June marks National Safety Month and the National Safety Council (NSC) has broken the month up into weekly safety topics. For the week of June 1-7, the focus is on continuous improvement.
Safety isn’t something that has a finish line so even if your landscape company focuses on safety currently, there are always ways to continue to improve.
Check out some of the areas that you can work to enhance.
Strengthen Your Safety Culture
Just like any other aspect of your culture, you have to be intentional about safety if you want to see it lived out every day with your team.
Some of the ways to promote a culture of safety include building trust and encouraging feedback from your employees. If a team member voices a concern over a certain practice, yet no action is taken to mitigate the risks, it’s hard for them to trust you truly care about their safety.
Provide multiple ways for employees to share their thoughts on how to improve current processes and current workplace threats. Also, make sure your team is comfortable with reporting near misses. These almost-accidents can shed light on safety issues before they result in a true injury or fatality.
Outline a clear process for reporting these close calls and thoroughly investigate each incident. Then you can begin to notice patterns and act on resolving the larger problem.
Join NALP’s Safe Company Program
Another easy area of improvement is to join NALP’s Safe Company Program. This program is free for members and provides you with access to:
- A customizable electronic Safe Company Program Manual (available in English and Spanish)
- An electronic copy of the Safety Tailgate Training Manual (available in English and Spanish)
- Customizable forms including a master safety checklist, motor vehicle reports, safety policies, and more
- The Safe Company program logo to proudly share and recognition on NALP’s website
Participants in the Safe Company Program pledge to follow the guidelines in the Safe Company Program Manual, establish an active safety committee, conduct regular safety trainings, document, measure and investigate every accident, and comply with OSHA posting requirements.
Tap Into Technology
As technology is being integrated into other aspects of your business, don’t overlook its usefulness in improving your overall safety.
For instance, drones can be used to scope out a property in advance and identify possible areas of danger. This is particularly helpful for sloped properties so employees don’t have to risk slipping and falling while navigating unfamiliar terrain.
AI can be used to help generate tailgate training topics for your team or develop more engaging spring safety rodeos. Instead of spinning your wheels, get a creative boost with fresh ideas you can tweak to suit your organization.
Promote First Aid Training
When emergencies occur, the severity of the incident can be mitigated by fellow team members who know how to respond. Give your team members the confidence to act by training them in how to respond to the common issues they may encounter.
The first week of June is also National CPR and AED Awareness Week. There are about 10,000 cardiac arrests in the workplace, according to OSHA. Yet, only 50% of people can locate an automated external defibrillator (AED) at their workplace.
Having your employees trained in CPR can save lives. If performed immediately, CPR can double or triple the chance of survival from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Audit Your Personal Protective Equipment
You shouldn’t wait until employees have an issue with their personal protective equipment (PPE) before reviewing their effectiveness. Conduct PPE audits regularly to review current practices and identify gaps.
Make sure your team knows how to select the proper PPE for the job and wear it correctly. Survey your team randomly in the field to check for adherence, even when they aren’t expecting you. If an issue is discovered, take the time to re-educate crews on proper PPE practices.
Stress to your employees the need to take responsibility for their safety and their colleagues by wearing PPE.
Support Workplace Well-Being
It’s easy to focus on employees’ physical safety, but don’t forget to consider their mental well-being as well. Consider how you can create safe spaces where employees feel comfortable discussing their mental health concerns. Strive to have a workplace that reduces fatigue, stress and burnout.
You can also share resources such as articles, videos, and self-help materials related to mental health awareness with your employees. This can be done through newsletters, internal websites, or dedicated resource libraries.
Train your supervisors on how to recognize and respond to the various forms of impairment. Educating your managers on how to address impairment results in increased worker safety and limits workers’ comp costs.
One aspect of worker well-being to consider is developing an opioid overdose response program with naloxone. According to NSC, there were 512 workplace overdose deaths in 2023, which made up 9.7% of all occupational injury deaths in 2023. Increases have been experienced among all employee demographics, industries, and occupations.
