Why safety in the office is important to employee health

Many times employers are focused on improving the health of their employees through the use of fitness and nutrition but often overlook another key component-safety. Making sure your employees are safer is another way to make sure that your employees' health is improved in the workplace. It is crucial to make sure that your workplace is a safe place in order for your employees to stay healthy. The good news is that there are numerous ways that you can make your business safer and improve your employees health at the same time and best of all you can do it for very little cash output. Here is why safety in the office is important to employee health-

- Keep it clean-One of the easiest ways to make sure that your employees stay safe and healthy is to keep your workplace clean. Spills and exposure to chemicals can pose serious safety and health hazards to your employees. Making sure that things are put back, wiped down, and taken care of will not only make your workplace safer but healthier. You should enlist both the involvement of your employees and the help of your janitorial staff to make sure that your workplace is kept clean and safe. When you are striving for the highest possible level of cleanliness you are preventing the possibility of serious health risks and safety issues.
- Train your employees-You cannot expect that your employees will make safety a priority without training them. You will need to establish regular training programs where your employees can go through practical and hands on training that will help to keep them safer. This type of training can mean doing things like safety drills in case of fire or even earthquake, to what procedures should be done if there is a large scale accident within the workplace. You can also offer first aid training that will help your employees feel more secure about their safety and the safety of the employees around them.All of this training serves as a defense against accidents happening and a safety tool should something happen. Many companies find out the hard way when their employees are not trained properly and a safety accident occurs there is a much larger amount of injuries that would not had happened had the proper training been given. Keep in mind that this type of training can be done in house or you can bring in industry specific consultants who can train your employees on the particular issues that are specific to the type of work that you do.
- Make sure all equipment is properly serviced-One of the biggest issues for employee accidents is when machinery is not properly serviced. It is crucial to make sure that you have all of your equipment running in the best shape possible so that you are not jeopardizing your employees' health. Keep in mind that besides the risk and possible expense to your employees (and to your company); you are exposing your business to serious legal ramifications if your equipment has not been properly serviced and maintained.
- Form a safety committee-It is crucial that management make safety a prominent health issue within the company. You cannot expect that safety and health will improve with only a momentary push on either. Forming a safety committee will allow you to keep the issue of being safe and being healthier in the forefront of the company culture. The safety committee should meet on a regular basis in order to discuss solutions for existing safety issues and determine how potential problems can be avoided. This committee should be made up of both a cross section of employees from various areas in the company and management personnel.