There’s more to increasing workplace efficiency than simply human resource management. Workplace health and safety training in NZ is a necessary (but often overlooked) component of getting the best out of your employees.
A proper focus on health and safety ensures that your workers will know how to perform their jobs with minimal risk of harm while recognising unsafe work conditions. It can also prevent a slew of legal problems for the company as a whole.
These simple tips can help you stay current with the latest health and safety legislation.
Tip #1. Workplace Health and Safety Courses
Any plan to address workplace hazards should start with a well-rounded employee education and training program. The Health and Safety At Work Act establishes a requirement for employers to give their employees adequate protection and safety measures for their jobs.
On top of safety equipment, this should include a thorough safety education program that teaches workers how to recognise dangers before they become a threat to safety. This includes reporting potential hazards, like spills, to the right department in a timely way.
Tip #2. Promote Regular Shift Breaks
Fatigue is the root cause of many workplace accidents. No matter how tidy the workplace may be or how extensive your training program becomes, exhaustion can still take its toll on individuals and lead to injuries.
Your health and safety manual should outline the importance of taking regular short breaks to stretch, walk around, and recuperate in general. This may seem counterintuitive to a productive workplace at first. Still, these brief pauses throughout the day go a long way to refreshing employees and keeping their senses heightened in actuality.
Tip #3. Promote Good Workplace Health and Safety Habits
Every job requires repetitive motion or long-term posturing that can cause harm to the body if not managed correctly. While taking frequent breaks can help reduce this stress, knowing the proper ways to execute physical tasks is paramount to good employee health.
Be sure to consult with a health and safety advisor to learn how to combat muscle fatigue and stress. Sometimes it’s as simple as performing a specific motion differently. For some problems, your employees may need to learn unique stretches.
Finally, make sure your employees know they can come to management with any safety concerns they have. Maintaining a hazard-free work environment should be a collaborative effort.
Tip #4. Prepare for Emergencies
Do your employees know the correct emergency response procedures? Even if they do, are you doing everything you can to ensure those plans will be easy to follow when disaster strikes?
No one is immune to panic when things take an unexpected turn. Use posters in critical locations like break rooms to remind your employees where the emergency exits are and the safest path to reach them. Use signs to identify safety equipment like fire extinguishers so that they’re easily spotted.
Tip #5. Reward Your Employees for Practicing Good Safety
A little incentive goes a long way. One of the most important things that can be done to reinforce preferred safety practices is rewarding your employees for following the measures you’ve put in place.
This has the effect of making safety protocol seem more active than passive. Employees who are continually working to uphold safety will be more safety-conscious than those who don’t.
Stay Current with Workplace Health and Safety in NZ
NZ safety requirements are the best place to start improving your company’s health and safety courses/training. HasTrak is here to help you navigate these laws and implement them into your workplace.
Our consultants are experts at developing health and safety policies that meet and exceed NZ safety standards. Contact our management and consultancy team today to learn more about how we can reshape your company’s future for the better.
