A proactive safety program is the best way to reduce the risk of work-related accidents, avoid employee injuries, lost time, and prevent workers’ comp claims–which in turn, increases employee morale and productivity. We're sharing our top tips to Develop an Effective Workplace Safety Program.

How to Develop an Effective Workplace Safety Program

Routine safety training is associated with a 42% reduction in workplace injuries. If your safety training isn’t engaging, how useful is it? We're sharing five simple tips to help you create a better safety program at your company.

1. Provide Regular Safety Training

Providing regular, ongoing safety training to all employees is essential for creating a culture of workplace safety. Employee safety training is critical to a safe workplace. Consider adding these topics into your employee safety training program. Training doesn't just stop after day one. Whether you’re doing a quick daily refresher or a longer more formal safety training session, you need to choose a regular date and time. Effective safety training in the workplace is no different than other training. 

Whether it’s every morning at 8:30 am or it’s every Tuesday from 9 am to 9:30 am. Team members should be held accountable for being present at the meeting and arriving on time. 

• Assign employees Safety Courses to address near miss opportunities and property damage
• Provide employees on-going safety material and training

2. Identify Risk Hazards

Employers have the responsibility to assess the health and safety risks that may be faced by their workforce. Check for possible physical, chemical and biological hazards. 

• Report your findings and prepare and implement a plan of corrective action.
• Review your company's risk assessment or practices every couple of years, generally every 3 years.
• Review immediately if there's any significant changes to workplace processes, practices, or new machinery. Also review immediately whenever there is an injury or incident in your workplace.

If you're not sure where to start, read our Comprehensive Guide to Staffing Agencies in Texas here. 

3. Regularly Inspect Facility

Create or update your company's Facility Inspection Checklist

The best checklist for your workplace is one that has been developed for your specific needs. Whatever the format of the checklist, provide space for the inspectors' signatures and the date conducted or completed. Add areas for improvement and discuss with safety manager next steps for corrective action.

Conduct Routine Facility Safety Tours

At TPI Staffing, we are more than just recruiters, we are committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for our temporary employees while on assignment at our clients.

4. Wear all Required Personal Protective Equipment

Some job functions may require the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE is designed to protect employees from serious workplace injuries or illnesses resulting from contact with chemical, biological, physical, electrical, mechanical, or other workplace hazards.

To reduce the chances of incurring an injury, employees must use all site specific safety equipment and wear required Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

EXAMPLES OF PPE INCLUDE:

·         Hard hats

·         Safety glasses

·         Ear plugs or muffs

·         Safety shoes or boots

·         Gloves

·         Respirators

·         Face masks/face shields

5. Conduct Injury and Incident Investigations

• Thoroughly identify the causes of the accident.
• Report your findings in a written report and prepare a step-by-step account or timeline working back from the moment of the accident, prepare the final report and clearly explain the evidence for your conclusions.
• Develop a plan for corrective action to prevent the accident from happening again.

Safety matters, and at TPI Staffing we go beyond Recruiting and HR. Most recently named 2017’s Platinum Safety Partner awarded by Texas Mutual Insurance- TPI Staffing, Inc. is one of only 200 businesses receiving this award out of 68,000 Texas Mutual policyholders across Texas, placing TPI Staffing in the top 97%.  For full access to our Human Resources and Recruiting Departments, contact our team today!

Additional Safety Resources:

• National Safety Council- Workplace Safety
• 7 common workplace safety hazards

 For more recommended safety practices, check out Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Recommended Practices: Protecting temporary workers white paper. Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3735.pdf.