6+ General Safety Policy Templates – PDF, Word
No matter what kind of business you decide to run, you have to come up with rules and regulations that all of your employees will need to adhere to. The reason for creating them is so that all of your employees will understand what they can and cannot do while working for your company. You may also see HR policy templates.
But these rules and regulations can also benefit the employees. For example, it will keep them safe from anything that could potentially harm them and allow them to circumvent problems that could otherwise cause serious injuries to others. The kind of rules that can do that are contained within a well-made safety policy and this article is going to teach you how to create one. You may also see employee attendance policy templates.
Policy Template Bundle
Construction Safety Policy Template Bundle
Health and Safety Policy Template
General Safety Policy Template
Restaurant Food Safety Policy Template
Restaurant General Safety Policy Template
Company Safety Policy Template
rowlinsonconstruction.co.uk
Sample Safety Policy Template
dli.pa.gov
Example of Safety Policy
hse.gov.uk
How to Write a Safety Policy
The safety policy of a company basically tells every single employee how the company feels about safety, both on and off the job. It states your commitment to safety and lets your employees know and that everyone else should follow whatever is in this particular company policy to ensure that everyone remains safe.
So if you want to learn how to create this type of policy, then follow these steps to help you do so:
1. Find a Template
While you could always start creating your safety policy from scratch, a ton of business owners has found it easier to go with a template where they can point out what they want to say regarding company safety rules and regulations. There are even some templates which offer suggestions on what you should be writing down to ensure that everyone understands the importance of company safety. You can always go through the different templates online and see which one suits you and your simple business best; you can always change their content if you think you need to do so.
2. Make Use of a Good Writing Application
You can’t have created a policy if you won’t be able to write it down. There are a ton of different applications that you can find on the internet, but a lot of people tend to make use of Microsoft Word; Due to the fact that it has become the most used application and that it has all of the necessary features you would need to make a proper policy. You don’t have to go for it if you think that there are others that you would rather use, just be sure that you utilize one that you can easily use.
3. Point Out the Goal of the Policy
The goal of this particular policy should be pretty obvious, but it’s best that you still point it out in whatever document you decided to put it in. Specifically, state that the purpose of having a safety policy is so that every employee or anyone doing business with the company is free from all harm. You may also see sample policy templates.
4. The Safety Risks
These will differ depending on the type of company that’s making the policy. Every business has its own safety risks, and it’s up to the business owners to understand what they are. By knowing the different dangers that employees could face will working with the company, the policy will be able to warn them as to what they have to avoid. So when you’re writing down these safety risks within the sample company policy, you have to be sure that you’re very specific as to what these risks should be. Because let’s say that your business focuses more on working with construction equipment and building structures. The obvious risks are random objects that could fall on top of employees at any given moment or that there’s the potential that non-employees might get hurt. So what you should do on your end is point them out clearly within the safety policy.
5. Prevention of These Risks
Now that your employees already know what these dangers are, you should provide them with means of preventing these risks from harming them. For example, there’s a chance that employees who don’t make use of proper equipment might be injured while performing tasks for the company. To prevent that from happening, you can place in the policy that they are not allowed to perform any type of work unless they wear the complete protective gear. You don’t want these people to end up getting hurt, so you’ll want to make it clear as to how you want these people to prevent these risks from harming anyone within the company. You may also like punctuality policy templates.
6. Reporting Safety Problems
You may have missed out on a couple of safety issues during your investigation or your assessment of the company and its operations. If an employee were to spot a dangerous problem that has never occurred before, you would want to be informed about it. This is why you should state in the safety policy that every employee who encounters safety-related problems must create a detailed safety report and submit it to either Human Resources or anyone with the authority to handle such problems. Point out that you want specific details regarding the kind of problem, where the problem took place when the problem occurs, the factors that were involved, etc. Because you’ll need all of these pieces of information if you want to solve the safety problem the moment that you finish it.
7. Consequences for Employees Who Break the Safety Policy
If someone were to disregard the rules, then you don’t expect that person to get out unpunished. The kind of consequence will depend on the severity of the offense and how frequent the employee has been violating the company safety policy.
Here are the disciplinary actions you can take against those employees who decide to break the policy:
- Verbal Warning – While safety isn’t a joke, there are times where employees may forget a thing or two. If the employee has rarely made any type of offense, then you can let the employee go with a simple verbal warning. All this means that he or she will be talking with human resources or anyone that can give the employee another run through the safety policy, therefore reminding him or her of what the policy entails.
- Written Warning. This is made for those employees who have managed to violate the policy on more than occasion even after being warned. By handing them a written warning, you’re basically telling them that there’s a possibility that the next offense could result in their termination.
- Termination. These are for those employees who have failed to heed the written warning or who have done anything that has put the company or its employees in serious danger. Create an employee termination letter, write down the reason as to why the employee is being terminated, and then submit the document with your signature to the employee.
8. Obtain the Signatures of the Employees
No matter where you have this document written down, whether it’s in its own document or if it’s written in the employee handbook, you’ll need your employees to place their signatures at the end of the policy. The purpose of gaining their signature is so that you have proof wherein they have read, understood, and agreed to whatever terms you’ve made within the company safety policy. And this will come in very handy on the day that you have to bring this matter up to court in the event of certain situations relating to safety violations. You may also like HR policy templates.
9. Tips for Writing Safety Policies
Now that you know what your company’s safety policy should contain, the next thing is learning how to write it in a way that will get employees to want to read it.
So here are a couple of tips that will help you do just that:
- Keep things brief. You don’t want to make it too long as employees would want to get straight to the point so that it won’t waste much of their time. All you have to do on your end is to be sure that your employees understand the point of the policy in a few sentences. You may also like workplace policy templates.
- Write in a way that everyone can understand. You want to make sure that the policy is written in clear, jargon-free language. It’s also best that you break down all of the information in bullet points or in separate sections so that employees will have an easier time reading. You may also like policy receipt for employees.
- Be sure that the safety policy’s contents are specifically made for the type of business you’re running. If you need help from a consultant, they should be working with you to ensure the statements you’ve made in the policy accurately reflects your business.
- Make sure that the safety policy is made known to every single employee in the company. There are a ton of ways to make sure that your employees are able to see and go through your policy. You can put on display in prominent places (a good example being noticeboards that are scattered in your establishment) or you can communicate them to your employees by means of induction training or placing it within their employee handbook.
- Review the policy regularly. This will need to be updated as you’re most likely going to encounter new problems as well as coming up with new prevention methods that you want everyone in the company to know about. It’s best that you review your company’s safety policy at least once a year. You may also like policy sample templates.
If you would like to learn more about how to create a safety policy or anything related to this particular topic, then all you have to do is go through our site, find the articles that contain the information that you need, and make use of whatever you’ve been able to gather to help you and your business. You may also see leave policy templates.