Workplace Safety Tips

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Following workplace safety tips are a good way to help prevent workplace accidents and make sure that supervisors and employees follow proper safety standards.

Key Takeaways:

• Workplace safety tips are helpful information that helps keep workplaces safer.

• Following safe workplace best practices can help prevent damage to equipment or property, fires, and injury or death to workers.

• OSHA is the primary agency that sets rules and regulations for safety as well as enforces them.

• OSHA has the power to levy fines, take employers to court, and shut down unsafe businesses.

What Are Workplace Safety Tips?

Workplace safety tips are statements and practices that help keep the workplace safer. They can vary from industry to industry, as some careers are more prone to danger and accidents than others. Making workplace safety tips accessible and visible is a way to remind employees to be safer, prevent injuries, and keep everyone productive.

What Are Workplace Safety Topics?

Safety topics are categories of issues that may impair workplace safety. They can include, but aren’t limited to:

• Covid-19

• Fatigue

• Workplace violence

• Impairment

• Slips, trips, and falls

• Mental health

• Hazardous materials

Who Benefits Most From Workplace Safety Regulations?

As a rule, employees benefit the most from workplace safety regulations. However, employers, customers, visitors, and business partners also benefit from regulations and practices. Employees are the ones who are most likely to be injured in the workplace.

Depending on the severity of the injury, the company may be liable to pay for it or be forced to retrain new employees. Both are expensive. However, the employee may end up permanently disabled or forced to pursue an entirely different career due to the restrictions of their recovery. The consequences for employees are, therefore, much greater.

Many of the current workplace safety regulations were something that was fought for by unions during the industrial revolution and was put into place due to lobbying and awareness of poor working conditions.

How to Promote Safety in the Workplace

There are a few primary ways to promote safety in the workplace:

• Include safety in training. This is incredibly important, as workers aren’t going to be able to follow safety regulations if they don’t know what they are. Also, many employees end up following their training to do their job, and if they were trained to do it in the safest way possible, they’d likely continue to practice safety in their duties.

• Provide safety equipment. Not all jobs require safety equipment, but when they do, the employer should provide it. Paying for safety equipment could be a barrier to some employees, especially if they aren’t sure what equipment to get. Even if employees end up providing some of their own equipment, it still guarantees that everyone will have what they need.

• Make sure leadership practices safety. Leadership’s primary job is to set an example. If the people in charge aren’t following the safety regulations, then management and employees will get the sense that either they aren’t important or that following the regulations too closely could be detrimental to their careers.

• Penalize those who don’t follow the rules. The primary way to make sure that safety rules are followed is to enforce them. If employees aren’t allowed to work, get suspended, have their pay docked, or even get fired for not following safety regulations, then you’ll be sure that everyone will pay extra attention to making sure that rules are followed.

• Hire people – especially managers and supervisors – who promote safety. If you want safety to be a primary part of your workplace’s culture, then you need to be sure to hire and promote people who prioritize it. That means that they’ll focus on safety as a practice rather than just faking it when leadership shows up to do an inspection.

How to Improve Safety in the Workplace

The best way to improve safety in the workplace is to emphasize it. It’s a continuous process and should be treated as such. Make sure to reward safe behavior and not unsafe behavior, and hire and promote employees that are safety conscious.

Why Is Safety Important in the Workplace?

Safety is important in the workplace because it prevents injuries. Not only does an employer have a moral obligation to keep workers safe, but it also makes good business sense. Having to pay for workers’ medical care and potentially train replacements is expensive.

And if your workplace is particularly accident-prone, people aren’t going to want to work for you, so you won’t get skilled or desirable employees.

Why Is Safety Important in the Workplace?

Safety in the workplace typically refers to making sure that the workplace is physically safe in terms of limiting injuries. However, having a safe workplace can include more specific types of safety, such as:

• Psychological safety. If a workplace allows workers to express their opinions, make their own decisions, and learn from their mistakes, then it practices psychological safety.

• Fire safety. Fire safety is following steps to prevent a fire from breaking out. This can include proper handling of flammable materials, proper maintenance of electrical equipment, and keeping the building up to code in terms of fire prevention systems.

• Electrical safety. To protect employees from electric shocks and electrical fires, you’ll need to make sure that your electrical equipment is properly maintained and repaired by certified electricians or specialized technicians.

• Biological safety. This term is often used more broadly in terms of disease prevention, but in the workplace, this can be equally important. Covid-19 was a major risk factor for many workers, and allowing accommodations to prevent the spread was a form of biological safety. Practices like encouraging workers to stay home while sick is another form of this.

  Most workplaces also require specialized workers to be hired in order to clean up biohazards. This is primarily going to be blood or other bodily fluids, which are vectors for disease transmission. In some jobs that work with animals, other types of protection may also be needed to prevent disease, infections, or other hazards.

What Is Psychological Safety in the Workplace?

Psychological safety in the workplace is feeling safe to express an opinion or take risks in your job. Making sure that your employees feel psychologically safe is especially important in jobs where employees have a lot of autonomy or need to be able to use their own discretion on a regular basis. That means that they need to feel free to express their opinion or report mistakes.

