If you are a business owner or manager, then you have a duty of care to your employees. Part of that duty of care is that you provide safety equipment for employees to safely carry out their duties without the risk of harm. Where you work depends on which types of safety gear your staff will need. Depending upon which type of business you have, you will need more or less safety gear. This article seeks to cover some of the top workwear safety solutions out there in the hope that you can take this information back to your own business and use it to protect your employees.
Why Pay Attention to Workwear Safety?
Workplace safety combines safety equipment, full staff training, equipment handling regulations, and common sense. Try the following tips to keep workers safe while they are on your premises. Remember, if someone gets injured during the working day and you have not provided them with the correct safety equipment, they may be entitled to sue you for compensation. This is especially true if the addition of safety equipment would have prevented the injury.
As well as avoiding lawsuits, keeping your employees’ safe leads to a smaller staff turnover and lower absenteeism. There are plenty of productivity-based reasons for keeping employees safe, too.
Top Tips for Workplace Safety Gear
So, if you want to ensure employee safety in your workplace, follow these top tips and stay ahead of accidents.
Face and Head
The first area of protection to look at is the face, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose coverings you may use. Since Void-19 these have become a standard of safety to prevent the spread of viral infection. However, there are other workplaces where safety goggles, masks, and earmuffs become important. Try to remember that covering these areas can produce different results, too.
Face and Head Coverings with Dual Purpose:
- Construction workers may wish to cover their ears for noise reasons.
- Those maintaining weather equipment may require earmuffs to protect against cold.
- Dentists wear face masks to prevent splash back of loose fillings.
- Whereas a bus driver might use a face shield to prevent themselves from catching diseases.
- Mouth protection is essential for paramedics who may need to resuscitate people.
- Mouth protection is always useful to builders, who frequently inhale brick dust.
- Even clothing manufacturers require mouth protection to prevent them breathing in chemicals or dust.
Each type of safety gear can have dual purposes, so don’t discount it based on the type of work you do.
High Visibility Clothing
High visibility workplace safety gear is essential to prevent accidents. If you own or operate a construction site, more people are killed each year by vehicular incidents than in any other field – even taxi and bus driving. High visibility gear protects your employees by making them brighter and easier to see, even in the dark. There are 5,000+ incidents of injury via vehicles in the workplace each year in the UK alone, so stay aware.
Look for Reflective Strips
When choosing high visibility gear look for reflective strips added into the fabric. These stand out at night.
Rules About Roads
You should also have clear rules about which areas of the site are used as roads and which are not. Keeping your vehicles in check will help minimize casualties in this way.
Covering The Body
Employees also need several items which will cover their body and protect them from certain tasks. If dealing with medical emergencies, your employees might need hazmat suits. When dealing with food and cooking, your employees may well need chef whites, aprons, or thick trousers which can prevent burns. Employees may cover their bodies with hoodies, fleeces, or scrubs, depending on the task at hand.
Think Safety
When choosing coveralls, overalls, and other torso protection, you must match the safety gear to the task at hand. Imagine the uproar if the NHS had not given workers hazmat suits to investigate those first signs of the virus. Think safely and match the suit to the task.
Think Thickness
As a rule, the thicker the coverings the better the results. Cleaning staff can use disposable plastic aprons to cover their body, yes – but what if they are handling extremely toxic chemicals? Those plastic aprons might be lawful, but are they enough? Skin coverings on the front and rear torso should cover 36% of the body.
Keep Your Employees Safe
There is a wealth of safety equipment out there that can make your employees safer. From working with equipment with shields and safety blades to having the right type of clothing to match climate conditions, you have that duty of care to maintain. Don’t give up on your employees and they will work harder for you.