3 Ways To Keep Your Employees Safe At Work

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Keep your employees safe|3 Ways To Keep Your Employees Safe At WorkIf you employ people, there is a lot more to think about than just how much you’ll pay them and what you want them to do in return for that money. As an employer, you have a number of different responsibilities toward your employees, and one of those responsibilities is to ensure they are safe at work. The better you can take care of them, the happier they will be, and that leads to better productivity, and as well as this, it’s the ethical thing to do. Here are some suggestions about how to keep your employees safe at work; this is just a start, and there are plenty more ideas to consider as well.

Create A Welcoming Work Environment

In order for an employee to be safe, they must also feel safe, and as such, the working environment you offer them has to make them feel that way – it has to be welcoming and easy to use. When your employees feel safe and comfortable, they will be able to focus on their work rather than being worried about anything going on around them.

To help make the space more comfortable and welcoming, you can do a variety of different things. Some include offering your staff ergonomic furniture, ensuring there is plenty of natural light in the office or warehouse, getting your boiler serviced by Bensons Gas to keep the heating working and ensure there is enough hot water, and creating break rooms so that people have somewhere to go away from their desks.

Assess The Environment

It’s also a good idea to assess the working environment to see if there are any hazards around that you can remove or at least reduce the risk of harm regarding. Carry out a full risk assessment of the workspace (including all outside areas and vehicles) and you’ll instantly be able to see if there are any areas that could be improved in terms of safety and comfort.

As part of the risk assessment, it’s wise to ask your team if there are any issues they are concerned about or anything that makes their job harder, or unsafe. These are things that you might not spot as you walk around doing your risk assessment, especially if you don’t get actively involved in the work your team does. Once you have all the information, it’s important to make changes quickly before there are any accidents and before your staff starts to feel as though you’re just not listening to them.

Offer Training

Sometimes it won’t necessarily be the workplace that’s unsafe; it might be that your team has a lack of training, which can make things that would normally be fine a potential hazard. If they don’t know how to use a particular piece of machinery, or they aren’t aware of the rules regarding safety in the workplace, accidents could happen.

Therefore, you must offer regular training to your team. Everyone who you employ should have an initial session of training to help them understand what is required and what they need to do, but it shouldn’t end there. Ideally, the training should be a regular thing for all employees, no matter how long they have worked for you or what their position is. In this way, you can be sure everyone knows how to keep themselves safe at work.

The Essentials Of Keeping Your Manufacturing Floor Safe

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Keep Manufacturing Floor Safe|The Essentials Of Keeping Your Manufacturing Floor SafeWhen it comes to promoting the health of your workers, in an industrial setting, there is nothing more important than making sure that the floor is as safe a place to work in, as possible. However, that’s not always an easy thing to do. Here, we’re going to look at some of the steps that you can take to prevent risks or to take notice of them and quell them as soon as possible.

Train your workforce as best as you can

You should ensure that your workforce is trained regularly on the safety procedures they need to take to make sure that they’re able to work while minimizing their risks as best as possible. Aside from training the workers directly in basic safety, you can also train and manage your own safety officer that can keep an eye on the floor on a more active level. Their role can be in pointing out potential hazards that you and your team might miss in the day-to-day work you do.

Make safety audits and inspections regular

Of course, it’s the equipment in the manufacturing setting that is going to be providing the lion’s share of the risk. This dangerous equipment can cause injury, both when operated incorrectly or when there are malfunctions that stop it from working properly. Just as you should regularly train your team on safety matters, you should invest in regular safety audits and inspections of the workplace and machinery through services like a machine safety assessment survey. This can allow you to pinpoint the risks that are most worth inspecting in your workplace and, upon fixing them, to allow your team to work with a little more reassurance.

