OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT, March 2020
5 STRATEGIES FOR CREATING A SAFE WORK ENVIRONMENT
What is strategy? A strategy is the set of decisions about long-term goals and the measures, ways, and paths to reach those goals.
Strategic Objectives: A strategy should begin by identifying the expected outcomes for which the work strategy is set to deliver them. Strategic goals will act as a guide to the company’s activities
5 Strategy for creating a safe working environment
A safe working environment is always a top requirement for every company. But does your company really know the right way to make a safer work environment?
In order to have the safest working environment possible, you need to follow the safety control hierarchy. This hierarchy consists of 5 core strategies sorted by efficiency level. What are the specific strategies? We will introduce it in detail shortly.
Why should we follow strategies for creating a safe work environment?
Most people value their own health and life while working. The employee is the object directly related to the workplace environment. Strategies for creating a safe work environment are also closely related to workers. But the paradox is that the business owner himself forgets that
Unsurprisingly, workplace injury incidents each year cost many companies billions of dollars. In addition to spending huge amounts of money to pay for costs arising from employee injuries, businesses also face the issue of prestige in the marketplace.
As a result, adhering to strategies for creating a safe work environment is seen as a prerequisite for any company. That will help businesses reduce financial risks and the decline in brand value.
Strategies for creating a safe work environment
The following are a concretization of strategies for creating a safe work environment, sorted by priority of importance:
- Eliminate the dangerous element
When you identify a hazard at work, ask yourself first: Is it possible to eliminate the hazard entirely?
For example, if workers have to wear specialized gloves to handle hazardous chemicals, why not try replacing them with a less toxic chemical?
If workers have to use knives and cut boxes manually, why not install a machine with a box collection line inside to cut? In this way, workers only need to put the box on the line, which helps to minimize the chance of the knife “cutting” into the hand.
Or if workers have to bend metal members, why not use a bending machine that can both perform better, faster, and help reduce hand muscle tension in workers?
2. Replace the hazard element
If the hazard cannot be completely eliminated, replace it with a safer alternative.
For example, if workers have to wear specialized gloves to handle hazardous chemicals, why not try replacing them with a less toxic chemical?
If workers have to use knives and cut boxes manually, why not install a machine with a box collection line inside to cut? In this way, workers only need to put the box on the line, which helps to minimize the chance of the knife “cutting” into the hand.
Or if workers have to bend metal parts, why not use a bending machine that can both perform better, faster and help reduce hand muscle tension in workers?
- Administrative control
Administrative control is an overarching strategy for corporate inspection and reorganization. That could be testing and redesigning the structure and operation of a machine. It can also be rearranging the work schedule, working time, time off, and alternating working positions of the employees in the company so that they can develop their own capabilities.
Besides, administrative control is also related to many different stages. There are a few prominent jobs such as control of training programs, weekly worker training, a list of safety equipment control, etc. In general, the scale of administrative control is very wide.
It is a mistake to think that administrative control is just a backup strategy. It is subjective that businesses only exercise administrative control after an incident occurs. Because the core of safety is “Prevention is better than cure”, so you should strictly and regularly take administrative control from now on to prevent unfortunate events from happening in the future.
5. Labor protective equipment (PPE)
The ultimate workplace safety strategy is to equip full protective equipment. Why is this a strategy at the lowest level in the top 5 strategies to ensure a safe working environment? Why are things like gloves, helmets, or seat belts at the bottom of the list? Don’t people always wear PPE when doing such dangerous work?
This is because protective equipment is ultimately only the last resort against cuts, burns, chemical exposure, shock, vibration, or exposure to pathogens. In other words, the PPE was seen as the ultimate shield when all other strategies (…)
Unfortunately, most businesses only use this fifth strategy and make sure that everything is in the perfect safe zone. Instead, business leaders need to know many higher-level security strategies, grasp the nature of the strategy and the method of implementing the strategy, and try to apply them.
However, this statement does not imply that wearing PPE is unnecessary. Do not misunderstand that just by implementing the above 4 strategies, the 5th strategy can be ignored. In fact, with many unpredictable dangerous situations in the workplace, businesses will still have to equip PPE for workers. When an unexpected event occurs, the PPE will initiative its inherent effects to protect body parts, even the life of workers.
How to apply 5 strategies to create a safe working environment in the right way?
The above strategies for creating a safe working environment are hierarchical in order of priority in terms of importance. Because of this decentralization, many people have misunderstood that should only focus on strategy No. 1 and can ignore other level strategies.
However, in real business operations, you will need to combine many different strategies in the hierarchy at the same time. Remember that taking responsibility for everyone’s safety is paramount, and you can’t take any strategy lightly.
Therefore, you need to do your best to implement a high-level safety strategy, but not just focus on a certain strategy. Only with the only way is to cleverly and intelligently combine all 5 strategies: Remove potential risks, Replace dangerous factors, Technical controls, Administrative controls, and PPE, you will create the safest working environment possible.
Combining all 5 strategies at the same time, you can create the safest working environment possible.
If you can think, you will definitely do it, you just need to do one thing and that is action.
The Company’s Safety Board wishes you all a March full of energy, more creative, healthier and having fun with all the sports days of FC PTCONS football tournament!
Implementation: Safety Committee of Phuoc Thanh Company
