Monthly Archives: February 2019

General Safety Issues, Home Safety Products

Here are a Few Tips to Keep Your Smoke Alarm Up and Running!

Written by Eada Hudes
Mishaps can happen anywhere and anytime. It can happen even when we are moderately cautious. Accidents come unannounced and catch us off-guard. We are humans. It is not impossible for us to make mistakes. However, the key is to be prepared for these unforeseen events. We are all absolutely frightened of fire. The harm and rampage it can cause is not unknown to us. Seeing an entire house getting salvaged by accidental fire is something that we would like to see only in movies.

However, these events occur in real life too. You will be surprised to know how many people become homeless and even lose their lives due to house fire every year. You can take every step to make sure this sort of nightmare never happens to you. But nothing can ensure 100% precaution other than installing smoke detectors by commercial electrical contractors. Oakley Electrical Contractors Ltd. is a well-established and modern thinking electrical contractor. They guarantee to carry out all the electrical installation with same integrity, irrespective of the scale of project.Tips for maintaining the smoke alarm:

As the saying goes, it is always better to be safe than sorry. If you really want to protect your lovely home from fire, you should install smoke detectors immediately. These devices detect smoke faster than humans and save your house from fire. However, your work doesn’t end after the smoke alarm installation. You need to make sure that your detector is working properly. For that, proper maintenance of the detector is absolutely crucial. Here are a few tips to maintain the smoke alarm at your home:

⦁ Testing: You would not want a dead smoke alarm on the ceiling just pretending to protect your house. For this, it is absolutely necessary to test the smoke alarm once every month. This would make sure that the alarm is working properly. Also, problems like dead batteries can be easily detected. For testing, you just need to hold the test button down till you hear a blaring alarm. This would ensure that the smoke alarm is in a perfectly good condition. You might have to press the button more than once to stop the alarm.

⦁ Vacuuming: The tiny holes on your smoke detector can be the pathway for dust and small spiders for getting inside.  The dust particles can build up inside the detector and even the spiders can spin webs that can prevent the smoke alarm from working properly. Thus, vacuuming the smoke alarm every six months is absolutely crucial to get rid of the dust particles and other hindrances. This small practice can also help in keeping allergies at bay.

⦁ Spraying Insect Repellent: Smoke alarm is the perfect place for various insects to form their nest, as it remains undisturbed for most of the time. To prevent this, it is crucial to spray insect repellent on your smoke alarm every week. This would prevent the insects from getting inside the alarm and building up a nest.

⦁ Battery replacement: You must not forget about replacing the battery of the smoke alarm to make sure that it is working properly. In most of the models, the battery might need to be replaced after a year’s time. Also, for majority of the alarms, when the battery starts to run out, it starts emitting a low beeping noise after every few minutes to alert the user. However, not all the smoke alarms come with replaceable batteries. So it is always better to take professional help in such situations.

These are the few tips of maintaining the smoke alarm at your house. You should not forget that installing a smoke alarm is important, but what is more important is maintaining it.

General Safety Issues

Health & Safety in Office Design

Written by The Advanced Commercial Interiors Team

https://www.aci.uk.net/

With the average office worker spending around 40 hours per week in the office, it is imperative that every office is designed with health and safety in mind! Nowadays, thanks to the likes of Google and Facebook with their fancy office spaces, many companies want to add as much creative flare as possible into their space. However, you must ensure that this new era of creativity does not interfere with the all important health & safety aspect!

It is very easy to get wrapped up in implementing more creative features within your office, but these can sometimes have a detrimental effect on your staff if not done correctly. With this in mind, we have created this blog post to give you some of the key things you need to look out for when designing your office space to ensure that you are complying with all health and safety regulations, as well as designing an amazing space.

Health & Safety Legislation

The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) specifies that it is ‘the duty of every employer to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare at work of all his employees’. In layman’s terms, this means it is your responsibility as an employer to ensure that your staff are safe from harm whilst at work. This means you need to be sure of a number of things.

