How to focus on safety within your manufacturing business

Health and safety at work is a very serious issue and is something that really should be looked at with extreme care and attention. Your employees are your greatest asset, and they should be able to work in a safe environment.

Handling products with care

It is important to keep an eye on how your employees are handling your products, not only for the sake of your products and how they fare, but also for the sake of the health and fitness of your employees. Lifting heavy loads in the wrong manner can cause serious, lifelong spinal and muscle damage and should be avoided at all costs. Putting in place other measures to ensure that your employees are not pressured into lifting items that are either going to be too heavy, too large or in inconvenient places, such as too high up or too low down, is something that employers need to take into account.

By putting in place specialized equipment, such as forklifts, pallet trucks, and even conveyor belts, the need to lift and carry by hand diminishes. Conveyor belts can be made bespoke to fit almost any warehouse or manufacturing environment. With so many different types available on the market, enlisting the services of a conveyor belt expert, such as fluentconveyors.com, could be the perfect way forward to protect your workforce and your business from unnecessary lawsuits or insurance claims.

Having the right personal protection equipment

It is important to provide your employees with all the correct personal protective equipment they will need to carry out their job roles safely. This includes such items as high–visibility jackets and vests, safety shoes with steel toe caps, and if you are working with sensitive electrical equipment, electrostatic discharge or ESD clothing, wrist straps, etc., should be provided as well as the protective gear that workers should wear when dealing with substances hazardous to health and chemicals in general. The working environment’s ventilation must also be up to standard.

Train your employees

Make sure to train your employees in all health and safety measures well, so that they can look after themselves as well as other colleagues, and are able to make informed decisions when they need to. It is best to do this training before they set foot in either your warehouse or manufacturing site, so that they are aware of on-site dangers.

Make sure to keep a record of who has completed training, so that if there is an accident, you can assess whether the training needs to be updated. This will also help should you find that your business is the target of a lawsuit over a work-place incident. This being said, it is important that all health and safety training be refreshed at regular intervals.

It is important to have qualified first aiders among your employees and to make sure there is always one on-site when work is being carried out. Having a first aider present within the first few seconds of an accident or an incident taking place can prevent serious injury or even death.