If you are a business owner in the US who employs people, then you do have a legal duty to ensure that the premises or place of work is somewhere that is safe for all of your employees to be. There are certain steps that you need to take to make sure that any accidents or injuries are prevented. Of course, there are some standard health and safety legislation and rules that need to be observed. These can be more specific depending on what industry your work is in, though. 

If you don’t take care to make sure that you are adhering to all of the legal requirements, then it can be difficult to avoid being sued if one of your employees does get injured. In the most extreme circumstances, you might need the right wrongful death attorney for your case, if something like that were to occur. So with all of that in mind, here are some precautions that you need to take, to make sure that you are making the working environment a safe place to be.

Risk assessments

There are a number of things that need to be looked at in the workplace that can help to reduce the risk of injury. Written evidence of risk assessments can make a big difference and demonstrate what you are doing to create a safe environment. But to start with, you need to know what the risks are. This can be done by looking into risk assessments. This is where you walk around the premises and think about a variety of aspects, from the doors to furniture, to see what kind of hazards there are and what could potentially happen. When this has been identified you can take steps to reduce those hazards. Risk assessments often are the basis of a health and safety policy, so they are an important step that shouldn’t be forgotten. 

Machinery and equipment

One thing to do is to always make sure that all of your machinery and equipment is in good working order. The needs will vary depending on what kind of machinery that you have, but don’t just think that it is all about big and bulky machinery. Any equipment from printers to photocopiers can have an element of risk, so routinely checking them is vital. Of course, for larger and more specialist equipment, only employees trained to work them should be using them. If someone uses the machinery without being trained, then it can have some fatal consequences. If your machinery isn’t maintained, then it could even invalidate your insurance, so you need to make sure that you are doing all that you can.

Other measures

It is important to remember that these things listed above are not the only measures to consider. By making sure that walkways are free of clutter, and things like spillages are cleaned up as quickly as possible, and making sure that you have areas that are well lit, cleaned and maintained. Depending on the size of your business and the size of your premises, this may be something that you need to look at yourself, or that you need to get help with by having someone come in to clean each day, for example. A large company may look into a facilities management company.

Once this has been done, looking at the laws for your specific industry is important, to make sure that you are adhering to the specific health and safety laws of your industry. There will be some jobs and work environments that are more specific than others, and there could be some extra rules and regulations that are specific for your industry. Make sure that you know what they are, and that you are doing all that you can to adhere to the rules and the regulations.

The importance of employee safety

If you don’t adhere to any kind of measure in your workplace to look after employees, then it can lead to some hefty fines, as well as closure of the business, penalties, and other damaging risks to business. You also don’t want to have an employee get killed or injured when there was something that could be done to prevent it. If there are things that can be prevented, then they shouldn’t be a risk, as there should be plans in place helping to reduce those risks. That all just goes to show just how important it is to make sure that you have a workplace that is safe for all of your workers to be.