You must ensure that you have the correct seating in place, as this is where your staff spend most of their time whilst at work. Beanbags are great, for short periods of time! However, your staff will spend the majority of their time sat at their desks, so investing in the right office chair for your staff is absolutely crucial.

The same needs to be said for the monitors your employees are using. It is great if you want to place them higher so that they look better. However, the monitors need to be placed in an ergonomic position to ensure your staff are comfortable whilst they are using them.

Lighting

One area that is often forgotten about when designing a new workspace is lighting. Having lighting features that look amazing is great, but they need to be practical as well as good-looking! A lot of office spaces are now choosing to move away from uniform LED lighting as employers think this looks dull and bland. But the reality is that it works, and works well! Besides, there are still areas where you can be creative with your office lighting, meeting rooms are a great way to show off your design flare!

 

Fire Safety

Fire safety is one of the most important things in an office. In the event of a fire, you want to be sure that you are going to be notified about it as soon as possible, but also that you have the available training and equipment to deal with the fire if it is small enough to limit property damage.

This is why investing in both fire detection systems, as well as fire extinguishers, is absolutely crucial! Sure, they don’t look great hanging on the wall of your brand new office space, but they are there to do a job. And in the event that a fire extinguisher is needed, you are going to be so glad that they are there for you!

Layout

The layout of your space is also important. Many employers think that open offices nurture productivity. However, according to a new study, open offices actually reduce face-to-face conversation during work! This study shows that conversation between employees drops significantly, and the amount of instant messenger and email communication is on the rise in an open office. Not only is this bad for productivity, it is bad for your health as well!

If you are using an open office, your employees are going to be spending a lot more time sitting at their desks, sometimes up to 8 hours per day, rather than getting up and moving about to talk to their colleagues. The solution to this may to actually build more walls in your office space to separate departments within your workplace. This will encourage face-to-face conversation, increase productivity and staff wellbeing!

Overall, when you are thinking of creating a new office space, or altering your existing workplace, you need to ensure that you are putting health & safety at the top of your priorities list! Not only will this ensure your staff are happy and healthy when at work, it can also increase productivity! This truly is a win win.

 

General Safety Issues

How To Reduce Theft At Workplace?

Written by Caitlyn Bell
Employee theft is a serious issue and one that affects countless small businesses worldwide. In the US, nearly 44% of small businesses often face serious losses on account of employee theft.  A recent study highlighted the fact that an employee is 15 times more likely to steal from his employer than a non-employee. This statistic is reason enough for you to check out some of the tips below, on how to prevent theft at your workplace.
  • Know your employees: The first rule, before hiring an employee is to make sure that you know all you could possibly know about the person you are planning to hire. For starters, you may want to find out more about their background and if you can afford it, even get a background check to see if there are any red flags buried there. Check and see if the new employee shows a preference for the late night shift and if he/ she tends to showcase a lifestyle that’s well beyond his/ her means. These are usually warning signs that you may want to pay close attention to.
  • Supervise employees closely: Granted that it can be hard for you to supervise your employees all the time. That’s why it may be a good idea to go in for a few commercial security systems, set up close circuit TV, and even sync up the same to your phone. That way, you should be able to check out your shop or office space at any time of day, from any place.
  • Use purchase orders: The one thing that you can immediately implement at your workplace is to start using purchase orders. The payment, receipt and preparation of purchase orders need to be handled by different people so that you can minimize the chances of theft. You may also want to use serially numbered purchase orders and always make a point of verifying any incoming order.
  • Sales slip: When it comes to sales slips, you may want to go for the pre-numbered series as it can ensure that your shop continues to function smoothly along expected lines. You also need someone to balance the sales slips and the register. This should preferably be handled by someone other than the sales clerk.
  • Informal audits: The great thing about informal audits is that you can announce them at any time, and carry them out. At the least, this will ensure that all your employees are on their best behavior all day long.
  • Enhance computer security: Learn more about computer security and how they can be used to funnel funds from one account to another. It is a good idea to limit access to computers or provide them with restricted access so that they cannot access your core financial information. Make sure that you have a keylogger in place and several apps that can track online users, their online behavior, pages that they may have visited etc. In addition, you may also want to strengthen your firewall and provide your system with better security as well as install a few commercial security systems.
  • Checks: Make sure that you use pre-numbered cheques with the payee’s information and payment amount clearly written out in permanent ink. Also, make sure that you store your cheques safely and even take a few snaps of each cheque, so that you have a record of all cheques. Do not keep your blank cheques in your shop premises for obvious reasons.
  • Manage inventory: You need to separate receiving, storing and shipping and make sure that all your current inventory tallies up perfectly with the figures you have at your end. There are several applications that you can use to keep track of all your current inventory, the current pricing on the same, and see if the product is popular among your customers etc. But importantly, having such a system in place would clearly highlight when the item in question has been purchased. You may also want to hire a person to do a physical inventory check every now and then.
  • Check complaints from other staff: It is important that you take all complaints form your employees seriously. If the same is about your new employee, then you need to double check, verify the information and take the required action.

