While ensuring that you have a safe and healthy workplace is a concern that should be maintained year round, the advent of a new calendar year seems to inspire people all around the world to make positive changes in their lives.
Health and Safety Strategy
January is a great time to take stock of your workplace and determine what is working well, what needs to be updated and what new strategies can be put into place in order to ensure that your employees – and your legal responsibilities – are well taken care of. Here is a simple list of resolutions that you can make in order to boost the overall safety of your business.
- Open a continuing dialogue – Your staff should feel empowered and comfortable when it comes to speaking with you about any health and safety concerns that they may have in the workplace. Encourage them to come forward with any issues, and resist all urges to penalise them for calling attention to potentially costly changes that need to be made. If you have fears that your team may not feel comfortable coming forward, you should set up an anonymous email account or even a suggestion box.
- It’s time to hire a professional – While you may be an expert when it comes to your industry and craft, your knowledge about health and safety protocol may be limited. Hiring an accredited health and safety professional is well worth every penny – they will make sure you are taking care of your staff and fulfilling all of your legal duties, saving you money in the long run.
- Offer healthy choices – One of the simplest things you can do for the health of your employees is to offer them healthy choices in the office or on the work site. Try replacing (or accompanying) biscuits, sugary soft drinks and full-fat milk with fruits, nuts, low-calorie fizzy drinks and semi-skimmed milk. Instead of heading to the pub for a social night out, you can always suggest a game of pool or even a fun league sports team.
- This year, set up a gym membership scheme – Offering your employees a gym membership scheme will not only foster goodwill in the workplace and help you to attract top talent, but it will also help to keep your staff members fit and in good shape. Healthy staff members call in sick less often and need fewer days off annually for health concerns – a gym membership scheme pays off in more ways than one.
While it can be easy to grow complacent and forget about resolutions as the year progresses, these are simple things that you should be doing all year long. Until next January, may you have success with these resolutions!
