WHS Management Systems - Assignment Example

Evaluation of WHS management system This paper reviews the development and implementation of a new form of work health and safety (WHS) in Australian hardware. The main objective of applying WHS Act was to ensure that there was safe and healthy workplace. Australian hardware is a company that supplies hardware facilities or materials nationwide across Australia. It is important for the hardware to comply with WHS which is done by improvising introduction of applicable work healthy and safety practices within the firm. An efficient and effective implementation of WHS management in any type of organization is the one that is able to minimize accidents in the workplace hence reducing the compensation and medical cost which the company could bear. The WHS Act, 2012 was stipulated with a main aim of safeguarding safety and health measures and also to ensure that they are duly managed and carried out. In an organization there are several activities which are always involving and may lead to increase in the risks in the workplace thus why section 19 of work health and safety has numerous management structures that could mainly be applied to cover all the employees who are working in certain organization (Donatelle, 2009, pg.55). The workplace health and safety players in Australian hardware should ensure that they have identified the safety and healthy lawful requirements which are applicable in operation of the organization. Some of these requirements are; codes of practice, legislation and Australian standards. All the requirements should be kept up to date by reviewing them regularly. All the risks which are associated with operation of the Australian hardware are minimized through WHS management. For the firm to ensure that workplace healthy and safety are adhered to, the following elements are fully considered enabling the firm to integrate WHS functions to its organizations systems. The Australian hardware has identified both physical and financial resources and all have been allocated to the relevant teams thus making it easy for implementation of Workplace health and safety. The main objective of provision of the resources is to ensure that there is provision of allocation of budget to both individual work units and Workplace health and safety team. The policy of WHS defines clearly and also it documents the responsibilities and accountabilities of all organization workers. In order employees to perform their duties competently they should be trained on health and safety. The hardware management should determine the competencies, training and experiences which employees should have met for them to perform their duties safely in the workplace hence reduction of risks in the workplace. Also there should be an outline for job description for with specific qualities and competencies’. Annual performance management procedure should be planned early at the commencement of the budget year. The organization should be able to provide extra training to its workers on health and safety function for instance First Aid training (Roughton, & Mercurio, 2002, pg 35). Consultation should be encouraged between all the levels of workers. This is an important part to the organization because it will help in managing effective health and safety in workplace. Through encouragement of consultation among workmates will contribute a lot in making of decisions which are essential in implementation of safety functions which are mainly designed with the purpose of ensuring safety and health workers welfare. It is critical for the organization to ensure that there is workers involvement at all levels in the company. The organization, Australian hardware should motivate workers to share any relevant information about health and safety by giving them with opportunities for each to express his or her views and also to contribute to resolution of issues which are related to health, safety and workers welfare in the workplace. The workers views should be of high value to the organization and they should also be put into account. The primary method which Australian hardware should apply in order to carry its consultation is via healthy and safety representatives who should be selected according to Work health and safety act 2012 (Kinicki, & Williams, 2008, pg.30) Australian Hardware WHS Policy on documentation of health and safety or any other relevant information on welfare of workers is communicated to all those who are associated with the organization through different types of media such as safety manuals and safe work procedures. Also its reports and measures on health and safety performance should be done regularly (Roughton, & Mercurio, 2002, pg 62). Australian Hardware should have an extensive range of workplace health and safety documentation. This documentation should be available to all workers at working place. There should be policy and procedure which are developed each time there is requirement of new legislation or changes in procedures. All the information which is recorded is stored using a standard document and template control procedures. There is overall channel which is used as a mode of communication in case there are any changes in the documentation. There are several methods which are used in risk assessment, risk control, risk identification and evaluation of the effectiveness of control measures. Safety audits should be conducted at least annually in order to evaluate effectiveness of WHS policies in the workplace. Another method is to ensure that there is systematic workplace inspection. The main objective of conducting the inspection is to identify the risks that exist in the workplace. In regards to the working area the risk may be either high or low. Also there should be a record of all incidents, accidents or risks reports and they should be recorded each time accident or incident occurs. The personnel who are in charge on health and safety should give an advice each time an accident or incident has occurred (Roughton, & Mercurio, 2002, pg 87). There should be a record of statistics which have been gathered from incidents, risk reports and accidents. These statistics helps in identification of existence of risks especially if there are incidents of injury which are reoccurring. The organization should be having detailed process for reporting accidents and incidents. These records should be kept in a safe place by the WHS team. The data which is collected from accidents and incidents occurrence is of great importance to the organization because it helps in identification of areas which need immediate action and others which need preventive action. In conclusion evaluation of risks should be done regularly so that the management ensures there are effective and relevant risk control measures. Bibliography Australian Hardware’, http://simulations.ibsa.org.au/australian_hardware retrieved on 20th April 2015 Donatelle, R. (2009) Health: the basics, 8th eds, San Fransico, CA,Perason/Benjamin Cummings. Establishing a work health and safety management system, Retrieved on 26th Aug’14 from,http://www.comcare.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/109528/The_management_ of_work_health_and_safety_in_the_Commonwealth_jurisdiction.pdf Kinicki, A. & Williams, B. (2008) Management: a practical introduction, 3rd ed, New York, McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Roughton, J. & Mercurio, J. (2002) Developing an effective safety culture a leadership approach, Boston, Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More