Provide the equipment that your team needs

The machinery they work with isn’t the only equipment you should be providing them with. The need for personal protective equipment, from gloves to safety goggles and hearing protection, is likely to be outlined in the regulations that your business is legally required to follow. However, aside from just buying the supply that you need, you should inspect this equipment on a regular basis to make sure that it’s all working, safe, and available to use. PPE can suffer from wear and tear, too, and not noticing it can put your employees in danger.

Make a culture of prevention

Many safety hazards can be addressed before they constitute a serious threat and you can make it easier for your team to do just that by making prevention an important part of the workplace culture. This can include training your team to provide preventative maintenance to the equipment that they work with, but it also includes things such as safety signage reminding them to keep vital areas clear of clutter and to perform what safety checks they need before they start their work.

Manufacturing floors can be very dangerous places to work, so you need to make sure that you’re constantly on top of the ball when it comes to safety. Hopefully, the tips above can help with that.

Avoiding The Expenses Of Constantly Buying New Business Furniture

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Business Furniture|Avoiding The Expenses Of Constantly Buying New Business FurnitureYou want to ensure that you’re providing the maintenance and care that your workplace needs to ensure that your employees, as well as any clients, customers, or partners that visit, are able to do their thing safely and without concern. At some point, replacing old furniture might be a necessary step to take. However, if you find yourself having to buy a lot of furniture, whether it’s for the office or more industrial spaces, it can quickly become expensive. As such, here are a few steps you can take to reduce the expense of it all.

Give them the preventative maintenance they need

As with every other part of your office, your furniture is going to require preventative maintenance as well. If you spot some problems early, then you might be able to stop them from becoming bigger issues with a replacement part or, in many cases with chairs and the like, a drop of oil. Furniture that might be used in open-air spaces can require a little more work. For instance, wood furniture might need to be refinished and re-sealed to ensure that it doesn’t succumb to environmental pressures like moisture and sunlight. Fit your furniture into your maintenance schedule alongside the rest of the property to protect it for much longer.

Know when you can make the fixes they need

Prevention is the key, but even if you’re starting to see problems with your furniture, that doesn’t mean that it’s necessary to replace the entire piece of furniture just yet. Loose rungs on the share can be fixed by regluing them in place, while you can add braces to chairs that might be getting a little wobbly as their joints come loose. Even metal furniture can be protected, with the help of things like industrial grinders to smooth down and restore the surface of metal objects that are getting dull or showing the signs of age. Having the ability to show a little care to your furniture can help you keep it looking and feeling perfectly fine for years to come, instead of having to replace it at the first sign of trouble.

Don’t buy first-hand when you don’t need to

Sometimes, you simply are going to need a replacement and there’s nothing else to be said about the matter. When that happens, going to your local manufacturer or supplier might not always be the right decision. There are plenty of places to buy second-hand furniture for the office and many of these providers will even offer then refurbished, meaning that they have taken care to ensure that they are safe and working, and might have even fixed some of the surface-level signs of wear and tear that they have accumulated. Of course, if you buy second-hand furniture and it doesn’t match your quality standards, then you shouldn’t buy from that place again.

With the tips above, hopefully, you can help everything in the office last just a bit longer and, when it can’t, maybe you can find more sensible replacements that are better for your bottom line.

How To Choose The Right Security Service For Your Organization

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Security Service|How To Choose The Right Security Service For Your OrganizationRunning a business successfully goes beyond making profits and retaining customers. Operating safely and managing physical threats are crucial for all organizations these days. The security needs of businesses vary as factors like location, type of products, asset value, and team size come into play. Retail enterprises have to ensure employees and customers stay safe. Factories need to prioritize worker safety. Likewise, banks have to protect cash and assets. So you cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach to secure your business. Essentially, you must choose a service that covers all your needs and safeguards your premises, people, and assets. It is worth paying for as you can save money, prevent crimes, and protect your reputation in the long run. Let us share some tips to help you choose the right security service for your organization.

