employee feedback that could improve the safety of the workspace.
Committing to improving workplace safety may take time, but reducing the health and safety risks of your employees is worth the extra hours.
5 Tips for Employees
Since the workplace is a shared space, employees also should assume some responsibility in keeping it safe. Here are five things you can do to prevent workplace injuries for yourself and others:
- Keep the common areas clean by remembering to throw away trash after meals or getting rid of unused items.
- The area around your desk should be well-kept, with limited items on the floor or in walkways.
- Avoid coming to work if feeling under the weather.
- Ensure that your equipment is routinely inspected, serviced, and cleaned to avoid potential defective product mishaps.
- If there is injury prevention information made available to you, take the time to thoroughly read and understand the risks associated with your job and what you can do to protect yourself.
No one wants or expects to get injured at work, but ensuring the safety of employees falls to each person on the payroll. Don’t forget to do your part each time you clock in.
Work Injury? Call Turner Law Group
Our team has over four decades of experience keeping Illinois employees safe and protecting their rights after a workplace injury. We understand that accidents happen, but many work injuries are preventable and could have been avoided if all were committed to improving workplace conditions.
If you have been injured on the job and are looking for legal representation for a workers’ compensation claim, call (800) 653-0198 to speak with a member of our team.