There’s no denying that industry standards are constantly changing and evolving. In fact, there has never been a more important time for UK businesses to take stock of their workplace health and safety practices. New regulations are coming into effect with the aim of reducing the number of accidents in workplaces across the country. Thankfully, companies can take practical steps to ensure they meet industry standards effectively and efficiently: by engaging in an audit process.

An audit lets you know how your company measures up against other businesses in your field, so you can see where improvements can be made. It will also reveal any areas of risk that you might not have been aware of before — after all, you can’t fix something if you don’t know it’s broken! In this article, we’ll look at some things to consider when getting started with your business’s audit process, as well as some best practices on how to go about improving your organization’s health and safety standards.

Build A Culture Of Safety

Safety is paramount in any business, but it’s important to remember this at the outset. Luckily, many organizations already have a culture of safety in place — but if yours doesn’t, now is the time to start building one.

The first step is to define what a culture of safety means to your organization. What values do you want to be reflected in your workplace? What is the tone you want to set? What behaviors do you want your employees to exhibit? Once you’ve defined these things, you can start to implement ways of living these values on a day-to-day basis. For example, you could hold regular safety meetings to discuss best practices, as well as to highlight any risks that may need to be addressed. You could also create a safety committee to represent employees and to brainstorm new ways to promote safety within the organization.

Assess The Risks

Before you can create new policies and procedures or hire new employees, you need to be aware of the risks your organization currently faces. What are the most common hazards and mistakes in your workplace? What are your biggest risks? What could go wrong if nothing changes? You should also compare your organization’s current risk assessment to previous risk assessments to see if there have been any changes over time. This can be done through a risk assessment audit, which will let you know what areas of your business could be improved. You can also use a risk assessment checklist to make sure you’re covering all of your organization’s bases. A risk assessment report will also make it easy to share your findings with other stakeholders in your company — so you can start implementing solutions right away!

Create a Standard Operating Procedure

Once you know what needs improving, it’s time to start creating new policies and procedures to address your organization’s risks. This is where SMART objectives come in handy. SMART objectives are easy-to-follow guidelines that can help you create effective policies and procedures that meet industry standards. Focus on three main areas when creating new policies: scope, objectives, and critical success factors. Scope refers to whom the policy applies to. Objectives refer to what the policy intends to achieve. Critical success factors refer to the minimum requirements for the policy’s implementation. It’s important to note that these three areas can be interchanged depending on the type of policy you’re creating. For example, if you’re creating a policy to address a specific risk, you would use scope, objectives, and critical success factors. If you’re creating a procedure, you would use scope, objectives, and critical features.

Hire More Qualified Workers

In many cases, the risks you discover in your risk assessment audit will be related to the type of workers in your organization. For example, if your risk assessment identifies that employee training is lacking, this could be a risk factor depending on the industry you work in. If your industry requires a certain level of training, but your employees aren’t receiving it, your risk will be increased — and your organization could be fined for non-compliance. In this case, hiring more qualified workers would be the best way to start fixing the problem. You can perform a skills gap analysis to discover what skills your current employees don’t have and what skills you need to hire for. You can also conduct an occupational analysis to identify the risks specific to each job role in your company. This will let you know which roles are most in need of better training.

Improve Your Physical Space

Health and safety standards are also used to determine the quality of your physical space. Is your workplace meeting building codes? Are you meeting the correct standards in terms of height, width, and other structural elements? Are your electrical systems compliant? Are you following local fire codes? Are you meeting ADA requirements? All of these things and more are taken into consideration in industry standards, so it’s important to make sure that your physical space is up to code. You can do this by performing a physical space audit. A physical space audit can identify any issues with your physical space, as well as offer solutions to fix them. It can help you to identify health and safety issues with your physical space, such as ADA non-compliance or building code violations. It can also help you to discover ways to improve your physical space, such as adding more natural light or making a path for emergency exits.

Add More Automation

Health and safety standards also include the equipment you use in your workplace — so make sure your equipment is up to code. Is your equipment compliant? Is it stable, reliable, and safe? Does it meet industry standards? If your equipment isn’t up to code, you can’t use it — and you may even be fined for using it! Luckily, there are ways to check up on your equipment. You can perform a compliance audit to see if your equipment is up to code. You can also conduct a risk assessment on your equipment to discover any risks associated with it.

Conclusion

Finally, it’s important to remember that health and safety standards are constantly evolving. Organizations need to stay on top of industry changes and new regulations to ensure that their business stays compliant and operating efficiently. By conducting health and safety audits, businesses can identify where improvements need to be made and take steps to implement positive change. If your organization’s health and safety standards are subpar, now is the time to start working towards improvement.

