Now is the time to review your workplace safety
The start of a new financial year is the perfect time to review your business processes and ensure you have the right tools in place. It’s also the perfect time to review your workplace safety processes to avoid workplace injuries or fatalities.
MEA Field Safety Advisors regularly conduct workplace audits and often see potential incidents and accidents waiting to happen. While some safety breaches are highly obvious, others can be regularly overlooked tasks including expired licences. Should an incident occur, this can lead to major problems with the Regulator and insurance claims.
Regardless of your business size, it’s imperative to maintain a licence and competency register. Having processes in place to ensure licences are renewed in required timeframes and any licence renewal pre-requisites including time to complete them, can help you avoid major headaches. Can you afford lost income while waiting on licence renewals or problems with the Regulator for operating without necessary licences?
When reviewing your workplace safety, it’s important to conduct monthly field inspections by checking the work standards and practices of staff out in the field? This can include:
- Vehicles and equipment – are they in a state they should be in? Equipment failures can lead to serious incidents.
- Risk assessments – are your staff conducting them correctly?
- Work practices – are your staff doing what you think they should be doing?
It’s also important to consider different safety aspects that can lead to a safer workplace and avoid accidents including:
- Educating your staff about what you expect them to do in the instance of a workplace incident or an emergency evacuation on a job site.
- Conducting sample reviews of completed risk assessments.
- Reviewing your SWMS and field manuals.
- Conducting safety equipment inspections.
MEA Safety Activities Calendar
To help you maintain a high level of safety within your business, MEA publishes an annual 12-month safety activities calendar in each December edition of Circuit Magazine. It lists core activities to help you maintain essential safety requirements within your business and is relevant to businesses of all sizes.
If you missed the December edition, download a copy of the safety activities calendar today and start implementing monthly safety checks in your business.
All Master Electricians have unlimited access to the Safety hotline. Phone 1300 889 198 to learn more.