Maintaining A Safe And Healthy Workplace

Why Safety in the Workplace Matters

Psychologist Abraham Maslow categorized human needs into a pyramid, with immediate needs on the bottom and more personalized motivation on the top. Over the next several decades, other psychologists would refine these categories, applying these insights on personal life to work life.

 

 

While human motivation is complex, needs at the bottom of the pyramid take priority over needs further up the pyramid. Your employees might take time to assess whether their job is helping them fulfill their purpose in life but likely not while your office is on fire and their army crawling under the smoke toward the stairwell. If an employee doesn’t have health, safety, security, and emotional support, then those needs will be a persistent distraction until they’re met.
 

To avoid having these distractions detract from the quality of their work, employees need to feel safe at work, and for this to happen, their experience while working for you needs to consistently meet their most pressing needs. Several factors build support for each of these basic needs, and it takes a holistic policy approach to fully meet them. Consider the following needs, starting from the base of the pyramid of motivation:

Physiological Needs
 

• Sufficient compensation: The money employees earn determines their ability to feed themselves and their families, pay for housing, and keep up with their utilities that provide warmth and physical comfort.
• Comfortable workspace: A study involving 7,600 employees across 16 countries found that people who work in spaces with natural features (like plants, views, and natural light) reported 15 percent higher levels of overall wellbeing, feeling 6percent more productive, and 15 percent more creativity at work. (No word on office thermostat battles, though.)
• Balanced time: Wherever employees work, there needs to be time to change positions, get a drink of water, and take restroom breaks. This means having sufficient facilities in the office and sufficient planning so employees have time to breathe between online meetings or other job duties.

• Safety training: Employees need to know how to protect themselves at work, whether it’s avoiding industrial accidents or knowing how to exit the office in an emergency.
• Benefits: Ensuring that your employees have access to health insurance helps give them the assurance that they and their loved ones are protected in the event of accidents or illnesses.
• Work environment: Employees also need to feel secure from human-created dangers in their workplace, including harassment and physical abuse.

• Psychological safety: After employees feel secure with how their employment provides for their physical needs, they need to know that the organization won’t take it all away if they offer critical feedback or admit failure.
• Mental health coverage: Depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues have an impact on employee focus. Employees need to know your organization recognizes these challenges and is willing to support mental health efforts through policy and management.
• Maintaining safety in the workplace means responding to these issues directly when possible and giving employees the knowledge, training, and encouragement they need to solve issues outside work. This foundation of safety is essential for building a healthy workplace—one where employees go beyond surviving and start thriving.

Maintaining Health in the Workplace

• Shared wellness goals: Many organizations have incentives for healthy living. But setting a shared goal like walking meetings, lunchtime volleyball matches (virus permitting), or something as simple as blocking out fifteen minutes of activity time as a team between Zoom meetings can help employees start to see the benefits of a healthier lifestyle—and it’s proof that your organization values those benefits as well.
• Financial education: Many organizations offer 401(k) retirement savings. But without a foundation of financial knowledge, employees may not be able to manage their money well enough to take advantage of it. The next generation of employees is entering the workplace with limited financial literacy and high levels of debt. Working with benefits providers or other financial education programs to help employees learn sound financial principles can help free struggling employees from persistent financial worries (and the physical effects of the associated long-term stress).
• Emotional Intelligence: Many organizations have statements listing their mission, vision, and values. But to translate those words into a healthy culture, they can’t just be posters on the break room wall. If your organization values openness, for example, you might challenge teams to politely and positively tell each other one weakness they’ve observed. 

Author Bio

Brian Anderson is the Creative Copywriter at BambooHR. Visit www.bamboohr.com  Connect Brian Anderson Follow @bamboohr