Your workplace and your employees are also important assets in your business. The warehouse serves as the key distribution center where the products are linked from your company to your customers. More importantly, employees are the vital people that make everything happen. It is known that your main hub will be busy with machinery and people, and that is why it’s essential to keep it secure and damaged free. While this is a challenging task, fortunately, there are a couple of steps that you can do to enhance your warehouse safety.
Take a look at these ways that will undoubtedly help you provide a safe work environment for your staff.
Ensure Rack And Shelving Safety
Warehouses are buildings made to store goods. However, keeping items in the warehouse is more than just piling things on top of one another and putting everything anywhere. Proper placing of boxes should always be imposed to avoid any collapses and accidents. You have to ensure that the employees are trained to distribute weight along shelves and pallets. It would be best to routinely conduct pallet racking audits to address any damages and guarantee the structural integrity is on top shape. Improper rack and shelving practices and management can cause severe injuries and damage to both employees and the warehouse.
Provide Proper Training and Refresher
One common cause of workplace accidents is complacency and irresponsibility. Many workers are overconfident about their job and irresponsible to the point that they don’t follow protocols and standard operating procedures. Another reason may be they disremember or entirely forgot everything already. You should provide employees adequate training about workplace safety processes and standard operating procedures. Also, there should be refresher courses from time to time, so staff will not forget everything.
It would also be best to post memorandums and information about safety standards in high traffic locations such as entrance and exit gates, cafeteria, and locker rooms.
Remove Any Safety Hazards
Maintaining a safe work environment is beneficial to everyone, and everyone should be vigilant to keep it safe. In order to ensure safety, the company should create awareness of potential hazards and carry out a workplace risk assessment regularly. At the same time, employees should also be on the lookout for any safety hazards.
There are many types of workplace hazards, such as physical hazards, which include electricity, heat, heights, noise, and vibration. Next are ergonomic hazards from repetitive and forceful movements, improper work methods, and improperly designed workstations, tools, and equipment. Another one is chemical hazards, which may come from explosive, flammable, oxidizing, and corrosive materials—lastly, biological hazards from bacteria and viruses. Investing in a safety management system can help you mitigate risks and provide safety measures against these workplace hazards.
Proper Clothing and Equipment Should be Used
Safety is one of the major issues for day and skilled laborers. Most of the accidents are also caused by improper use of equipment and absence or failure to wear personal protective equipment. Employees should always observe the use of proper equipment such as forklifts or hydraulic lifts, machinery, and even small tools. By utilizing proper equipment, the company can avoid work-related injuries.
Furthermore, the company should always impose dress codes. Dress codes are set to reduce employees’ exposure to any hazard. This item should serve as
- Head protection such as hard hats, face shields, and earmuff.
- Eye and face protection such as safety goggles, spectacles, and full-face shields.
- Respiratory protection such as air-line respirators, air-purifying respirators, supplied-air hoods, and mask.
- Hand and skin protection such as gloves and isolation gown.
Put Emergency Signage and Mark Hazardous Zones
Signages are an effective reminder of what your employees should do in terms of emergency. Put up signages and posters that state safety procedures such as administering first aid, setting up alarms, using fire extinguishers, and more. In addition, marking hazardous zones such as electrical rooms and hazardous material storages can prevent people from accidentally going in. The signs will ensure that everyone knows that only authorized people can enter and they can’t do certain things like smoking, eating, and others. This step is extremely helpful in keeping your warehouse organized and safe from dangerous situations.
Every day, all of your employees will go to work with the outlook that they will be able to do their job and go home without injury and any other health risks. As an employer, you should make certain that they will work in a safe and clean environment. Although accidents are unavoidable, you can still minimize them through the steps mentioned. We hope that through this article, we helped you promote the highest safety standard for everyone. Get immediate access to the mini warehouse through Flexistore.no without having to spend time signing contracts, exchanging emails, collecting keys and other time wasters.
