In order for your business to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, whilst prioritising your employees’ wellbeing and their experience at your company, it’s essential to maintain good health and safety standards in your office. This means ensuring that your office building is safe and hazard-free, promoting good health in employees and boosting productivity and output.

---

Office Health and Safety Guidelines: A Handy Checklist

In order for your business to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, whilst prioritising your employees’ wellbeing and their experience at your company, it’s essential to maintain good health and safety standards in your office. 

This means ensuring that your office building is safe and hazard-free, promoting good health in employees and boosting productivity and output. 

Health and safety covers a wide range of things in your office, from equipment to hygiene. Ideally, your employees and clients visiting your office should be comfortable, and they should enjoy their experience, which is why it’s so important to uphold high standards when it comes to health and safety.

In this article, we’re going to walk you through a checklist of some of the health and safety guidelines and standards you should uphold in your office. 

Training Your Staff

The first thing to remember when it comes to health and safety in the office is making sure your employees are aware of the rules and regulations. This way, they can help you adhere to health and safety guidelines. 

For example, if they’re aware of the potential danger, they’ll know to clean up spills and remove potential trip hazards. 

In addition, you should always have at least one staff member in the office who can practise first aid if needed, and another who is responsible for getting your team safely out of the office in the event of a fire. 

This way, by training your staff as needed, you’ll be able to keep your team as safe as possible in your office. 

Manual Handling

While this area of health and safety may not seem as relevant to office work in comparison with more physical jobs, manual handling is still an important thing to consider. 

There are often heavy documents to carry, heavy boxes to lift, and sometimes even furniture to move around, depending on what’s happening in your office. This is why training your team to lift heavy things the right way could prove very useful.

In an office job, many people already unfortunately struggle with posture and back problems, and incorrect lifting and handling methods can further exacerbate these issues. 

Therefore, by training your staff the right way to handle and lift heavy items, you can help reduce the chances of worsening back and other joint problems in the long run. 

Hazards in the Workplace

One of the first things people think about in terms of office health and safety is hazards. From trip hazards like loose wires or flooring to leaks and wet surfaces, there are several hazards that can crop up at any time, even in the safest of offices. 

Sometimes, when people are tired or distracted, it’s easy to leave a trip hazard on the floor, or to spill a drink without noticing. 

In addition, there are also several potential fire and electrical hazards around the office, like exposed wiring and splinters in flooring or carpets.

Hazards like this can lead to people falling over or getting injured in some way. This is why health and safety guidelines are in place to keep people safe in the workplace. 

So, it’s essential to add hazards to your checklist of office health and safety guidelines to consider. 

Fire Safety

Another well-known part of health and safety in the office is fire safety and equipment.

Having the right procedure and fire equipment in place in your office means that, should a fire break out, your team will be as safe as possible.

There are several things to add to your health and safety checklist when it comes to fire procedures and equipment. 

Firstly, having fire drills can help you assess how well your current procedures work, based on how quickly and efficiently your team are able to exit the building. 

Secondly, regularly checking on and maintaining fire equipment can help you ensure that everything is working as it should. 

Finally, as we mentioned above, it’s important to have a person in your team who is trained to help everyone exit the building quickly and safely. 

Electricity and Electrical Items

An important thing to add to your office health and safety checklist is electrical systems and items. This can cover anything from wiring and plug sockets to laptops and kettles in your kitchen area. 

Essentially, you should be testing and checking these systems and items consistently, so that any issues can be identified quickly, before becoming a hazard. From faulty wiring to fuses about to blow, it’s important to keep on top of any potential issues in your office, to keep your employees, clients and office building guests safe, helping prevent any accidents by eliminating any hazards before they’re dangerous. 

Furniture and Soft Furnishings

This section of health and safety guidelines ties in with fire safety, but it’s still an important thing to add to your checklist. 

All your furniture and other parts of your decor and soft furnishings should be safe to use. This means that any broken chairs or desks in your office should be replaced as quickly as possible, before creating a trip hazard of causing splinters and similar problems. 

Your furniture and other decorative items should be functional and practical, and they shouldn’t present any kind of hazard for the people in your office. You can ensure this by maintaining your space, furniture and decorations, replacing anything that is on its last legs. 

This way, you’ll be able to prevent your furniture and decorations from becoming hazards in the future. 

The Office Environment

Full-time office workers spend at least 37.5 hours per week in the workplace, which is why it should be a safe environment which doesn’t negatively affect your employees’ health. 

Working environment - in terms of health and safety - can cover a lot of areas, and there are quite a few guidelines and laws around this. 

For example, the air quality in your office should be as good as, if not better than, the air quality outside. In addition, your employees must have access to windows or proper ventilation in your office. 

When you adhere to these health and safety guidelines, you’ll be providing your employees with a comfortable office which prioritises their wellbeing, improving their overall experience of working with you. 

Cleaning and Hygiene

An important thing to add to your office health and safety checklist is cleaning and hygiene.

While these things aren’t often associated with health and safety in the workplace, cleaning and upholding good hygiene standards is essential to your employees’ health and wellbeing, and their experience in the office. 

Without proper cleaning, for example, the air quality might be affected by dust in the air, and a dirty air vent system could mean your ventilation system doesn’t work at full functionality.

Essentially, by keeping on top of cleaning, you’ll be able to ensure your office is a healthy and comfortable environment to work in. 

The Importance of Health and Safety in the Office

As we mentioned above, full-time employees spend at least 37.5 hours in the office, per week. 

This means that their work environment should be somewhere that’s safe and doesn’t negatively impact their health. 

These days, there’s more and more of a focus on employee wellbeing, with health and safety guidelines at the forefront of this.

So, have a think about what else you could add to your checklist, to help keep your employees safe and happy in your office.