Creating a small business can be a daunting task. You are the person responsible for the business and all of your staff members, so it’s important you take the necessary steps to keep yourself, your employees, your customers and clients safe. Once you have developed your business by contacting an employment advisor and dealing with the admin tasks, you can begin to hire staff to help grow the business. With that being said, hiring staff comes with extra responsibility, especially keeping them safe no matter where they may be working. You should therefore aim to complete an all-encompassing safety checklist; continue reading for three things to include.
Before anything, seek advice
As a new employer, it is your responsibility to make sure that you provide a safe working environment for your employees. No employee should feel unsafe in their place of work, no matter the type of job they’re doing. Before attempting to create a checklist, you should research and examine what is expected of you as an employer, and the potential government safety guidelines that you’re expected to follow. Once you’ve done this, it’s possible to incorporate everything you’ve learned into one checklist, then you can build upon and refer back to over and over again. If you are having trouble taking that initial step in creating a checklist, you can always consult a professional for advice and guidance.
Note the potential dangers
Another thing you can get external help with is making yourself aware of the potential dangers surrounding the job. These can be surrounding the tasks of the job or within the place of work, whether it being a shop or a site for example. Becoming aware of the dangers allows you – as an employer and responsible person – to take any extra precautionary measures to ensure the safety of you and everyone who will come into contact with a task or the place of work. As time goes on, employers are becoming more aware of the importance of mental health among employees. This is a fantastic, progressive way in allowing all your employees to stay safe at work. Consider this within your checklist too.
Create a risk assessment
Once you have noted the potential dangers surrounding the job, you can then create an in-depth risk assessment. A risk assessment is essentially putting measures in place to deal with potential dangers and also control them. Although you’re not obliged to create a written risk assessment, it’s useful to refer back too. If you are renting your office, it is likely that you will have already had a landlord fire risk assessment done by the owner of the building. However, you are responsible for other kinds of risk assessment including surrounding machinery or procedures.
Brief your employees
As an employer, you are obliged by law within the UK to make your employees aware of potential dangers as soon as they are brought to your attention. This can be verbal, but a great way to keep on track and develop your professionalism is by making employees read over and understand your risk assessment. This is a great way to ensure their safety and makes you a caring employer. Check with your local government to be sure you know what is required by law in your area.
Take an extra step and be mindful of yours and your colleagues’ safety!
Image – Pixabay
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