Improving health and safety in your workspace: An office manager’s guide
For office managers, one of the most important and challenging tasks is to ensure the ongoing safety of your team.
There are many office health and safety regulations you need to be aware of, and it’s vital that you stay on top of these to make sure that your workplace is safe and fully compliant with all relevant rules.
Additionally, ensuring that everyone is safe in your workspace is important because it reduces the risk of injury, which could lead to a reduction in productivity, poor morale and financial burdens for your company.
Even if your office is compliant with relevant regulations, it’s useful to try and improve health and safety regularly, to ensure ongoing proactivity and adapt to new challenges that your team might face.
In this article, we’ll explore how office managers such as yourself can improve health and safety in your workplace.
Identify previously unknown hazards
Office spaces change, as do the needs of your team, so it’s important that you regularly review your health and safety procedures and identify any new hazards. For example, if the flooring becomes raised and you can’t get workmen in to fix it quickly, then you might need to redirect individuals around the issue, or put up a sign to let them know to be careful when walking in that area. Alternatively, if your office space has been renovated or changed since your health and safety guidelines were created, then you might need to update these to ensure that they remain relevant.
Place safety signs in strategic places
Once you’ve identified all potential issues, you can put up signs to warn individuals about them. Even if a health and safety procedure seems obvious, you need to make sure that you use adequate signage in case someone doesn’t notice something hanging overhead or doesn’t read employee handbooks thoroughly. Also, if a new staff member or visitor comes to your office, then you need to make sure that there any dangers are highlighted. Label Source offers a range of safety signs for every eventuality, so you can find ones that will meet the needs of your office, no matter what facilities and hazards it contains.
Host regular health and safety briefings
To ensure that every team member, whether they’re brand new or have worked in the office for years, understands your company’s health and safety policies, you should host regular briefings. These don’t have to be formal meetings; instead, you can plan short catch-ups every month or quarter to provide updates on the latest amendments to your office’s policies. These short briefings can be useful to help you ensure that your staff are aware of the health and safety policies in place in your office.
Keep up to date with new rules
Workplace health and safety regulations change regularly, so it’s crucial that you stay up to date with the latest developments. Follow top health and safety blogs and get newsletters from relevant governing bodies to ensure that you’re always aware of what’s going on in this ever-evolving landscape. By using these tips and being proactive, you can ensure that you’re always doing everything within your power to keep your office, and the people who work in it, as safe as possible.
