Like most companies, you probably have a well developed workplace safety policy to protect your workers. But does that policy cover visitors and temporary workers (which, for the sake of simplicity, we'll refer to collectively as "visitors") who come to your facilities? Failure to account for visitors is a huge blind spot that can lead not only to injuries but liability. And even if you do have a visitors' safety policy, you need to ensure that it's effective.

Here's a look at the visitors' safety problem and how to deal with it.

3 Reasons You Need a Visitors' Safety Policy

Implementing a policy to protect visitors seems like the kind of common sense measure that all companies would adopt. Apparently, however, that's not the case. I've heard from a number of safety directors who say that company executives don't want to put a visitors' safety policy in place because it's "unmanageable." If you encounter such resistance, here are three good arguments you can use to overcome it:

1. Visitors Are at Risk

The people who work at your site every day can be trained to recognize dangers and take appropriate precautions. This isn't true of visitors who are at your workplace for only a short time. As a result, visitors are especially vulnerable to injuries and need to be carefully protected. "Keeping your workers safe is tough enough," notes Ontario safety director Sara Murphy. "Protecting the visitors who walk around your worksite without having the same knowledge and appreciation of the hazards can be even trickier," she adds.

2. Visitors May Endanger Others

Visitors can also put the health and safety of others in the workplace at risk. For example, visitors may tinker with machines or safety systems, light up cigarettes around combustible fumes or distract workers performing vital safety functions, such as traffic control. And, of course, visitors may pose security risks or threats of violence.

3. You Can Be Liable for Visitor Injuries and Illnesses

Perhaps the most effective way to overcome objections is to argue that a visitors' safety policy is necessary to protect the company against liability. Stated simply, employers have certain legal responsibilities to protect the health and safety of visitors.

"If the visitors are workers for one of your contractors, those obligations might stem directly from the OSHA laws themselves," explains Chicago lawyer Janine Landow Esser. "If visitors are outsiders, you might have a duty to protect them under the torts law," Esser explains. So, for example, visitors who sustain injuries in a trip and fall incident can sue your company for negligence.

Conclusion

Once you make the case for adopting a visitors' safety policy, you need to make sure you create one that's appropriate and effective. In the next installment, after the holidays, we'll talk about how to create one. We'll also give you a Model Visitors' Safety Policy that you can adapt for your own workplaces and facilities.

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