How Can You Address Safety Concerns with Your Team?

A safe workplace is critical to the well-being of your workers, and to your business overall. So it’s important to stress workplace safety with your employees—and as a reminder, to make sure safety precautions are taken each and every workday. If a safety concern has arisen, it’s your number–one priority to discuss it with your team and rectify the situation. So how can you get started? 

Five steps to address workplace safety concerns: 

Try the following to keep your workers safe: 

Don’t wait. The sooner you can talk to your staff about a safety issue, the better. You want to take all steps to prevent dangerous working conditions. As soon as you see something unsafe, it’s time to say something.  

Be specific. Don’t leave your instruction open to interpretation. State your safety concern and the proper procedures you need your employees to follow. It also helps to hang posters in the area with information about safety procedures as a reminder to employees.  

Don’t point fingers. If the situation was due to a specific employee, do not make an example of that person. Regardless of what happened, you must take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. And it’s the responsibility of all employees to learn safety rules and practice them during each shift. Simply state the safety concern and the proper procedure, and move on.  

Address the group as a whole. Safety rules are something all employees need to hear. You can maximize your time by outlining proper procedures for the entire team during a meeting.  

Practice what you preach. Do as you say, and your employees will be more likely to do the same. Always follow safety procedures yourself to set a good example.  

Know when to take disciplinary action 

An employee breaking the rules by not following proper protocol is putting themselves and others at risk. If an employee continues to skip steps or simply not follow safety rules, you may need to take disciplinary action.  

Staff up with Inter-Connect 

We work with employers to find and place highly-qualified light industrial staff. To learn more and speak with an experienced recruiter, contact Inter-Connect today!