What Lateral Investments Can Keep Your Staff Safe In The Workplace?

If you’re a business owner worth their salt, you no doubt care to think about how to keep your team safe. Yet sometimes the most effective safety measures aren't the obvious ones you'd expect. Sure, you can install better lighting, upgrade your security systems, or invest in ergonomic office furniture, but there are other approaches that might give you more capability on top of that too, and if you’re lucky, may even curate a workplace culture where people genuinely look out for each other.

The most important thing to remember is that workplace safety is that accidents and emergencies don't usually happen during convenient business hours or in predictable ways, and they don’t set up an appointment with you in advance. You might have all the right equipment and policies in place, but if your staff don't know how to respond when something goes wrong, such safety measures won't help much. So if you can, investing in prevention and care in a laterial sense can help, especially with training programs and skill development opportunities your team could benefit from.

In this post, we’ll explore what those are:

Emergency Response Training

Most people assume they'd know what to do in an emergency, but when adrenaline kicks in and there’s a genuine hazard or harm already done, having actual training can be a massive boon, and will help give way to effective action on top of that.

Emergency response training is a good investment then. Look for programs that cover everything, such as basic evacuation procedures to how to handle medical emergencies. It’ll gives your team the confidence to act when every second might be important. You'll find that employees who've gone through this kind of training can easily stay calm during stressful situations, not just emergencies but also during busy periods or when dealing with difficult clients. The training helps with the mindset where people think through potential problems before they happen, but can still be proactive in a situation like a fire drill, or when having to help a disabled colleague down the staircase when the power goes out.

Medical Certification Programs

Having staff members with medical training, like a BLS certification can absolutely become the difference between life and death in workplace emergencies. Basic Life Support training teaches people how to perform CPR, use defibrillators, and be proactive enough with critical care until professional medical help arrives, which could genuinely save a life in your team. Is there a better investment than that?

Moreover, ensuring medical certification for your team will ensure multiple layers of safety coverage throughout your organization, especially if you have a big premises or dozens of staff. It’s not enough to have one person who knows what to do if someone has a heart attack or stops breathing, you have several trained individuals who can step up when needed. The certification process should also teach people to see or help with medical emergencies early, which often matters more than the response itself, because it will give you the mind to refer a staff member to a hospital, or assist a member of the public if needed.

Safety Leadership Development

You might want to consider training some of your staff to become safety leaders within their departments, which basically means workplace safety stops being just management's purview and becomes something everyone cares about. These safety leaders get pretty good at spotting potential hazards and talking to their colleagues about safety requirements on an individual level, can they’ll be happy to do that if it means increased pay. If it’s at the ground level like this, you’ll sounding like you’re lecturing everyone all the time, too.

The benefits that internal safety leaders understand what's really happening day-to-day in their work areas in ways that management doesn't always see, because they know which shortcuts people take when they think nobody's looking, or an issue that hasn’t been resolved by upper management yet. It’s a vital resource, and don’t forget they can always escalate issues upwards if there’s a need for it.

Conflict Resolution Training

Workplace violence and harassment situations can of course get out of hand, because most people have no clue how to calm things down if any issues start rising or how to deal with conflicts before they turn into prospective issues. You could look into conflict resolution training that shows your staff how to spot warning signs, talk through disagreements without making things worse, and solve the real problems through your confidential reporting system. You could also train them on your no-tolerance policies and what does or doesn’t constitute harassment to begin with.

This is a necessary investment, because it doesn't just reduce the chances of serious workplace incidents, it also makes the whole team culture more responsible. Employees who know how to handle tough conversations are more likely to sort out problems directly, or have a healthy disagreement in the spirit of collaboration, as opposed to letting bad feelings build up, which makes the workplace a lot more pleasant for everyone involved.

Mental Health First Aid

Mental health crises can be just as scary as physical emergencies, but most people have limited understanding of how to tell when someone's really struggling or what they should do if a colleague is having a hard time. Running a program that allows for mental health discussions and referrals to trusted resources will show your staff how to recognize when someone might be dealing with depression, anxiety, thoughts of hurting themselves, or substance problems, and how to help them get connected with professional support.

You'll probably find that this kind of investment makes your workplace more supportive overall, where people feel like they can begin asking for help when they need it, which can stop mental health issues from getting worse and turning into bigger problems that affect everyone's safety and how much work gets done. Though of course, the productivity is the latter goal, with wellbeing always serving as the main priority.

With this advice, we hope you can more easily make lateral investments to ensure staff wellbeing.