Forklifts make the world go ‘round. Don’t believe us? Well, it’s true! Forklifts move pallets across warehouses, onto shipping containers, and in/around your local supermarkets. Without them moving mass quantities of goods would be very nearly impossible. So, it’s easy to see why forklifts are so important to the ‘behind the scenes’ of daily commerce.

One thing to note, however, is that forklifts require specialised training to be able to operate safely. While the UK doesn’t strictly require a license to operate one, it’s still good to offer intensive training for all employees who may need to operate. Here’s why:

– Forklifts Are Dangerous

The single most important reason for having forklift driver training is the fact that forklifts are dangerous. These massive pieces of machinery can easily injure or kill someone if not used carefully. They can be very unruly, and should be treated with the utmost respect.

Where health and safety are concerned, you need to ensure that your employees are fully trained and certified on a forklift. The training will guarantee that they know what they are doing, and have the skills to handle the machine in a safe and effective manner.

– Forklifts Are Difficult

Driving a forklift isn’t as intuitive as it may seem on the surface. This is because they can come with a wide range of form factors, sizes, and steering mechanisms. Many forklifts require you to drive them ‘backwards’ in which steering becomes the opposite of what you might expect from a car–imagine driving a car backwards with a tonne of valuable goods on as your load.

Forklifts can’t be operated safely by someone who simply hops on and hopes for the best. They take time to master, and the individual mechanisms of the machine require a lot of practice to become comfortable with. That’s just one more reason why forklift training is important.

– It’s Your Responsibility

As an employer in the UK, you are required to provide sufficient training for your employees to meet health and safety standards. This includes ensuring that your employees are fully trained on any equipment they might come into contact with.

While it may not be necessarily a legal requirement to have a forklift operator’s license, it is your responsibility to ensure your employees are safe. The onus there lies on you to train and provide refresher training for your employees who operate forklifts. This will keep them, your property, and your other employees safe at all times.

– Final Thoughts

Our team here at Wise Monkey Health and Safety offers health and safety solutions to the people and businesses of West Yorkshire. We can offer you and your employees beginner, advanced, and refresher forklift driver training courses all year ‘round. Contact us today to learn how to ensure your forklift drivers are the best they can be!

While maintaining a safe business environment might seem easy, it’s often a bit more complex than what meets the eye. That’s where professional Health and Safety Consultancy Experts come in.

What benefits are there to taking on a Health and Safety Expert Consultant?

– Expert Knowledge of Legal and Ethical Requirements

At Wise Monkey Health and Safety, we are intimately familiar with the legal requirements and ethical standards placed on business owners in West Yorkshire – as well as across the United Kingdom. We know what it takes to ensure that your business is operating well within the letter of the law, while also providing an above – standard experience for your employees.

Our expertise can be available at your fingertips, at all times, when you partner with us. We can ensure that you never operate in a grey area when it comes to the health and safety of your employees.

– Get Ahead of the Curve

Far too often, accidents on the worksite are found to have been completely preventable. Whether they happened due to faulty equipment or overlooked operational errors, it is often a simple process to eliminate workplace hazards.

Our team of health and safety consultants can identify and warn you of workplace hazards before they become a problem. We can inspect your facilities as well as monitor your workplace practices to determine if there are any potential issues. This ensures that accidents are prevented before they have a chance to happen.

– Provide a Better Environment for Employees

An employee that feels safe and well cared for is going to be happier at work every day. In turn, that happiness will turn into increased productivity and less turnover. We can help you create a workplace that is better for everyone through increased health and safety standards.

Improving the occupational health situation in your workplace is a fast and effective way to boost employee relations and morale. It’s also a great way to ensure your employees stay happy and healthy enough to live their lives to the fullest. You can create a better working environment for everyone with health and safety consultancy aid.

– Give Unbiased Feedback

Oftentimes business owners are blinded to the shortcomings of their operation. They can feel like everything is working fine, when in fact it isn’t at all. Glaring hazards and issues can be rampant across the workplace and some business owners are too invested to notice.

At Wise Monkey, we offer an unbiased expert opinion on your facilities and operations. We aren’t swayed by our personal investment in the company or its operations. We have unclouded opinions of what situation your workplace is in, and are able to provide it for you in order to help your business grow and improve.

– Final Thoughts

Maintaining a safe and controlled workspace is not only your obligation as a business owner, it’s beneficial for you as well. At Wise Monkey Health and Safety Solutions, we offer expert advice, management, and execution for your health and safety plans. We can ensure that your business operates safely and your employees are happy day-in and day-out.

