How do I create a better work environment for my team. Safe environment both mentally and physically for the teams we work in…
Answer: We have a legal and professional responsibility to provide employees with a work environment that is free from recognized hazards that cause or are likely to cause serious physical injury or death, and to maintain working conditions that are safe and healthful for our employees.
Here are 10 Workplace Safety Recommendations that will help build a better work environment physically where your team would feel and be safe. Every team member should take the onus for creating a healthy and safe work environment for themselves and their team members. Every member needs to drive the initiatives and have it in their DNA to feel the need for same and their responsibility to same.
1. Involve your employees in safety planning. Empower your workers to “own” safety by involving them in safety planning. The more an employee understands and takes ownership of the safety plan, the more he/she will take action;
2. Provide clear work instructions. Make sure that all safety instructions are clear and understood. Review and confirm that your workers know what they are being asked to do;
3. Focus your safety efforts on the most likely issues. Yes, plan for major safety concerns, but do not eliminate the small safety violations that contribute to the most frequent injuries;
4. Create a safe work area. Prevent injuries and ensure an efficient job and workplace by creating a safe work area – eliminate potential safety issues;
5. Maintain a clean work area. Remove the clutter and potential safety issues and you will help your workers to be more productive; Organized work areas, with good lighting and ventilation would create the correct ambience as well for your team to work which will increase their productivity.
6. Encourage your employees to have a voice in safety. When workers bring safety deficiencies and new ideas to management’s attention, they are contributing to the culture of safety in your workplace;
7. Focus on how each employee performs his/her job. Watch for employees who are taking shortcuts that could reduce safety, but also look for employees who perform tasks in an improved manner that could be adopted by the other staff; Also it is necessary to appreciate the employees who voice their new ideas and implement these initiatives.
8. Maintain all machinery in good working order. It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that all machinery is in good working order and that a routine maintenance program is in place;
9. Avoid and remove unnecessary hazards. Do a routine inspection of your workplace frequently to identify any unnecessary hazards;
10. Revisit your safety guidelines every year. Start off each year with an inspection of your workplace and a thorough review of your safety program.
Moving on to a few points on creating a mentally healthy working environment would like to share the 7 tips of creating a psychologically safe and mentally healthy workplace.
1. Pay attention. Keep an eye on your team members’ workload and signs of stress. …
2. Be flexible. …
3. Empower and challenge. …
4. Recognize. …
5. Be fair. …
6. Promote respect in the workplace. …(irrespective of the designation one holds, all to be respected and treated with respect and dignity)
7. Be supportive.
There are three key risk factors that contribute to poor workplace mental health, according to research it is, occupational uncertainty, such as lack of job security or poorly managed organizational change; lack of value and respect in the workplace, such as bullying or a lack of organizational justice; and an imbalance in job design, such as a lack of synergy between the demands on an employee and the resources they have available to them to assist with managing their workload.
The first step of creating a mentally healthy workplace is to be aware of these and to try and reduce these three factors where possible.
But reducing those risk factors is just the starting point in contributing to strong mental health for your employees. What else should your business and you as a manager be doing – and who among your staff should take charge?
Within a workplace, there are three groups of people whose actions have a critical impact on employees’ mental health. Not surprisingly, the senior executive team guides an organization’s wider approach to mental health.
“The senior people in an organization have a major role in setting the priorities for an organization and for the setting the culture as to where employee mental health sits in the hierarchy of concerns,”.
Managers have a bigger role – equipping employees with resilience and the ability to manage stress in the workplace are key components of mentally healthy staff. But it’s managers who play the most visible role in supporting employees’ mental health: they’re essentially at the coalface of the workplace experience and are therefore best placed to identify and respond to employee mental health concerns.
When it comes to being proactive about employees’ mental health, you should keep an eye out for a change in behavior. This is often the clearest indicator of a change in mental health status.
If you have a worker who has previously been performing well who is now not performing, if you have someone who hasn’t normally been absent from work who is now regularly away or coming in late, or if you have someone who’s normally calm and composed but is now getting irritated with co-workers, these are the types of things that should prompt you to check in, on that employee.
Further, it’s important to remember that anyone can become mentally unwell.
“Mental illness doesn’t discriminate – you may not be able to predict who is likely to become unwell.”
Once you’ve identified that someone is unwell, or becoming unwell, it’s important that managers respond appropriately. While there’s currently no hard and fast rule about what this looks like, there are a couple of things that can help:
One of the key things seems to be for managers and supervisors to have early and regular contact with an individual once they notice the employee is unwell. We know when that happens, the outcomes are much better for everyone involved.
After that initial conversation, it’s important for managers to be supportive in their capacity as an employer – without taking on the role of a mental health professional.
Managers might not be counsellors, and they shouldn’t try and be counsellors, but direct them to the correct channels.
If an employee takes time off due to mental health challenges, it’s important to keep them connected to what’s happening at work. Managers should check in regularly with the staff member, reiterate their support and discuss options like a gradual return to work or other adjustments (such as modified duties) that will aid their recovery – these conversations are key to keeping the lines of communication open.
Most people want to get back to functioning well, and for most that includes being able to undertake meaningful work.
These are just a few of the key considerations in building – and maintaining – a healthy workplace. And, beyond the financial implications of poor workplace mental health, businesses have a responsibility to provide employees with a safe and stable work environment.
HR Professionals in the organization has an even bigger role to make sure the environment is created in that manner and to bring in that culture into the organization and to maintain such a culture. Having constant communications with the employee is like one to one sessions with the employees and HR, strong grievance handling procedures, open door culture where an employee know he could come and discuss matters/issues in confidence, and of course retaliation and harassment needs to be managed well and handled by HR.
“Workplaces and Managers have a really important role to play in keeping their workers well, providing them both with a safe and healthy work environment, both on the physical aspects as mental aspects which in turn will result in building better teams and higher productivity.”
A Happy Team will always be a fueled up team which will perform breaking boundaries bmd