Let’s face it: it’s pretty much impossible to work effectively if you don’t feel safe in your workplace. If the people who work with you don’t feel safe in their office and in their job, then they won’t be able to produce good work. Here are some things that you as a boss can do to help the people you work with feel happy, safe and secure.
Use Positive Reinforcement
What exactly is positive reinforcement? It’s a psychology term that’s part of something called operant conditioning and which essentially means that you should reward good behaviour, which will make that good behaviour more likely to happen again in the future. Of course, ‘good behaviour’ sounds more like something you’d praise your pet or a small child for, as opposed to your incredibly reliable accountant, but you can absolutely still apply the principles of positive reinforcement to the workplace. It’s more important to focus on the good things that your employees do, so they’re looking for praise and rewards, instead of being afraid of being punished for doing something incorrectly. That will mean that the atmosphere in the office is a lot more positive.
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Add A Security System
You need to make sure that the office itself is secure so that your employees feel physically safe while they’re at work. Everyone’s had a yoghurt stolen from the work fridge at some point, but they have the right to know that they and their possessions are safe in their place of work every day. This is more of a factor when you’re interacting with the public, like in a retail environment. If that’s the case, it’s important that you have plenty of safety protocols in place, like having a security guard from The Guard Alliance on the door, a security button under the counter and procedures that the employee knows they need to go through if something unsafe happens like a physically angry customer. Make sure that the employees know that their safety is always more important than anything else.
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Train Your Employees
Make sure that your staff are all fully trained with regards to safety procedures. And right when you check the DBS of your employee through websites like thecheckpeople.co.uk, check if they’ve had prior training in such aspects. When you hire people, make sure that they’ve been trained in health and safety on their first day, particularly if the job is physical in any way – you don’t want them to get injured in any way when they’re lifting heavy boxes, for example, or to trip over something that should have been put away. Check out safety courses online if you want to go over the procedures of health and safety – retraining to keep the information at the forefront of your employees’ minds is crucial.
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Foster An Atmosphere Of Kindness
Finally, the best way to make sure that your employees feel secure at work – aside from a good alarm system, of course – is for you to make sure that kindness and reliability are key traits that you expect from everyone there. Business can be a dog eat dog world but you need to ensure that within your company, everyone feels safe in the knowledge they will be treated well.
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