Once you have a certain number of employees on payroll, you will need to have workers compensation insurance. Your goal is to keep the premiums on this type of insurance as low as possible – and the safety program can help with this. Any time you can minimize the number of accidents, it will be beneficial to you.

Creating a safety program may be easier than you think.

TRAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES

One of the first things you want to do within a safety program is to train all of your employees. Depending upon what goes on across your property, the training may be different. You may also need to create individual training programs for the different types of employees that you have. For example, forklift operators are going to require different types of training than personal assistants.

Consider training on:

  • All equipment
  • Policies and Procedures
  • First Aid

Some of the training can be done by your HR department. In other instances, you may want to call in a third-party in order to provide certain types of training, such as first aid. This will allow your employees to receive certificates of completion. These certificates should also be photocopied or scanned and placed into employee files so that you have them for reference.

BUILD A SAFETY KIT

Build a safety kit in order to have on premises. This will provide coverage in the event that someone injures themselves. A first aid kit should include bandages, antiseptic wipes, and an array of other items. If you can take care of an issue on site, there may not be the need to send an employee to a clinic.

Other items within your safety kit should include PPE as well as items that may be needed for individual jobs.

If you have a large work environment, you may want to have multiple safety kits so that they are easily accessible to your employees.

CREATE A SAFETY COMMITTEE

Your employees are your best asset when it comes to creating a safety program. They know the jobs and they know the location. It’s a good idea to create a safety committee and involves several employees. You should have the committee meet on a monthly basis and talk about various issues, what PPE may be missing, and any incidents that have occurred.

When incidents occurred in the previous month, talk about an action plan and how they could have been avoided. You should also make sure that the safety committee is flagging potential issues so that you can implement risk management.

HAVE MONTHLY WALK-THROUGHS

Conduct monthly walk-throughs of your location, paying close attention to where safety kits are located and identify any problems within the location for employees completing actions without PPE. In order to save time, you may want to have your safety committee complete these walk-throughs.

All of these different activities will help you to reduce the likelihood of accidents and potentially lower your workers compensation insurance as well.