Health & Safety Tips for the New Year

The New Year is a great time to start reviewing your health and safety processes. Do you need a quicker way to prepare your risk assessments, keep on top of changes in legislation, or encourage your workers to take responsibility for health and safety?

Here are some tips to get started.

1. How was 2016?
   Look at any incidents that occurred in 2016. Were they preventable? Have you taken action to make sure a similar incident won’t happen again? Once you’ve identified risks you still face, you’re in a good position to think of ways you can provide a safer workplace for your team.
2. Create a health and safety culture
   Creating a health and safety culture doesn’t have to be a lot of work. It’s all about making sure you and your staff understand that health and safety is everyone’s job. For a better working environment it must be taken seriously by everyone in the business. There are 3 simple steps to achieving this:
   Communicate
   It may sound obvious but the first step to all staff feeling responsible for health and safety is to talk openly and consistently about the potential daily risks you all face. Plan regular team meetings to make sure health and safety is always on your agenda.
   Teach, don’t preach!
   Regular training is key to improving health and safety awareness at work. Staff should be given specialist training for your industry when they join you, and ongoing training to keep up-to-date with best practice and legislation changes.
   Reward your staff
   Rewarding your team for good practice – such as preventing accidents, reporting near misses etc. This demonstrates that their attention to detail is appreciated and important to the company.
3. Keep up-to-date with legislation
   Complying with legislation is key for companies of all sizes. It’s easy to keep yourself up-to-date by signing up to specialist, online newsletters which are ideal for sharing with staff to keep the safety conversation going.
4. Track your progress
   Keeping a close eye on your health and safety performance means that you can look back and see how you have improved.
   Records don’t need to be complicated, making simple notes in a diary will show that processes are in place.
5. Maintain your Health and Safety folder
   Filing your health and safety documents in one easy-to-reach folder will prevent you from losing important information. It’s a good idea to keep the following items together: Risk Assessments, Safe Work Procedures, and records such as PPE issued and equipment inspection forms.