If you have grown your small business from one woman in the kitchen or one man in the shed to a small team of people, then it can be really hard to catch up with the demands of being an employer. You have always been a solopreneur, right?
Employers have to learn how to manage their staff and that may not be your passion or your skill, but it is just as relevant whether you have one employee or one hundred.
If you lag behind the curve, you could get caught out on employee regulation and workplace safety matters. The last thing you want is to get in a muddle over worker’s compensation and the lack of safety regulations in the workplace.
About four million workers are hurt in the workplace every year in the US, so what happens if one of your happy band of three employees has an accident at work?
Respond to the Accident Quickly
An accident to one of your employees needs an immediate response. Prompt first aid treatment must be available and/or the employee despatched to hospital. You may already have a designated staff member as a trained first aider.
Take witness statements from other workers as soon as is practicable. Share this with any medical personnel and then alert your insurer. Organize a formal investigation as soon as possible while the incident is fresh in people’s minds.
Your employee may wish to lodge a claim against you, which can seem very personal in such a small business. Swift response and proper action can help you in a lawsuit.
You need to make sure you have your paperwork in order. Personal injury attorneys like Zinda Law Group can move quickly to protect their client’s interests.
While you may be horrified at what has happened, you should also act quickly to protect your business.
Walk a Mile in Their Shoes
Prevention is always better than cure, so even if you only have a couple of employees, take time to walk your business from back to front and side to side, to look at the daily life of each employee. Understand where the potential hazards might be.
There is so much useful advice out there, such as the US Small Business Administration guides, which give lots of information about hiring and managing employees.
If an accident happens, does this mean a workplace hazard has been overlooked in employee management?
It’s easy to think your business workplace is not likely to give rise to an accident or injury, but data suggests that many workplace accidents are in service businesses and not on factory floors. It could be the nature of the industry that makes workplace incidents more likely.
Final Thoughts
Some accidents are by definition unforeseeable and probably not preventable, although the National Safety Council would argue that every fall in the workplace, for instance, is 100% avoidable.
There is a bigger picture. Employers who care about their employees in the workplace will be exposed to fewer problems and potential claims, plus you will have a happier and more motivated workforce. Take steps to manage safety in the workplace to protect your company and your employees.
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