The world today is full of challenges. Some threats can be serious, others less so. But one challenge that continues to grow in businesses is the risk of occupational injury or illness present in many forms of manual labor. This includes jobs like construction, manufacturing, hospitals, and many other places where physical work is needed.
Here are things to do to ensure the safety of yourself and your employees, especially those that are involved in manual labor.
Table of Contents
Inspect Your Workplace
If you are an owner or manager of a business that requires manual labor from its employees, you must ensure they are working in a safe environment.
This doesn’t just apply to construction worksites but also to factories, shipyards, warehouses, and even retail businesses like restaurants and fast-food joints. If you don’t do this, not only could you get injured, you also might face a wrongful death lawsuit.
Train Your Employees
Training your employees on proper workplace health and safety practices is critical when you run a business with higher risks of injury. Start by having an open and honest conversation with your employees and give them the real reasons you’re training them. Then, take whatever measures are necessary to have those employees trained on proper health and safety protocol.
Create a Plan for Safe Manual Handling
The health and safety of your employees are your responsibility. But there is nothing to prevent your business from suffering a workplace accident caused by your negligence. That’s why you should always have a guide to safe manual handling in the workplace that your employees can follow.
Investigate Accidents
Have you ever wondered how many work-related injuries are suffered in Britain each year? If so, you should investigate this very seriously. Many businesses fail to properly investigate accidents that occur on their premises. This is very dangerous because it can lead to huge liabilities.
Put up Health and Safety Posters
Health and safety posters (HSPs) are an important part of any business owner’s health and safety toolkit. Put up posters in factories, construction sites, restaurants, retail stores and anywhere else where manual labor is required to remind employees of the various health and safety regulations they must comply with.
This will ensure you have a very low injury rate. It also makes your business look like it cares about its workers.
Conclusion
Safety should not be an afterthought; it is just as essential as customer service, inventory management, and financial planning for a successful company.
It is smart business to prioritize health and safety since it’s the only way to safeguard your most valuable asset: your employees. Use the tips in this article well, put them into practice sooner rather than later, and you’re business – and your employees – will thank you.
Nice tips, I once worked in a construction site where our manual labour was necessary.
Hence I’ll say training workers ahead of time and further providing health and safety posters works a lot.
Do you also think multitasking workers could be a dangerous work ethic in such environment?
Hi Erik,
It was an informational article! I have seen the accidents happen at construction sites first hand. So, I really appreciate you taking the time and curating this informative article. I am sure it will help a lot of readers, business owners, and developers. I agree with the training tip, I am sure if the employees receive proper training they will follow the protocol correctly, and the chances of injuries will be reduced. I will be sharing this article within my network, to help it be found by the right people.