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How to Create a Healthy Work Environment
General
2 years ago

“Companies are often just a reflection of what the employees are. We really believe it is good business to make sure they feel comfortable, to do the right thing for them, to ensure that they understand that we want to create a safe working environment; indeed we won't condone unsafe working conditions, same as they shouldn't have to. So it does obviously benefit both the employees and us." –Millwork, Maine Woods and Mike Scott

Whether you work at a business, own it, or manage it, you all have the same goal and objective--- you don't want any employee to be involved in an accident during a job.

And there's one thing each of us implement to ensure we all go home as whole as when we began the day. Step by step, we can create a safe healthy and working environment.

10 Steps to a safe healthy and working environment

  • Understand how a safe and healthy workpalce environment benefits workers, the family and the community at large.
  • Understand your Responsibilities for keeping a safe work environment as well as a healthy workplace environment.
  • Develop a systematic approach for organizing health and safety efforts.
  • Make research on the regulations and laws for the work you do.
  • Handle specific workplace hazards and have regular safety meetings.
  • Cultivate a safety culture with open communication and mutual respect
  • Celebrate your achievements and put aside OSHA inspections utilizing SHARP or other sensitization events.
  • Make enquiries on the best solutions to health and safety problems.
  • Pose questions about workplace health and safety.
  • Get assistance. Keeping a safe working environment is not something that can be done single-handedly.

Right to safe and healthy workplace environment

Creating a safe working environment entails a lot of factors. Employers should do the following as far as is reasonably possible:

ü  Minimizing the risk of injury, accidents, injury, death and exposure to health-associated risks in the work environment;

ü  Identify unsafe behaviors and hazards and delivering adequate improvements through an effective HSE management system;

ü  Providing suitable sanitary facilities for workers;

ü  Ensuring employees possess the knowledge, skills and resources necessary to maintain a safe healthy and working environment, permitting them to come up with safety concerns;

ü  Providing information on the effects of potentially hazardous substances and the control measures to be taken to protect workers’ safety and health in their use;

ü  Providing essential personal protective equipment (PPE)for free and making sure workers are trained on how to use them;

ü  Carrying out investigations of work-related incidents, keeping records of incidents, mentioning their cause and taking control measures to avoid similar accidents;

ü  Make sure to  Provide measures to address accidents and emergencies, including first-aid dispositions;

ü  Allowing employees to remove themselves from potentially unhealthy or unsafe work conditions, not subjecting them to adverse effects as a result and not obliging them to return to work as long as the condition(s) persists.

Ways to Improve Your Office's Work Environment

The total vibe of a workplace, from the break-room setup to office layout and to company culture and co-worker dynamics, has a significant impact on your team's happiness and performance.

"Positive workplaces tend to display a common set of characteristics that foster productivity, excellence, and camaraderie," -Linda Durré

The reverse is also true: If employees are mentally, physically or emotionally uncomfortable in the office, they're unlikely to be satisfied or successful with their jobs. Here are a few ways you can ameliorate your work environment as well as employee engagement.

Identify good and bad staff

Smart companies understand that a good work environment begins with employing the right people.

Jazmin Truesdale (serial entrepreneur and CEO of Mino Enterprises) reckoned “Ensure you are employing individuals who are team workers, professional, and can contribute to a positive workplace environment," "One rotten apple can spoil the bunch."

The same idea applies to those who are already in the office. When employees are working together a huge number of toxic workers, there is a 47 percent probability that they, too, will turn toxic, Dylan Minor, assistant professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, said to Business Daily in 2015. Minor termed the situation "ethical spillover," upholding the fact that toxicity is infact contagious.

"It's astonishing to observe one bad attitude affect everybody's daily effectiveness," -chief operating officer of A. Marshall Family Foods+Pucketts Grocery and Restaurant, Claire Marshall Crowell, "I can't recall how often I have been thanked after letting poisonous workers go. Even though it's a difficult thing to do, it eventually impacts the working environment, which can be felt not only by our employees, but by our customers also.”

Improve communication

Be aware of how you're relating with employees. Upper management and team members should think about the flow of communication and whether or not it’s affecting the office environment.

Dominique Jones (chief people officer at Halogen Software) said "Employees feel valued and are motivated when they're given positive support and shown how their job contributes to the business advancement.” You need to find time to provide workers with relevant feedback on how their job is contributing into the broader business objectives, on a regular basis, rather than just saying ‘good job’” she noted.

According to a survey from Manpower Group, Providing feedback makes a difference for workers, particularly millennia. Samantha Lambert (director of human resources at Blue Fountain Media) said Managers should be open to feedback as well. "When you engage your workers in decision making in an effort to create a better workplace environment, they feel important."