Openness in a Business Environment - Essay Example

Open-door policy Openness in any business environment is needed; the situation allows issues to be raised and resolved quickly. That environment is full of trust, and mutual respect. A reliable foundation in working as a team for excellent performance of the business is created. Open door policy creates an environment where openness between supervisors and employees is a day to day activity. It also helps employees to raise concerns and seek counsel freely without fear of retaliation. At the workplace, safety is promoted by an open-door policy as it enables workers to directly approach supervisors concerning various hazards around the job site. Where there is working together of supervisors and employees towards a common goal of controlling or eliminating work hazards, results can easily be achieved. Some benefits of an open door policy are that there is enhanced communication; employees are likely to report any time they are concerned about hazards if they know the supervisor is willing to listen (Moran, 2011). There are also innovative safety strategies that employees can freely communicate with management, about ideas and opinions relating to workplace safety. Moreover, having an open door policy in addressing workplace safety concerns could lead to increased employee productivity. Supervisors may notice lower employee absenteeism rates when hazards raised are effectively removed from a workplace. When the company shows commitment to safety at the workplace and open communication, employees respond by taking a more active interest in safety by making suggestions for improvements of workplace safety and hazard reduction. Managers should quickly respond to suggestions, to show employees that their issues are heard and corrected. OPEN DOOR POLICY FORM This company promotes an atmosphere whereby employees can talk freely with members of the management staff. Employees are encouraged to openly discuss with their supervisor any problems so appropriate action may be taken. If the supervisor cannot be of assistance, Safety Committee and Human Resources are available for consultation and guidance. This company is interested in all of our employees' success and with us. We, therefore, welcome the opportunity to help employees whenever possible. Safety Director. Safety Concern Card A key component of improving safety is to proactively identify hazards which when not removed, have potential to cause harm. Everybody’s input is necessary to ensuring a safe environment for all. Sometimes, undesired events which under slight different circumstance such as time, speed or distance could have resulted in significant harm. These events are known as a near miss. Safety concern is any observed event or situation that if left unchanged, could result in an incident, maybe a near miss or accident. Lost time accidents (LTA) are accidents which could otherwise be avoided but did not hence resulting to an accident that cost the company money and time. These events and concerns can appropriately be reported to the supervisor who will forward to the company safety committee through the use of safety concern cards. The Near Miss/LTA/Safety Concern program is a "no blame" method of reporting potential hazards. The primary goal is to focus on preventing and minimizing future hazards. This provides an opportunity to fix the system before it breaks, recognize symptoms of broken processes, and recommend improvements to improve safety at the workplace. An employee will fill the safety concern card, which is readily available on bulletin boards and give it to the supervisor, who will review the safety concern to determine the root cause and add corrective actions that comply with OSHA practices (Moran, 2011). He/she will then contact safety team via safety representative, who will input data into safety reporting system. The safety team will then provide technical assistance and also evaluate corrective actions to ensure regulatory compliance. Verbal report of injury policy From time to time, accidents do occur. When this happens, the incident must quickly be reported to the supervisor even if it was small. This should be done verbally within a short time possible and not later than, two working days following the injury/accident; failure to verbally report an incident within two working days may result in denial of On-the-job injury benefits, this is in accordance with the verbal report of injury policy. This should be followed by a written incident report form; that will be submitted to the safety committee who will; review the incident and provide further guidance on the situation. Reporting an accident immediately and verbally will enable the line manager to speedily organize for first aid and medical attention. Other than that, work-based accidents causing loss of life of an employee or admission to a hospital of three or more employees must verbally be reported to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within eight hours, to comply with OSHA Standard 29 CFR 1904.8 (Moran, 2011). It is required that any employee who is involved in an incident; resulting to loss of life of one employee or hospital admission of more than three employees, must quickly notify the line manager who will, in turn, notify the Company Safety Director and management. He/ She will also advise them about the event and also help in collection the information that will be reported