Whether you are working for an office, factory, or hospitality establishment, a well-written safety policy can protect your employees from unnecessary injuries and help your company avoid personal injury lawsuits. Safety policies should be individualized based on the specific hazards of your industry. Once you have created a written policy, distribute it to all employees and ask them to sign a form acknowledging that they have read your safety guidelines and understand your company’s expectations.

Identify your objectives. Before you begin to draft specific provisions for your safety policy, identify the types of accidents you hope to prevent, and list the steps that the company is taking to protect its employees.

Use specific, actionable statements in your policies. Make each provision of your safety policy actionable, and use specific examples of the types of safety actions that you expect workers to take.

Be aware of your audience. Create a safety policy that matches the specific needs of your workers. Consider making separate sets of guidelines for each position or department within the company.

Use simple, concise wording. Make sure that your guidelines are written in plain, nontechnical English so that all levels of workers understand what is expected of them.

State your reasoning for the policies. Your safety policies will be more effective if you explain your reasons for implementing them.

Create reporting guidelines for workers who notice breaches in the safety policy. At the end of your safety policy, let your employees know how they should report dangerous working conditions or colleagues that are compromising others’ safety.

Outline the consequences of noncompliance. To ensure that workers comply with your safety policy, consider adding a provision that details what disciplinary actions you will take against employees who disregard your written guidelines.