A safe workplace is crucial to preventing illness and injury, as well as fostering effective employee wellbeing. It is therefore important that businesses place safety as a priority when designing their workplace by implementing sufficient safety measures. Although safety measures typically include physical improvements, like accessibility and fire safety, they also include providing sufficient knowledge and training to create a safe and welcoming culture within your workplace.
Appropriate lighting
It is important that workplaces are designed with the correct lighting levels to ensure the health and safety of employees. The incorrect lighting levels, both too bright or dim, can result in negative health problems and potential accidents in the workplace.
Overly bright lighting can be very harsh on the eyes which results in headaches and can potentially increase the development of long-term damage. This can be particularly common in office environments where computers and laptops are used, as bright lighting can cause screen glare. This can lead to difficulty when looking at your screen and result in eyestrains. Similarly, dim lighting can also lead to eye strains, as well as making you feel tired and drowsy.
To avoid these issues workplaces are advised to replace incandescent lights with LED lighting solutions. LED lights offer high quality lighting with consistency and no flickering, they therefore don’t cause headaches, eye-strains and discomfort. In addition, incandescent lights emit far more heat than LED bulbs which can result in inconsistent temperatures throughout a workplace. Not only are LED lights better for employee wellbeing but they also provide money-saving benefits due to their energy efficient qualities.
Fire safety
Fire safety is a crucial component of a safe working environment, workplaces must comply with the correct fire protection infrastructure and equipment to ensure that employees remain as safe as possible in the event of a fire.
British standards require workplaces to comply with the 30-metre fire extinguisher rule, this ensures that a fire extinguisher is a maximum of 30 metres away from any point within a workplace. In addition, typically there should be a minimum of two separate fire exits within a workplace to ensure that employees are able to safely evacuate if a fire blocks one. Fire exits must also be clear from obstructions at all times to provide a safe exit route and fire doors must not be locked under any circumstances.
Accessibility
Accessibility is an important feature of a workplace as it ensures that all employees are able to function safely and effectively on a daily basis. In fact, it is a legal requirement that a workplace is modified to ensure that disabled employees or those with health issues are not placed at a disadvantage.
When designing a workplace with accessibility in mind there are some important factors that must be considered. Firstly, walkways and doorways must be a suitable width and free from all obstructions. In addition, elevated areas must have ramp access for disabled employees. For office spaces, furniture must be adjustable to suit those of different heights, sizes and disabilities, to ensure maximum comfort and prevent injuries.
Implementing these factors when designing a workplace will ensure that all employees have equal access to their surroundings and are able to safely move around the workplace. There are also some non-physical accessibility factors that businesses should implement for the well-being of their employees. This includes using accessible communication tools and assistive technology, for example, speech recognition tools and screen readers.
Clean environment
A clean and tidy working environment is crucial for fostering staff wellbeing, especially since the Covid-19 outbreak when sickness absence was at a peak. Employee health is now, more than ever before, placed as a key priority to prevent communicable diseases spreading throughout the workplace. Not only can staff illness lead to burnout and low morale but it negatively affects the success of the businesses when employees are taking sick days regularly.
To ensure that workplaces remain clean it is important to implement a regular cleaning schedule. This will ensure that surfaces remain consistently clean and the spread of germs is kept to a minimum. For large workplaces investing in a professional cleaning company is essential and will ensure that surfaces are cleaned effectively.
Staff safety training
Investing in effective training helps employees to gain a broad understanding of workplace hazards in order to implement safe practices and prevent injuries and accidents. This training should take place on a regular basis to keep employees refreshed and up to date.
An effective training plan is crucial to fostering a good learning culture. Typically, training is thought of as a ‘classroom’ task that involves mainly listening, however, participation and interactivity can be key for absorbing information. It is important to ensure that your training sessions are both innovative and informative to have the greatest effect.
Safety training can cover various categories including fire safety, employee health, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), emergency responses and workplace accidents. These sessions can be finetuned depending on the businesses to cover industry specific hazards.
The following points should be considered by businesses to ensure that their employees remain free from injury and illness. It is crucial that workplaces place safety as a priority, not only when designing their workplace, but when training staff to ensure that their workplace fosters a safe and healthy environment.
