Ways to Make Your Employees and Customers Feel Safe
- Written by Lilly Miller
Running a successful business means prioritizing the safety of your employees and customers. If you think that you might need some help in that department, here are a couple of ways to take employee and customer safety to a higher level.
Rely on a security system for a feeling of safety
This is especially important if your business operates at night. Both customers and employees need to be able to feel secure without having to worry about someone taking advantage of poorly secured areas and potentially breaking in. To increase the overall safety of your employees and customers and protect yourself legally, it would be best if you would invest in a high-quality security camera system. It should be installed all around the object, especially in areas such as doors, windows, garages, and lobbies. Setting up cameras in these common access points. If your business also has a parking lot, make sure to secure this area as well. The place where your employees and customers park their vehicles is the place where they are making their first contact with your business.
With a security camera installation that will monitor the parking lot, you’ll help create a greater feeling of safety while also being able to detect any suspects. Make sure that the camera system has a night vision too. That way, in case a break-in occurs, you’ll have quality footage as a proof.
Use lighting technology to increase safety and productivity
Lighting has an immense impact on our mood, health, and sense of well-being. Natural light in combination with quality artificial light is key to ensuring optimal productivity in workers as well as the quality of work, whether the facility in question is an office, an outlet, a warehouse, or an industrial plant. Industrial luminaires might be your best option for ensuring high levels of productivity and safety of your facility, mainly because these highly resistant luminaires are robust enough to endure extreme temperature changes, making them a viable solution for various types of facilities. Other than increasing productivity in workers, lighting technology also fulfills the purpose of creating the feeling of safety in employees regardless of the time of the day or shift.
The amount and quality of lighting also affects the way the customers perceive your business. Well-lit spaces with optimal visibility generally appear safer to customers, especially women. Objects such as gas stations and parking lots that are well-lit make it easier for passersby to see whether they are in danger and help them out, which helps create a feeling of safety.
Set up an alarm monitoring system
While proper illumination is a very important element regardless of whether you are looking to create an efficient office space or furnish an industrial plant, sometimes mishaps won’t be easily visible. Natural disasters can strike anytime, and depending on your geographical location, you can be at risk of floods, volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, wildfires, etc. Your level of preparedness will largely determine the outcome and the overall feeling of safety of your customers and employees, so you want to make sure that everyone is informed about the best way to deal with an emergency.
This is where installing an alarm monitoring system may come in handy. Including such systems into your emergency response plan is crucial in protecting the employees, customers, and the commercial buildings from danger. Should anything unexpected happen, the sensors will pick it up, and then notify and dispatch emergency services.
Encourage open communication
While the physical safety of the workers and customers should be among every business owner’s top priorities, creating a secure environment also has to do with psychological safety. The employees should be able to feel like they can trust you. They also need to know that they can report any type of problem they’re experiencing at the workplace without the fear of being punished or fired from their job.
This is why it is important for employers to encourage open communication in business and discourage harassment and bullying. Creating a positive environment and a culture of trust will empower the employees to address any concerns as well as offer suggestions without creating unnecessary tension. This, in turn, will decrease the chances of attacks and physical confrontations, thus helping create a feeling of safety.
Document safety issues and procedural changes
Another way to make your employees and customers feel psychologically and emotionally safe is to educate them about community safety and communicate any changes regarding the equipment, practices, and procedures that are taking place due to the pandemic. This is especially important now that we are in the post-COVID-19 era and the businesses around the globe are slowly reopening.
As a business owner, it is your duty to stay on top of the regulations by staying updated on the latest information gathered from credible sources. Doing so is essential for making sure that your business practices and procedures are in line with local, state, and federal guidelines. You should also make sure that your employees know how to deal with safety issues (e.g. customers refusing to wear protective masks), while also making sure that every safety issue and procedural change is documented.
Wrapping up
Safety plays an important role in both employee and customer satisfaction. The examples above are great ways to start improving the safety of your workplace and ensuring that your workers and customers feel protected.
