Safe work practices are critical to ensuring that industrial workers are safe and accidents are avoided. This article discusses ten important industrial safety tips you can implement today.
Industrial Safety in the Workplace
Workplace safety is an essential part of the industrial and manufacturing industries. Not covering the safety basics can decrease employee productivity and potentially costly fines. However, when safety awareness is a priority, businesses see a boost in employee performance and company growth.
Here are a few industrial safety tips for your employees to help promote a safer, less stressful work environment.
10 Industrial Safety Tips
Below are ten industrial safety tips you may want to employ in your business.
1. Foster a Safety-focused Culture
Industrial safety tips start with the company’s culture. It means ensuring safety guidelines do not interfere with employees’ ability to perform their jobs.
A safety-focused culture starts with managers following the same industrial safety tips as employees. An employee safety committee or leadership team can also serve as a guide to workers. Employees must know they can voice their opinions about safety protocols and potential hazards.
2. Wear Safety Equipment Always
Ensuring employees have the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) is paramount for workplace safety. Not to mention, it helps you avoid OSHA fines for PPE violations. OSHA has strict requirements regarding protective gear, which industrial businesses need to enforce.
This often includes wearing steel-toed boots, hard hats, safety glasses, and more. Employees also need to understand why they must wear safety gear.
3. Keep Work Areas, Aisles, & Emergency Exits Clear
Not only do fire laws state that all emergency exits are clear, but they also help to ensure compliance and the well being of your employees. If an emergency occurs, you want your employees to be able to quickly and safely exit the facility without tripping over boxes and other debris.
Keeping aisles and work areas clear of blockage can help prevent accidents like trips and falls.
4. Allow Only Authorized Personnel to Operate Machinery
Another helpful industrial safety tip is to include only allowing authorized personnel to operate machinery. Making sure that only certified or licensed employees use equipment like forklifts can help prevent workplace accidents.
Learn how to ensure compliance with forklift training in Houston.
5. Eliminate Chemical & Fire Hazards
Always store combustible chemicals and flammable materials in a safe storage area away from any potential ignition sources. How you dispose of chemicals and other fire hazards is also crucial for industrial safety. Always use metal trash receptacles and follow local and state laws regarding disposal, including OSHA chemical storage requirements.
A good industrial safety tip to follow is only to have the chemicals necessary to complete a project on the floor at a time.
6. Conduct Safety Inspections & Audits
Casually strolling through the workplace doesn’t mean you will catch all potential safety violations. It’s something you actively need to look for.
Scheduling routine safety audits into your weekly calendar can help you spot anything that can be a potential employee hazard. Plus, it will prepare you for what happens during an OSHA inspection.
7. Always Report Unsafe Conditions
Encouraging employees to report unsafe working conditions to their managers is one of the best ways to ensure compliance with industrial safety standards. Your staff should feel free to report hazardous conditions without fear of reprisal.
8. Encourage Breaks from Time to Time
Industrial safety tips include encouraging employees to take regular breaks. It helps them stay alert and focused on the job. Regularly scheduled breaks are also a legal requirement. Employers can face expensive fines if they deny rest breaks to their staff.
Along with the standard lunch break, encourage your employees to take ten or fifteen minutes for themselves every few hours.
9. Create an Emergency Action Plan
How does an emergency action plan benefit your workplace? Having an emergency action plan in place is a vital industrial safety tip. It includes having an emergency exit plan. All of your employees should be aware of the emergency action plan and know where the facility’s exits are located.
It’s a good idea to include this information when hiring new employees.
10. Offer Ongoing Safety Training
One of the best industrial safety tips we have is offering training to long-term and new employees. If your staff isn’t aware of your safety guidelines, they run the chance of incurring workplace injuries.
Learn more about safety training in Houston, TX.
Industrial Safety Training with Safety by Design
It has been proven that incorporating safety into the design phase of a project can cut costs, improve quality and reduce liability. At Safety by Design, our approach to industrial safety is based on the principle of prevention. As one of the leading safety consulting companies in Texas, we emphasize the importance of designing out hazards and designing protection — to create an inherently safe environment.
Do you want to learn more about safety in the workplace, or are you looking for safety tips for industrial workers? Contact us today to see how our safety management services can help make your facility safer for everyone.
Tags: industrial safety tips, workplace safety
