Keeping Your Workers Safe When They Work From a Height

Any industry that requires you to work from a height is considered a high risk job role, and extra precautions will always be needed. There can be serious consequences if anything goes wrong in these types of working environments, which is why safety equipment, training and additional measures should always be a priority. Complying with health and safety is all about assessing the risks and putting methods in place to protect the individuals at risk. Workplaces that require their employees to work from a height have the highest mortality rates and injuries of all industries.

In any workplace where a person could fall a distance likely to cause injury, would be considered working from a height. This includes work that is above ground floor level, working from an edge, or fragile surface and working near holes or wells in the ground.

Responsibility of the Employer

As a business owner or manager, you carry a certain level of responsibility when it comes to the health and safety of your employees. You have to implement certain measures to protect them from falling from height according to legislation. Some of your main responsibilities as the employer include, ensuring that all work at height is planned and organized effectively, the person is fully equipped and competent to carry out the work, the risks have been properly assessed and managed, and all equipment being used is in full working order.

Assess The Risks

When you’re working in a high-risk environment, you need to be aware of all the risks associated with the task at hand. Some of the main elements you need to assess include:

• The height of the task
• The duration of the task
• How frequently a person does this task 
• The surface conditions 

If it’s possible to conduct the work away from a great height, this should always be the first port of call. If it’s easily avoidable, then this should also be assessed at that time. For each step consider all of the measures that could be taken to protect everyone at risk. This could mean investing in safety equipment or creating a safer work environment.

Invest in Protection

When it comes to choosing safety equipment for your employees, you need to be aware of what is needed for the specific tasks at hand. Whether you need a purpose built safety harness for a high-elevation task, or you need helmets to protect the workers’ heads whilst they’re at a great height, these are all examples of personal protective equipment. You may also need to invest in collective protective equipment such as scaffolds or fixed guardrails. There may also be a need for smart PPE which is a type of technology designed to raise alarms for help if a fall does take place.

Implement Proper Training

Training should always be at the forefront when it comes to keeping your workers as safe as possible. Without the proper training, you are putting them at risk of serious injury and potentially fatal consequences. Educating your workers on the risks involved with working from a height will allow them to make good judgements whilst on the job, and follow regulations at all times. As soon as all formal training has been completed, it may also be necessary to follow this with refresher training every few months to make sure everyone is up to speed with the latest protocols. When the working environment changes over time your safety measures may also need to be adapted, so this should be kept in mind at all times too. Complacency from workers can lead to lapses in judgment and decision making errors; this is why regular top-up training should always be encouraged.

How to Prevent Accidents

Proper training and the right safety equipment are the best ways to prevent accidents, but there are also a number of preventative methods you can take too, especially when using ladders regularly at work. Make sure you don’t overload ladders, and take into account the equipment that a person might be carrying when they step onto a ladder. The ladder label will tell you about how much weight it can bear, so this should always be considered. You should never rest a ladder against a weak or breakable surface, or use ladders for strenuous tasks. If you suspect that someone isn’t competent enough to be carrying out the task at hand, then you should immediately tell them to stop working and take a break.

As you can see, there are numerous risks associated with working from a height, so additional precautions should always be taken where possible. If you’re running a team that requires these extra safety measures, you need to communicate with them and take these safety procedures seriously. Hopefully, all of your workers remain safe, injury-free and content in their job role for many years to come.