Guide to Insurance


eg: UK or Brides UK or Classical Art or Buy Music or Spirituality

Business & Money

Technology

Women

Health

Education

Family

Travel

Cars

Entertainment

My Health And Safety

View:

Health and Safety is a vital key in running a Cleaning Company successfully. The Cleaning Industry is a high-risk area for work related ill health and injury, and regulations are put in place for exactly that reason. As an employer you are responsible for ensuring the Health and Safety of everyone who may be affected by your work. The benefits of implementing Health and safety procedures and guidelines at work are not confined to simply meeting the requirements of the relevant Legislations. Having such procedures in place in each of your contracts will not only mean that you can be safe in the knowledge that you are protecting the health and safety of your employees and others who may be affected by your operations, but will also mean that your reputation as a professional and trustworthy company is protected.

For Cleaning Companies in the early stages of business this can be a daunting task. By reading the following advice you can start to think about ways in which you can manage your cleaning contracts and staff in an effective way.

When visiting a new site on quoting for a contract ask yourself ? Is the site a safe place to work? Do you have any concerns about access, ventilation, and storage? Premises that are cluttered with obstacles will not only affect the ease to which your staff can carry out their tasks, but can pose fire risks, trip hazards and other potential dangers to your staff. Remember ? they are your responsibility. You have a duty of care to them and cannot put them at risk.

Are your employees fully trained, competent and confident in carrying out their work in the safest possible way? All of your employees should be familiar with your company's Health and Safety Policy, emergency procedures, Method Statements, COSHH assessments and safe working practices such as storage of chemicals, materials and equipment, and the means of disposal for certain chemicals. Remember ? this is not just a matter of providing documentation, all staff must fully understand all aspects of Health and Safety in their work. This is a particular problem for employees who may have English as a second language, or anyone who, for whatever reason has difficultly understanding written English. If you know or suspect that this may be the case for any of your employees, then consider the provision of Health and Safety documentation in picture format for them, as well as lengthier and heavily supervised training sessions. Always make special considerations for those who may be vulnerable through inexperience, age, disability, and in their ability to understand written and/or spoken English. It is your responsibility to ensure that all your employees fully understand all aspects of Health and Safety. Further considerations on these issues will be continued in the second part of this article.

My Health And Safety

Data shows that small businesses that have health and safety procedures in place reduce their injury and illness costs by 20 percent and even up to 40 percent. Nearly 95 percent of business owners report that health and safety programs have a positive impact on the company's bottom-line according to a recent survey. Of this group, 61 percent say their return-on-investment is 3 dollars for every 1 dollar they invest in improving workplace safety. In addition, companies that have working health and safety programs in place have seen employee absenteeism drop in half.

A well planned health and safety program is obtainable even for small businesses. For example in this worst to first situation, a small manufacturing company was forced into putting a health and safety program in place or be shut down. They started by doing an audit, identified and controlled hazards, showed working procedures, and had to keep their injury rates below the national average for their sector. After they had implemented their health and safety program, they had many years with not one injury and saved more than $45,000 on insurance premiums. The company was even recognized with an award for their safety record. The owner, Rick, said "Our health and safety program has helped us protect our employees, maintain compliance, keep our vital employees working for us, and has saved us real money to put back into our company."

Health and safety is no longer just viewed as a good idea, but a crucial investment in the business' long term success. Mounting costs of unhealthy employees and the expense and disruption of staff turnover is turning many small business owners to health and safety. The payback in health and safety programs comes in the form of: improved productivity, fewer insurance and worker's comp claims, less absenteeism, decrease in accidents, reduced staff turnover, higher employee morale, and leads to a better business reputation and customer loyalty.

Unhealthy and absent employees are costly. Businesses incur direct costs such as worker's comp payments, disability costs, replacement employees, equipment damage, and even lost productivity.

By having a health and safety program in place, employers also protect themselves from liability in employee's injury in being exposed to unidentified hazards in the workplace. Employers can be charged in injuries caused to untrained employees. An unhealthy may also threaten the safety of others such as fellow employees, the business owner, and even the customer of the business.

In starting a program, there needs to be commitment. Employers must get a feeling of the seriousness of this new procedure. The planning should be a partnership between the business owner and employees. To be able to actively engage all aspects of the on-going process in the business, the program should consider all of the major health risks in all of the areas of the workplace to meet the needs of all employees.

Deciding on whether to have a health and safety program should be clear. Health and safety issues in the workplace cost the business owner directly and even in lost opportunity. A change to making the business safer will lead to a more positive bottom-line.

For any questions or even help in getting started, drop us an e-mail at abbsafetynet@gmail.com.

Related Articles
Author
Most Popular

•	Government Health And Safety, by Catherine Harvey
•	Health And Safety And Environmental, by Sam Knopler
•	Health And Safety Concerns, by S. Housley
•	Health And Safety Consultancy, by Vikram Kuamr
•	Health And Safety Consultants, by Vikram Kuamr

About Author

Both David Andrew Smith & Abb Safety Net are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

David Andrew Smith has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Franchise and Computers and The Internet. David Smith is the founder of a that operates throughout much of the UK. David Andrew Smith's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.

Abb Safety Net has sinced written about articles on various topics from Small Business, Anger Control and Small Business. Brent Bowlin is a health and safety researcher and has helped small businesses with health and safety issues.. Abb Safety Net's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.

21 Cfr Part 111
There never has been bloodshed. Even heterodox religions that have come out of India have been likewise affected for instance, Buddhism.