It’s fairly common to hear the words ‘Occupational Health and Safety’ thrown around the workplace — usually in some form of meeting or official setting. It sounds like a fairly fancy term that can be generally self-explanatory. And yet, there is often a lot of confusion surrounding the topic. So, what exactly is it?

See Wise Monkey Occupational Health and Safety Training:

• Occupation Health and Safety at Work Level 1
• Occupation Health and Safety at Work Level 2

1.) What is Occupational Health and Safety?

Occupational Health and Safety is, simply put, the act of monitoring and ensuring the complete safety of employees within a workplace. The United Kingdom mandates that every workplace should meet certain health and safety criteria. Occupational Health and Safety is the avenue through which employers and business owners can meet these legal requirements

2.) Are You Required to Be Trained in Occupational Health and Safety?

The law requires that at least one person be trained in health and safety at every company that employees people. This same law cites that for the first 100 employees and below, one health and safety manager must be present and appointed at a minimum.

The health and safety manager is simply an employee who is assigned the task of ensuring that the employee workplace environment is safe for operations and does not pose a risk to the employees or customers. This job completely changes based on the workplace environment. For example, office health and safety managers have a very different job than that of their counterparts on construction sites.

This does not mean that every employee needs to be trained completely in health and safety protocols. However, the Health and Safety Act of 1974 does dictate that a few things must be adhered to:

• Proper training must be supplied to staff to ensure that they understand the health and safety procedures of the workplace.
• Proper welfare provisions must be provided at work (such as accommodations for basic needs).
• A safe working environment must be maintained at all times.
• Proper provisions are made for the implementation, instruction and distribution of health and safety information.
• A written health and safety policy must exist on file for any workplace with more than 5 employees.

3.) What Can You Do?

The most important thing is that you are always taking every reasonable step to ensure proper health and safety precautions are made for your employees. This requires a lot of expertise and planning. That’s where our team of health and safety experts comes in. At Wise Monkey, we ensure that all of West Yorkshire has access to proper Occupational Health and Safety.

We provide insight, materials, instruction and training for the business owners of West Yorkshire. Health and safety at the workplace is not only important, it’s the law. And we are here to get you and your business right on the health and safety track.

Looking to get your staff trained in Occupational Health and Safety at work? Get in contact with Wise Monkey H&S here.

Nobody wants to find themselves in a situation where first aid is necessary — whether it be as the patient or the responder. However, just like good insurance, it’s a last line of defense that you should always have but hope you never need.

Despite first aid techniques saving countless lives daily, many workplaces and individuals will admit they are lacking in their first aid knowledge, most of which would say they would have trouble stepping in during a medical emergency. But, is it really that big a deal? Well here at Wise Monkey Health and Safety, we can confidently tell you that First Aid Training at Work is.

Here’s why.

1.) First Aid Training — It’s the Law

The United Kingdom has very strict workplace safety laws. This includes ensuring that at least one person on every worksite and at high-hazard businesses is experienced in first aid.

This does not mean that everyone must be legally required to take first aid classes. However, it does mean that at least one person is strongly recommended to be in charge of workplace first aid and safety for every 100 employees maximum. And every 50 employees thereafter should have an additional first aid expert.

Having a first aid certified employee on your worksite helps to cover yourself legally and prevent any undue injuries or serious bodily harm during daily work activities.

2.) Staff Wellbeing

Having your employees well versed in first aid can be a huge advantage when it comes to taking care of staff wellbeing. This is particularly true in high-hazard workplaces. However, you don’t need to run a dangerous business to have well-trained employees.

First aid training can provide peace of mind for your entire staff. Knowing that if an accident ever were to occur, your coworkers are trained to help until professionals arrive, is a huge relief and shows that the company cares about its employees.

3.) It Saves Lives

The harsh reality is that accidents can strike at any time, any place. An employee can choke on their lunch at work; or slip off a ladder and bang their head; or lose consciousness due to heat-stroke. The possibilities for disaster exist around every corner.

First aid training ensures that people around you have a basic knowledge of how to keep someone alive and stable long enough for help to arrive. It ensures that in those precious seconds, something is being done to save a life. Being first aid certified does not make you a medical professional… but it can help you save a life someday.

Final Thoughts

At Wise Monkey Health and Safety, we make it our mission to provide the people of West Yorkshire with health and safety expertise and training. We take on the role of managing your workplace first aid and safety training as well as guidelines. Allow us to ensure that your staff, and workplace, is always prepared in case of medical emergency.

Looking to get your staff trained in First Aid? Get in contact with Wise Monkey H&S here.

Wise Monkey Health and Safety provide affordable health and safety solutions, training, and consultancy to these areas to name a few… Can’t see the area you’re looking for? Get in touch here.