How to Keep Your Company Safe

Safety is an issue that many small businesses only deal with passively. This is particularly true if the company does not have many employees, or if the company does not deal with hazardous business activities. However, every company is at risk of being impacted by external and internal hazards that can quickly cause injuries to employees, customers and to the stability of the company. For these reasons it is important to periodically evaluate the safety of your company, and to complete an intensive review at least once every five years.

Risk Identification

The first step is to identify the risks that your company is prone to. The most common are fire and floods, however, there are other risks that can impact a small business such as disruptions to transportation systems, utilities and suppliers. All of these risks can impact your ability to function. After you identify your risks you will want to prioritize them in order of their likelihood.

Hazard Assessment

The next step is to conduct a hazard assessment. This step can be applied to just the top hazards if time and resources are limited. However, it is important to assess each risk that was identified in terms of its likelihood and potential impact on your business.

Contingency Plans

The next step is to determine if you have a contingency plan in place for the risks that you have identified. For example, do you have a backup power supply if you are cut off from public utilities? Contingency plans are crucial for small businesses to have. The things that you will want to plan for include employee safety, backup data systems and backup power and communication systems.

Emergency Plans

Every small business needs to have an emergency plan. This plan will identify evacuation procedures and routes, as well as an emergency hierarchy system. Part of a business safety evaluation is a review of the existing emergency plans. You may be surprised how out-dated the plan is or you may be surprised that your company does not have a formal emergency plan in place. As you evaluate your company's emergency plan(s) you will want to verify that the evacuation routes are still viable, you will want to add accessible evacuation routes and you will want to test the evacuation routes and procedures to see if they are safe and effective.

Revising Emergency and Safety Policies

Another area that you will evaluate during your safety evaluation is your emergency and safety policies. First of all determine if you have any of these policies. If you do not then you will need to develop a policy on how employees are to be notified when an emergency is happening, when evacuations are to take place, what plans are to be used in the event of an emergency and who will be in charge of certain tasks, such as turning off equipment or making sure everyone has escaped successfully.