Conclusion
These are some of the ways by which you can hope to minimize the theft at your workplace. Thieves are getting smarter and to that end, have started using technology to commit their various acts of murder. So you can expect the thief to be familiar with all the latest security products. But that being said, using one or more at your workplace would definitely go a long way in helping you out with this particular problem.

General Safety Issues

Cost Effective Tips to Increase Safety in a Warehouse

Unlike a downtown office in a business center, a warehouse is a dangerous place to work in. Accidents occur here more often than in other places and this is no wonder as there are so many dangers for the workforce. Heavy loads, ceiling-high shelves, sharp objects, and moving vehicles like forklifts are just some of the dangers a warehouse worker has to be on the lookout for.


A big part of the problem are business owners who are at first reluctant to invest in safety improvements because they regard them as too expensive. However, once a worker gets injured and a lawsuit soon follows, owners swiftly change their mind. In order not to be a bad boss, you should implement the following safety measures that are, contrary to popular belief, actually cost-effective. Saving lives and saving money go hand in hand in the warehouse business!

Frequent check-ups
It is free to look around and that is exactly what your management and workers should do regularly. Basically, you probably have a safety system in place but are you sure that it is enforced the way it should be? That is why you have to conduct regular inspections to check if the employees are wearing reflective vests or if the fire extinguisher is where it’s supposed to be and if all fire exits are passable. A heavy crate next to the emergency escape exit may spell disaster, so be sure that all the procedures are put into practice.



Safety barriers
If you have watched those CCTV camera online videos, you might have noticed that even the slightest contact of a forklift or other vehicle with the shelves could bring about a catastrophe. That is why the use of safety barriers is essential because you never know when a malfunction of the equipment could destroy the entire warehouse. Bollards and guardrails are the two most frequent types of barriers that are placed where someone can fall from height or to protect sections of the supporting structure against vehicles in motion. Steel floor guards are usually placed at corners of shelves to prevent the forklift from scraping against their edges.

Maneuvering the forklift
A warehouse worker’s best friend in terms of machinery is definitely the forklift. They come in all sizes but the small ones are most used because they are easily maneuverable. A seasoned forklift driver can do magic inside the warehouse, saving hours of time necessary to transport goods. However, a forklift can also be problematic if not operated properly. You must take great care of the maximum weight a forklift can transport in order not to overturn it. Modern forklifts come with a load weight indicator that will prevent overloading. An important safety feature are cages like the ones NFM Forklifts have, which are there to protect the driver from injury and falling objects.


Employee training
You cannot expect your workers to remain safe unless they are aware of all the safety procedures. In the labor market of today, there is a greater flow of workers, so not all of them get the chance to go through the basics of workplace safety. That is why your HR department should do their job and hold frequent safety briefing so each member of the staff will know how to protect themselves, their co-workers, and the firm’s property. Apart from the knowledge and expertise necessary for carrying out their everyday tasks, the workers should know how to act in case of a fire or a medical emergency. This can also be achieved by holding fire drills that are organized in coordination with the local fire department. Finally, the workers need to learn to communicate among each other, as sharing information is the best way for them to stay safe. If the staff on the floor now that an oversized cargo is bound to arrive, they will be ready to move out of its way when it passes them by.

