The day after his inauguration, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order emphasizing protections for worker health and safety.
For business owners, this means taking a hard look at your present workplace health and safety protocols and adjusting them for the times.
Luckily, there are several smart ways you can easily improve the workplace health and safety in your small business. Here are a few examples.
Documenting And Communicating Safety Policies
You must document and effectively communicate your pre-existing and updated workplace safety policies with your employees, says Larry Alton.
Your employees have the right to enlist an injury attorney if they are hurt at work, and if an attorney finds that you have caused harm to your employees by not having any documented safety policies, they can effectively shut your business down.
Alton recommends that you make sure that you have your policies printed out and plastered in highly accessible areas so no one can say that they do not know what the safety reminders are.
Having meetings that communicate any safety policy updates also turns your employees into partners in safeguarding their own health.
Use Benchmarking Strategies
As a business owner, it’s smart to learn from the best in your field. You can also improve your workplace health and safety by tapping into benchmarking strategies.
For example, you can use Yelp to check out your competition. Businesses that advertised their new safety protocols through a checklist on Yelp enjoyed a 41% increase in consumer interest.
If you can see which policies are ensuring the safety of workers and attracting customers, you’ll have a better idea of what direction to take regarding your own business’s safety protocols.
Brush Up On Workplace Safety Laws In Your Area
While there are Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) standards on a Federal level that are the same everywhere, there are per-state OSHA standards that may have more innovative policies, according to Mighty Recruiter.
So it would be in the best interest of business owners to brush up on workplace safety laws in your state to see if there have been any updates that you’ll need to apply in your enterprise. Staying on the right side of the law is key to remaining in operation.
Improving your enterprise’s workplace health and safety isn’t just about following the law; it is also about creating a haven for yourself and your workers to be productive.
If your workers don’t have to be worried about their health, they can focus on their tasks and generate more profit for you down the line.
So it would be in everyone’s best interest if you review the present state of your workplace health and safety policies and adjust them accordingly.
