New York business owners can do a number of things to help make their workplaces safer. This includes building a culture of safety throughout the company that ensures employees are committed to their own safety and that of their coworkers. However, doing so involves first taking a look at the present culture and where improvements can be made.
Identifying hazards is one step. This may include both physical risks and dangers around confidentiality, how employees treat one another in the workplace and how they represent the company. It is also important to make sure that workers are doing the jobs they are trained for. Overburdened workers who are working outside of their job descriptions may be more vulnerable to injury or to health issues due to stress.
Another area to look at is how closely employees adhere to safety procedures. If they are not following them, their employers should try to find out why. For example, workers may be skipping steps they do not remember or that they find too time-consuming. Creating a safety culture will result in employees who are more invested in making sure these steps are followed.
Even in a workplace with a strong safety culture, accidents may happen, and whenone occurs, an injured worker might want to speak to an attorney about the next steps to take. One of them might be filing a claim for workers’ compensation benefits. People shouldn’t feel intimidated about doing so, and they should know that employers are precluded by law from retaliating against employees who are exercising these types of rights.
