Maintaining Health and Safety in the Workplace

Start-ups aren’t exempt from adhering to health and safety laws simply because they’re new to the game. If anything, you are more vulnerable to risks and pitfalls as a new business, and if you don’t take the necessary precautions now, you could be in danger of destroying your reputation before you’ve even had a chance to make your mark.

Basic health and safety standards are there to protect you, your employees and your overall business so it is in your company’s best interests to fully comply with the latest in health and safety regulations. The following outlines a few of the most important health and safety measures to consider when starting your business.

Write a risk assessment

Regardless of how small your business is or however many people you employ, it is vital that you draw up a thorough risk assessment. Based on your business type, you must identify everything and anything that could potentially cause harm to staff and visiting clients and whether or not you have put the necessary preventative measures in place. There is always room for improvement, even in established businesses, so make sure you review your assessment every few months to stay ahead of the pack.

Provide regular training

Every now and again, all businesses will need to review their risk assessment or general health and safety policy to ensure that standards are being met and one of the most effective ways of doing this is to involve your employees in training sessions.

It’s important to keep employees refreshed and informed about how to conduct themselves in emergency situations as well as preparing for everyday risks. For further security, you may wish to consult employees about possible risks that you may not be aware of and what their preferred method of training may be to combat these issues. Leave no stone unturned when it comes to maintaining the highest possible standards.

Attain liability insurance

Should any risks or incidents occur in your workplace, injured employees will look to you for a compensation payout and many start ups do not always anticipate this kind of situation. Providing you have taken the necessary precautions to prevent the accident, compensation may not be required of you. However, for all other instances that are out of your control (and for general peace of mind), ‘Employer Liability Insurance’ is recommended. Liability insurance often comes as part of a broader insurance package that covers most other business needs so be sure to look for the most relevant deals for your business.

As abovementioned, a key part of health and safety in your business is ensuring the wellbeing of your employees. A happy and healthy workforce equals productivity so you can’t afford to cut corners when it comes to maintaining basic safety standards such as providing a clean and comfortable working environment.

A fresh and airy workplace, for example, is essential to any type of business and thankfully, there are many ventilation specialists such as Window-openers.com who are happy to provide this – helping companies make use of inaccessible or hard-to-reach windows to ensure a comfortable and well-ventilated workplace.