Work Safety Jackson County, GA

If you’re a business owner, it’s important to ask what steps you have taken to ensure work safety. Jackson County, GA employees deserve to put in a full day’s work without fear of having an accident. For example, have you come up with a comprehensive fire safety plan? Have you educated your staff on the importance of PPE? Or, our favorite, have you gone through a rudimentary but very necessary background screening process for each of your employees before they start?

There are many ways to increase work safety; Jackson County, GA employers know it’s important to continually reassess your work safety plan and determine if it’s truly moving the office forward. In this article, we will address how you can tell if your workplace safety plan is working, what factors cause employees to violate work safety measures, and what qualities make up a successful workplace safety plan.

Is My Safety Plan Working?

Unfortunately, millions of injuries occur in the American workplace every year—many of which can be avoided by adhering to proper safety protocol as detailed in a comprehensive workplace safety plan. But how do you know if your established workplace safety plan is having a positive effect on your work environment?

Before you even hire a potential employee, it’s important to ask yourself if they’re someone you want to keep around long-term. This question can be answered in the form of an employee background check, but there are some other questions you may want to ask about continuing workplace safety. Here are some of the preliminary questions you can ask yourself to assess if your workplace safety plan is having the desired effect:

1. Have you seen a reduced frequency or decline in workplace injuries and/or compensation claims? You should be regularly asking yourself this question and recording quantifiable results at least quarterly. Keeping track of the number of workplace-related safety violations or injuries is essential to monitoring progress over time and is one of the simplest, best metrics for the efficacy of your safety plan.

2. Does your safety plan cover the full extent of the job expectations? If your current safety plan is not thorough enough to mitigate all likely risks employees may be exposed to while on the job, then it’s time to replace it with a more comprehensive plan. A great way to see if the safety plan adequately covers relevant risks would be to start a conversation with employees and ask what hazards they’re noticing during the workday.

3. Have you seen an uptick in productivity? Equipping your employees with proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other safety measures is a great way to increase employee autonomy. And studies show that an autonomous employee is a motivated employee—so it’s actually doubly beneficial to keep the workplace safe and your employees healthy!

4. Are you taking measures to ensure your workplace safety plan is being enforced? You can come up with the most comprehensive safety plan in the world, but it won’t mean much unless your employees take actionable steps to carry it out. Keep track of safety violations and issue verbal warnings, if necessary. Remember, the best leaders lead by example—so make sure you also adhere to safety protocols and wear your PPE.

5. Do your employees understand the safety plan? Is your safety plan second nature to your employees? Repeated training and exposure to safety concepts are crucial to mitigating risk in the workplace, and ensuring your employees actively understand what’s expected of them helps to keep the work environment safe.

Common Hazardous Attitudes That Can Cause Workplace Safety Concerns

There are any number of reasons why employees might choose not to follow safety protocol, but there are some common denominators that can be great predictors of unsafe behavior. Here are some of the top reasons why employees won’t follow safety protocol:

· Low morale: Low morale in your workforce can lead to sloppy, apathetic workers. Keeping workers happy, engaged, and autonomous can lead to safer, more efficient behavior.

· Lack of understanding: When employees do not grasp the “why” of a safety concept, it can be hard to get them to follow through with their actions. Make sure that you are clearly and comprehensively detailing safety expectations so that your employees have repeated exposure to the protocol. By explaining to your employees why certain behavior is risky or why they need to wear their hard hat, for example, they will be less likely to see safety measures as an inconvenience and more likely to take care of themselves and each other.

· Impatience: There are no cutting corners as far as safety is concerned. If you have employees that are trying to quickly achieve a certain status, promotion, raise, or other advancements, it’s best that they understand that this can only be granted through safe, consistent work. In other words, even if Bill’s doing twice the work as Tony, if Tony’s following safety protocol, he should be recognized for consistent safety practices.

· Infallible attitude: It’s easy to think that bad things happen to other people, and that “it couldn’t happen to me.” Unfortunately, the reality is, accidents do happen—hundreds of millions of them in the United States alone each year. Whether this attitude stems from arrogance or from complacency, thinking that dangerous events won’t involve you during your lifetime is simply not realistic.

Bring up these hazardous attitudes when you’re covering safety briefings with your employees, and make sure they stay vigilant for signs of these as well. Remember, most accidents that occur within the workplace can be avoided, and they often come on the heels of one of the hazardous attitudes listed above. The first part of observing your employees’ attitudes starts before you even hire them, with a background check.

How to Create a Successful Workplace Safety Plan

Maybe you’re reassessing your workplace efficiency and numbers of accidents at the end of the year, or maybe there’ve been some recent changes that require a new plan of attack as far as safety is concerned. Wherever you’re at in your management journey, coming up with a solid safety plan is the foundation for much of successful leadership. This not only protects employees by reducing accidents but may even protect the employer as well.

By following the same steps every time you wish to draw up a safety plan, you are more likely to develop consistent positive results. Here are some of the standard steps to implementing a successful workplace safety plan:

1. Worksite inspection and walk-through: It’s helpful to walk through your workplace and do your best to observe any changes that have occurred over time that may potentially become hazardous. For example, when shipments arrive, do employees have adequate space to maneuver around them or do they pose a tripping hazard? If it’s helpful, bring another person with you for additional brainpower and monitor everything from ventilation to lighting. This step should also include any pre-screening opportunities, such as procuring a floorplan for your office space or investigating a potential employee’s background before hiring.

2. Perform a Job Safety Analysis (JSA): For every employee within your span of control, you will need to perform a Job Safety Analysis for each task that will likely be expected of them. This includes detailing the likely steps involved in completing each assignment, determining any associated hazards, detailing safety regulations and risk mitigation procedures, and regularly checking that safety controls are having a positive effect.

3. Create written documents and presentation(s): Having a written record of safety expectations is an easy way to hold everyone accountable to the same rules and can even protect workers and employers alike. While the written documents are essential for management, having some form of engaging presentation makes your safety plan more palatable to your employees and may result in better retention.

4. Schedule regular trainings: They say redundancy saves lives and, while it might seem unnecessary to schedule a safety briefing multiple times a quarter, there’s always new awareness we can bring to the workplace to keep each other safe. Taking time up front to make sure your employees truly understand the training is beneficial not only in creating happy and autonomous employees but is also likely to reduce accidents later down the line.

5. Host After Action Reviews (AARs): Sometimes, in spite of our efforts, accidents still do happen. However, it’s important to learn from our mistakes so that we do not repeat them! After an accident has occurred, try to deduce how and why it happened. Look for any red flags, hazardous attitudes, or patterns that may have accumulated in the form of a workplace safety violation. By incorporating elements of what you learned from your previous mistake in upcoming safety trainings, you are more likely to avoid the same sort of accident in the future.