Top 5 health and safety tips

The countdown is on to the annual HSE Day on April 28 (or to give it it’s official title - the World Day for Health and Safety at Work).

Over the coming weeks you’ll hear a lot about health and safety in the workplace and what more can be done to ensure every one of us gets home safely every day.

We’re no different at Adey Steel. As steel fabrication specialists, we work in a number of safety critical sectors, so as you would expect safety, and health and safety in general is a bit of an obsession of ours.

Which is why in recognition of World Day for Health and Safety at Work we’ve put together our Top 5 Health and Safety Tips for improving health and safety in the workplace.

So, grab a coffee, relax, and get ready to learn ways to keep you and your employees safer while at work.

Take 5

Take 5 is a really effective method for dealing with tasks, particularly those that may be a little out of your routine or comfort zone. It can be 5 seconds, 5 minutes or more but the concept of Take 5 is the same, which is basically taking a moment to consider safety before carrying out your task. To do this successfully, the following can be applied:

• Stop and think
• Identify risk
• Assess the risk
• Control the hazards
• Monitor

Spending a few moments upfront can help prevent costly mistakes and injuries down the line.

Always refer back to your risk assessment!

If you haven’t already, and you should by law, carry out a risk assessment to identify the potential risks of someone being harmed in your workplace. Ensure your risk assessment is reviewed with those that do the task and keep your risk assessment realistic.

By that we mean identify the risks, and the odds of it happening, and what the consequences would be if it was to happen. Then consider controls that are reasonably practicable to implement. It’s important to consult with those doing the task to ensure your risk assessments are relevant and controls are achievable and record anything that might need doing additionally so youimprove in the future.

When something goes wrong, its usually a sign that the risk assessment hasn’t been followed (or doesn’t work in the first place!) Therefore, its essential to review regularly and always assess this when you have any sort of accident or near miss.

Consult regularly with your staff

Talk with your team on a regular basis. And don’t just think of it as a box ticking exercise. Your team are the ones at the coal face, and if anyone knows how things are done as well as the potential risks involved, its them. Finding out more about what everyone thinks could help identify health and safety solutions as well as potential news way of working. Plus, it’s a great way of getting everyone’s bye-in.

Keep your workplace clean and tidy

Slips, trips and falls remain the number one cause of non-fatal injuries in the workplace. Which is why good housekeeping should never be overlooked. Think Tidy Friday – just on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc. That will help keep your workplace clean and tidy and reduce the number of potential hazards that can lead to slips, trips and falls. And, if you do find something which you consider to be a hazard or unsafe, make sure to report it to your supervisor immediately.  

Reward and recognition

Reward and recognition play a really important role in promoting good safety practice and developing a good safety culture. Its super easy to always be negative and critical when it comes to safety which can lower morale especially when people are working hard to improve. Therefore, rewarding positive observations, initiatives and improvements is a great way to motivate and encourage the team to take ownership for their own safety at work. Better ownership and involvement mean a better safety culture and reduced accidents which is the ultimate aim. It’s simple to implement and can have a big impact on everyone!

About Adey Steel

Adey Steel is one of the UK's leading independent steel fabrication specialists, working with partners in the rail, highways, energy, engineering, material handling and construction sectors to deliver their infrastructure projects.

If you would like to discuss a future project, feel free to get in touch with the team at Adey Steel on either 01509 556677 or email [email protected].