It’s felt in more than a few businesses that, since every last employee has decent health and safety training, they now have all the knowledge they need to prevent an incident. The reality is that, irrespective of the industry you’re in, training in health and safety regulations and risk asessment just isn’t adequate. You must provide your employees with sufficient supervision, not to mention provide the right safety gear and give them the opportunity to practice. An individual in a supervisory capacity has a greater function to play than just supervising the shop floor. Your selection of supervisor needs to see the importance of health and safety instruction and have the ability to get other staff excited.

In addition to ensuring conformity with health and safety regulations, the individual supervising must also make certain that employees perform all their tasks to the best of their abilty. This is a challenging task. It means that the supervisor is expected to possess an excellent knowledge of the industry and manufacturing procedures as well as an in depth familiarity with up-to-date regulations with regard to safety, risk assessment and CPR. Simply offering basic training in health and safety really is not enough for your workers. Your employees must practise risk assessment and the identification of hazardous areas. Employees need to understand how to eliminate hazards and also understanding what to do if the unexpected happens. Only when these procedures have become second nature are staff properly trained. Proper safety apparatus is every bit as essential to the safety of your staff as training. Without the proper gear or alternatively should staff discover that supplies are damaged only after something has occurred, then all the safety training your employees have completed is in vain.

Servicing your equipment on a regular basis is crucial. If an item is in poor order, ensure it is mended or call out a maintenance engineer as soon as you can. Health and safety education is essential for the health of your workers, however they need decent gear, the opportunity to practise, and an experienced supervisor who can get the workforce excited about working safely. When you implement these steps you should find that health and safety legislation will soon become established in your business culture rather than something for employees to remember.