When working in a healthcare environment is it important in order to avoid injuries and accidents?

If you’re an employer, then workplace safety and injury prevention should be one of your top priorities. Preventing injuries and accidents at your organization is important for employee health and well-being as well as for morale and productivity. When there’s an increase in workplace accidents, the morale and productivity of your workforce will decrease rapidly as employees feel less inclined to give their best for a company that can’t guarantee their safety. This ultimately damages the organization’s bottom line and makes it harder to hire talented professionals.

A well-designed accident prevention program will reduce employee injury, illness and death rates; improve employee performance, strengthen workforce morale and motivation; and lower absentee rates. In this blog post, we’ll see what this year’s North American Occupational Safety & Health Week is about, and we’ll walk you through some of the most effective approaches to promoting a culture of safety at your company. Let’s get started!

North American Occupational Safety & Health Week 2021

North American Occupational Safety & Health (NAOSH) Week takes place from May 2nd to 8th 2021 and aims to bring awareness to the importance of preventing injury and illness in the workplace, at home and in the community. Canada has a long history of working to prevent workplace injury and promote better practices to protect workers and ensure their safety. Canadian Occupational Health and Safety Week was observed from 1986 to 1996, and in 1997 NAOSH Week first took place as an initiative between Canada, the US and Mexico.

NAOSH Week 2021 will look a little different than other years due to COVID-19 restrictions, but your organization can still take part in some of the many nationwide virtual events that will be taking place. This is a great opportunity to raise awareness among your workforce and make your company a leading voice in the fight for increased workplace safety.

If you’re wondering if workplace safety is still a big issue in 2021, the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) details how in 2019, there were a staggering 925 workplace fatalities in Canada. As far as injuries are concerned, compensation boards reported 271,806 workplace injuries in 2019, up from 264,438 the year before. These figures highlight the importance of an ongoing campaign for awareness around the issues of workplace injuries and fatalities.

Workplace safety for healthcare workers

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought some much-needed attention to the difficult conditions that healthcare workers face on a daily basis. Doctors, nurses, and other health workers risk their lives as part of their job, and the gaps in safety measures and inadequate protective equipment show the need for healthcare organizations to pay greater attention to these essential workers.

Healthcare workers, home care professionals, and community care professionals continue to fall ill as they work through the pandemic. This will undoubtedly become an area of focus as governments and organizations all over the world search for new ways to provide more extensive protections for those providing essential services.

How to promote a safety culture in the workplace

One of the most important things you can do as an employer is encourage and promote a strong culture of workplace safety and wellbeing in your organization. We know that work-from-home arrangements have been a popular point of discussion during the pandemic, but for some businesses, that’s not an option. With that in mind, we’ve narrowed down 5 of the most powerful yet simple ways for you to get started.

By providing your employees with training and education, you’re showing your commitment to their health and safety. This fosters trust in you as an employer and improves your reputation among potential candidates. Employees that are well trained regarding workplace health and safety are also more likely to embrace safety culture as they are properly informed of the dangers if they do not follow safety protocols. Offering regular onsite training sessions and refresher courses is a great way to reinforce safety at your company well into the future.

Developing a robust culture of safety at your organization should involve your employees where possible. This helps you establish highly effective protocols that align with your employees’ daily reality and tasks. Taking this approach can also make your workers much more enthusiastic about the initiative, as they were consulted instead of having a new safety system imposed on them.

To get your workforce to support your new safety programs, make sure that your managers and leaders are implementing best practices. If employees see that their managers don’t follow health and safety protocols, they’re unlikely to take the program seriously.

Communication is more than just telling your employees what they have to do, it’s also about making sure they understand and know how to apply the knowledge they get from safety training and courses. This can be done with follow-up courses and hands-on safety drills to prepare them for a real-life emergency.

You should also be communicating with your employees about their rights, making sure that they know everything about their duties and responsibilities as an employee, as well as those of their employer.

Subsidy programs are one option to help equip your workers for their safety. At Adecco, for example, our national partnership with Mark’s ensures that our temporary employees can purchase high quality safety boots at affordable prices through our subsidy program.

Resources in case of injury at work

All managers and leaders in your company should know exactly how to report a workplace injury if or when one occurs, and how to apply first aid in the event of a medical emergency.

You should also ensure that your employees know how to document and report their workplace injury to your province’s workers’ compensation board, as well as work together with you in following standard safety procedures after an accident. As we mentioned earlier, when your employees know their rights and obligations in these situations, it creates a safer work environment for everybody involved.

Congratulations, you’re now well-informed on how to create a culture of safety at your company! Implement the steps in this article and you’ll avoid unnecessary injuries and gain loyal and properly trained employees while you’re at it!

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