When choosing work gloves of any kind, there are five very important things to consider. The first is your thumb, and the remaining four digits are of equal importance, yet despite this seemingly obvious point, many people seem to choose work gloves based not on the hands, but on the wallet, or the clock.
Choosing work gloves based almost exclusively on cost is not a wise idea, because ultimately what price can you put on a pair of hands? Insurance companies and solicitors may be able to put a value on a hand injury, but for most of us we can't work like that.
A few pounds saved on a pair of gloves is hardly a bargain if the gloves turn out to be of inferior quality, exposing our hands to dangers, and potentially contributing towards or exacerbating an injury or accident.
But cost can be an issue in another way too, because by supplying work gloves which are a poor fit, are too tight, restrict movement or impair dexterity workers may find it harder to carry out their tasks, resulting in reduced output.
A couple of pounds saved on a pair of work gloves could easily result in a significant loss of business productivity. It's worth considering work gloves as being an investment not only in your workers, but in the business too.
The second ill chosen method by which some work gloves are chosen is on the basis of the clock. Time is certainly a precious commodity, but choosing work gloves shouldn't be rushed. Taking the time to identify the nature of the work, the requirements of the job and the potential dangers against which the work gloves will be providing a degree of protection is as important as identifying the range of work gloves on sale.
It's easy to assume that work gloves are more or less standard, offering minimum, average or high levels of protection, and available in a couple of sizes. To assume this, and to then rush into a purchase on the basis of this is to grossly underestimate the range of solutions available.
Protection doesn't just mean thickness, and work gloves don't always just mean protection.
Dangers at work come in many forms, with cuts, punctures, tears, crushes, spills, burns, abrasions and vibrations all representing quite different and distinct risks. Each of those risks can cause quite different damage to a hand, and not just different types of damage, but potentially damaging different areas of the hand and wrist.
Protecting against one danger sometimes means that little or no protection is being offered to other parts of the hand or against other types of dangers. For example, puncture resistant gloves may well provide high levels of protection for the back of the hand, but such gloves almost certainly offer no protection to the wrist. Yet when working with cutting machinery the wrist and the palm are often the most vulnerable areas, and so cut resistant gloves will need to provide a different level of protection to these areas of the hand instead.
Work gloves which protect against chemical spills need not be very thick, but offer a level of protection against strong acidic or alkaline substances. Indeed, to have thick gloves may well prove to be a real disadvantage when working with chemicals, since these are often stored in small glass vials and test tubes, with small droppers, buttons or caps, all of which require a fine level of dexterity. Reducing that dexterity by offering thick gloves may well not only reduce performance, but may even contribute towards an accident which may not have otherwise occurred.
Assembly work gloves may need to provide minimal protection against heavy machinery in some cases, but may need to protect the equipment from the hands. Working with electronic machinery or components can often require that workers wear a type of work glove which prevents oils from the skin affecting the components.
Cotton gloves are ideal for this. But cotton gloves aren't necessarily suitable as assembly work gloves in all cases, because they offer very little grip. Nitrile palm cotton gloves are ideal work gloves in such cases, offering a comfortable and non-restrictive cotton glove, whilst allowing a good level of grip on the palm and inside of the fingers.
Choosing work gloves based on the hands and the tasks they need to undertake is far more important than choosing work gloves based on cost or time.
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