Are you interested in starting your own business? If so, then a key element that you must keep in mind and focus on will be health and safety. It’s absolutely critical that you do think about how to ensure that your employees remain safe while they are on your property. Here are a few of the key elements that you must keep in mind.
Flooring
An area of health and safety that is often overlooked would be flooring. This might sound weird considering how common it is to slip and trip up, but it’s true. It’s so obvious that it’s often completely ignored. There are a few things that you can do to ensure that your floor is safe. For instance, you should think about wires. Where possible, these need to be secured to the wall.
Alternatively, for some business models, you will need special types of flooring. For instance, hygienic flooring from Impact Floors and similar companies should be chosen for any business where you will be handling foods or similar sensitive items.
RSI
If you are curious about the most common injury in businesses right now, this is undoubtedly RSI. RSI stands for repetitive strain injury. It’s caused when individuals work for long hours, without breaks often typing with the wrong posture. This can lead to pain in the upper limbs and eventually, this can begin to impact productivity levels which is a massive problem.
The good news is that there are a few easy ways that you will be able to ensure that this isn’t an issue in your business. For instance, you should think about investing in the right furniture. Sit-stand desks are brilliant as it means that you won’t be sitting all day long and neither will your employees. Instead, you’ll be able to work in the way that is most comfortable for you and provides the best support for your body.
Mental Health
Finally, it’s crucial to understand that as a business owner you are not just responsible for your employee’s physical health. You are also responsible for their mental health as well. You need to guarantee that there aren’t issues here that are lurking underneath the surface and this can be the case. That’s why regardless of whether you outsource or hire an in-house team, you’re going to need HR working within your business. They’ll complete the temperature checks that you need with your employees and ensure that there aren’t issues that have to be resolved.
If you are worried about issues here, then it’s worth thinking about how much stress your employees are under. You need to make sure that they are as comfortable as possible working in your business. It’s important that they have ways they can relax and they feel like a key part of the team in your business.
We hope this helps you understand some of the key elements of health and safety that you must keep in mind as a new business owner. In doing so you can avoid legal issues as well as damage to your business reputation.
