Protecting Your Business and Employees

By Patrick Vernon –

Whether you run an established company or a start-up, it’s important to make sure your business and employees are well-protected. Unfortunately, there are many things that can go wrong at work including fires, thefts, accidents and injuries, so prepare for every eventuality and secure your organization and workforce – here’s how.

Take out the correct business insurance

With companies like Howdengroup.co.uk offering a wide range of insurance products suitable for businesses, there’s no excuse for not taking out the relevant cover. Sure, it might all seem like mundane paperwork and procedure, but if an incident occurs and you’re targeted by organized crime gangs looking for electric supplies, or a flood damages your property, you’ll be glad of the financial protection. A major incident such as water or fire damage can put businesses out of work for months, but insurance might cover you for loss of earnings, as long as you read the small print and take out the correct policy.

On the subject of insurance, it’s also a good idea to introduce a company benefits package which includes medical insurance and other health-related schemes such as life cover for employees. Not only will such packages attract people to your company but they’ll also help retain staff, keeping people safe in the process and taking care of their welfare both in and out of work.

Install the relevant safety equipment

To ensure your premises are as safe as possible, you must carry out a risk assessment – a series of workplace checks which help to identify hazards that could be a danger to health. As part of this assessment, think about how you can improve the security of your workplace. This might mean installing CCTV cameras, putting padlocks on all doors and windows, employing a security guard or making sure all of your computer systems have spyware to protect against hackers and viruses.

According to The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996, it’s also necessary to put up safety signs wherever there’s a risk to health that can’t be dealt with in any other way. These can be used to warn people of slippery steps, hot water, low-lying ceilings and other hazards and should be used in correspondence with fire safety signs which direct people towards the nearest exit.

Implement fire safety training

When it comes to fire safety, you should also implement fire safety training which ensures every staff member knows how to react and where to go if a fire was to break out at work. Current staff should be briefed of any changes to procedure and any new members of your workforce should be walked through your fire safety rules during an induction. To help prevent fires, you should turn off all electrical equipment including computers, printers and any cooking facilities in the kitchen when not in use and ensure all fire doors are properly closed to prevent fires from spreading should one occur.

Protecting your business and those who work for you is of paramount importance, so don’t take risks.

Patrick Vernon is a freelance writer, with experience writing for a range of magazines and websites, researching various topics in order to offer useful info and content to the public.