Small business insurance from £5.13 a month.Get a quote.
ENTREPRENEUR HANDBOOK
  • Start a business
  • Buyer guides
    • Finance & insurance
    • Software & services
  • Topics
    • Finance
    • Insurance
    • Technology
    • Marketing
    • Human resources
    • Legal
    • eCommerce
    • Leadership
    • Procurement
    • Investing
    • News
  • More
    • Advertise with us
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy policy
    • Terms of use
    • Contact us
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Finance
  • Insurance
  • Technology
  • Marketing
  • Human resources
  • Legal
  • eCommerce
  • Procurement
  • Leadership
ENTREPRENEUR HANDBOOK
  • Start a business
  • Buyer guides
    • Finance & insurance
    • Software & services
  • Topics
    • Finance
    • Insurance
    • Technology
    • Marketing
    • Human resources
    • Legal
    • eCommerce
    • Leadership
    • Procurement
    • Investing
    • News
  • More
    • Advertise with us
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy policy
    • Terms of use
    • Contact us
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
ENTREPRENEUR HANDBOOK
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
Health and safety

Essential tips to prevent workplace accidents

Workplace accidents happen, so when it comes to preparation for them there’s no such thing as being too prepared

Published by Editorial team, last update Aug 14, 2020
A construction worker attached to a safety line preventing workplace accidents

It doesn’t matter where you work; accidents can always happen. Whether you operate a busy construction site, run the local supermarket or rent a state-of-the-art office building, your workers are always faced by the risk of an accident (also don’t forget to make sure your landlord as buildings insurance in place to cover physical damage to an office).

Although the severity of these risks may vary between different environments and industries, one thing always remains the same: employers have a responsibility to minimise any potential hazards and risks in the workplace. Unfortunately, accidents at work are becoming all too common, with the latest HSE figures showing there were over 71,000 reported workplace injuries in the last year alone.

Related posts

  • 3 reasons why problem-solving is important in the workplace
  • 4 essentials every entrepreneur needs when starting a business
  • What is gamification in the workplace?

Perhaps more alarmingly, work-related injury and illness equated to over 30 million lost working days in 2018, even more, horrifying 144 people were killed while at work last year. To make sure you’re fulfilling your legal obligations and adequately protecting your employees, you’ll need to take steps towards reducing the risk of accident and creating a much safer working environment.

Deliver a health and safety induction

Due to an overall lack of experience and familiarity with the working environment, workers stand a much higher chance of suffering an accident in their first six months at a workplace. In many cases, new workers fail to recognise seemingly obvious hazards and risks; while others feel so eager and keen to impress, they put themselves at risk by failing to understand or identify hazards associated with their new role and the workplace.

Whether you’re hiring a fresh-faced intern taking their first steps in the industry, or a senior staff member boasting bags of previous experience, every employer must deliver a health and safety induction to new workers and have an employer’s liability policy in place. This needs to be carefully planned and easy to understand, ensuring that new workers from all backgrounds understand how to work safely and what to do in the event of a fire. Health and safety orientation or induction might also be necessary where an existing employee is redeployed, moves to another role or is promoted.

An effective induction will typically involve a tour of the workplace, with a senior member of staff pointing out the most dangerous hazards, showing employees how to avoid them, explaining what controls or procedures are in place and what they are or are not authorised to do.

However, a truly outstanding induction will involve proper training in health and safety software and procedures, with many employers now utilising eLearning courses from reputable providers who understand the subject as experienced chartered practitioners. Once employees are more aware of the dangers in a particular workplace, they’ll be far less likely to expose themselves to those risks and, therefore, the risk of accident or ill health is significantly reduced.

Carry out a risk assessment

Following the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, 1999, employers are required to provide a risk assessment, and where necessary they should be written down where there are risks that are significant or the controls need to be recorded and communicated. A failure to do so might inevitably result in prosecution, hefty fines, imprisonment, civil claims and compensation as well as accidents and ill health which could have been avoided, while the lack of a risk assessment will also show employees how important you consider their health, safety and wellbeing. It’s worth putting in place a management liability policy to help protect against the liability arising from these kinds of issues.

