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.
The Importance of Industrial Workplace Safety
Workplace safety is crucial for the industrial and manufacturing industries. Not covering the safety basics can lead to decreases in employee productivity and potentially costly fines. However, when safety is a priority, businesses see a boost in employee performance and company growth.
To help promote a safer, less stressful work environment, here are a few safety tips for industrial workers.
10 Industrial Safety Tips to Improve Your Operations
Below are ten industrial workplace safety tips you may want to employ in your business.
1. Foster a Safety-focused Culture
Industrial workplace 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 need to know they can voice their opinions about current safety protocols and potential hazards.
2. Make Wearing Safety Equipment A No-Brainer
Ensuring employees have the right personal protective equipment (PPE) is paramount for safety at work. Not to mention, it helps you avoid OSHA fines for PPE violations. OSHA has strict requirements regarding protective gear, and it’s something 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, and Emergency Exits Clear
Not only do fire laws state that all emergency exits are clear, but it also helps to ensure the health and safety of your employees. If an emergency occurs, you want your employees to be able 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
Industrial workplace safety tips 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 more about forklift training in Houston.
5. Eliminate Chemical and Fire Hazards
Always store combustible chemicals and flammable materials in a safe storage area away from any potential sources of ignition. How you dispose of chemicals and other fire hazards is also crucial for workplace 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 Frequent Safety Inspections and Audits
Casually strolling through the workplace doesn’t mean you are going to catch all of the potential safety violations. It’s something you actively need to look for.
Scheduling routine safety inspections into your weekly calendar can help you spot anything that can be a potential hazard for employees. 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 workplace safety. Your staff should feel like they can freely report hazardous conditions without fear of reprisal.
8. Encourage Employees to Take 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 workplace 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.
Level up Your Workplace Safety Efforts 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 workplace 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 in protection — with the goal of creating 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 we can help make your facility safer for everyone.
Tags: industrial safety tips, workplace safety
