Top ten workplace safety tips revisited Tip Number 1

My Top ten workplace safety tips article has proven to me my most popular article. I am taking a moment to revisit each tip and delve a bit deeper in to what is behind each one. Read the original articel here: Top ten safety tips.

Tip number 1: Maintain a clean work area. Not only will you remove many hazards from a work area by keeping it clean, but you will also provide a more productive work environment for your employees.

According to Louise Hay, accidents are often the result of an inability to speak up for the self, rebellion against authority or a belief in violence. It is easy to see that allowing employees to work in a messy environment could result in feelings of frustration that would be difficult to express and could result in a resentment for authority.

In addition, having a workplace that is free from obstructions will result in a more efficient and effective work atmosphere. If employees are restricted by messy conditions, not only will they be more likely to be injured, they will spend more energy getting the job done that would otherwise be required.

By keeping the workplace clean and orderly you will not only reduce the chance for accidents but also improve the overall productivity of the process.

For example in my own shop, I occasionally will try to work on cramped quarters having too many projects going on at once. When I do, I always find myself trying to work in less than optimal positions and sometimes I will slip and hurt myself. I also waste a lot of energy stepping over or moving around obstacles.

When I take time to prepare the work area before I begin, not only do I work much faster, but I enjoy the experience much more as well. Enjoying the experience helps me be more aware of my surrounding and makes me safer as a worker.

So to both improve your productivity and reduce accidents, make sure your work place stays clean and orderly.

Fun Workplace Safety Training

Making Workplace Safety Training Fun

Nothing is worse than having to sit through a boring safety training session after you have been working for eight to twelve hours. I always hated those end of shift training meetings that were held just to satisfy some requirement. Even worse were the classes held on what was supposed to be my day off.

Many workplace safety training sessions have more of a tendency to promote workplace violence than they do to inspire workplace safety. Let’s look at ways to improve the classes.

The first step is to understand the audience. These are hard working people who simply want to get the job done with the least effort and return to their homes and families able to enjoy their time off.

They are not generally people looking for ways to get hurt and cost the company money. Unfortunately, many workplace safety training classes I have attended seem to make the assumption that these people all have a death wish and we have to train them not to exercise that desire here at work.

If workers are taught the right way to do their jobs, they will be much safer and more productive at the same time. Use the safety training sessions as a time to show the workers the proper and safest ways to do their work. Don’t focus on the list of things not to do. Focus the training on the ways to do the job safety and correctly.

To add some humorous contrast to the class, do a skit where the job task is done hilariously wrong. Just be sure to follow this up with a skit where the job is done right. Make sure the workers leave with the right way to do the job fresh in their minds.

Conducting a class in this manner will do two important things for employee morale. First, if your skits accurately portray the job, then your employees will begin to believe that you actually understand what they go through on a daily basis. They will begin to trust you more.

Second, by showing them the right way to do the job, they will see that you actually care about their well being and are not simply concerned with how much money they might cost you when they get hurt.

To provide truly effective workplace safety training for your employees, respect their time. It is not enough that they are getting paid to be there, they want to feel that they are actually learning something of value. Make the training meaningful. Make the training relevant. Most of all, make your workplace safety training fun.

For more workplace safety training tips and ideas, see these articles: http://www.mikestrawbridge.com/workplace-safety-training.shtml