Workplace health and safety is important for every organization, no matter how big or small. Employers have legal and moral obligations to keep their employees safe. But workplace safety is everyone’s responsibility. Communicating safety tips at the workplace to employees can help to ensure everyone is safe.
Top 10 safety tips for the workplace
These are ten of the most important safety tips for the workplace to create a safe environment. These work safety tips should be communicated with your employees regularly, for example by pop-up notifications using DeskAlerts, to create a culture of safety:
1. Understand risks
Every work environment is different and these will vary from industry to industry and from job site to job site. It’s critical that employees understand the inherent risks that come with a particular job so they can take the proper steps necessary to avoid injury. Particularly if working with dangerous equipment or in a hazardous environment.
2. Be aware of your surroundings at all time
This builds on the previous point of understanding risks – but requires employees to always be aware of what is going on around them and to look for hazards constantly.
3. Know where the first aid kit/officer are
If someone requires first aid, do your employees know how to access it in the workplace? Ensure your staff know where the first aid kit is and if you have a designated first aid officer, ensure they know who that person is so they can get assistance should they need it.
4. Taking regular breaks
Many workplace injuries happen as a result of an employee being tired or burned out. By taking regular breaks, employees can stay fresh on the job.
5. Always using equipment properly
When machines and tools are used in the workplace, employees should always take proper precautions, never take shortcuts and never use the equipment for purposes other than what is intended. By doing so, the risk of workplace injury is greatly reduced.
6. Pay attention to signage
Signage is placed to indicate that there could be a potential hazard in the area and includes important information about maintaining a safe work environment.
7. Know where emergency exits are
All employees should understand where they should safely exit the workplace in the event of an evacuation.
10 emergency message templates
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8. Keep emergency exist accessible
Because employees need to access exits quickly in the event of an emergency, it is imperative that these be kept clear. Nothing should be placed in front of the exits that would block them or impede them from opening.
9. Reporting unsafe conditions
Employees should know how to report unsafe conditions so management can quickly address any safety risks or hazards.
10. Wear correct safety equipment
Every employee has a responsibility to ensure they are wearing proper protective equipment that will enable them to safely carry out their job.
The importance of effective safety communications
Good communication is essential to ensure that employees understand the safety requirements they must abide by in the workplace. This will help to build a safety culture where people speak up about potential hazards and understand the role that they have in keeping themselves and their colleagues safe.
Ensuring that you get employees’ attention can be challenging in the modern workplace: there are so many competing sources of information these days that people don’t have time to pay attention to everything. If you send all your safety messages by email or put them on the intranet, there’s a very high likelihood your employees will miss them.
If you’re looking for more reliable ways to cut through the digital noise in the workplace and ensure that your safety messaging reaches your employees, DeskAlerts has you covered.
DeskAlerts is an internal communication software system that uses different channels and tools and is designed to be more intrusive, and bypass the email system.
You can use DeskAlerts to send innovative communication material and office safety tips that employees will be sure to notice. Including:
DeskAlerts can also be used to send colorful graphic displays to any digital screen in your organization, enabling you to display your safety messages wherever there is a screen on your premises – such as safety tips for the office, the factory, the warehouse, etc.
Learn more about how to use digital signage for emergency alerts.
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Ensuring the safety of employees is critical for any organization. Get in touch with us today for a free demo to find out how DeskAlerts can be used to overhaul the safety communications in your workplace.
FAQ
What are the 10 rules for workplace safety?
The 10 rules for workplace safety are:
- Always be aware of your surroundings
- Ensure you have the correct posture for back and neck protection
- Make sure you take regular breaks
- Always operate machines, tools and other equipment properly
- Always ensure emergency exits are clear and accessible
- Report hazards to your supervisor
- Use equipment that is designed to assist reduce injuries wherever possible
- Do not drink or use drugs
- Take steps to reduce stress in the workplace
- Always wear correct safety or personal protective equipment
Do and don'ts of safety rules?
When it comes to workplace safety, these are the things you should and should not do:
- Do provide safety education to your staff
- Don’t take shortcuts when following safety procedures
- Do always ensure you are aware of your surroundings
- Don’t be quiet about unsafe workplace conditions
- Do encourage your staff to take regular breaks
- Don’t block any emergency exits
- Do ensure that people are wearing protective equipment.
What is the best safety tip?
The best safety tip for the office is to always be aware of what is happening around you so that you can react appropriately if something dangerous should happen.
Why is workplace safety so important?
Employers have a legal obligation to provide a safe workplace for their employees. A safe workplace ensures that employees have a low risk of being injured or becoming ill while they are at work.
A policy shows you’re serious about people’s safety: about preventing work-related injury and illness. It puts this commitment down on paper and out in your workplace once you display it on walls and noticeboards.
