Health and Safety Policies

Health and safety is a very important aspect that your business needs to be aware of – getting it right is a necessity because if you get it wrong your business will be subject to all sorts of problems including the possibility of a lawsuit.

Your employees need to be safe and so do you so take the necessary time to keep on top of your businesses health and safety needs by following these simple tips for a bit of peace of mind.

Insurance

Save yourself a lot of trouble later on down the line and get your business some insurance.  Get insurance that covers both your employees and the work that is undertaken.

Get insurance advice and get covered as soon as possible – it should be one of the first things you do for your new business.  At the same time don’t forget to register your business with the relevant authorities.

It’s all on you…

It is your responsibility as the employer to comply with all the Health and Safety regulations – remember that by not complying with the Health and Safety regulations of the land you will be breaking the law so make sure you know what is going on in your business.

Be aware of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and do some research and find out exactly what that act involves.

Risk Assessments

Your business should have a clear Health and Safety policy in place – if you employee five people or more then you are bound by law to formally record both the policy and risk assessment that everyone can be aware of.

Taking time to produce a good Health and Safety policy and Risk Assessment will attract customers and other businesses – safety can be a great feature for a business.

Training and Awareness

It is obviously great to have the necessary Health and Safety and Risk Assessment policies in place but you need to then re-enforce them by providing your employees with the necessary training.

Your employees need to understand exactly what is involved with the policies in place and your customers and clients need to also be aware of the policies.

Along with the training, make sure there are constant reminders around the workplace that promote health and safety so everyone in the area is aware of the policies and knows what to do to remain safe.

After-care

You need to stay on top of the Health and Safety policy that you have in place.  Keep hold of all documentation involved in the Health and Safety process as they will become extremely useful in the event of an inspection.

In such a case you will need to have your policies, risk assessments and training records and as well as other related documents so don’t be hasty and throw them away.

The last thing to remember is to have a reporting procedure in place so that hazards can be reported and then hopefully removed.

What about you?

Do you have any advice or information about Health and Safety?  Did you find our advice helpful?  Leave a comment and let us know…

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