There are more than 30 million small businesses operating across the United States. These businesses employ nearly 60 million people and these employees are the lifeblood of each small business.
So protecting your employees when running a small business is extremely important. This will make them feel valued and it also protects you from expensive health and safety lawsuits.
This is why you need to know the best safety tips for small business owners. Well, then you’re in the right place! Read on to find out five brilliant tips on running a small business the right way.
Table of Contents
1. Create a Safety Handbook
Every workplace should have a safety handbook or guide, which outlines all the procedures your employees need. This should include everything from how to operate machinery to fire evacuation plans.
Creating a handbook is also a great way to assess your business‘ overall safety and to find room for improvements.
2. Analysis Your Workplace
As well as making a handbook, you should carry out a thorough analysis of your employee’s working environment. This will help you to identify any potential hazards and to secure them before they cause anyone harm.
You may want to bring in an experienced safety management team to analyze your workplace for this. They’ll be able to spot potential danger and can recommend the best running small business safety tips for you.
3. Organize Safety Training
As well as analyzing your work environment, your employees need to know the risks. That way they can protect themselves.
This is why you should carry out regular employee safety training. This includes:
- Providing them with your latest safety handbook and ensuring they read it
- Carrying out regular training exercises, such as fire drills
- Having special training if you bring in new equipment or software for your company
You should also ensure that your employees are all supplied with the proper safety equipment to carry out their jobs.
4. Open a Dialogue
Your employees are the ones on the ground at your work environment so they’re a great resource when it comes to spotting health and safety hazards. Creating a dialogue about these with them will help you to stay on top of potential issues.
Create a reporting system where people can register health and safety concerns and review this regularly. For maximum effectiveness, you may also want to bring in a health and safety manager to handle these issues and find solutions for them.
5. Stay Up-to-Date
Just because you have carried out a thorough health and safety assessment of your business once, this doesn’t mean you’re covered for life. You should regularly review your health and safety procedures in order to keep them up to date.
This includes providing refresher training where necessary. You should also ensure that any new members of staff receive full training so they don’t become a hazard in the workplace.
Safety is Key When Running a Small Business
As you can see, there are plenty of things you can do to ensure you’re running a small business safely. Keep these in mind and you can’t go wrong!
For more brilliant tips on how to grow and develop your small business, keep scrolling.