The winter months can be a challenging time in terms of keeping workers safe. Temperatures are continuing to get colder and colder, which can create potential hazards for the workplace. Low temperatures, icy surfaces, and other winter-related conditions can put your employees at risk no matter what field they are in. This is why it is incredibly vital for you to instill safety precautions in your workforce.
In this blog post, we will discuss different ways that you can ensure your employees are safe this winter.
Make Sure Employees Are Wearing the Proper Clothing
If your employees are working outdoors, they must understand they must wear layers of clothes to stay warm. It is also important that they wear the proper footwear, like non-slip boots to prevent falls from slippery conditions. If you require your employees to wear a uniform, you should issue one proper for weather conditions. While you do not have to supply your employees with things like winter jackets and gloves, you should try to educate them on proper winter workwear.
Clear Entrances and Pathways
When it starts getting snowy and wet near building entrances you need to make sure that there aren't any major hazards. For example, having a strip of ice on a pathway could cause your employee to slip and fall and become injured. You could prevent this by making sure entrances and pathways have a deicer on them like salt and shoveling away any snow limiting access. Doing both of these things could help limit potential hazards and keep your employees a bit safer all around.
Keep an Eye on the Weather Conditions
Make sure you are keeping an eye on the weather conditions so you can make an informed decision about work schedules. While it can be annoying to have to cancel a work day and lose productivity, it just has to be done sometimes. Having your employees drive to work in rough conditions like a snowstorm could be incredibly dangerous and risk them being in a car wreck. If you ever have to cancel work due to a weather emergency, you can create a remote work plan that allows your employees to still get daily tasks done.
Safety Training
Hosting a safety session for your employees could increase your employee's winter safety knowledge. Doing this will help your employees learn about the potential hazards the winter months cause and educate them on how to be prepared for them. While this is important for all employees to know, outdoor employees must be educated on winter safety. Teaching outdoor employees about the dangers of not having the proper workwear and signs of cold stress could help limit risk and allow everyone to stay safe and warm.
Try to Keep your Work Environment Warm
For indoor employees, working in a cold office can cause a lot of discomfort and decrease overall productivity. You should always make sure that you are adjusting your building heating systems to keep your employees comfortable. You could also allow your employees a small personal space heater to keep at their desks to warm up. No one wants to work in a freezing office either so it's important to be fair to your workers and help them feel a bit more comfortable during these chilly months.
Promote Health and Wellness
The winter months can be a challenging time for people's physical and mental well-being. You could set up initiatives that promote healthy habits to ensure your employees are feeling good. Winter is also a time when many people's mental health is affected due to it getting darker sooner. So, it's important to check up on your worker's mental health and make sure they are doing okay mentally.
Efforts to keep your employees safe this winter can go a long way. It shows your employees that you care about their safety and shows them that you value them and want them to stay safe. Following winter safety protocols also helps your business limit risk and employee injuries. Having a safer work environment also increases your employee's productivity and allows your business to run more smoothly. So, consider these points when deciding how to keep your employees safe this winter.
Danny Rhoden
KT Black is not just where I work it is also what I do.
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