It’s easy to just assume that your business is safe, that your employees aren’t in any danger and that you aren’t at risk of legal issues. But that’s not true at all. In fact, unless you are proactive about health and safety in the office there’s a good chance that accidents will happen. You will be exposed to expensive lawsuits, and your business model will be vulnerable. Serious accidents in the office can cost businesses anything up to half a million in damages and that’s not an exaggeration. Last year, big and small companies found themselves inundated with these types of claims. With a little forward thinking this could have been avoided. On this post, we’ll look at some of the main health and safety issues in the office, how to avoid them and any other steps that you could take to make your business safe.

Common Accidents And Injuries

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Arguably the most common accident in the workplace is going to be a slip or trip. For instance, there might have been a wet floor without a sign. An employee could slip here, hurt their ankle or even break their leg. You need to remember that a fall like this can be more dangerous for older workers. Therefore, they will be entitled to a higher payout if the case eventually goes to court. Anything can cause a slip or trip. There might be a loose wire lying over the floor or a damp patch. It could be due to the fact that the area is poorly lit. This is why you want to make sure that you are changing and replacing the bulbs in your office on an annual basis. If you want cheap bulbs for the office check out a site such as Lightbulbs-direct.com/office-workplace.

You might also find that accidents occur because equipment has failed to function as it should. This could be something quite small. For instance, a kettle might have a loose wire and if that gets wet an employee could receive a nasty shock. It could also be something larger like your sprinkler system in the office. If you have a fire in the office building, your sprinkler system should put it out immediately. However, sprinkler systems can be damaged due to corrosion. When this happens, they won’t operate as they should and the fire will burn, causing further damage.

You shouldn’t rule out the possibility that the actions of an employee cause an accident. In a case like this you usually won’t be held accountable. Particularly if there was nothing you could have done to prevent the accident. However, the argument could be presented that with further training the employee would not have made the mistake. As such by increasing training for your staff you can reduce issues with health and safety substantially. Have a look at Peninsulagrouplimited.com for some great training courses.

Reducing The Risk

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Obviously, there are quite a few things that you can do to reduce the risk of accident in the office besides training your staff. Although further training is certainly advisable and will strengthen your position in a hypothetical court case. You might shy away from this possibility due to the expense involved. However, the cost of training will be nothing compared with the possible amount you could have to pay in damages after an accident. Employees should be able to handle health and safety issues themselves and be able to recognise potential hazards so that they can be dealt with.

You might also want to arrange checks for equipment. Again, you can check out large and small appliances in the office. For instance, if you have a look at a site such as ECSCorrosion.com/pipe-video-inspections you will see there are specialist inspections for sprinkler systems. You can also arrange a full tagging service for your office. A tagging service is quite simple. A specialist will check any equipment in your office and tag any item that has an issue. By doing this, you can avoid people using the equipment when it is not safe. You can also make sure that it is repaired as soon as possible before any incident occurs.

Many business owners also appoint health and safety officers for their business. A health and safety office has the role of checking the office environment on a regular basis. They will look out for any hazards and ensure that they are dealt with as quickly as possible. This is worth doing as business owners often don’t have the time to complete these checks themselves. Any action taken like this will result in a smaller payout for workers who do have an accident on the premises. Of course, there are a few other preemptive strikes that you can take.

Other Steps

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You may want to think about setting up insurance for your business. If an accident does occur, you want to make sure that it’s not up to you to pay the full extent of the damages. With the right coverage, your insurance company will take care of most of the costs. Obviously, the more claims you get, the higher your premium will rise. However, it can be a good short-term solution if you do have a serious issue with health and safety. This site Ucd.ie/sirc/healthandsafety/workplacesafety/officesafety/ has great options for health and safety insurance.

You can also arrange services such as workers compensation. In some regions if you have workers compensation an employee cannot sue you for further damages due to loss of work from an injury. As such, there is a cap on how much you could lose due to an accident in the office.

You should also be aware that injuries can be mental as well as physical. It is certainly more difficult to deal with this type of injury because it is a challenge to prepare for it. The best advice we can offer about these types of injuries is to ensure that your employees are able to access emotional support systems. You can use a HR outsourcing service to cover this need. They will keep a check on all your employees and ensure that no serious issue is creeping up on you.

If you take this advice on board, you can avoid the headache of injuries and accidents in your workplace.

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