Searching “safety programs” online reveals that safety is a priority across a multitude of industries. Everything from cyber risks for children to programs for preventing tractor deaths — 800 per year, by the way — populate the web.
Safety awareness saves lives. And in the following article, we’ll be discussing how to implement workplace-based programs that are effective at doing just that. Let’s begin!
Table of Contents
1. Do Hazards and Risk Assessment
The first step in learning how to write a safety program is to take a look at all the hazards and risks present in your environment. It’s important to enlist representatives from every division of your company for this, from the entry-level employees to their supervisors.
You could get a fine list of risks and hazards from one or two upper-level managers. But they’re not going to employ the same attention to detail as spokespersons from each branch or department.
That’s because safety hazards occur on the frontlines. They seldom happen in boardrooms or offices. It also helps to know the most common injury types sustained in the workplace before implementing a safety program.
2. Put It in Writing
Workplace safety programs can never take shape without a written structure. So it’s important you get risks and hazards down into a tangible document your employees can review and learn from themselves.
It’s also important to make it a living, breathing document. Something you come back to, add to, or take away as needed. How WHS processes for the hospitality industry operate are one such example.
Flexibility is key. After all, new threats emerge all the time no matter what industry you call home.
3. Work with Your Employees
While it’s a start to have a polished system in place, that system won’t be worth the paper (or word processor) it’s written on if you don’t put it into practice. For that, you need employee buy-in.
Treat your safety program like a priority. Make it practical, and show your employees how it applies to their daily tasks and objectives.
4. Document and Investigate
You can implement a safety program and have your workers take every precaution, but eventually, something in the system is going to fail. When it happens, it’s important to document the occurrence and investigate the cause.
It’s unlikely you’ll ever be able to achieve 100 percent workplace safety. But you can eliminate most of the serious risks and mitigate any damages by staying on top of the causes.
5. Review and Adjust
The last step in how to start a safety program is knowing what to do with the results. This goes beyond documenting incidents and investigating their causes as they arise.
No, any good program will need an assessment mechanism that can isolate recurring issues. This can help reduce, eliminate, or prevent future issues. It also enables a company to know the financial impact of their programs in terms of reduced claims and lost productivity.
Safety Programs Save Lives and Money
Instituting safety programs will help your bottom line and, more importantly, save the lives and preserve the health of your employees. Ignore them at your own risk. And for more tips on workplace safety and injury prevention, check out our past posts on the topics.
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