Safety Services Company
March 16th 2018
Welcome to Safe Friday, this week we’re going to cover employee safety. On the job safety is a program of proactive participation between employers, supervisors, and employees; safety is everyone’s business. “Looking out for the other guy”, the foundation of job safety, is the ability to exercise responsibility, good judgment, and accountability, and being able to depend on your co-workers and the company to exercise the same ability. In the workplace you are seldom alone.
The workplace is often a crowded place with workers involved in seemingly unrelated activities. However, supervisors, and well-trained employees know work is being done in a well-coordinated and orderly manner, and can readily identify unsafe situations, conditions or acts. Everyone needs to be involved in company safety.
It’s everyone’s responsibility to follow all employee safety rules. Let’s review the key elements of a proper safety and health program:
These seven elements together make workplace safety and health programs successful. We call them elements, but we could have called them components, ingredients, or puzzle pieces. When you put them all together, you have achieved a successful program.
It’s your responsibility to follow your company’s safety program and to conduct yourselves in a safe manner. It’s also your responsibility to hold your co-workers accountable:
No one wants to see a co-worker hurt on the job. It’s everyone’s responsibility to look out for themselves, the other guy and the company.
Federal law requires that all workers be trained in the safe methods of performing their jobs. Which means, everyone needs to know about the workplace hazards they can be exposed to, how to recognize them, and how to control their exposure to them. Being aware of potential hazards, as well as knowing how to control them, is critical to maintaining a safe and healthful work environment and preventing injuries. The best way to gain this knowledge is through education and training.
Putting training information in writing has benefits more valuable than just avoiding an OSHA citation. Putting it in writing has value in legal proceedings, in employment matters, in dealings with other government agencies and recording your progress toward achieving a safe, healthful workplace.
The quality and level of training may become an issue in contested legal cases where a defense of unpreventable employee misconduct is raised. Under case law, a company can successfully defend against an otherwise valid citation by proving that all feasible steps were taken to avoid the occurrence of the hazard, and that actions of the worker involved in the violation were a departure from a uniformly and effectively enforced work rule that the workers had either actual or constructive knowledge. Documenting your safety training (putting it in writing) may be the company’s only proof of compliance with OSHA requirements, or that the worker was actually trained in the area in contention.
Supervisors and managers also need education and training to help them in their leadership roles and to enhance their skills in identifying and controlling hazards.
Most office safety issues involve ergonomic and environmental situations such as ventilation, temperature and humidity, lighting, workstation design/fatigue control, noise, housekeeping and sanitation. Today we’ll look at some of these topics in greater detail.
This helps control fatigue and musculoskeletal disorders, or MSD’s.
Must be properly maintained to avoid shock.
Must be kept free of obstacles.
An adequate clean fresh air supply must be maintained.
Keep work areas free of hazards that could cause slips, trips and falls.
Every successful company has a smooth-running office. In order to create and maintain a productive office environment, everyone must do their part to keep it safe and healthy.
The goal of employee safety is to begin the day and end the day safely, so our consideration of safety must transition from the beginning to the end of a job. Our ideas of safety on the job must encompass every aspect of preparation for the day’s work, through and extending beyond completion of the job. Safety must be your first thought as you drive to work to begin the day’s work, and it needs to be on your mind as you leave and drive home at the end of the day.
Think safety first, last, and every moment in between. Planning and attention to details pay off in a safer, more efficient job. Accidents are usually a result of lack of attention or lack of planning, and are preventable almost 90% of the time.
➩We have complete OSHA & Contractor Management compliant safety solutions for all your needs. Call (877) 640-6571 today to speak with one of our highly skilled safety experts.
Please join us next Friday for more safety and compliance tips!