All the right signs
Although they have gone through rigorous training and they have been briefed a dozen times about safety, workers still sometimes forget to take the necessary precautions. That is why it is good they have visual reminders all over the warehouse, reminding them in a graphic way about the safety procedures. In some places, signage prompts workers to use safety gear like headphones or eye goggles. There are even internal traffic signs warning about a blind corner up ahead. In other parts of the warehouse, the signs can alert about potential dangers, like an increased risk of a fire which forbids smoking or a hazardous material stored behind a particular door. Not only are signs useful reminders but you are also required by law to place them at specific sections of the warehouse.



As you have seen from the measures listed above, warehouse safety will not cost you an arm and a leg. In most cases, you will only have to prioritize safety, and not splash huge amounts of cash.

 About the author:

Liam Smith is a young and aspiring Australian blogger with a passion for everything related to home, design and lifestyle. He has a B.Sc. in Interior design and is an avid reader.
General Safety Issues

Why is Health and Safety Important at Workplace?


Health and safety is an important aspect of corporate world. You might not realize it like this but health and safety is majorly being taken care of at workplaces throughout the world. It is so important that the US government has written separate set of rules and a proper act to encourage healthy and safety at workplaces. However, people are not really aware of the importance of the health and safety at workplace even though there are a lot of reasons for which health and safety should be encouraged at workplaces at all costs.

To avoid haphazard at workplaces

A lot of hazards can occur at workplaces. These hazards could include mishandling of machinery, chemicals, electronics or any other equipment included during daily work. However, implementing health and safety policies at workplace helps to prevent such hazardous activities and ensure a safe and struggle free environment at corporate setups. Companies which do not follow these health and safety rules face a lot many incidents as compared with the rest of the companies.

Decreases legal liabilities

All the laws in the world majorly support the victims of workplaces activities. Companies support the health and safety act for workplaces to avoid unwanted situations as well. If any employee gets hurt during working hours in accidents at the expense of professional work then the company is accountable for the expenses. Additionally, if the injuries are severe and irreversible the company can come under legal liabilities. Therefore, it is better to implement health and safety policies to avoid legal liabilities of such sorts.

Reduces absents and leaves of employees

By implementing health and safety policies at workplaces, the employers help the employees to avoid unnecessary injuries and illnesses which also decrease absenteeism and leaves. If an employee gets hurt during working hours, he would be liable to get absent without any objections and this can reduce the productivity rate of work. Therefore, safety policies are highly beneficial for both personal and professional reasons for the employees.

Increases productivity during working hours

Health policies increase productivity at workplace since the employees would be perfectly fit and well to continue their daily tasks with great attention and efforts. When healthy environment is promoted at organizations employees are less likely to fall sick which not only improves their attendance but also affects their work performance for professional tasks. Therefore, employers must implement health and safety policies at all costs in companies so that the employees are healthy and well to perform at a high level.

Avoids minor injuries and accidents

Minor injuries and accidents by furniture can also happen and those situations can get pretty bad sometimes. Therefore, if proper health and safety rules are followed and implemented, then these minor injuries can be easily avoided and uncertain situations are much more controlled.

Improves brand reputation

Companies that implement health and safety measures at workplaces indirectly promote the safety of their customers and clients. For instance, if we are talking about a supermarket, people would not prefer to go to a place which is too congested with the furniture placed too closely increasing the chances of accidents and injuries. Similarly, any restaurant which does not work by the rules of health and safety and cooks cleanly reduces its own chances of attracting the customers. No one would like to eat food which is cooked in dirty spaces. Therefore, health and safety at workplaces not only benefits the employees and employers but also the outsiders like clients and customers.