Even if you have a small business and employ only a handful of workers, you can’t afford to assume everyone knows what’s required with health and safety.
You should also never assume that safety is ‘common sense’ — a workplace that relies solely on ‘common sense’ is likely to be unsafe.
What your policy should contain
Your policy should state the responsibilities of everyone and set the rules and standards you expect everyone to follow. This reinforces the message that although you as a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) have a responsibility for safety, everyone else is responsible too.
You can delegate health and safety tasks to others — such as your managers, supervisors, and health and safety committee members — but as the PCBU you still have overall responsibility for work health and safety.
State what management will do
Your policy should start with a statement about your overall safety goal or aim, for example: ‘We will provide a workplace free from risks’ or ‘We aim to reduce our injury rates’.
It’s important to then state how you’ll do those things.
What are the practical things your managers, supervisors and the PCBU will be responsible for to manage WHS?
Your policy should include your commitment to:
- providing/maintaining a work environment free from risks to health and safety
- providing/maintaining safe equipment, structures and safe systems of work
- ensuring the safe use, handling and storage of equipment, structures and substances
- providing adequate facilities for the welfare of workers (for example, toilets and tea rooms)
- providing any information, training, instruction or supervision that’s necessary to protect people from risks to their health and safety arising from work activities
- making sure that the health of workers and the conditions at the workplace are monitored in order to prevent illness or injury
- consulting with workers on all matters relating to work health and safety.
State what workers will do
Workers have rights and responsibilities, so state the rules and standards you expect them to follow:
- take reasonable care for their own health and safety
- take reasonable care that what they do (or what they don’t do) doesn’t adversely affect the health and safety of other people
- comply (so far as they are reasonably able to) with any reasonable instruction given by management
- co-operate with any reasonable policy or procedure for work health and safety that has been communicated to them (you may want to mention the safe work procedures you have in place)
- not misuse or interfere with anything provided for work health and safety
- report all incidents and near misses immediately, no matter how trivial
- engage in consultation with management to identify, assess and control hazards and the effectiveness of such controls
- report all known or observed hazards to their supervisor or manager.
Involve your workers as you develop your policy so it becomes a shared commitment to health and safety.
Other matters to consider
- Note or refer to your risk management process. Does your policy reflect the nature of your workplace activities and scale of safety risks you have?
- List any Australian Standards and laws other than the work health and safety act and regulations that you need to comply with
- Include any measurable safety targets you’re working towards, or specific safety issues you want to address as an organisation
- Define the consultation process you have to ensure all your workers are included in decision making for safety. List how you’ll provide safety information to your workers, contractors and visitors
- Explain how you’ll implement your policy
- Make sure the policy is supported and signed off at the highest level; for example, the managing director or chief executive officer.
Communicate your policy
Once you’ve developed your policy, display it prominently.
Tell everyone about it so they know what they should expect and what is expected of them:
- go through it at a staff or toolbox meeting
- include it in inductions for new workers.
Review your policy regularly (at least once a year) to ensure it remains relevant and effective.
Why have safe work procedures
Safe work procedures are a practical and consistent way for everyone to commit to safety. They clearly:
- document the sequence of steps for doing the task safely
- incorporate the appropriate risk control measures into those steps.
When trained how to use a safe work procedure, everyone in your workplace will know the safe way to do their job, and will work the same way. They won’t need to guess or make things up as they go along.
Be specific
It’s important that your safe work procedures are specific to the work tasks, equipment and chemicals in your workplace — and if necessary, each worksite in your organisation.
This is especially important when/where:
- your procedures are for activities that carry risk: such as construction work or the use of hazardous chemicals
- your work tasks are complex or detailed
- you have specific requirements for emergency procedures
- there are specific certification/licensing requirements for workers using certain equipment or performing certain processes/tasks.
What to include
- A description of the activity/process
- The person or position who is responsible for supervising the activity/process (if you use a person’s name, make sure you update the procedure if that person leaves or is no longer responsible for supervising)
- A step-by-step explanation of the stages that make up the activity/process, from beginning to end
- An explanation of the potential hazards and safety controls needed to reduce potential risk
- Any other safety precautions to be taken while performing the activity/ process.
Consult with your workers
Don’t underestimate your workers’ input: they often have first-hand knowledge, experience and ideas about how to reduce safety risks, make improvements and find solutions.
Other sources
Look at information from manufacturers, suppliers, operator’s manuals and relevant codes of practice.
Resources
Sample policies
Sample safe work procedures
Sample checklists, forms and registers
Safe work method statements
Safety Management Toolkit (PDF, 2.5 MB)
Codes of practice