How to Create Psychological Safety in the Workplace

There are a few different ways to create psychological safety in the workplace. Primarily it has to do with making your employees feel valued and able to express themselves without facing retribution or censure. Here are some ways to promote psychological safety:

• Encourage employees to speak up. For a workplace to be psychologically safe, employees have to feel free to speak up and express their opinions. Some employees will be reluctant to do this due to fear of a negative reaction or that a superior will ignore their concerns. Make sure to be clear that sharing ideas is encouraged, even if not all suggestions are followed.

• Admit your own mistakes. Taking risks includes making mistakes. If employees need to feel free to take (reasonable) risks, then you have to normalize mistakes. Owning your own mistakes and showing that you’re not infallible will help employees to be less concerned when things don’t work out and to learn from the experience.

• Focus on productivity. This isn’t to the exclusion of other things, of course. But if an employee comes to you with a concern, a mistake they made, or other issues, you should focus on how to respond in a productive manner. Placing blame, demanding that they get it done anyway, or ignoring their concerns are all unproductive responses.

• Emphasize the importance of differences of opinion. Part of encouraging workers to speak up is to get different perspectives and ways of looking at a problem and to provide innovative solutions.

  You especially want to encourage people who have different lived experiences to contribute. That means that your workers will end up disagreeing sometimes, but that’s not a bad thing.

  Encourage workers to voice different opinions. Even if they aren’t right exactly, it can lead to a discussion and a different way of looking at the problem. That, in turn, can lead to a solution – maybe even one that’s better, cleverer, or less expensive.

Who Is Responsible for Safety in the Workplace?

The short answer is that everyone is responsible for safety in the workplace. And while this is true, the majority of setting the rules and regulations of safety ends up falling on the HR department, while the enforcement is typically on management.

Some industries will have positions whose focus is primarily on safety. For instance, in factories, there will often be an industrial hygienist who will focus on ergonomics, mental health, morale, and other safety concerns.

What Is Safety Culture in the Workplace?

Safety culture in the workplace is having an emphasis on safety in the workplace, especially with positive buy-in from management and staff. If you have a good safety culture in your workplace, people will be proactive about safety and will make sure that safety rules and regulations are followed.

How to Improve Safety Culture in the Workplace

Improving safety culture is an ongoing process that involves everyone in a workplace working together. The primary ways to improve safety culture include:

• Prioritizing safe practices.

• Safety training.

• Making everyone accountable.

• Supporting safety supervisors.

• Continual efforts to improve.

• Encouraging communication.

• Working towards safety as a common goal.

Which Government Agency Oversees Workplace Safety?

Workplace safety is primarily overseen and regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, usually shortened to OSHA. OSHA is a part of the Department of Labor. It was originally formed in 1922 as the Bureau of Labor Standards.

How to Promote Fire Safety in the Workplace

Promoting fire safety in the workplace includes making clear what is a fire hazard and how to prevent them. Fires are often started by cooking, so if your workplace has a stove or other cooking equipment, it’s especially important. Fire prevention techniques include:

• Not overloading electrical circuits.

• Keeping flammable materials away from heat or electricity.

• Monitoring heating devices.

• Having windows that can open.

• Keeping the area and equipment clean and ventilated.

• Having a planned fire evacuation plan.

• Keeping hallways and doors clear and unobstructed.

• Having fire prevention systems up to code.

How to Promote Electrical Safety in the Workplace

Promoting electrical safety in the workplace includes making clear what can constitute an electrical hazard and making sure that employees follow the rules related to it. Electricity can cause severe injury or death, as well as damage equipment and property and cause electrical fires. Electrical safety includes:

• Properly maintaining electrical equipment.

• Keeping electrical equipment clean and dry.

• Training everyone on proper handling of equipment that can cause severe injuries.

• Making sure that electrical repairs or installations are done by a qualified professional.

What Are Safety Quotes for The Workplace?

Safety quotes are short statements that encourage safety in the workplace. They can be puns, general safety statements, or tips for staying safe. Here are some examples:

• Safety is no accident.

• Carefulness costs you nothing. Carelessness may cost you your life.

• If you don’t think it is safe, it probably isn’t.

• Never give safety a day off.

• An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

• Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

• Stop! Think! Then act!

• Safety is 30% common sense, 80% compliance, and the rest is good luck.

• Prepare and prevent, don’t repair and repent.

References

1. National Safety Council (NSC) – Work Safety Topics

2. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – Safety and Health Topics

3. Harvard Business Review (HBR) – What Is Psychological Safety?

4. U.S. Fire Administration – Workplace Fire Safety

Author

Di Doherty

Di has been a writer for more than half her life. Most of her writing so far has been fiction, and she’s gotten short stories published in online magazines Kzine and Silver Blade, as well as a flash fiction piece in the Bookends review. Di graduated from Mary Baldwin College (now University) with a degree in Psychology and Sociology.