If you have your own business, ensuring the health and safety of your employees is paramount. As an employer, we have responsibilities to keep our staff safe, just as they have a responsibility to keep themselves safe too. Having a safe and clean work environment reduces the risk of any health and safety accidents happening and ensures that you are following the law. Here are seven workplace housekeeping tips to enable health and safety for your business.
Prevention of Slips, Trips, and Falls
This is one of the largest contributors to health and safety incidents at work and they can be so easily avoided. All workplaces should be kept clean, sanitary, and tidy to reduce the risks of any slips, trips or falls and, therefore, you should hire a cleaner or cleaning services to make sure this standard does not slip. This includes every room that employees work or go into including the bathroom. Floors should always be left to dry once cleaned and wet floor signs should be available after cleaning or when a spillage does occur. If you use anything that will cause frequent areas of wetness on the floor, drainage should be installed to reduce the risk of hazards. As an employer, you should replace anything that is broken, including carpet that is coming up, and any wires should be fastened safely against the wall; ensure that your employees know their responsibilities too, such as reporting any dangers.
Fire Hazards
These are extremely important and should be minimised according to the law, to ensure safety for yourself and your workers. This includes having signs on all fire doors so employees know they should always be kept shut. Appropriate fire alarms and smoke and heat systems should be installed in your building and you should have a designated fire safety officer. All employees should be given a fire safety tour before starting and practice tests should be carried out with staff so they know what do in case of emergency. Only keep combustible materials in the workplace if they are essential; anything over this amount should be kept in a safe, locked room or cupboard. Any hazards reported with electrical equipment should be fixed as soon as possible, as well as being reported.
Falling Objects
Anything stored in your organization needs to be stored correctly and within reach for all employees. Wherever possible avoid storing anything above head height, and if this is necessary, ladders should be readily available to prevent falling objects. The heaviest objects should always be kept lower, and employees who may be unloading equipment into your stock should be aware of this. If the lightest items are kept on the top shelves, this reduces the risk of any damage to your employee if something was to fall on them. Nothing should ever be stacked in aisles or walkways, as this is also a fire hazard and puts staff and visitors at risk of a trip, slip or fall, not to mention the risk of them falling on an employee when they are walking past. Cages should be used with a closed door if items are being moved to make sure that if something is to topple, the cage will keep the objects inside. Keep the layout of your building in mind when choosing where to store objects, as this can make a big difference to health and safety.
Controlling Dust
Dust should be kept to a minimum for a number of reasons. Firstly, employees do not want to work in a dirty environment and keeping your workplace untidy can lead to unhappy employees. Secondly, dust can cause those with medical conditions such as asthma to find it harder to breathe and, therefore, is a danger to their health. Also, a build-up of dust, even if it is only as thick as a paper clip, is an explosion hazard. Industrial vacuums may be needed to keep dust levels at a minimum and the workplace should be cleaned often. This includes the tops of shelves and other places you may miss. Dust can have a negative impact on machines too, as it can affect the lifetime of your equipment and the quality of its products.
Get Rid of Clutter
Cluttered workplaces are not ideal; they raise many health and safety and ergonomic issues. This means as an employer, you must ensure that you aren’t ordering too much stock so that the workplace does not become cluttered. Carry out regular stock control to see what products are selling or being used and what products are not.
Employees should be told to follow rules regarding clutter, such as returning equipment as soon as it is finished with and disposing of anything that is no longer needed. There are Health & Safety training courses available for employees to ensure they understand their part in health and safety at work, and you can find a selection of Health and Safety training courses here.
Providing Personal Protective Equipment
Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is your responsibility as a supplier to obtain and provide to employers when needed. PPE should be stored correctly and appropriately and training should be given before using any PPE. As an employer, you should inform your employees of what jobs PPE is needed for, and this includes their work uniform too. If the workplace is an environment with a risk of any sharp items falling onto the floor, such as a hospital, closed-toe shoes should only be worn. If you own a building or construction site, steel-toe boots should be worn. Employees should be reminded of the use of this PPE, and if you have informed and trained them of the appropriate usage and provided safe, suitable equipment, you have followed the laws regarding PPE. If a worker disregards these rules and gets hurt, they will be at fault themselves.
Determine When Housekeeping Is Needed
Establishing rules with employees and determining the frequency of cleaning needed can help you minimise any health and safety issues. All workers must keep on top of housekeeping in the workplace, and this means cleaning up after themselves and reporting any hazards immediately. Any incidents need to be reported so that they can be prevented from happening again. If possible, workers can clean up their own spills, depending on what has been split. Ask workers to check their workspace at the end of each shift and throw away any unused materials and put back any equipment not used. This can help with the frequency of housekeeping services needed. The debris produced by your business and the number of contaminants used can help determine how much housekeeping is needed. Cleaners should keep on top of general housekeeping and deep cleans may sometimes be needed, especially when working with chemicals.
Ensuring workplace health and safety can keep you and your employees safe and regular housekeeping can reduce the risk of any incidents and liabilities. Health and safety at work are incredibly important, as accidents that could be easily avoided can cost you thousands. Give your employees regular training on what they should do in the workplace and set rules and regulations within your business to make sure this level of safety is achieved.
