Workplace Safety New Year Resolutions to Stick to in 2018

With a new year comes new hopes. Are you looking to change your ways in 2018 when it comes to workplace safety? Well there are numerous steps you can take. It is always an admirable approach to make your business and workplace safer as a resolution. There are many steps you can take to achieve such a goal. Prioritizing safety principles, fostering teamwork, and implementing modernized strategies toward material handling are just a few of several ways any organization can promote continuous improvement in their daily operations. For those that know where to begin, here is a comprehensive guide on how you can meet and exceed those new year resolutions in 2018:

1. Enhance Safety – Driving safety is virtually synonymous with continuous improvement, which is the simple act of recognizing and introducing better and safer ways to do the same job. We are vehement in this principle because quite frankly it works. These improvements bolster employee morale and reduce levels of incident. These are two positive results of reinforcing, prioritizing, and enhancing safety practices. In many cases, the changes most enterprises seek simply begin with this. Managers and administrators should take the appropriate measures to encourage employees to innovate new and safer ways to handle all the challenges and rigors that accompany performance of their daily functions. This should also be taken into consideration when quality managers are authoring a set of standardized-operating procedures

2.       Cultivate A Transformative Work Culture – Promoting synergy in the work environment is another easy way to boost safety. Taking such an approach wields a wide range of benefits. Safety is found in teamwork as cohesion is essential for all team-oriented tasks to begin with. There are many ways to cultivate a positive and transformative work environment. In the realm of safety awareness, incentive-based reward programs have been known to be impactful. This is because these programs are often associated with communication enhancement which is essential in hazard identification and conveyance of possible perils. Exciting staff and personnel to do so only makes the workplace that much safer and progressive.

2.      Integrate Best Business Practices – There are several philosophies and ideologies that comprise what is regarded as “best business practices”.  This is none other than Kaizen, LEAN, Six Sigma, and Agile Methodologies. Whichever school of thought you subscribe to, all champion safety optimization amongst matrix-driven increases toward efficiency and productivity. According the AFSI, many of these programs call for the integration of supply chain management technologies that isolate and eliminate deficiencies in several material handling operations.  In addition to diminishing liabilities and identifying exposures, these devices also improve inventory accuracy and reduce costs. Moreover, these applications work hand-in-hand with automation which allows you to invest your human capital in safer landmark tests. Introducing and implementing a set of these best business practices is a great long-term goal that goes well beyond the new year. These philosophies can revitalize, revamp, and catalyze any business to new heights.

Bio: Tom Reddon is a forklift specialist and blog manager for the National Forklift Exchange. He also sits on the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association (MHEDA) Executive Dialogue team. Follow him on Twitter at @TomReddon.