General Safety Planning - Outline Example

Employers should identify/set up a safety team who can train all employees and contractors. This is referred to as “Safety Induction”. In this program employees will be trained on the risks, safety issues, how to tackle these issues and how to escalate anything above their capacity. Outlined herein is the general safety induction for any construction or production company. Employees must be made aware and trained on how and where to protect themselves from what safety issue by using personal protection equipment (PPE).

There are several areas in a company with various risks such as chemicals, hazard spills, noise that could impair hearing, falling object and carrying of heavy objects or tools among many others. Some of the PPEs are; reflective jackets/ high visibility reflectors. All employees must have this in order for them to be easily visible to avoid accidents e.g. being knocked by a forklift. Ear plugs or ear muffs for hearing protection in high noise area. Heavy-duty goggle for eye protection against flying objects e.g. bottle bursts.

Helmets for head protection, different hand gloves for different tasks, safety boots for feet protection and also based on the kind of work, body protection clothes e.g. overalls for engineers or lab coats for technicians. Once the employees are taken through PPEs, they will be trained on the importance of observing laid down signage and other safety protocols such as observing walkways and its importance. On top of these, employees must be made aware of the protective policies adopted for their own safety.

Some of the policies are; forbidding employees or contractors reporting to work under any influence of alcohol/drugs, any levels whatsoever, or reporting to work while sick. This could be disastrous especially if an individual is operating any kind of machine, neglect to this could be a risk to self and other coworkers. Also, employees must be forbidden to report to work with hanging jewelry, especially when working in the area or machine with belts as this can cause accidents. Smoking on the site should also be prohibited and employees who are smokers be provided with a smoking zone to avoid any fire blasts.

On the other hand, the company should stipulate a maximum time for working in a particular area based on the health risks involved e.g. someone should not be allowed work for more that 6 hours when operating a high vibrating machine like a hand drill. Having finished with personal protection, the company should play a role in providing a safe working environment. This includes providing things like easily accessible emergency showers and eyewash, lavatories on-site, hand wash and sanitizers, cleaners to take care of the company neatness and spillages to avoid slippage accidents.

Clearly marked emergency exits without any obstruction, emergency contacts and also an emergency clinic on site. Employees should be told of all this during the safety induction (Gupta, P 8, 2006). Safety induction could be made more exciting by a brief video to accompany the training. This could go a significant way to stress the importance of and possible accidents in case of neglect. By doing this, employees will have a real picture and will take personal safety to be their number one priority.