Essay Example on Balancing Humanity and Efficiency: Workplace Safety Measures in Amazon

The innovations and inventions characterizing the modern-day world have hastened the day-to-day running of organizations' operations. As a result, this has prompted safety and security managers to take the well-being of workers and organizations' property more seriously than ever. However, since safety requires continuous observation of the existing measures and emerging risks, the experts can never exploit all the means necessary for the entire organization to be safe. Therefore, organizations like Amazon have been doing their best to keep up with modern and emerging safety management techniques. However, due to the dynamic nature of workplace safety, Amazon has, in some cases, failed to use specific effective measures.

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In the bid to ensure high employee well-being, Amazon has taken some aspects of humanity off its safety measures. That means that it has prioritized physical safety over psychological well-being. However, a pleasant working environment should recognize the fact that people are social beings. As a result, Amazon should, therefore, embrace safety measures that allow individuals to work together to share their challenges with colleagues and obtain solutions in the process. Ideally, the safety department can achieve this by entirely assigning robots to individual sections rather than pairing them with human beings and limiting employee socialization in the course of service delivery. Such a safety measure would positively impact employee productivity since there would be a free flow of ideas and reduced isolation levels.

On the same note, amazon should also consider employee empowerment and self-sustainability as one of its safety measures. Under this approach, Amazon's safety measures should focus on having its employees develop a sense of responsibility rather than reduce their obligations. In so doing, the organization will challenge its employees' creativity and improve their job satisfaction. Moreover, that will also lead to a vibrant workforce. Customer satisfaction will skyrocket and reflect positively on the brand of the organization's brand in the long run. That is how far a human touch can go in enhancing workplace safety and business brand.

In addition to the safety measures discussed above, Amazon should also equip all employees with the essential technical skills critical in the operation and maintenance of robots. Most importantly, the safety department should familiarize regular employees with emergency responses to avoid accidents in cases where robotic breakdowns could lead to adverse property damages or cause severe injuries to individuals working nearby. Therefore, such a measure is necessary since engineers may not be available in the areas covered by the robots. In so doing, employee confidence increases, thus building a foundation for that of the customers.

Also, the organization mentioned above should have support groups as another way of ensuring workplace safety. The groups will enable individuals recovering from the loss of loved ones and such circumstances, as drug, and substance addiction, to regain stability. By so doing, the workplace safety department would have absent-mindedness and stress, thus reducing the likelihood of accidents occurring. Additionally, the measure highlighted above also prevents the possibility of employees developing psychiatric problems resulting from the mounting pressure resulting from personal issues and work-related stress.

Additionally, Amazon should also consider training its employees as fire marshalls and first aiders. This is one of the best ways of ensuring physical workplace safety in an organization with plenty of machinery operations. By so doing, the organization will be sure of faster response and minimum damage in case of an incident. The approach may include the certification of the trained individuals to enable them to be helpful to the community around the organization as a form of corporate social responsibility. However, it is also crucial for the organization to couple training with the provision of all the necessary equipment. Also, the organization needs to be offering refresher courses regularly to ensure that trained individuals remain effective.

In addition to the measures highlighted above, the organization's workplace department should always ensure that all its communication lines are open. Notably, that will provide quick responses and minimum damage in case of an incident. To enhance this measure, the supervisors should also be always readily available. Therefore if the organization implements this measure, there will be some form of vigilance that cannot allow confusion in case of an incident. When such action operates within the organization over a long period, it obligates employees to take care of each other, detect hazards, and neutralize the corresponding threats.

Also, to avoid long-term conditions on such body parts as the back, knees, and arms, the workplace department at Amazon should train its staff on handling heavy loads. For instance, it should encourage its workers to test heavy materials before actually lifting them. In the process, the responsible individuals should also discourage workers from moving their backs rather than their when carrying loads. The workplace department should develop regular training sessions on the same. When done correctly and adequately implemented, such a measure cuts the cost the organization under discussion incurs in the form of medical bills.

Additionally, even though Amazon secludes its robots whenever they are not working, the workplace safety department should clarify rules and regulations that discourage poor storage of tools. The rules should cover secluded robotics areas and even ordinary day-to-day working spaces. By so doing, the responsible department prevents employees from falling and unnecessary destruction of robots. Therefore, the organization's safety managers should ensure proper demarcation of tool storage areas and ideal arrangement procedures. Moreover, it would be helpful to label the tool for secure location during searches, not robot-aided. Thus, it would be easy for employees to go about their day-to-day activities during those moments with robot breakdowns as they would with the machines' help.

Conclusion

In conclusion, even though the use of robots is efficient and economical, it is not acceptable to eliminate certain aspects of humanity from day to day running of the business to enhance workplace safety. That is so because workplace safety takes multiple dimensions. At one point, it may be a common approach, and at another psychological one. Therefore the adoption of robots in the Amazon store operations should not target the reduction of employee responsibilities; it should serve to facilitate them.