Some safety tips to be adopted by the workers

The health and safety for workplace act should be strictly implemented and followed by the employers and administrations of organizations but it is a wise idea that the employees take care of themselves on their own as well. Following are some of the tips which you can follow to ensure your own safety:

⦁ Understand the risks included in your field of work.
⦁ Manage workplace stress.
⦁ Take regular breaks.
⦁ Wear protective equipment and clothing according to your field of work.
⦁ Communicate your concerns with the higher management and administrations.
⦁ If your field is mechanical, then handle the chemicals and equipment with a lot of care to avoid injuries and burns.
⦁ As an employee you have several rights while being at the workplace and even after that and you should clearly understand them in order to avail the benefits.
⦁ Know the architectural space of your workplace and learn all the emergency exits.

Workplace health and safety is an integral part of the corporate world and employers that do not implement the act in their organizations often face several consequences as well. There is a lot of importance of these rules and few are discussed above as well. Along with that employees should stay vigilant too in order to avoid such incidents.

AUTHOR BIO
Mitchell Starc is an experienced researcher at Essay Writing Service with double masters in social sciences. He is an avid reader and habitual writer to facilitate the newbies in the professional world. He has been writing for over 20 years.

Uncategorized

Now Select Electricians According to their Specialization!

Written by Eada Hudes

Emergencies can come knocking at your door anytime. The main problem occurs when you are not at all prepared for it. Similarly, electrical emergency can occur any day and at any time. No matter in what scale electrical emergency shows up, it always causes a lot of inconvenience. It doesn’t matter whether it’s just one light flickering every now and then or some spark leading to complete blackout, the sooner steps are taken to put things back in order, the better it is for everyone.

Electricity can be very dangerous if it comes in direct contact with human beings. Handling electrical complications without having proper skill and tools can prove to be fatal. So it is always advisable to never touch electrical wires and always seek help from an emergency electrician. Ambient Electrical based in Sydney promises to provide you with emergency electrician without wasting any time. They provide 24/7 service and there is no third party involved. You will just be asked a few quick questions by the owner to have an understanding of your electrical emergency.

Various specialization of electricians:

Like any other jobs, even electricians have certain specialization. An electrician dealing with industrial machineries might not be well acquainted with household complications and with the problem of overloading. So, before seeking help from a licensed electrician in Sydney, make sure to mention the exact kind of electrical emergency you are facing. The company will make sure to send someone having complete knowledge on how to handle the specific problem. Else if they send someone who is not well acquainted with the issue, it can complicate things unnecessarily. Here are a few specialized electricians you might want to hire:

⦁ Commercial: These kinds of electricians have a specialization of working with the electrical systems found in commercial stores, offices and commercial buildings. The scope of commercial electricians is bigger than that of residential electricians, especially when it comes to various installations. Commercial electricians hardly work under the supervision of a private individual contractor; rather they work under electrical or private company. Their job includes installation, upgrading and troubleshooting electrical systems.

 

⦁ Residential: Residential electricians are the most common kind of electricians. Their work is mainly constricted to residential areas and it ranges from fixing or replacing a socket that has been broken to planning and designing wiring system for installing in homes. They might either work independently or under the supervision of a contractor. Residential electricians mainly works in apartments, condos, houses or any other residential building for installing lights, ceiling fans or fixing the electrical system.

 

⦁ Industrial: Industrial electricians are the ones who mainly take up big projects, unlike residential electricians. However, their work is mainly restricted to industrial facilities like big factories and processing plants. Their work mainly incorporates making sure that all the heavy machineries are working without any glitch and handling programmable logic centres that are nothing but specialized computer systems that has control over features like security systems, lighting and various other industry specific processes.

⦁ Maintenance: As the name suggests, maintenance electrician do not work on new buildings instead they are responsible for maintaining the existing or old buildings, electrical wise. Along with maintenance, they are responsible for repairing and upgrading the existing systems. However, their work is not restricted to just residential buildings but they also work in industries. Sometimes, some private companies hire long term electricians for maintenance purpose to ensure that all the systems and machineries are working smoothly, without any glitches.

