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Employee Safety is an Investment

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-by Myron Gordon

Unfortunately, employers too often fail to adequately consider the safety of their employees, beyond what is mandated by law. However, continued investment in employee safety will pay off in a number of ways. While an obvious payoff is the decrease in Workers Compensation premiums, a less obvious payoff will often be employee loyalty and reduced employee turnover. As an employer there are a number of issues you should pay attention to in order to increase employee safety. 

As previously mentioned, WCB premiums are a cost borne by all employers, with each business paying a rate base on their industry and sector injury rates, and on their own safety records. These rates are adjusted, either higher or lower, based on those safety records. This means there is a monetary advantage from investing in safety programs and training, not to mention the positive affect on your employees. 

One of the most often overlooked and ignored safety issues revolves around sexual and physical harassment. While most employers covered under collective agreements are very aware of this issue, smaller businesses typically do not pay a great deal of attention to it. Even though laws are in place to protect employees from sexual and physical harassment, employers and employees are not always informed of these laws, or are unsure what their duties and rights are. 

To make certain that your employees feel safe and secure in the work place, your role as an employer is to ensure that all employees are aware of the harassment laws, and that you as their employer will support them if a harassment issue develops. Employees need to have someone in place that they feel comfortable with before they will be willing to come forward with a harassment situation. Your job as the employer is to put a person in place that is publicly acknowledged by you and the employees, and who is given the latitude and ability to deal with, identify, and bring forward to the proper authorities any harassment issues. You need to ensure you have empowered someone who is trusted by both you and your employees, or you run the risk of not properly addressing all harassment issues and concerns. 

An often overlooked harassment area is that of harassment from customers and suppliers. This can be especially prevalent in retail operations where most front end staff are young and female. Supervisors must be given the autonomy and training to step in as soon as any signs of harassment or bullying are noticed. An example of this is when a customer becomes irate over a meal that is incorrect or when your return policy doesn’t match the expectations of the customer. Instead of allowing the employee to feel bullied or belittled, you should instruct the supervisory staff, or step in and solve the issue yourself. These customers should not be tolerated and you have the right to refuse them service. 

Additionally, employees working for retail operations will at times find they experience stalking or other forms of unwanted attention by customers, other employees and the general public. Make sure that all employees are given every opportunity to report these problems. As an employer, you need to take these complaints seriously. This means you need to record any instances of occurrence, report them to the necessary authorities where appropriate, and most importantly, inform all your staff that this is happening. Take ownership of these issues before they become a problem.

While there are a number of safety issues and concerns that you need to address, one of the other serious ones is that of robbery, and in some cases physical assault. These issues are especially prevalent if your business is a retail operation, carries cash and operates on the ground floor level, or has immediate road access. There are methods of reducing and eliminating these safety concerns in order to improve employee safety. 

Firstly you need to implement a theft, robbery, and shoplifting program that trains all employees in dealing with these safety concerns. Of course, this is not a one time program that is only provide when an employee is hired, but is reviewed on a regular basis. In fact, using real life training situations will help to ease employee concerns and will provide the employees with the tools to deal and cope with these situation, should they occur. 

Another theft and robbery deterrent is the use of cameras and video equipment. Not only does this equipment help to deter theft and robbery situations, but it also can provide another mode of safety since video can now be monitored from anywhere via a computer link. This means you can have your store or business monitored without having to be on site. A word of caution should be noted however: don’t use this as a way of spying on your employees. Any goodwill obtained from this robbery prevention program will quickly be lost if you use it against your employees.

Finally, some of the unseen benefits of ensuring your employees are working in a safe work place include increased employee satisfaction, decreased employee turn over, and a larger pool of potential employees as the word radiates out to others that your business is a great place to work. Remember, if you show your dedication to your employees, they will likely return it with interest.

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