Improve Your Employee Health And Safety By Focusing On These Three Areas
Taking care of employee health and safety is always going to be right at the top of any responsible business owner or manager’s duties. We all know that job security creates a happy, productive workplace, and none of us would ever want to be neglectful or thoughtless when it comes to our team members. During the pandemic, we suddenly had a lot of other job safety issues to worry about.
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It seems fair to assume that very few businesses had “global pandemic” in their health and safety handbook, but we have all learned a lot more about how to avoid the spread of infection and other related issues since March 2020. Here are a few tips to help you continue to care for your workforce as we head into the fall season.
Stay Up To Date With Coronavirus Developments
When things started to look a little brighter on the COVID-19 front and we started to head back outside and back to work, a lot of people were tempted to throw caution to the wind and announce the return of business as usual. But the rise of the Delta variant and the surging case numbers have reminded us how important it is to follow the news and be prepared for sudden changes. As we head into the fall season, it is vitally important to continue to follow government guidelines and to ask your employees what measures you can take to help them feel safer and improve job safety.
Invest In New Equipment
Not every employee health or safety issue is pandemic related. One of the most common catalysts for a job safety incident is an injury related to machinery. Now, this can happen for any number of reasons. Making sure that your employees are trained in how to use the machinery safely will help, and sometimes it does come down to pure blind luck. But these accidents can often be caused by faulty or outdated equipment. Trying to unjam an old case erector, for example, could result in injury. Investing in new automatic case erectors, which are easy to access and use more reliable technology, will reduce the risk of such incidents. INSITE Packaging offers automatic case erectors that limit loading strain with an open-frame structure.
Talk to Your Employees to Learn Employee Health Concerns
One of the best ways that you can improve job safety is by communicating with your staff. Make sure that your team is regularly updated on safety procedures and protocols, especially if they are handling equipment. Ensure that everyone knows who they need to be talking to if they have any questions or concerns regarding job security.
Finally, one of the biggest health issues that every business will be dealing with in the wake of the pandemic is mental health. We have all read the reports about how Coronavirus has impacted our mental health and those shockwaves are not going to stop just because things are looking brighter. This is going to be an issue that continues, so make sure that your employees feel comfortable talking to you about their mental health and that you have a framework in place to support them if they need help or time off.
Irwin Michael Reston is an expert who has more than 30 years of experience in optimizing businesses, inspiring individuals and improving human resources departments. He established the BlueLight Consulting Limited to provide learning and training service worldwide.
