If you own or manage a business where your employees frequently participate in manual labor, one of your main priorities should be ensuring that each person who works for you is able to stay safe while on the job. However, with manual labor, there’s always a chance that an accident could happen or safety procedures could be poorly followed.
To combat these things, it’s wise to know what you can do to help those who work for you to avoid these pitfalls. To show you how this can be done, here are three tips for keeping your employees safe while doing manual labor work.
Bring In Experts To Help
For many business owners, it can be hard to know what you can do to improve upon your facilities or your processes when you’re so used to them. In situations such as this, bringing in an expert to help can prove to be invaluable.
According to Mark Sanborn, a contributor to Entrepreneur.com, you have lots of options for getting help from experts when it comes to safety. You may want to contact a private business that specializes in the type of labor your employees are doing, like unloading freight. Or, if you need more theoretical help, you can contact people within your community who are safety experts in all types of areas.
Remove Any Clutter
When you have employees who are doing manual labor, one of the most important things you can do to keep everyone in the area safe is to keep things clean and organized.
Lauretta Claussen, a contributor to Safety and Health Magazine, suggests that before any work gets done, you be sure to remove any clutter from the area. Depending on the type of business you’re running, this could include moving items out of walkways, putting away electrical cords, and removing anything that could be a tripping or slipping hazard for your employees.
Teach Proper Lifting Techniques
Some of the most common injuries that happen while at work take place due to incorrect lifting techniques. To combat this, it’s wise to teach each of your employees what proper lifting techniques are, even if they don’t plan on doing much lifting as part of their job.
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Communicating Consistently With Your Workforce
Sometimes we experience unforeseen circumstances that can compromise the safety of our workers. These could be sudden weather changes, safety re-calls for products that are in use, any number of things. In these instances communicating quickly and effectively to every staff member to ensure they are aware of these changes can hugely reduce any safety hazards. There are emergency alert apps that help people mass communicate with their workforce that has proven to be very effective.
According to NHS.uk, some of the safest ways to lift heavy objects include not bending your back when lifting, holding the load close to your body, and not twisting your back when you’re holding or lifting a heavy load. By doing these things, you should be able to better help your employees protect their bodies when listing heavy items while on the job.
To help keep your employees safe when doing manual labor at work, consider implementing some of the tips mentioned above.