No business can function without its employees. Even the smallest business is likely to grind to a halt without people in it who are able to push it forward. As the business owner, you may sometimes feel like the most important person in your business, but without your employees, all of your ideas and intentions are going to come to nothing. It’s a tragedy then that so many employers seem to neglect how important it is to take care of their employees. Your employees’ well-being should be right at the top of your list of priorities. If you’re not looking after your employees, then you may as well be actively putting them at risk. With that in mind, here are some things that you need to focus on if you want to keep your employees protected.
Health & safety procedures
Health & safety is one of the most necessary, and yet most often ignored parts of any modern business. While the vast majority of things that comprise the health & safety procedures of many modern businesses are going to be common sense, without actually implementing the procedures themselves, you’re putting both your employees and your business in danger. You need accountability when it comes to the risks in your business. If something happens to one of your employees and you didn’t have health & safety procedures in place, then you and your business are going to liable.
Workplace training
It’s not enough just to have procedures in place, however. All of the procedures and instructions in the world are going to be useless if you can’t encourage your employees to actually follow them. The best way to do this is through training. Have frequent refresher sessions that can remind your employees of the most important aspects of health & safety as well as their responsibility within it. It’s also worth taking the time to have more specific training, perhaps conducted by an outside organization. Things like manual handling training and training in how to handle specific machinery are the kinds of things that overall health & safety training simply can’t cover. By being specific when it comes to the kinds of things that can potentially present a serious risk to your employees, you’re providing them with a much stronger layer of understanding and protection from any potential risks.
Flexibility
One of the most common mistakes that a lot of business owners tend to make is the fact that they treat their employees as just another resource in the same way that they would treat a piece of machinery or software. It doesn’t take much thought to realize why this is a mistake. It’s incredibly important that you remember that your employees are only human and this means that there are always going to be limits on how much they can actually do. If you’re pushing your employees too hard, mistakes are going to be made, and they’re going to end up at risk. Make sure that you’re flexible with them and that you’re willing to give them a break when they really need it. Don’t overwork your employees and give them room to breathe rather than constantly putting pressure on them. Pushing your employees too hard will just result in things going wrong for everyone involved.
