Are you a business owner? If so, you’ll understand how important it is
to be constantly considering both the health and welfare of your employees.
It’s a common issue that businesses who start small and fast become something
much larger and fully functioning may struggle to maintain, especially when covering every area of their business. Surprisingly, first aid is often one of these. Of course, the majority of businesses do
provide a basic health and safety break down, but crucial additions such as first aid and CPR training can often be overlooked frequently.
In order to be compliant with the law, as well as health and safety regulations,
it’s vital that in the absence of a clinic or hospital close by to the
workplace that you have trained staff on hand in the case of an emergency. Your responsibility as an employer is to
arrange for the immediate care of your staff who may have had an accident or become
ill whilst at work. To do this you must
first assess your first aid needs based on the hazards and risks involved
within your workplace. Equipment and
relevant first aid supplies should be provided so the trained staff can provide
the nessecary attention to the injured or ill staff.
First Aid and CPR
Factors to consider that will help you tailor your first aid needs to
your industry are as follows; the size of your organisation, the nature of your
work, the medical conditions of all employees and finally, do you have multiple
sites? Having multiple sites potentially
means multiple hazards, so you must ask yourself how fast can first aiders move
between locations, and also consider if the delay will cause further injury to your
employee. Mobile phones and multiple
first aid boxes will need to be provided for a first aider covering larger
distances.
Cost Effective
You may be thinking that providing a training program in first aid and CPR for your staff
sounds rather expensive. However, when you look at the long term benefits there
is significant proof that the training does reduce costs. It is common practise
for businesses to only train one or two members of staff in order to keep costs
low. Please consider what happens when your two trained staff are off or on
holiday, as well as what happens if they move onto a new job. Insurance claims are not cheap; the less you know about your health and safety the more likely you are to
experience accidents within your workplace.
Employee Morale
From my experience employees will respect you far more if they can
actively see you are putting their well-being at the forefront of your
priorities. When you feel protected you’ll have a much more positive outlook on
your job, as well as feeling safe and secure. No amount of money should
sacrifice an employee’s right to feel both of those things. In addition, the occasional training day is
often a welcomed break from the office day to day chores. Time spent outside of
the office is also a very valuable team building experience.
Providing this essential training will help your team become more aware of pertinent safety issues, therefore reducing the risk of future accidents and injuries in the
workplace. Your staff will be trained to keep an eye out for potential hazards,
allowing them to address a problem before it happens and causes any harm to your co-workers. Your
employees will be able to provide an suitable response in an emergency situation, potentially saving a fellow colleagues life.
Comments
Post a Comment