If you’re an employer based in the UK, you are legally obliged to adhere to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to ensure that your staff and customers are kept safe. While employers must take adequate measures to make sure their operations and procedures are as safe and risk-free as possible, incidents and accidents may still occur, despite their best efforts. If there has been a health and safety-related incident in your workplace, what can you do to solve the problem and minimise the potential for future accidents on your watch?
Communicate clearly and in a timely manner
If one of your staff or clients has suffered injuries due to an incident in the workplace, it’s essential that you maintain a good channel of communication with the injured party. Never ignore a workplace incident in the hope that it will ‘go away’ – keep in regular contact with the injured party and ensure that you provide adequate levels of care from the moment their injury is sustained. This may include arranging for immediate medical care, providing sick pay, and covering any initial medical expenses where necessary. This is especially important if your staff or clients are thinking of making a claim for head injury compensation or for other potentially serious physical injuries.
Identify what went wrong
After an incident in the workplace, you must assess the situation and figure out exactly what went wrong. Was the accident due to inadequate health and safety measures? What could you do to minimise risk and make your workplace even safer? Set up a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the accident, and consider replacing, changing or streamlining operations and procedures to reduce the risk of repeated accidents.
Record what happened
Under the HASAW Act, you must log accidents and incidents immediately. As soon as you’ve provided the necessary care and checks to ensure that the affected party is safe and well, take a record of the incident, including the date, time and nature of the accident. In your company’s accident book, take a note of any witnesses and try to be as thorough as possible when making a record – this will help you in the future should the affected party decide to make a claim against your business. It will also help you to identify trends and solve potentially serious health and safety issues in your everyday operations.
Handle PR if necessary
Your health and safety record can directly correlate with the success of your business – accidents and injuries in the workplace can lead to potentially damaging word-of-mouth coverage and directly affect your bottom line. In order to reduce the negative impact of incidents related to health and safety, consider hiring a dedicated PR team to minimise reputational damage.
Implement training to avoid reoccurrence
If the incident in question is indeed related to poor workplace provisions or staff failing to abide by health and safety guidelines (such as wearing the adequate PPE or taking precautions when working on risky jobs), make sure that all of your staff are well trained and aware of your health and safety standards. Pin up reminders around the workplace and consider taking punitive action should employees continue to flout the rules. This will not only help to keep them safe, it could also help you to avoid unnecessary financial loss later down the line.
