Here is a guest post from the author of www.whatishealthandsafety.co.uk:
Embarking on a new business project can be an exciting time, but it also can be pretty scary. In the current economic climate, everyone is being extra careful to make sure the venture is a success – and ensuring you are adhering to the right health and safety procedures is part of this.
The base of your operations, whether it is an office building, factory floor, or even a converted room in your home, should be properly protected so that any clients, visitors and staff members don’t fall victim to an accident. So, you’ll need to look for any potential hotspots that might be around. Kitchen areas or places where there is machinery in operation might be the first of these, but there are plenty of other places where safety and emergency signs will be needed.
It’s worth appointing a staff member or other person, if one is available, to help you make sure you are correctly observing the health and safety commitments you must legally adhere to. This includes drawing up an overall policy document that you can hand to employees and visitors you may have to the premises. Conducting a risk assessment is one of the best ways to do this and will highlight areas where potential hazards need to be addressed and controlled to avoid any mishaps. You may also want to put up first aid signs should they be required at some point down the line.
Another thing to do later on is consult staff members on what they think about the health and safety policies you have put in place. This can be a great way to identify some of the areas of potential risk that may have passed you by, as they may be more familiar with the day-to-day environment than you as a manager are. By opening a dialogue about where fire safety signs, cable tidies and other things might be needed, you could be making a smart move in the long-term. You can then, of course, feed this back into your induction training for staff members and presentations to temp workers and new employees.
Of course, there are legal health and safety requirements all businesses must adhere to and this should be done at the earliest possible stage. Not only will it protect you legally, it will also be necessary when you come to putting business insurance in place. If you need help with this, you can consult the UK Health and Safety Executive website for further advice.
