Health and safety is so important in business, but a lot of companies get it wrong. This is a big issue because if you do not follow health and safety rules to the letter, your employees are at risk and you may be penalised for breaking the rules. Most businesses already know this and they put some effort into their health and safety. However, even if you have the best intentions, you could still be making some simple mistakes that put you on the wrong side of health and safety legislation. These are some of the big health and safety mistakes that you could be making right now. 

Not Hiring A Health And Safety Expert 

If you do not have a specific health and safety expert working for your business, you are making a mistake. Health and safety isn’t something that you just need to check up on now and again, it’s something that you need to maintain consistently, and that’s a full time job. This is something that a lot of businesses don’t realize and while a construction company might hire a construction safety superintendent on site, but a lot of businesses that operate out of an office would not hire a health and safety expert. That’s a big mistake because there are health and safety risks in any business, and you need a health and safety expert in-house to manage them. 

Only Thinking About Obvious Dangers 

When you think about health and safety, two things spring to mind; fire safety, and manual handling. Most businesses are great at keeping up with their fire safety, and they offer the right training on manual handling to help avoid any injuries. However, those are only two of the many health and safety risks around the office that you need to deal with. For example, if the office isn’t kept clean, that’s a big health risk. You also need to think about electrical safety, and even the mental health of your employees. Health and safety is broad and it covers so many different risks, so make sure that you are not just thinking about the obvious ones. 

Trying To Cut Corners 

A lot of business owners get fed up with health and safety procedures because they think that they’re a waste of time and money. If you feel this way, you might decide that you can just cut a few corners here and there and nobody will know. But it never works out that way. Your employees will know that you’ve cut corners, and that can have a big impact on productivity because it gives the impression that you don’t care about their safety. If an employee is injured, the fallout from that can be catastrophic because you will lose a good team member, potentially get sued, and be investigated by the health and safety regulators. If you are found to be in breach of health and safety laws, you don’t have a leg to stand on and you will be ordered to pay some hefty fines. So, don’t try to cut corners because it will never end well for you. 

If you don’t want your business to end up on the wrong side of health and safety laws, it’s important that you avoid these common mistakes.