Modern companies should be well aware of the benefits of creating a healthy and happy workforce. Aside from ensuring everyone feels appreciated and boosting morale, a sanitary working environment ensures far fewer sick days and keeps your team productive. However, if you have more than a handful of workers, maintaining cleanliness can be a real challenge.
Frequently, if you find yourself in this position and are simply unaware of how to proceed, you can always bring in the pros to assist you with getting up to code. This post will take a look at some of the many benefits of hiring a hygiene consulting service and help you understand why this could be one of the best investments your company will ever make.
Assessing Workplace Safety Risks
Before you can perform any updates or fixes in your workplace hygiene culture, you need to know the lay of the land. This is where these services really shine since they are great at performing introductory risk assessments, which act like a sort of audit of your existing situation. By enlisting the help of these industrial hygiene consulting services, you will receive a forensic review of where you stand and what steps you must take in order to get back in line.
Moreover, because they will have a raft of experience with a range of industries, they should be well-positioned to analyze your specific situation regardless of whether you operate in a warehouse environment or a graphic design studio. Because each sector will have a different set of risks (with some overlap, such as in the case of personal hygiene), it’s imperative to get the type of personalized service that only these consultants can offer.
Developing Safety Standards and Procedures
Once you have a better understanding of your situation, you can begin developing the numerous safety standards and procedures you may have been lacking thus far. Hygiene consultants will have the experience to proffer a selection of ways to get started that suit your business style and the types of employees you hire. This can range from developing procedures all staff must follow in the case of an accident to designating and training a health and safety officer who is permitted to apply first aid or ready an accident victim for first responders.
Providing Training for Employees
Continuing on slightly from the preceding point, consultants can set up a training system that you can put your staff through that should help to reduce or mitigate some of the risks inherent in the workplace. They can offer guidance on organizing training materials and sessions for all staff members, from current to newly hired.
Identifying Hazardous Material Exposure
Although this point might be more pertinent to some industries than others, it’s worth mentioning for the value it can provide. With a wide range of hazardous materials used in certain settings, it’s crucial for companies to determine the potential for exposure for their staff and reduce the dangers where possible. These professionals are trained to identify even the most negligible safety hazards and can perform detailed audits on a range of subjects.
Their findings and recommendations are invaluable in determining if a business may need to invest in updating ventilation systems, refreshing PPE requirements, or anything else they may be lacking. By gaining an unbiased outside perspective, companies can achieve compliance, mitigate liability, and, most importantly, protect their valued human capital.
Conducting Air Quality Testing
If there is one thing that the Covid pandemic exposed people to, it’s the need for sufficient ventilation and systems for ensuring high air quality. Because of the sophistication involved, it’s next to impossible for businesses to perform these tasks in-house, and in any case, you will get far more detailed results when you hire outside help.
By utilizing advanced technology, they will be able to detect even trace amounts of gasses, particulates, molds, and other allergens that have otherwise gone unnoticed but could be the culprit behind most of your staff downtime. Armed with these evidence-based results, consultants can then recommend customized solutions, from ventilation upgrades to modified cleaning procedures. Their guidance enables organizations to comply with regulations while giving staff reassurance about air purity.
Analyzing Ergonomics and Injury Prevention
Did you know that poor workplace ergonomics is by far and away the leading cause of staff absence? This might involve the ubiquitous back pain or other more localized issues that come about from repetitive motion. By hiring workplace consultants, you will get more precise insight into what might be causing these injuries and hopefully reduce them by implementing new procedures.
Just be aware that remedying this situation might involve retiring or even a costly overhaul of outfitting new furniture and equipment. Nevertheless, once in place, you will find a considerable reduction in employee absence, a more productive operation, and a happier team more willing to put in the graft.
Ensuring Regulatory Compliance
With the ever-changing regulatory landscape surrounding workplace health and safety, keeping abreast of all compliance factors can be a full-time job in itself! But when you bring in the pros who are already well-versed with the latest regulations, you can rest assured that any advice you receive will befit you in the long run.
As mentioned previously, you can identify gaps threatening regulatory violations or litigation by performing audits of various things such as incident response protocols, training programs, etc. Rather than scrambling at the last minute to address inspector concerns, proactive businesses partner with consultants to maintain compliance through continuous monitoring, staff education, and preemptive corrective action.
Improving Overall Workplace Productivity
Most businesses operate for one primary reason: to make a profit. However, companies can make more money in almost all situations by having a happy and productive workforce. When employees feel that their concerns are met, and they are safe in the workplace, they can devote all of their time to whatever tasks they have at hand.
When employees are assured that their environment poses no threat to their health, you improve morale and give them the freedom to focus on doing their jobs.
Rather than simply counseling you on what you’re doing wrong, hygiene consultants can build methods to make your operations more aligned with how they should be. As a result, the investment you make in recruiting them will pay off in the long run.
