For any engineering business, it’s important to maintain safety and security for your workforce in all areas of the company. The business premises can be dangerous at the best of times and it’s something that you should be conscious about as the owner or responsible person within the organization.
If you’re looking to improve the security and safety of engineers on the business premises, here are some helpful tips.
Conduct regular risk assessments
Risk assessments are a useful practice within the business because they help identify potential problems. Regular risk assessments will help spot those problems before they become a bigger issue and potentially cause harm to individuals.
Whether it’s introducing new equipment to the warehouse or operating machinery while others are around, it’s good to assess the risk factors with each scenario.
Liaise with your building operations team to see how this can be done efficiently. It’s good to keep a regular log of the risk assessments you’ve done and any that you still need to do. If you have problems conducting regular risk assessments, you might want to look at hiring a team member to whom you can allocate the role on a full-time basis.
Optimize space and remove clutter
Clutter can be a problem. Not only does it cause risks within the workplace but it can also make the space look messy. With empty boxes lying around or broken equipment that hasn’t been moved yet, it’s going to limit the space that employees have to move around, which in itself can be a hazard.
Try to optimize the space and remove all of the clutter in your workplace. This should be done on a regular basis in order to avoid the clutter building up. For some businesses, space can be limited at the best of times, so it’s worthwhile to stay on top of it.
It’s also a good opportunity if you’ve assessed the space and perhaps rearranged certain equipment to help make the area more functional.
In order to remove clutter, organize a regular pickup so that you keep on top of everything from now on.
Train your engineers in safety when operating equipment
Engineers are bright sparks but that doesn’t mean they have the answers to everything. Whether they are creative in design or experts in crafting, there are risks within the workplace that they should be aware of.
Employee training is a great way to ensure that all of your staff are practicing safety in the workplace, whatever level of danger they may encounter every day. Investing in that training is worthwhile and everyone should have the opportunity to be trained regularly.
This means allocating a budget to each staff member or department. When there’s new equipment on site, any staff member operating the machinery should be trained in it fully. Anyone who might be working around risky equipment should also be made aware of the dangers present.
The workplace in general, presents a lot of dangers and this is also something that should be addressed. Regular training and refresher training opportunities should be given across the board, so make sure this happens by liaising with team management staff, as well as HR.
Secure your building’s parameters
Every business has its own level of risk, not just from the building internally but from external sources. Whether that’s from a bad reputation within the industry that attracts unwanted strangers to your doors, to the location of your business being poorly placed or out of sight.
Securing your building parameters is a must and something that should be looked at carefully. While you might think that your business is secure, that’s often when businesses like yours are most vulnerable.
Consider what level of security you have around the premises currently and what you might need to enforce in order to protect the building when no one is in it. Perhaps you need to invest in a night guard, especially if you’ve got expensive equipment and products being kept in the premises overnight and on weekends.
CCTV might be helpful if you don’t have the money available for a physical presence. With CCTV, it can often deter those who are scoping out your business and might want to take advantage of the vulnerabilities present.
Whether it’s fixing broken doors or windows, to checking who is coming in and around your building on a daily basis, secure and tighten up the parameters to protect the building.
Have strong security in place for entry and exits
One of the major vulnerabilities of the business premises is the entry and exit of your building. If you’re not putting the right security measures in place, then you should be worried about uninvited guests coming into your building.
With so much going on, it’s often not noticeable when someone has come into the building and once they’re in, they pose a threat to the business and your people.
Consider introducing IDs if you haven’t already, even to those who are guests. Using the right ID supplier is worth scoping out so that you can produce them at an affordable cost. Having IDs will help keep track of everyone that’s in the building, which is not only important for security but for fire safety too. It ensures everyone is accounted for should a fire or false alarm take place.
Encourage staff to challenge anyone they don’t know
It’s good to encourage staff to challenge anyone that they don’t know. It might not be something that every staff member is comfortable doing but if you teach them about safety in the workplace, then they’re more likely going to be brazen enough to challenge anyone they don’t recognize coming into the building.
You can’t have eyes everywhere, which is why it’s good to have staff who are bold to challenge those who don’t belong on the premises. Reward those who are doing their bit and help prevent anyone from getting in that shouldn’t be in there. It’s a great incentive for them to keep it up.
With the addition of CCTV, it’s a great way of helping protect the company further. It might also be worthwhile offering to train those who are a little nervous when it comes to challenging people they don’t know.
Check alarms throughout the building
Alarms are something that you should be wary of when it comes to the safety of your staff and the building itself. With faulty alarms or alarms that have run out of battery, it puts everyone at risk, including your guests.
It’s therefore essential that you’re going around and checking these alarms just in case they have somehow stopped working or they’re in need of a battery change. This should be the responsibility of your HR/building operations and should be something that they’re ticking off as they do a regular walkthrough around the business premises.
It’s also good to do fire and evacuation training, in general, to further educate staff on how to exit the building swiftly and without causing harm to themselves or others. With fire and evacuation training, you want to check that these alarms are working throughout the building. It’s a good opportunity to spot any faults with the alarms too.
Improving the security and safety of engineers in the workplace is essential. It not only keeps staff protected and safe but also shows them that the organization values their safety. Use these tips to ensure every procedure and process is taking place to help keep everyone safe this year and in the future.
