4.8% of full-time warehouse employees have sustained an injury at work. When your employees are working and sustain an injury, you need to ensure that it is not caused by a lack of safety precautions or safety training. If your negligence causes the damage, you could be held legally responsible. Let’s learn about warehouse safety trends.

To learn how to increase safety and protection for your employees, keep reading. This guide will cover the top 2024 warehouse safety trends for a safer workplace.

Warehouse Safety Trends. Forklift in the warehouse.
Photo by Petrebels on Unsplash

2024 Trends For Improving Warehouse Safety

If you want to improve safety in your warehouse, you need to be up-to-date with the latest trends for improving warehouse safety. Consider implementing these tools to ensure your workplace promotes a safety and well-being culture for employees.

Given the risk associated with warehousing jobs, you should provide healthcare insurance for your employees or encourage them to invest in healthcare insurance. You should also ensure your business is fully insured for employee accidents.

Access Control

Your warehouse is home to many valuable items that need protection, and the risk of a break-in might also put your employees in danger. So, implementing cloud-based access control technology can help you to restrict entry to the building and keep your employees safe at work.

Mobile access control is an emerging trend in the commercial security sphere that allows businesses to implement higher security standards without inconveniencing employees. Users can operate door locks without removing their access device from their pocket, which allows for seamless and swift entry.

Wellness Verification

Wellness verification software can be integrated with cloud-based access control in your warehouse to ensure your employees’ health is not at risk while they are working. Since the pandemic, employers have an additional responsibility, so sick employees are not allowed to enter the workplace, as this could lead to the spread of germs.

Wellness verification allows employers to implement wellness surveys that screen for coronavirus symptoms before an employee enters the building. If they are symptomatic, they will not be granted access to the building and may be required to take a coronavirus test.

Wellness verification can also be used for your HR team, as wellness surveys can be centered around emotional and mental wellbeing. If your HR team detects a high volume of employees suffering from mental health issues and poor job satisfaction, this could indicate the need for a wellness seminar and education on mental health practices.

Occupancy Management

Overcrowding in a warehouse environment can cause accidents, and it can also encourage the spread of germs. To maintain safe occupancy levels within your warehouse, you can use occupancy management software.

Occupancy management software can be integrated with access control and allows you to set occupancy limits in your warehouse spaces that ensure your employees aren’t at risk of the consequences of overcrowding.

Training Employees On Health And Safety Practices

One of the more significant safety concerns in a warehousing environment is the risk of accidents occurring. This is why you should educate employees on the best safety practices to ensure their safety and the safety of those they work with.

Your employees will likely be handling box cutters, forklifts, and other tools that can put them in danger if they have not received proper training. To use these tools effectively, your employees will need to be trained in the safe use of these tools.

Providing proper safety training is essential to prevent medical expenses as an employer, should your employees become hurt or cause an accident in the workplace due to a lack of training. So, ensure your employees have plenty of resources, training, and knowledge regarding workplace safety.

PPE Gear

You should provide PPE gear such as gloves, visors, and masks to your employees to protect them from the spread of coronavirus in the workplace.

However, there have been advances in the PPE sector that make it possible to monitor your employees’ well-being while they are working. Smart PPE allows you to monitor employee heart rate, sweat, blood pressure, and steps walked throughout the day.

If this information indicates that an employee is tired, it can allow management to offer them a break and ensure their wellbeing is taken care of while they are working. If employees become too exhausted, this can be seriously detrimental to their productivity. Using smart PPE, you can manage your employees based on their fatigue levels for a healthier and safer working environment.

PPE Gear On A Worker.
Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash

Flexible Scheduling

Flexible scheduling is becoming an increasingly popular practice in warehouse working environments.

Implementing a flexible scheduling program in your warehouse allows employees more freedom to assess their health and their fitness for work. Suppose employees can switch their schedule around based on their wellness. In that case, you decrease the likelihood of coronavirus spreading in the workplace and ensure employees feel fit enough to be productive at work.

Your employees will be grateful for the new scheduling premise, as it shows them that their employer values their health and is taking active steps to care for their health and safety in the workplace.

Summary

If you’re considering taking steps to make your warehouse a safer place to work, then consider implementing these technologies and trends. If your employees feel that their workplace considers their health and well-being, this will improve their job satisfaction and decrease your warehouse’s turnover rate. Implementing these trends can also help you reduce the risk of accidents and incidents in the workplace that could cause financial losses and legal complications.

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