5 Tips To Reduce Human Error In The Workplace

Everyone is prone to committing mistakes and that includes you and your employees. However, you can never deny the fact that human error can cause considerable losses to any organization. In the financial industry alone, errors in handling transaction data cost organizations more than $3 trillion per year, according to a 2016 article in the Harvard Business Review.

Mistakes are a fact of life but this shouldn’t convince companies to let their guard down. Even if your business has personal liability insurance, the risk of human error remains highly preventable so long as the right measures are in place. There are many steps companies can take to mitigate issues, accidents, and problems caused by simple mistakes. Regardless of your industry and the level of risk you face, you must apply the right measures that can make errors less likely.

Ensure Proper Governance

Human errors usually occur when there is a lack of gatekeeping. While you should make things like software and small business equipment readily accessible to employees, there is still a great risk of misusing these assets. For this reason, you need to strengthen internal governance by making sure that requests for the use of tools, login information, and other assets must go through the proper channels. Restricting access can help you avoid costly issues in the long run.

Enhance Internal Communications

Most problems are caused by poor communication. Whether it’s due to a lack of clarity or delays in the relaying of information, poor communication can lead to costly misunderstandings and confusion. For this reason, your employees must be trained to communicate instructions clearly and precisely. You can also streamline internal communications further using additional channels apart from email. Use agile project management software like Trello and internal communications like Slack.

Review Operational Guidelines

Apart from improving internal communication channels, you should also check internal guidelines if you missed critical issues, especially when it comes to ensuring on-site safety and coming up with more effective contingency plans. You will also need to update your operational guidelines as you encounter new risks. That way, you will always be prepared for the latest problems and continue training business employees on what to do in addressing these problems before they get worse.

Conduct Effective Compliance Training

Compliance training is critical to ensuring workplace safety and enforcing on-site regulations in a bid to reduce costly human errors. You should invest in holding training sessions with a focus on cybersecurity, government compliance, and employee conduct. You have the choice of holding in-person discussions, but if you have team members working remotely, opt for online compliance training for employees offsite.

Enforce Penalties

Erring employees can be absolved in the first instance, but you still need to make sure that the same situation won’t happen again. Once you have included the recent error as part of the contingencies you will need to prepare for, you may need to include penalties for committing such an error. With the help of your legal and HR departments, you can decide whether a suspension is enough to discourage employees from making the same blunder. With this implementation, you can reduce worker compensation risks and potential lawsuits to protect the business.

We all make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do to prevent them. Use these tips so you can reduce the costly risk of human error in your company.

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