The workplace’s safety can make or break a business. Injuries, accidents, and illnesses can lead to lost working days or even stop work orders. According to health and safety statistics, 1.8 million employees suffered from work-related illnesses in 2021-2022. The estimated costs of ill health and injuries in 2019-2020 were about £18.8 billion.
Luckily, inspections, checklists, and minimised exposure to hazards can help maintain the workplace safe. Let’s find out ways to protect employees and the job site.
Use checklists and conduct inspections
A checklist can help you examine the equipment used in your workplace, the tasks performed and the work environment.
Here are some crucial tips to keep your business open and operating:
- Use a digital checklist to know what regulations you must comply with.
- Ensure inspections are carried out effectively to protect your business’ reputation.
- Facilitate inter-team communication and update and notify employees about the status of the issues.
You must maintain a safe workplace to avoid facing a stop work order form. Regular and standardised inspections and checkups, as well as certain mobile apps and checklists, can help analyze potentially operation-halting risks and fix existing issues faster.
Reduce internal risks
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is indispensable for pretty much any industry. The right one can help avoid accidents, legal processes, and fines. However, documentation errors and protective equipment defects happen. This is why real-time data from PPE inspections is crucial and can make safety measurable.
The communication efficiency between the team, management, and third parties is just as important. When something happens, it must be reported immediately, and the problem-solving process must be started.
Here, a PPE inspection checklist template can benefit your business. It helps save time on inspection, reporting, processing, etc. Additionally, it simplifies data analysis and quickly identifies areas requiring special attention.
Beware of SWOs
Assume you have a surprise inspection and there are issues or unsafe work or conditions. The government may issue a stop work order (SWO) lasting up to 90 days without the contractor’s agreement.
The SWO can be partial or full. The latter means the entire job site must be shut down and can happen due to several reasons, like production or environmental issues, threats to the public’s and surrounding communities’ safety, engineering issues, etc.
Here are the steps you must take to lift a stop work order:
- Correct the issue. You may have to redo the work if the SWO is brought by code non-compliance.
- Request re-inspection. You must have your site reinspected so that the issuing agency can work towards lifting the SWO.
- Pay the fees. Sometimes, a hearing may be necessary to determine the appropriate fines and penalties.
- Document the process. A detailed written record of all the costs and steps taken will help you comply with the stop work order.
Safety procedures may be efficiently and easily implemented. Some common examples are receiving real-time reports on essential inspections, maintaining a checklist, addressing inter-team communication, and providing PPE.
