Workplaces can be dangerous environments. There are some situations such as construction sites or working on an oil rig that are more dangerous than others. However, employee wellbeing and risk reduction are about more than just physical dangers.
Read on to find different ways to keep your employees safe and healthy.
Prompting Health In The Workplace
Many office workers will spend the majority of their day sitting in a chair, so exercise is done outside of working hours. For some, there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done and exercise is the activity that gets missed.
Offering your employees subsidised gym memberships or even onsite facilities will help motivate them to get moving and keep healthy.
If you provide catering or even snacks, take a look at your offerings. You may be able to swap some of the unhealthier food for lower-sugar counterparts. Encouraging healthy eating is half the battle when it comes to keeping your workforce in good health.
Ergonomic assessments allow you to focus on health and wellbeing differently. Ensuring that your staff are able to sit without causing musculoskeletal disorders is important, especially if they spend prolonged periods at a desk.
Supporting Mental Health
Employee assistance programs, or EAPs, are a good investment if you are looking to support your employees’ mental health. These systems can offer confidential counselling and other support services that deal with stress, anxiety and other mental health concerns.
You could also opt to implement mental health awareness training. Creating an environment where employees can look out for their colleagues encourages an open forum where issues can be discussed.
Flexible working is also another consideration you could make. This could be in the form of flexible hours, remote working or compressed workweeks. These are all ways in which employees can manage their work-life balance.
Workplace Safety
Part of managing or owning a workplace is ensuring it is a safe place to work. Regular risk assessments are required to identify potential hazards as well as implement the appropriate control measures.
If your work environment requires protective gear, it should be regularly reviewed to ensure it is functioning properly and adequately. Head protection, for example, is essential to avoid brain or head injuries. Incorrect protection could lead to injured workers and open you up to brain injury claims.
Completing regular safety training is another way to keep your environment safe. Make safety training a mandatory part of onboarding as well as compulsory regular reviews. You can then ensure all employees are on the same page.
Incident reporting should be treated in the same way. Encourage your employees to follow the proper procedures to report incidents as well as near-misses. Make sure they know that there is no fear of reprisal and that it takes the whole company working together to keep everyone safe.
