Question: I’m an EHS professional and I work for a manufacturing company that operates in areas of the country where we sometimes get inclement weather that affects our operation. Every time we get bad weather, I’m asked to help decide whether we should cease operations or not, and every time it feels like I’m making the wrong decision. No matter what decision is made, we’re either going to upset Sales and Customer Service (who don’t work on-site) or we’re going to upset the workforce.

Is there a way to make this decision that doesn’t cause conflict and if so, how do you do it?

One of the first steps in securing the safety of a workplace is being aware of all of the hazards and risks that exist. However, some workplace hazards are easy to overlook and forget about. Just because something is a minor risk or isn’t perceived as a risk doesn’t mean that it can’t cause harm to employees. To make sure your business doesn’t miss something, we wanted to go over some of the most overlooked workplace hazards.

Question: Our company decided to put together a Safety Committee and we really want people to volunteer to be on it but it’s been a week since we posted a notice asking for volunteers and so far the only names on the list are salaried managers and supervisors—but no hourly workers. We really don’t want to start picking hourly works to join or make it mandatory but if we don’t get a few hourly names soon, we’ll have to do that.

How do we get hourly workers interested in joining our new Safety Committee?

If there’s one philosophy that every company should preach about workplace health and safety it’s that it is truly a team effort. Businesses may set the rules and assume all legal responsibility, but it’s employees who have to follow procedures and keep everyone safe while working on the front lines.

Communication is of the utmost importance when it comes to occupational health and safety. In an ideal situation, there will be a constant give and take between company leaders and frontline employees about safety policies and practices.

Workplace safety is not just the job of any one person. Employers have a legal responsibility to provide employees with a safe place to work. At the same time, employees play a role in workplace safety as well. This means that workers need to be fully involved in the process as well. How would you promote safety as an employee?

In the end, workplace health and safety often boil down to the actions of employees. If they don’t perform their job in a safe manner, accidents are bound to happen. But safety always begins at the higher levels of a company, which means managers and supervisors play a big role in preparing employees to follow safety rules and act in a safe manner.

All businesses have an obligation to maintain a safe and healthy work environment for employees. But that doesn’t mean they can neglect the safety and well-being of field employees who work offsite.

Maintaining a safe and healthy workplace can be a constant give and take between employers and employees. Workers can create large amounts of trouble for companies that don’t take safety seriously and end up with employees getting sick or injured on the job. It’s going to take both time and commitment to ensure a strong culture of safety, but here are some useful methods of making sure that employees are safe and properly protected while on the job.

We talk a lot about your safety responsibilities as an employer. After all, under OSHA rules, the bulk of legal responsibility falls on you (barring a few extremely rare exemptions).