Office safety goes beyond avoiding accidents–it’s also about creating a workspace where everyone feels secure and can thrive. It covers preventing common hazards like tripping over cords, as well as tackling less obvious risks like poor lighting or ergonomics. By setting proper safety measures for these, you’ll protect workers from harm and boost morale and productivity.
This guide features practical tips for keeping your office environment safe and efficient, along with a digital checklist tool so you can implement these the right way.
Why is office safety important?
Employers have a moral responsibility to provide a workplace free of serious danger and to ensure their employees feel safe and secure. Following office safety guidelines promotes the well-being of both workers and employers and avoids the likelihood of accidents that could result in property damage, injury, or, worse, loss of life.
In order to ensure occupational safety in the office, it is a good idea to use checklists so that no safety procedure is accidentally overlooked or forgotten. In an office setting, these procedures might include ergonomic assessments, assigning and instructing employees, documenting incidents, and carrying out risk assessments.
The recording of health and safety data is important because it serves as proof of compliance with legal obligations under the Health and Safety Act. Inspection and accident report, training materials, and risk assessments are some examples of records that should be documented and retained as a legal requirement.
Common office hazards
Offices, like other work environments, have many hazards that can affect ongoing business and harm workers. Some hazards are more common than others and pose greater risk because of their frequency. These are:
- Slipping/tripping over spilled liquids and objects: You can solve this problem with good housekeeping. Make sure any laid cables don’t constitute tripping hazards. All rooms and corridors should be well lit, and paths and corridors should be free of obstacles.
- Manually handling heavy materials: Employees should judge for themselves whether they can lift heavy materials or not. If not, employees should be encouraged to get help from colleagues.
- Poorly designed workstations: Ergonomic hazards that result from sitting and using computers should be taken seriously. Employee posture is an important way of avoiding discomfort or musculoskeletal damage. Every employee should be trained on proper ergonomics.
- Falling from height: Falling from any height can cause bruises and fractures. So it’s important to make sure that any chairs and ladders in the office are in good condition.
- Stress-related hazards: Stress at work has several causes, such as a high workload, poor work-life balance or even workplace bullying. Every company should develop guidelines on working hours, holidays and workload to prevent burnout, as well as train employees to recognize and manage their stress.
- Electrical and fire hazards: Fire and electrical hazards are often associated with faulty equipment and machine explosions that can cause burns, property damage, and even fatalities. All employees must be trained to recognize and report fire safety hazards, and you should have an evacuation plan in place for emergencies.
Best practices for office safety
Guaranteeing safety in the workplace is one of the most important duties of the employer. Workplace accidents can mean long absences, which could cause staff shortage besides having to pay worker’s comp. In order to avoid these complications, here are some tips and tricks to securing the workplace.
1. Conduct office safety tours
Everyone knows that one person who’s always covered in bandages or constantly bumping into things. For employees who are oblivious to their surroundings, it’s better to just remove any obstacles from their path before they can do any serious damage. The problem is that these types of minor hazards are oftentimes the most dangerous (e.g. collisions and obstacles, poor lighting, and environmental toxins) because they are overlooked.
Organize a team to conduct regular office rounds and follow safety protocols. Pay attention to the different environments in the work area and observe each employee’s working conditions to identify potential risks or hazards.
2. Appoint an occupation safety specialist
In addition to the employee, many companies have an occupational safety specialist to assist management in implementing appropriate workplace safety measures.
Large companies, or those that operate under major risks, such as the aviation industry, can benefit from hiring someone whose sole responsibility is to identify, isolate, and eliminate hazards. However, small-scale companies can also profit from appointing an individual who’s charged with office safety, although they will probably have other job responsibilities.
Among a safety officer’s chief responsibilities is making sure all fire safety documents and plans are up to date. Some of their lesser-known duties fall under ergonomics, housekeeping, and site security.
3. Utilize office safety inspection checklists
Relying on route memory to inspect the office space for hazards increases the rate of errors. That’s why using an office safety checklist is an essential part of a safety officer’s job to provide a safer work environment for employees. Lumiform already offers ready-made office safety checklists that you can edit and download for free.
In addition, checklists provide a structured framework for otherwise unorderly inspections by outlining each task and its hazards. In this way, checklists not only increase efficiency but accuracy as well.
Elements of an office safety checklist
The establishment of safety programs and standards helps to identify office hazards more quickly and prevent the likelihood of accidents in the workplace.. Employers should focus on safe working practices and protocols to minimize risks that may exist in the office.
The points to consider when conducting the safety assessment are:
Office space
You can prevent injuries by always instructing employees’ to keep their workspaces free from clutter.
You can make this rule easier on your employees by providing each of them with 125 to 225 square feet of usable office space. For cubicles, it’s recommended you provide 60 to 110 square feet per person.
There are also special requirements for the height of the office which must be observed. This so-called clear height may not be less than 9 ft. With the help of this clear height, it can be ensured that a portion of daylight can enter through the windows.
This is of great importance to maintaining employees’ physical and mental wellbeing.
Arrangement of working equipment in the room
All furniture and work objects should be arranged practically in the room. Be extra mindful that furniture placement does not restrict movement. If there are objects on the floor, they must be removed to avoid injury.
You can also run training programs to educate staff about the correct use of office equipment to reduce the likelihood of ergonomic injuries.
Lighting conditions
To support work safety in the office, it is important to provide adequate lighting. Make sure there is sufficient lighting around any safety signs or labels so that employees can read important instructions regarding health and safety. These signs warn employees of potential hazards and reinforce emergency training.
Indoor climate
The office should have a work-friendly climate. The room temperature should be between 68°F and 72°F. If the office is either too cold or too hot, it’ll affect employees’ concentration and focus negatively. It’s also good to conduct regular HVAC maintenance and add air purifiers or even green plants to improve air ventilation and quality.
Work surface
Because most of the workday you spend at your desk, a comfortable workstation is essential. The size of the work surface should be large enough that all supplies fit comfortably and don’t inhibit movement. The height of the table must also be adjusted according to body height to prevent back problems .
Office chairs
Regular use of office chairs can leave them susceptible to damage. You should regularly inspect the office chair’s integrity and double-check that its maximum weight-bearing capacity isn’t exceeded by any of your employees.
These are just a few examples of safety programs you can implement in the workplace to identify hazards. However, since not all standards apply to every workplace, it is important to first conduct a site inspection or risk assessment so that you can create safety programs that suit your work environment.
A mobile solution for the office safety checklist
Downtime due to sick or injured employees can be costly. Protect your teammates and yourself by regularly checking compliance via a mobile app. In order to promote health and safety in your daily work routine, it is worth using a checklist app.
By using the office safety checklist template by Lumiform, you can avoid loss of productivity and revenue. Digitize your office safety with Lumiform:
- The flexible checklist builder from Lumiform helps you to convert any individual paper list into a digital checklist within minutes.
- Using the super intuitive mobile app, you and your teammates can conduct checks in the field with ease.
- Generate real-time data about internal processes. This makes quality and safety measurable, so you can constantly optimize processes based on data.
- Reports are generated automatically – this saves you time on the follow-up.
- Increase the efficiency of your internal processes: Through more efficient communication within the team and management, as well as faster reporting, you can solve problems up to 4x faster than before.