A growing business will only continue growing if they treat their employees right. Responsible and caring businesses offer their employees vast learning opportunities, internal mentorship, clean and adequate office space, and a relaxed working environment. Most importantly, though, a responsible firm has to have a health and safety plan for their employees. Your employees’ safety and health should be your top priority. Your health and safety policy is a testimony to your employees and the world that you’ve got their best interests in mind.
The most common injuries
In order to know why you need a policy, you’ll need to know what you’re up against. Some people think that startups don’t need health and safety policies at all, simply because we’re not talking about physically demanding jobs. Still, accidents can happen.
The most common work injuries are those related to slips and falls. You could fall and slip almost anywhere, especially if the floors have just been cleaned or the office is untidy and your trip. Other injuries that can happen in an office environment are those involving vehicles. The silent killer is, of course, repetitive motions. Because employees don’t move around a lot, they make a lot of repetitive motions which end up causing serious issues.
Seeking medical attention
When an injury does happen, you’ll want to seek medical attention right away. Because you have a water-tight policy, it will be easy to get the paramedics there in time. This ensures your employees will be safe even in the most dangerous situations. This also means that they won’t panic as much or be as scared.
You should also have a first-aid kit at the office. That way, you can quickly stop bleeding or relieve pain. It will make the wait for the paramedics much less tense and much more comfortable. It’s important to feel like you have some control while waiting, and a first aid kit can provide that effect. Finally, it may be just the thing to temporarily solve the injury before help can get there.
Workplace injury compensation
If you have a health and safety policy, it means your employees will be covered in case they get injured at work. Most Australia based companies encourage their employees to talk to them immediately if they got hurt. Instead of fear, this encouragement builds trust between the employee and the owner. This is because, then, the owner can easily contact work injury lawyers and the employee will know they’re in good hands.
Without the policy, employees are sort of left to themselves. In some cases, they can even sue to business for their workplace injury. This is unnecessary and entirely avoidable if you keep their best interests in mind and take care of your employees from the beginning.
Welcoming back the employee
It’s your responsibility to welcome the employee back to work, regardless of if the claim was successful or not. As soon as they are physically able to work, they should have their old job back. After all, no one deserves to lose their job just because an accident happened.
The most important thing to remember is not to pin the blame. It doesn’t matter whose fault it was that the injury happened. What’s important is that the employee is safe and ready to resume working. Continue to treat them as a professional worthy of your respect. Because you had the policy in place, your employee won’t have any trouble with coming back to work. In other cases, an injury would have probably mean permanent termination.
Preventing future issues
Just because you solved this issue successfully, doesn’t mean you should leave anything up to chance in the future. Having a thought-up health policy will already behalf of the work you’ll have on preventing future injuries. The rest comes down to education and training, as well as encouraging safe behavior.
Your employees need to know that you’ve got their back if something happens, but they also need to know that having a policy doesn’t mean they can be reckless. Injuries are best-taken care of when they’re avoided entirely. Make sure to retrain your team from time to time and always ask them if they need help with anything. They should be open enough to tell you if they don’t feel adequate enough to handle something so that you can provide proper training courses.
Conclusion
The benefits above are clear as day. It’s up to you to provide a good health and safety policy that your employees will be glad to get behind. Everyone will feel more comfortable working in an environment that looks after their well-being. You can be sure your employees will appreciate the step you took, and that your business will continue to grow steadily.
