Innovative Safety Ideas

Safety is an important consideration in any workplace, and most businesses put substantial effort into making sure that their staff and customers are not at risk in the workplace. Thinking creatively and actively pursuing safety solutions can make your place of work even less prone to accidents or injury.

Prevention

• Safety is about preventing unsafe situations, rather than responding to them after someone has been hurt. Creative approaches to prevention include a close inspection of the workplace and envisioning all possible unsafe situations that might occur. Observation of machinery setups, storage facilities, vehicles and potentially hazardous infrastructure such as plumbing and electricity can help to fix dangerous situations before they become tragic. An example of this might be noticing high storage shelves that could collapse or heavy objects that could fall on workers. This situation can be changed by storing all heavy or potentially dangerous objects on low shelves.

Community Involvement

• Communities can become safer when everyone in the community is involved in this pursuit, rather than just professionals such as police or firefighters. Municipal governments can institute innovative programs to encourage and inspire citizens to be part of safety efforts. Creative ideas include school programs in which students make safety posters, learn about the safety programs in their own schools and go into the community to talk to other groups about the importance of safety. Civic groups, church organizations and youth groups can become involved in programs to encourage the use of smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and evacuation plans to increase the level of fire safety in their communities.

Motivating Workers

• Workplaces can become safer when workers are given an incentive to engage in safer behavior. Many companies encourage this through bonuses that are based on lengths of time without lost-time accidents. Workers can also be encouraged to think in innovative ways by offering bonuses or rewards for creative and effective safety suggestions. These programs are popular among workers because they help to make them safer. Increasing both the physical safety and the health of a workplace through physical plant improvements, and through health programs such as incentives to quit smoking, can improve employee morale and productivity.

Creative Technology

• Technological innovation can be used to increase safety levels both at work and at home. Air sensors that detect smoke and carbon dioxide can protect residents from fire and leaking gas, while closed-circuit television cameras and webcams can increase security against intruders. Developing cell phone networks among individuals helps to keep people connected and able to access help in the event of difficulty.