to OSHA. The supervisor will complete an Occupational Injury report form for every employee who was injured. Safety Committee Safety committee in any organization is significant because it helps employees and managers to work together in identification if safety issues, development of solutions and also review incident reports and also evaluate the impact of the safety program. The primary function of the committee is to promote safety awareness and also reduce the potential for accident throughout the company. The committee should be made up of representative from each department either elected, nominated or volunteering. These representatives only serve for one year after which the can be replaced or continue working. The chairperson should be elected by committee members. The committee should hold meeting preferably in a conference room to discuss agendas. The minutes are recorded. Each seating should start with a review of the previous minutes to find out whether the actions raised have been addressed. The safety committee major functions include; identification of hazards around working place, creation of safety policies, enforcement of safety rules, measurement of safety performance and development of safety programs among others. Safety committee also should conduct inspections at work place and Personal Protective Equipments alongside providing safety training for employees on hazard recognition, evaluation and control. The committee also reviews hazards reported and create an incentive to reward employees that champion safety. Safety posters and newsletters are also prepared by the safety committee. A monthly safety inspection is carried out by each member in the area they represent and also regularly encourage safe working environment among co-workers. A safety committee is a problem solving forum and has an open door policy to welcome all suggestions from everybody (Moran, 2011). Safety Representative/s (SR) Sample Nomination and Voting Templates Under the Work Safety Act workers’ (you) are entitled to elect a Safety Representative SR) to represent you. A SR must be a worker elected by co-workers. A SR cannot be appointed by the employer. (E.g. the principal or manager of a site) To begin the process, please nominate yourself or a co-worker to be included in the election. Forward a nomination by / / via: [choose the method that works for your school]  Email to: Or  Phone call to: Or  Nomination form (below) delivered to: More than one SR may be elected after negotiations with the Officer in Charge. If more than one SR is being nominated please note the area they are representing. The election process will be conducted on / / [or note dates] Nomination for Safety Representative/s Name: Area: Name: Area: Name: Area: If you have a preference for how the election process should run please note this below (1 = most preferred to 4 = least preferred)  Secret ballot  email vote  show of hands  [other] Nominations for Safety Representatives Thank you for providing your nominees for the position/s of at our school. Under the Work Safety Act‘ workers’ (you) are entitled to elect a Safety Representative (SR) to represent you at this school. A must be a worker elected by co-workers at the workplace. A cannot be appointed by the employer. The following nominees for the position/s of SR have been put forward: Nominees Area The election process will be conducted on / / [or note dates] All staff is encouraged to vote in the election. Example Ballot Forms for Complex SR Elections BALLOT PAPER Please vote for your preferred candidate for Workplace Safety Representative (HSR) by placing ‘1’ in the adjacent square.  [Candidate Name]  [Candidate Name]  [Candidate Name]  [Candidate Name] Hazard Recognition Program Many employees are unaware of the potential hazards in their work environment, which makes them prone to injury. Hazard recognition is the regular observation and identification of unsafe conditions, risk behaviors and primary management system weaknesses that if permitted to continue, may lead to employee injury. Hazard recognition program is aimed to promote safety at the workplace and also to make employees more aware about hazards around their place of work. This helps to prevent injuries, damages and property destruction. Employees are trained on how to define hazards and identify them at the workplace. On top of these, employees are trained on ways to control, minimize, and/or eliminate hazards. The program should intend to encourage personal responsibility for hazard recognition and resolution. Each worker should be responsible for eliminating the direct hazard and or separating others from the potential hazard through protective measures. The four primary categories of hazards include; behavioral hazards such as failure to put on correct PPE or using defective tools that can cause injury, physical hazards e.g. naked electrical wiring, chemical hazards such as chemical inhalation and biological hazards e.g. exposure to pathogens. The program should help to identify and address unsafe behaviors before an incident occurs. This minimizes the number and severity of accident on and off the job (Moran, 2011). Also, the program should help employees to understand the role of personal risk behaviors as a significant cause of accident and injuries. All this should help in stress reduction Reference Moran, M. M. G. (2011). The OSHA answer book. S.I.: Moran Associates, Inc. Read More