A  risk assessment should include what the hazards are, who can be harmed and how, a thorough examination of the working environment and the practises you have in place, highlighting any apparent risks alongside the measures put in place to eliminate, reduce and control them. If you find any of these control measures to be inadequate or not being followed, then your risk assessment should also include details of the improvements you plan to make and when the risk assessment must be reviewed.

Invest in information and signage

Once you’ve identified the main risks in your working environment, you then need to draw attention to them through information and training. In addition to reflecting how seriously you consider their wellbeing, effective health and safety information, reminders and signs will always remind workers of nearby hazards, provide reminders while also reinforcing the safety procedures your organisation has put in place.

Related posts

  • 3 reasons why problem-solving is important in the workplace
  • 4 essentials every entrepreneur needs when starting a business
  • What is gamification in the workplace?

Safety signs must meet the requirements of Safety (Safety Signs and Signals Regulations) 1996. This generally means symbols and shapes that usually make up these signs must be incredibly easy to understand, meaning that employees can quickly be reminded of the hazards involved before trying to operate a particular piece of equipment or understand that they are using a hazardous substance covered under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health 2002 (COSHH).

Related topics

Tags: Risk assessmentWorkplace accidents

Related Posts

A young worker sitting outside the office dealing with stress from substance abuse that's affecting her work
Company culture

It’s important to lead by example when it comes to tackling toxicity at work

A toxic work environment is defined as an environment that negatively impacts the viability of an organisation. It can be ...

Published by Editorial team
2nd October 2020
Employee injures self falling off chair, fortunately to protect him and his employer theirs employer liability insurance in place
Business insurance

What is employers’ liability insurance and how does it work?

The more employees you have, the more you can get done. Hiring more employees is usually an exciting sign that ...

Published by Thomas White
9th August 2020
Smiling symbols representing improving employee health
Health and safety

Protecting staff with workplace health surveillance

Health surveillance is an intrinsic part of an employer’s duty of care, and this duty is not just a moral ...

Published by Editorial team
14th July 2020
A desk, stands, laptops and ergonomics office chairs
Health and safety

Office ergonomics: A guide to creating the ideal work space

Anyone with experience in an office-type environment is familiar with the aches and pains that come from spending hours at ...

Published by Thea Graves
6th July 2020
A man staring at a computer screen, adjusting his glasses to try and see the screen
Health and safety

Are computer screens increasing blindness in the workplace?

Studies have found a considerable increase in myopia in the digital age (short-sightedness) over the last decades, which is now becoming ...

Published by Editorial team
10th July 2020
Two colleauges sitting next to each at a desk using health and safety software, with building construction hats symbolising the topic as health and safety
Health and safety

How to get the most out of health and safety software

Employee safety has risen to prominence in the last 50 years to become a major function of modern human resources ...

Published by Editorial team
10th July 2020

About

  • Advertise with us
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of use
  • Contact us

Sections

  • Finance
  • Insurance
  • Technology
  • Marketing
  • Human resources
  • Legal
  • eCommerce
  • Leadership
  • Procurement
  • Investing
  • News
  • Start a business
  • Buyer guides

  • Advertise with us
  • Buyer guides
  • Contact us
  • Cookie list
  • Datastorm notice
  • Finance & insurance
  • Home Alpha
  • Join the Entrepreneur Handbook community
  • Notifications error
  • Popular
  • Privacy & cookie policy
  • Products
  • Software & services
  • Start a business
  • Terms and conditions of use
  • Test page: superscript
  • Thanks for subscribing!

Copyright © 2013 - 2021 Entrepreneur Handbook Ltd. All rights reserved. Registered offices at 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU, United Kingdom.

  • Finance
  • Insurance
  • Technology
  • Marketing
  • Human resources
  • Legal
  • eCommerce
  • Leadership
  • Procurement
  • Investing
  • Start a business
  • Buyer guides
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise with us
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of use
  • Contact us

Copyright © 2013 - 2021 Entrepreneur Handbook Ltd. All rights reserved. Registered offices at 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU, United Kingdom.