Employee Safety in the Workplace

An employer is legally and ethically bound to keep his employees safe.

The task of employee safety in the workplace often falls on the Human Resources department or the Safety Officer. An employee, who feels secure at work, will tend to be more productive while at work.

Some steps to be taken to ensure worker safety are:

Carry out Risk Assessment of the work place

To improve worker safety, one needs to know what are the probable ways in which safety can be compromised? Create a check-list of all potential safety problems. A safety audit, done by an external auditor, can uncover issues that were not previously thought of.

Some potential problem areas are:

• Criminal attacks – it could be an attack carried out by some person unrelated to work, it may be an ex-employee, current employee, an irate customer or even a robber.

• Emergencies requiring evacuation – Some emergencies, such as fire, floods, earthquakes etc. may require evacuation. Conduct evacuation drills.

• Safety of Field Employees – Their work could take them into clients homes or they may have to work in crime prone areas. How can their safety be ensured?

Some examples of steps to keep Employees safe are:

• Give Field Employees cell phones, especially those who have to visit client’s homes.
• Give standing instructions that all Field Employees should give a daily visit schedule to a designated person at the office. They should also contact the office at fixed intervals.
• Carry out Employee surveillance, at the same time complying with state laws on surveillance.
• Use video cameras for keeping track of employees. However, ensure you get written consent from employees before deployment.
• Request local police help for employee education in safety procedures.

A little bit of care will go a long way toward ensuring your employees are as safe as possible while in the workplace.