Have you thought about the safety of your employees?

Businesses can’t afford to lose sight of health and safety campaigns in the workplace, as the cost of non-compliance involves more than just fines.

New research has found these concerns are not unique to managers either, with most employees seeking clear guidance on the relevant procedures within the companies they work for as well.

According to Safe Work Australia, 73 Australians have already lost their lives at work this year, prompting the need for a focus on these issues no matter what industry a company specialises in. HR consulting can help find the best way to communicate these needs to employees, or the make existing training more engaging.

Employees desire clear instruction

Recruitment firm CareerBuilder surveyed employees to discover how they feel about workplace health and safety initiatives and where there were areas for improvement.

The good news is that employers appear to be doing a good job overall, with a substantial 94 per cent of respondents indicating their office is a safe place to be in normal situations.

While employers passed the test when it comes to encouraging safety in day-to-day scenarios, they weren’t as successful when it came to planning for emergencies and other unplanned events. Just under a quarter (23 per cent) of surveyed employees said they would not know what to do if there was an emergency in the office or a physical threat of some description.

Employers weren’t only wary of physical threats either, with almost a third (30 per cent) believing the company they work for would not be able to cope with a hacking incident or similar digital threat. Again, this highlights the multi-dimensional nature of workplace health and safety now that digital operations are so common.

Digital safety should be considered just as important as physical threats, and all emergencies need to have a relevant contingency plan, no matter how unlikely they may seem.