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4 Key Tips to Creating A Safety-Conscious Attitude at Work
(This is a contributed post)
No matter your profession, safety is an essential factor to consider if you want to avoid costly mistakes and accidents. Careless attitudes, including complacency, anger, and recklessness, makes someone more prone to accidents and even endanger the lives of others. It doesn’t take too much effort to maintain a safety-conscious attitude, and simple things go a long way in preventing accidents. If you’re interested in managing a workforce in a safe and secure environment, then here are four things to consider.
- Education and Training
There is no downplaying the contribution that the right information makes to forming a safety-conscious attitude. When people know what safety is and why it’s important to them, they are more likely to be more conscious of their surroundings. In this case, it will be helpful to educate your staff about everything involved in staying safe. Education on things like safety equipment, safety signs, or identifying hazards will be very useful. For example, in settings like supermarket car parks, it’s well worth knowing the main types of bollards and their uses so you can install the best ones to guarantee maximum safety to pedestrians. That way, everybody involved is aware and always on alert when it comes to their own protection and that of others. Make sure your training sessions are fun so that everyone pays attention to what’s being taught.
- Encourage open communication
One of the factors that prevent employees from speaking up about safety issues is the lack of the opportunity to do so. This is concerning because not mentioning problems means mistakes are being made. And errors should not be tolerated if you want a safe working environment. One great way to combat this is to create a committee that handles all issues of safety. When employees have a reason to communicate about security, they become more proactive about it, thereby turning it into a priority.
- Reward ‘safety positive’ behaviors
In general, when people are recognized for their behavior, it tends to stick. The same can be applied if you want to have a more safety-conscious workforce. Encourage safety-positive behaviors by rewarding those who engage in them so that it becomes one more thing to be proud of. Other employees are likely to copy the action, and soon enough, the majority of your staff will be on the lookout to make the workplace safer. Something as little as a pin or maybe a shirt can serve as a token for their contribution.
- Encourage the use of step by step procedures
Working according to a set of guidelines not only makes it easier for it to be completed but also makes it safer. That’s because following them allows you to avoid mistakes, and even if you do, you can retrace your steps to fix them. Granted, not all projects can be executed step by step, but the more routine it is, the fewer mistakes you make. So encourage your workers to develop guidelines to complete tasks so that it makes it less risky.
Safety in the workplace requires a conscious effort that can be implemented with these simple tips. The idea is to create an enabling environment where employees can go about their duties without worry. It will also save your institution some money doing damage control.
