How-To Guide: Make the Workplace Safer

Build a safer workplace! These tools will help you identify and eliminate workplace safety hazards. They lay out the three steps to improve workplace safety: identify hazards, propose solutions and take action. 

Take a look first at the Action Guide, which provides details on how to use these tools as well as tips and resources for building accountability and responsiveness to the safety issues you identify. A companion tool, the Workplace Safety Primer, shows the types of hazards health care workers face, the Labor Management Partnership approach to addressing them, and examples of how to uncover and address the causes of safety concerns. 

Then find the tool that applies to the department or group you are working with (clinical lab staff, computer users and office staff, Environmental Services, and so on). Each tool includes a checklist that targets common hazards in those areas. They also include questions to flag safety training that might be necessary in the department, and a tracking chart to ensure that issues are addressed in a timely way. You can save the checklists on your computer and fill them out online before sharing with others. Or print them out and use them in your safety walkthroughs.

There's also a stand-alone version of the tracking chart that can be used in any department. 

Email suggestions about these materials to Lizabeth Taghavi, KP’s director for Employee Health and Safety (Lizabeth.R.Taghavi [at] kp.org).