Owning a business comes with a wide range of responsibilities, but one of the most, if not the most, important one is the safety of your employees; they are the lifeblood of your company and without them, you wouldn’t really have a business at all. Which is why you need to retain them – and one of the easiest ways to do that is to ensure that they are happy and feel safe in their work environment.Plus, a safe and happy work space will draw people in and inspire loyalty where an unsafe company would drive existing and new employees alike, out the door. Besides, any safety precautions that you can take can only benefit your business.
Depending on your location and industry, there may be some extra, or different health and safety regulations that your company has to abide by. And before you can even think of taking any extra measures for your company, you need have to have the legal bases covered, or you won’t have a company to take extra measures with. Once you have those bases covered, look at your building; what changes can you make that would improve the safety of your staff? If you’re renting, you will need to have the landlord’s approval before making any changes. Think about access for the general public, cameras, walkways and exists.
Your staff are always going to be entitled to multiple fire exits – but not all governing bodies enforce the need for extinguishers and fire blankets within the premises, which is something that you should definitely be looking into having regardless. Fire extinguishers need servicing once a year to check they are functional, undamaged and still in date. You will also need to think about the type of extinguisher you need – the main types are CO2, foam and water. If your company deals with chemicals then you will need to look into which ones would be the most effective, and which would cause more trouble than help.
If your company operates overtime or carries a lot of stock, then you might want to look into security guard services. Security guards are great for large buildings where staff work late at night, and where there are large amounts of stock held. CCTV cameras should be installed within the building as well as the outside.
No matter what, you should have all the electrical equipment within your business pat tested to ensure it is safe to use. This should be something that you renew annually, and whenever you acquire new equipment. Speaking of equipment – protect what’s within your computers too. A decent security system installed on all devices and hard drives could save you a massive headache if ever you got a virus or hacked. All of your employee’s addresses, payroll details, and emergency contacts can be easily protected with an additional anti-virus software.