These are the few specializations of electricians whom you might hire according to your specific need. There is a few more kind of electricians apart from these too. You need to make sure that you are specifying your needs explicitly to get the right kind of assistance.

General Safety Issues

Checklist: Top 8 Things You Must Do for A Safe Work Environment

There are many benefits to having a safe work environment. Not only does it prevent employees from getting injured, it boosts productivity and efficiency as well. People work better and produce higher results when they are comfortable in their surroundings and when they don’t need to worry about various threats or dangers.

Creating a workplace safety checklist is the first step you should take to ensure that your business is safe. Identify potential hazards and share solutions or procedures that detail how to handle these issues with your employees. Start crafting your list now.

A Few Things to Remember

Before you get started, there are a few things that you should keep in mind.

  1. Read and learn about the health and safety regulations that apply to your state and industry. You can find information by state here.
  2. Keep an organized and accessible binder of regulations that your employees can access at all times.
  3. Include health and safety checklists in the binder mentioned above.
  4. If there are any emergency procedures that your employees need to know, have them read it during their on-boarding process. Regularly review these procedures as needed.
  5. Stay accessible for any questions or concerns that your employees may have regarding the company’s safety standards.

Top 8 Things You Should Have in Your Workplace Safety Checklist

  • Keep the Floors Clear. You should have clear walkways at all times. Your employees shouldn’t struggle to get from one place to the other. If your organization constantly receives packages or boxes, be sure to have a designated area for them. Inform your employees to immediately clean up any spills or leaks that may happen. If you work in an industry that works with oils, be sure to educate your employees on how to properly clean and dispose of that.
  • Keep the Stairs Clear. Similarly to your floors, your stairs should always be clear. A crowded stairwell could cause accidents or prevent employees from being able to exit in the event of an emergency. Your stairwells should also be properly lit and have a handrail installed.
  • Install Proper Lighting. Whether you’re working on a construction site or in an office, it is imperative to have good lighting. Most employees feel safer in brightly lit areas. Having good light will also prevent falls and other accidents from taking place. Your outdoor parking area should also have good lighting to keep employees safe when getting to their car.
  • Require the Proper Dress Code. Wearing the right attire could prevent someone from getting seriously injured. If you are working in the construction industry, require your workers to wear steel-toed boots and shoes. They should also be the proper sizing. If you are working in the food industry, make sure to note that the kitchen staff should wear long sleeves and pants to prevent burns. They should also invest in non-slip shoes.
  • First-Aid Kits. Buy or create first-aid kits for your offices. Depending on how big your work environment is, you may need multiple kits. Each kit should have things to help wrap up cuts and scrapes, as well as, ointment to prevent infections.
  • Emergency Procedures. Email your employees important emergency procedures. You should also keep a set of the posted and accessible at all times. Your emergency exits should all be clearly marked. You should also inform your employees where the emergency equipment, like fire extinguishers, are housed in the office.
  • Keep the Office Clean. Make a conscious effort to keep the office as clean as possible. This doesn’t just mean tidy. This means keeping it clear of food, waste, and more. Not emptying out your trash frequently could cause insects and other critters to come into the building. The last thing you or your employees want is an unwelcome rodent infestation. You should also make sure that the bathrooms are cleaned daily.
  • Lock All Doors & Windows When Leaving. Your office or work environment should be secure at all times. In your safety checklist, provide a “closing office” checklist as well. Instruct your employees on how they should close down the office when the day is over. It is especially important to lock all your doors and windows so that none of your equipment gets taken or stolen. If your windows have blinds, they should be drawn closed so that people don’t see the valuables that you have.

 

Getting injured at work is not entirely preventable, but there are definitely steps you can take to decrease the chances of it happening. Follow these 8 tips and take the first stride to make your environment a safer one.

To learn more about what you can do if you were to get injured at work, speak to a workers compensation attorney.