An inevitable truth about emergencies is that they can happen anywhere and to anyone, despite how many safety measures you take. Workplace accidents are common and affect the company’s reputation and employees’ trust. Construction work at height is one of the riskiest work processes. Safety experts recommend work-at-height courses to prevent falls/injuries or damages.
Emergency management is essential for businesses to enhance workplace safety. Those who have trained their team for emergency response have observed exponential business growth and increased productivity.
Emergency Management for Work-at-Height
Investing in training programs rather than facing physical or environmental damage is better. Here are a few practical steps to help reduce workplace accidents and prepare your team for emergency response.
- Risk Assessment
The foremost step towards effective safety measures is risk assessment. You can hire a construction supervisor for workplace assessment. A professional hand will give you a better insight into possible risk factors and danger zones. Once you know about potential hazards, it is best to remove them. But as a construction site involves uncompleted processes and sharp objects, it is impossible to eliminate every little threat.
- Evacuation Policy
Once you have assessed possible threats, the higher authorities must devise a safety policy that includes an emergency response and evacuation plan. Whether it is under construction, the building must have safe routes and refuge areas. The company must keep a record of the contact information of all the workers for communication and coordination. A list should be designed in terms of departments and their workers. You must always keep an off-site area where the duplicate of valuable documents is stored. Wong Fong Academy offers training courses that include essential emergency exit plan models and their implementation.
- Mitigation Plan
The construction company must try to reduce risk potential and apply necessary preventive measures at the workplace. Although an emergency can happen with all the preps, we must ensure we did our best in threat reduction. Put relevant caution signs and provide necessary safety gear for the team. The company should also plan long-term strategies to comply with legal and international safety standards.
- Training Your Team: Just an emergency policy is insufficient to ensure safety. You must hire a person with a transparent chain of command and educate your staff with necessary safety training. Wong Fong Academy provides unmatched work-at-height courses enabling employees to become self-sufficient.
Provide them with real-life situations and let them go through similar situations. They should know how to use a first aid kit. The training must include the correct usage of PPE and how to point a faulty PPE. In emergencies, we often react rather than be proactive. Panic mood lowers the mental ability to solve a riddle. The team must be trained to remain calm under pressure and become problem solvers. They must also know.
- Test Your Team With Fake Emergency
Once trained through Wong Fong Academy, test your abilities by faking an emergency. See how they react. Do they panic or rush toward the evacuation plan? It is necessary to test how well they have learned through the work-at-height course.
The team must remain calm and use the rescue gear effectively. One core factor is communication and coordination in emergencies. The use of technological devices can help communicate faster. They must also know how to react when communication is disconnected. The team should be able to connect with the relevant department and safety to evacuate fellow employees to a safe exit area.
- Recovery Plan
Emergencies can be traumatizing. The company must devise recovery policies and plans in case of damage or injuries. The team should adopt resilience and mental toughness to overcome challenging situations and resume back to work with the same verve as before. Include restoration of essential services and provide adequate support to the team.
Conclusion
Emergencies can cause distress and physical/environmental loss. No matter how well you plan out your emergency response, the chance of threat is always there. The maximum precaution is to be prepared and trained for any threat situation. Safety training will elevate your worker’s trust and loyalty toward you. They will develop firm determination, resilience, and mental strength to face any problematic situation. It will also reduce the damage percentage when your staff is trained.
Wong Fong Academy has marked its name among the top training institution. If you are confused about how to develop an emergency plan, you can take our consultation services and get the best professional advise.