Is Your Workforce Using PPE Effectively?

One of the most important things any company should focus on if it wants to be successful is making sure that it is creating a culture of safety. Workplace injuries can be damaging to morale, can drop productivity, and can lead to adverse regulatory action including large fines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. You need to make certain that you aren’t putting your companies or your employees at risk.

A focus on safety includes lots of different components, but the effective use of personal protective equipment (PPE) should be one of those components. To make sure your workforce is using PPE effectively:

• Understand the OSHA rules and regulations for PPE use for your industry. To reduce the risk of injury and avoid the possibility of an OSHA investigation and fines, it is important to carefully research all the regulations that apply in your workforce. OSHA has established safety standards based on careful study of the risks employees face, and if you comply with those OSHA rules, this goes a long way towards ensuring that your staff members will be safe on the job.
• Provide adequate training on the use of personal protective equipment. Simply making personal protective equipment available is not sufficient. Your staff also needs to know how to use the equipment you have provided so they can reduce the risk of getting hurt.
• Make sure you regularly inventory the PPE equipment for workers. Personal protective equipment can become older or damaged and can thus become ineffective at minimizing and mitigating the risk of a workplace injury. Make sure you keep careful tabs on whether the PPE you are providing is still up to par.
• Monitor workers to ensure their compliance with safety standards. Finally, it’s important for staff members to know that safety is one of the things that their job performance is evaluated on. Too many workers don’t devote enough energy to using PPE because they don’t think they’ll get hurt, so it is up to your company to make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to in order to stay safe.

SmartTalent can help your company find staff members who are committed to building the safest workplace possible. To find out more about how our staffing professionals can help you, give us a call today.