Health and safety in warehouses

Good health and safety management is crucial in warehousing where workers can be exposed to a range of hazards and fast paced operations. Common hazards within the warehousing industry include:

• Manual handling/musculoskeletal disorders.

• Slips and trips.

• Vehicles.

• Work at height.

Failure to identify the hazards and carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment could allow hazards to go unmanaged, resulting in accidents, near misses and ill health, all of which can affect the overall safety culture of the organisation.

Below are our tips for managing warehouse environments to ensure compliance and foster positive safety culture.

Carry out a risk assessment

Identify the hazards, include all aspects of the workplace, such as space, flooring, pedestrian and traffic routes, signage and warnings, ergonomic hazards such as manual handling, repetitive movements and using display screen equipment, hazardous substances, welfare facilities, equipment use, lighting, noise and workplace temperature.

Don’t forget to consider people who might be at increased risk, such as disabled people, young workers, new and expectant mothers and people whose first language isn’t English.

Identify what you are currently doing to control the risk and protect people and what more may need to be done, including specific risk assessments, such as manual handling, fire, hazardous substances, noise and legionella. Put a plan together for any improvements required.

Provide information, instruction, training and communication

Workers must be competent to carry out their tasks. Training typically includes hazard spotting, accident and incident reporting, fire and first aid awareness and slips and trips. More specific task-related training can include manual handling and repetitive movements, use of lifting and carrying equipment, work at height, forklift truck driver training, using personal protective equipment, fire marshal and first aid training and using hazardous substances.

Consider what training should be delivered at the start of employment, when it needs to be refreshed and how often.

Ensure there is communication between workers and management. Health and safety should be routine and part of your every day. Consider if you are doing enough to allow people to raise concerns, either formally, informally or anonymously.

Inspect, maintain and investigate

Warehouse environments are likely to be subject to a lot of wear and tear, and issues can have a substantial impact on safety such as potholed flooring, worn safe route markings and poor lighting. Proactive workplace inspections will help quickly identify problems so they can be resolved.

Inspections can also help monitor how people are complying with rules and operating procedures, such as wearing personal protective equipment, using safe handling techniques, operating equipment correctly and walking in designated pedestrian routes.

Carried out by the right people, inspections can help boost morale. Good managers appear regularly on the ‘shop floor’, talk about health and safety and visibly demonstrate their commitment by their actions - wearing personal protective equipment, following safety rules, asking workers for feedback and looking into problems.

Workers are also likely to use high risk equipment which must be periodically maintained, inspected and tested such as moving and lifting equipment, vehicles, electrical tools and appliances and storage racking.

Don’t forget that other premises-related assets will require maintenance and testing too, such as the fire alarm, emergency lighting and the electrical installation.

Implement accident and near miss investigations. Information gathered during an investigation can shape your preventative actions and highlight lapses in risk management or where you need to review risk assessments.

Monitor and review

Monitoring and reviewing your health and safety performance helps confirm that your health and safety management system is suitable and implemented. Activities can include:

• Learning from accidents, incidents and ill-health data.

• Checking risk assessments, and other documents and records such as training records.

• Information from inspection and maintenance records.

• Worker feedback.

• Checking for new or amended legislation or guidance.

Independent audits can also support monitoring activities by obtaining an external view of your health and safety management and offering impartial recommendations for improvement.

Making sure that people are safe and creating a great place to work will help workers feel valued, supported and motivated, which can create long-term benefits for both workers and the organisation, such as increased worker retention, reduction in sickness absence and a healthier workforce, fewer accidents and incidents, and reduced likelihood of civil liability claims and criminal prosecution.

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We offer a range of risk management services including workplace, fire and manual handling risk assessment. And specialise in industrial ergonomics support. For expert advise on risk management or ergonomics, as well as health and safety in general please contact our expert health and safety consultants by clicking on the 'Get in touch' button.