Every business owner has a responsibility to their employees to make sure that the working environment is as safe as it can be.
Making health & safety changes to your business to address the risks they’re likely to face is essential for a wide range of reasons, but what about when your workers are working outside? What can you do to protect them in an environment you don’t have as much control over?
Make sure they’re handling all goods and equipment safely
A lot of the work done in the outdoors is done using equipment and machinery that can potentially be dangerous, such as machinery used in construction, roadworks, landscaping, and the like. As such, it’s essential that business owners invest in training on the proper handling of all goods and equipment. For instance, if you employ a team of delivery drivers, then you should teach them safe handling and lifting techniques for any of the heavier deliveries that they might have to deal with.
Mind their skincare
It might not sound as dramatic as other weather-induced injuries, but workers that spend a lot of their time outdoors are at a much higher risk of skin damage. This is simply due to the fact that they spend longer exposed to sunlight and the UV damage that it can cause. As such, it’s important to educate them in the use of and provide them with the high factor sunscreen that can keep their skin protected. Making sure that they work in the shade when possible and wear hats for additional protection is key, too.
Preparing for adverse weather
One of the factors that can make the outdoors such an unpredictable place to work is the kind of weather that you’re likely to be dealing with. Even if the weather forecast isn’t particularly bad, you should make sure that you’re equipping your team with rainproof gear form places like Stormline, as well as boots that can help them maintain a sturdy footing if there are wet or icy surfaces they have to stand on. If the weather is bad enough that it provides a significant health risk simply being out in it, then you should prevent your workers from working in it.
Train them to deal with accidents when they happen
If your team is working off-site, then you may not be able to reach them with first-aid care when and where they need it. As such, it’s important to make sure that teams have at least one person who is versed in emergency first-aid should an accident or injury happen in the course of their work. First aid training from teams like Red Cross Training can ensure that even when you’re not able to prevent an injury, you are still able to mitigate the damage or injury caused by it as best as possible.
No matter where your workers are, your responsibility to offer them some health and safety protections does not change. Hopefully, the above points help you see how you can start to influence their wellbeing even in the great outdoors.
