Heavy lifting, operating machines and exposure to hazardous materials are just a few of the things you might encounter while working in a warehouse. What might initially seem like a mundane job requires careful consideration to ensure employees work safely and productively.
Follow this handy checklist to ensure your warehouse space is a safe and efficient environment:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Warehouse Safety Tips
Our warehouse safety checklist is here to help you eliminate the fundamental concerns any business should have when running a warehouse. Every operation is unique, and we encourage you to develop a comprehensive safety plan using this advice as a foundation and expanding to include the needs of your operation.
- Talk about safety:To you, working safely might be an assumption. To someone else, it might not be. Ensure all employees hear it from management early on, and that company leaders regularly communicate the safety-first message from the top down. A good example of this is the “number of days without accident” signage you’ve probably seen.
- Post standards and instructions: Signage is one way to make it clear that you take safety seriously while also reminding people of how to work safely. Post easy-to-read signs describing your warehouse safety requirements in prominent locations throughout your workplace. These might be for general safety measures, or for something more specific, like how to use a piece of equipment.
- Train your team:Without proper training, it’s unreasonable to assume your employees will execute their tasks safely. That’s why it’s critical for you to implement a training program. Training allows you valuable time to observe new employees and protects the company if anything should go wrong.
- Define safety roles:These are not the same as someone’s title in the company. Instead, assign these positions to responsible employees who can take ownership of warehouse safety regulations, like ensuring safe evacuation or declaring a workplace emergency. Find ways to recognize these people — they’re going above and beyond to ensure the safety of their fellow workers.
- Clearly identify hazards: People who are tired, distracted or subject to challenging working conditions can easily overlook even the most obvious potential risk. In a warehouse, you have a responsibility to notify workers of a hazard using signage or other means. Make signs big and bold, and place them where people can see them. Don’t assume anything goes without saying — someone who’s not familiar with the warehouse might be there anytime.
- Keep your workplace clean: A clean workplace is a safe workplace. When you allow things to get disorganized, you run the risk of people tripping, losing tools, slipping or being unable to clearly see where they need to go. These are just a few examples. Each workday should include a time to clean the warehouse. It’s not a chore, but a valuable part of ensuring your workplace is safe.
- Wear proper clothing and protection:Loose-fitting clothes are dangerous for warehouse workers, and you may also need to consider eye, ear and respiratory protection depending on the type of work that takes place in your setting. Make sure everyone understands their clothing should be comfortable, but also functional and safe. Your workers should have proper access to protective equipment that might include safety goggles, earmuffs, breathing masks, rubber gloves and boots. These are only a few examples — apply the idea to the needs of your warehouse.
- Conduct reviews: Taking safety seriously means creating stringent standards and holding your operation to them. Reviews are the best way to ensure your employees are fully meeting every item on your warehouse safety checklist. It’s best to conduct such reviews without warning to get an accurate picture of how the warehouse is running, but you might incorporate some announced reviews to reduce stress and remind people of the need to be safe at all times.
Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Well
Warehouses offer a variety of opportunities for accidents to happen. By using this warehouse safety checklist, we hope you’ll be able to keep the employees who work at your warehouse safe and well-informed about your expectations for them. While it might feel like a chore, ultimately safety is a critical piece of helping your operation continue to function smoothly and be profitable. That makes it worth investing time and effort in.