If taken for granted, health and safety at the workplace could cost you a lot. Apart from being a public safety requirement, these measures make your business an ideal place to work in. Most incidents happen on factory floors or construction sites. Even in an office, one of your employees can trip on an electric cable and sustain serious injuries. No work place is 100 percent safe. Below are five safety mistakes that many employers ignore:

1. Failure to identify health hazards

Health and safety hazards are always imminent irrespective of the type of work your company does. Some of these include slip and fall, electrocution, burns, chemical and gas exposure among others. Failing to identify these creates a culture of negligence. 2. Non-measurement of risk If you cannot measure a health and safety hazard, you cannot improve on it. This is a big mistake any business owner can make. You must find a way of identifying the potential losses that could arise from safety issues at your company. Doing so helps you invest in counteractive measures to respond if and when they do arise.

3. Failure to benchmark

Every business has its unique set of health and safety risks. It would be foolhardy to ignore what other businesses of the same type do to steer clear of them; also known as benchmarking. To avoid falling into this trap, evaluate your company’s needs. Compare them against industry standards.

4. Ignoring staff training

As a business owner, there is a tendency to forget that you are not necessarily the person on the ground. You have under your employment, different categories of staff. These are the people hired to carry out different tasks. By not training and empowering them on potential risks, you are putting their lives at risk. You should expose your employees to as much health and safety training as the company can afford. Consider sending employees on a FPOS Course or AED training class.

5. Failure to put control measures in place

It is one thing to identify a risk, but it is a different story to control it. Failure to hedge against potential risk means that your business is like a rudderless ship. For instance, it would be disastrous to operate without firefighting equipment. The health and safety of your workers should take first priority. Employees are an asset and without them, you cannot achieve much. Taking good care of their needs is a good business practice. It shows that you care.