Despite the fact that in offices there are practically no machines, tools, chemicals, pressure equipment, and everything else, they are not absolutely safe; risks exist always and everywhere.
The office should serve as an example, and employees of departments who visit it should see examples here and absorb the atmosphere.
By the way, it is in offices that large-scale initiatives and global orders are born, which means that by influencing office employees, it is possible to improve the attitude towards health and safety in other departments without the direct involvement of HSE.
I want to share some good and proven ideas for involving employees in the HSE agenda:
Maintaining Cleanliness.
Surely, there is cleaning in your office with defined schedules, areas, and cleaning times. But employees need to be accustomed to their own responsibility and influence on cleanliness.
To do this, you can organize a subbotnik (many do not like this word; we, for example, call it "Full Order"). As part of the event, employees are given a week to put things in order at their workplace: desk, nightstand, cabinet, fill out a checklist, and send it to the responsible employee. At the end of the week, a commission from the administrative department and HSE checks whether the checklist is filled out objectively. We choose the TOP-10 rooms in which the most significant changes have occurred and equip these rooms with air humidifiers (a frequent request from our employees) or small speakers; this also creates a positive atmosphere in the rooms.
On the last day of the event, we conduct greening; this is an opportunity for employees to plant a small plant for themselves and decorate their workplace with it. This event is not expensive and significantly affects employee motivation and is a small planting masterclass where a specialist tells step-by-step about the features of planting and caring for plants. A planting specialist is any company employee who is fond of gardening and wants to hold an event on their own initiative.
We hold such events twice a year; employees are constantly interested and look forward to the next event. In our company, up to 60 people can sign up for greening (maximum capacity in meeting rooms). By the way, in 2023, all available places were gone just 20 minutes after the publication of the event.
Many will ask "what does this give"?
Going only through the highlights, we can say that employees:
Electro-autumn and electro-spring.
Following from the name, we hold this event twice a year. This is an opportunity for employees to bring old, faulty electrical equipment from home for its disposal, and in return receive branded merch from the company. There are enough contractors on the market who provide such services. It works simply: we create a collection point in the office where employees bring faulty equipment; those who want to receive a gift for this take a photo of what they brought and send the photo to the HSE specialist.
The next thing to do is a matter of logistics; it is necessary to organize the delivery of the accumulated items to the appropriate collection point; there are many options for how this can be done.
Collection of information about satisfaction and the opportunity to report a problem.
We call such an event "Be Heard". In essence, this event is an annual collection of information about employee satisfaction with work, the workplace, working conditions, and other things. Within the framework of this event, there is an HSE block where employees evaluate and give comments on the safety of their workplace, working conditions, and comfort. All comments are considered, analyzed, and eliminated, and after elimination, employees receive the relevant information. Such events should be held if the company is ready to work through comments, communicate openly with employees, and implement changes.
I also recommend implementing a permanent collection of information, namely the opportunity for employees to give feedback on the state of the office, their workplace, and possible problems. The process is very easy to implement but gives a lot of useful things. All you need is to make a Yandex or Google form, link it to a table, place communication with a QR code in common areas, and then read reviews and suggestions, implement measures, and give feedback.
Thanks to such tools, you can solve both local and global problems: perform repairs and maintenance; additional equipment of places with furniture; install additional lighting; equip the places of employees who have back problems with orthopedic accessories; make the use of space more rational and safe.
Audits.
Probably the most obvious event, but it is also important. You can determine their frequency yourself (we, for example, conduct them every 2 weeks). You need to understand that a lot also happens in the office: repair work is carried out, goods come for testing, equipment is maintained, something breaks, and our task is to identify problem areas and correct them. We know that audits are one of the most effective ways to detect shortcomings; their conduct shows employees the importance of HSE in the company's agenda, and also gives the opportunity to contact a specialist to solve their difficulties and problems.
In our company, the conduct of audits is quite automated; they are conducted according to checklists in a special mobile application, violations are fixed with the help of photos. And based on the results of the audit, certain tasks are assigned. But I want to draw attention to the fact that the absence of a special application for audits is not a barrier. You can also make a similar process using the same Yandex or Google forms, or other tools.