Start with a comprehensive assessment

The first step to determine the apt security services for your business is a comprehensive assessment of your needs. Experts consider several factors such as your location, lighting, landscape, and fencing to determine your risks. Further, your working hours also decide your needs. For example, businesses running around the clock require extra security after dark. You may not invest a lot if just operating a daytime business in a high-traffic area. Your existing safety and security measures also play a role in deciding the best arrangement for the future. A comprehensive overview gives a clear picture of your overall requirements.

Understand the level of security

After a complete assessment of your business, you will have a fair idea of the level of security you need. You cannot afford to take a chance if selling luxury products or hosting high-profile events and crimes. Investing in armed security services is imperative for such businesses. You will also need trained and armed guards if your establishment is located in a vulnerable area. Having armed officers on-premises gives you peace of mind and a sense of security. They are equipped to respond to dangerous situations and unexpected emergencies. So you can be sure about the safety of your employees, customers, and visitors.

Decide the number of security personnel

The number of security personnel is another matter of concern for businesses while collaborating with security providers. After all, you have to pay for their services, so it makes sense to invest wisely. Once again, the number depends on the need and size of your business. You will require more guards for a large facility or for a business that transports valuable assets. Some businesses require coverage for the office space and the parking lot, so more guards have to be there. Everything boils down to these individual factors, so it is worth paying for more if you have greater needs.

You must not take premises safety frivolously because threats and risks abound in the commercial space, regardless of the size and domain of businesses. Consider your specific needs and challenges, and pick security services to match. You will not have to worry about criminal activities again!

Speak to the companies you are considering hiring

When choosing the right security services for your organization, it’s important you meet up and interview the companies you want to employ. This gives you the opportunity to speak to them in person and ask them any important questions. In fact, before calling them or meeting them in person, research the best interview questions to ask in order to put you in the best position when meeting.

Effective Ways To Protect Your Customer’s Data

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Protect Customer Data|Effective Ways To Protect Your Customer's DataAlmost every week, a new data breach is announced in the news. Data leaks are becoming more common, whether it’s hackers penetrating company computer systems, politicians forgetting USB drives on the train, or furious ex-employees pilfering critical files.

If you own or operate a business, you must take precautions to safeguard the information you collect and maintain, particularly information about your clients. Not only will their names and financial information be compromised, but your company’s image will suffer as well, as customers will abandon your business.

Here are a few pointers to help you along the way.

1. Only save information that is useful.

Even while it may be tempting, especially for promotional or communication purposes, to save all the information you can about your clients, you are increasing the danger of a breach. Limit the amount of data you keep on them to only what you really must. You may also wish to delete any information about clients who have stopped doing business with your company, because if they have made no attempt to contact you again, there is no need to retain their data on your system.

2. Protect the information of your clients.

The more difficult it is to hack into your computer, the more secure your customer data will be. As a result, keep your equipment up to date with the most recent firewalls and anti-virus software, and password-protect everything, especially anything relevant to your customers’ account information. An IT specialist can also offer suggestions on how to protect your PC even more effectively. An off-site document storage facility should be considered as well. In the unusual event that data is stolen, this type of business will have the most up-to-date security measures in place and will be held liable. As a result, clients will be more willing to utilise your services if they know that their personal information is safe.

3. Don’t use paper copies!

Scanning and digitizing your data for cloud storage or on your desktop computer eliminates the need to retain paper copies of anything anymore. Consequently, shred any paper waste and dispose of it properly; alternatively, use a paper shredding service to discard any sensitive material on your behalf. Remove everything that contains client data and you will have less of a possibility for data to be breached, whether by a disgruntled employee or a trespasser who has acquired access to your company. You should also teach employees how to safely use their computers and devices to avoid any unauthorized entry into your systems. This includes logging out whenever they leave their desk and using regularly changed and secure passwords.

Finally

When clients place their faith in you, you owe it to them to do all in your power to keep them happy. The first step in preventing a data breach is to ensure the safety of any personally identifiable information (PII) that may be stored about them. If you don’t, the implications might be devastating for you and your clients!