Your workforce is likely comprised of a diverse group of workers: young and old, experienced and non-experienced. With years on the job comes a lot of safety knowledge, especially from first-hand experience. However, when you’re bringing younger workers into the workforce, they don’t have the expertise to necessarily understand the reasons for particular safety precautions and how to promote a safe work environment. Here are some ideas for promoting a safe work environment for young workers.

Make sure the work is suitable

Specific tasks in your company may be better suited for employees with more experience, and that’s ok. In some instances, advanced work tasks can also be more dangerous. So, for younger workers, you may want to start them off on tasks that do not require as much experience so they can be safer on the job.

Doing these other tasks could also be building blocks for ensuring they get the experience needed before they start working on more advanced tasks. If giving them more safety-sensitive tasks is unavoidable, you will want to make sure they pair up with another employee with a higher degree of experience who can safely perform the task and assist the younger employee.

Give time for training

On-the-job training and professional development are critical to gaining experience in an employee’s role. For example, if employees need to handle hazardous materials or wear specific equipment for their duties, they must learn how to do this.

Make sure there is time for employees to have this training so they can safely perform the duties assigned to them.

Provide the proper safety equipment

As mentioned, certain equipment may be needed for workers to perform the duties required for their job. If this is the case, as the employer, you need to provide workers with the proper safety equipment and protective gear.

Supervise young workers

Young workers must have the correct guidance while learning on the job. You can’t just give them the equipment and expect they will know precisely what to do.

Supervising younger employees will not only help them learn to do their work correctly and efficiently, but to also ensure that they do so safely. It allows you to step in if you notice something potentially unsafe happening, and you can use it as a teaching opportunity so no one gets hurt.

Stay on top of employee health and safety

Health and safety isn’t just a one-time conversation. It’s essential that you, as an employer, stay up to date on the health and safety of your employees. Many companies assign an employee to be in charge of health and safety and ensure employees are following the guidelines they are supposed to.

Guidelines for safety may also change over time as incidents happen or issues come to light. Ensuring you stay up to date on the safety rules to follow for your company will keep your employees safe long-term.

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Young workers tend to be more prone to workplace-related injuries, hence it’s important to take extra care in providing safety training. While you may do your best to ensure the health and safety of all your employees, there may be times when accidents happen, and you require disability management or return-to-work services. To learn how we can help your company, contact us today.