You don’t need an MBA to recognise that safer, healthier, happier workers are also more productive workers. If you want your employees to put their best foot forward in every aspect of your business, you need to invest time, effort and money in making the workplace as safe as possible and promoting the health (both mental and physical) of your valued staff. Here are five tips to get you started.
1. Make Workplace Health and Safety a Top Priority
As a savvy, forward-thinking manager, you probably already have multiple procedures in place to maintain high safety standards within the company. Laying down rules and guidelines in one thing, however — getting your staff to follow them is quite another.
If your employees aren’t taking your safety guidelines quite as seriously as they should be, you need to start signalling that health and safety is a top company priority. One useful method is to set KPIs (“Key Performance Indicators”) linked to health and safety and to require weekly or monthly reports based on these KPIs. For example, if you aim to reduce workplace accidents by 20% next month, and hold senior staff members accountable for achieving that target, you can bet your employees will start paying closer attention to safety procedures and standards.
2. Set Up a Reporting System
Most executives are not mining the most useful source of information when it comes to improving workplace safety — their employees. No one knows better than your staff how to make their working environment safer and healthier. So, ask them!
Consider setting up a reporting system for workers to report any regular safety breaches or health concerns. It doesn’t have to be a fancy electronic database of complaints and recommendations — something as simple as an anonymous suggestion box will work wonders.
3. Regular Inspections
There’s nothing like regular sightings of the boss to keep your employees on their toes. If you’ve implemented disciplinary proceedings for errant employees who flout official guidelines, or prepared extensive overhauls of your workplace safety systems, you need to make sure that all that hard work does not go to waste. That means putting boots on the ground and doing the inspections and research needed to make workplace health and safety an integral part of company culture, rather than a passing fad.
4. Designate a Workplace Safety Team
Even the most committed executive can’t be everywhere at once — you certainly can’t be looking over a worker’s shoulder every time he forgets to wear a helmet, or on-site with a mop and bucket every time there’s dangerous spillage. Part of effective management is effective delegation. Pick a few responsible, detail-oriented and disciplined employees to form your workplace safety team. They’ll be in charge of vetting employee suggestions, tracking achievement of safety KPIs and acting as the first line of defence against employee infractions that may compromise workplace health!
5. Practice Makes Perfect
In an ideal world, we would have zero workplace accidents and not a single health and safety-related disciplinary infraction. But everyone makes mistakes, and your employees are no exception. If you introduce new guidelines and procedures in your bid to create a safer and happier working environment, give your employees a few weeks of practice and some time to adjust. And when it comes to issues like fire readiness or blackout management, which come along once in a blue moon, make sure you have regular drills to keep your employees sharp. Practice makes perfect!