The "Secret" to a Safer, More Efficient Workplace

There are hidden hazards in even the safest-looking workplace. And most of them can be eliminated through effective housekeeping.

Good housekeeping is really a combination of awareness, motivation, and opportunity:

• Employees have to be aware of the many benefits (see yesterday’s Advisor).
• They must be motivated with reminders, such as signs, posters, incentives, safety meetings, active supervision, and credit for performing housekeeping duties when performance appraisal time rolls around.
• Workers must also have the opportunity to perform housekeeping duties. In other words, supervisors must set aside enough time every day for housekeeping and inspect to make sure responsibilities are properly fulfilled.

For employees to become willing and enthusiastic supporters of your housekeeping program, they need to understand two essential facts:

• Rather than being a bothersome chore (which is probably the way most of them think of it now), good housekeeping is fundamental to their own safety and health.
• Housekeeping duties are a part of everyone’s job. No matter what other tasks employees perform, each of them is also responsible for keeping the workplace clean, organized, and safe.

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Checklists can keep your workplace clean, neat, and safe. See how with the award-winning Safety Audit Checklists program from BLR. Try it at no cost and no risk. Get the full story.

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Make Housekeeping a Habit

To maintain a safe workplace, housekeeping really has to become a habit. And that’s where checklists come in. Housekeeping checklists standardize duties and make them easier. With a checklist in hand, there’s no chance of missing a single hazard.

Items that supervisors and employees should have on their housekeeping checklists include:

• Workstations
• Floors, aisles, stairways
• Cords, cables, hoses, cartons and other tripping hazards
• Dust, dirt, and grease
• Clutter, scrap, trash
• Tools and equipment
• Storage areas
• Chemicals
• Flammable and combustible materials 
• Waste disposal
• Work surfaces
• Spills
• Lighting
• Entry and exit areas

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Examine the best-selling Safety Audit Checklists program for 30 days at no cost … not even for return shipping. Get the details.

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Check Out Our Checklists

The items just highlighted are just a small sample of the vital safety information provided in the “Good Housekeeping and General Maintenance” section of Safety Audit Checklists. You also get a review of legal, management, and training issues as well as a compliance checklist highlighting general requirements of OSHA’s walking and working surfaces standard (29CFR 1910.22). A second general housekeeping checklist can be circulated to supervisors and posted for employees.

All told, this best-selling program provides you with more than 300 separate safety checklists keyed to three main criteria:

• OSHA compliance checklists, built right from the government standards in such key areas as HazCom, lockout/tagout, electrical safety, and many more.
• “Plaintiff attorney” checklists, built around those non-OSHA issues that often attract lawsuits.
• Safety management checklists that monitor the administrative procedures you need to have for topics such as OSHA 300 Log maintenance, training program scheduling and recording, and OSHA-required employee notifications.

Make as many copies as you need for all your supervisors and managers, and distribute. What’s more, the entire program is updated annually. And the cost averages only about $1 per checklist.

If this method of ensuring a safer, more OSHA-compliant workplace interests you, we’ll be happy to make Safety Audit Checklists available for a no-cost, no-obligation, 30-day evaluation in your office. Just let us know, and we’ll be pleased to arrange it.

 

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7 Keys to Safe Lockout/Tagout