The Importance of Implementing Health and Safety Management Systems - Example

Health and safety management systems Name Course Lecture 22 July, 2013. The importance of implementing health and safety management systems in an organization Health and safety have over time been termed as being key issues in most businesses today. The right approach to health and safety ensures that the risks are controlled, additional costs are reduced and that the business has a competitive advantage. Health and safety management systems are termed as a process that is put in place by the employers so as to minimize the possibility of illness and injury (Cahill 2001). This is usually accomplished by assessing, identifying as well as controlling risks to the employees in the workplace. Health and safety management systems tend to have various associated benefits that all workplaces can benefit from through the implementation of the health and safety management system. The health and safety management systems tend to have benefits to the employees and employer. For the employees, the maintenance of good health is often seen as being a difficult challenge as compared to all the competing demands of family, work and other social obligation that they have. Through the health and safety management systems tend to reduce the risk of developing and at the same time disabling threatening diseases and all their associated costs (Cahill 2001). Employers can also benefits from health and safety management systems based on the fact that with an improved health and safety performance in the business there will ultimately be a reduction in costs that is closely related to incidents and accidents with the business Also from the employers side there are some perceived benefits in that it enhances productivity, decreases the rate of employee absenteeism and lowers the insurance and employee’s compensation costs. Employers who also put in place comprehensive strategies so as to address employee health and safety which includes environmental and policy strategies tend to benefit in that they have the potential ability to reach out to a great number of employees in the work place. These seems to be a benefit since there is a creating of culture of health and safety within the organization and thus the healthy choices the most appropriate one for the employee can they can in a way reduce the reliance of the employer on indivudls performance of the employees in employer sponsored projects (Fagel 2010). Additionally, health and safety management systems in the workplace are commonly viewed as been an essential component whne it comes to employee benefits and compensation package which can be used to as a tool to attract and retain high quality employees and thus maintenance in productivity of the organization and also a boost in the morale of the employees. In organization where health and safety management systems exist the morale of the employees is usually high. Based on this it is very rare for employees to shift to other organizations since these acts as additional benefits to their salaries. Also employees usually work with a lot of enthusiasm and this has some attributed benefits to the whole organization at large. Health and safety management system also acts as a benefit to the public image of an organization (O’Brien 2002). Employers are commonly viewed as being valuable members of the society and by working with the society in promoting the health of the employee either by building the capacity of the community for example development of recreational facilities linking to as well as offering access to other health related activities for the employees and their respective families. Employees and employers can also achieve certain economic benefits due to health and safety programs. From the employee’s side the systems can in a way reduce expenses related to hospitalization and medications. Improved health can also be a major enable and can also act as a job security for the employees are absent less often and more productive. Employers who have a high number of healthier employees will tend to spend less in terms of medical expenses, disability and worker compensation (Hudson & Stephens 2000). Health and safety management systems have been applied in almost all organizations. A good example of such an organization is British petroleum. At BP safety and risk management seems to be a core value in everything that they do. Qantas airline and British airways also have a health and safety management systems so as to protect their employees and passenger who may be traveling using their airline. In implementing the health and safety management system there should be organizational and management commitment. This step is closely followed by hazed identification and assessment and the hazard control. The fourth step is the work site inspections which is later followed by worker competency and training. After this step the following step is the incident reporting and investigation which is closely followed by the emergency response planning and lastly the administarition of the program (Health and safety executive 2006). The importance of conducting risk assessment in the organization and how is implemented A risk assessment is commonly viewed as being a vital step when protecting the employees as well as the business and also when it comes to compliance with the set laws. Risk assessment usually plays a vital role in that it helps the business in focusing on those risks that matter in the organization that is the risks that have the potential to cause any form of harm. In a number of instances, certain measures can be taken so as to control the risks. In more precise terms risk assessment is termed as a careful and tactical examination of the workplace of aspects that may cause any form of harm to employees, it ensures that they are able to weigh whether one can put enough precautions or if more measures need to be put in place so as to prevent any form of harm. Employees and all the other involved individuals need to be protected from harm that may be caused by lack of taking all the necessary measures. Ill health and accidents can in a way ruin people’s lives and affect a business in instances when output is lost, damage of machinery or in instances when the insurance cost increases (Health and safety executive 2000). One of the major benefits of carrying out a risk assessment is that it helps in the creation of a focused culture in an organization. Organizations that have put in place risk assessment tend to be more focused on when it comes to risks facing them and this there is usually more discussions of risks facing the business at all levels in an organization. This culture makes it possible to risks to be looked at more openly and it in a way break down the silos in regard to the manner in which the risks will be managed. Another major benefit of risks assessment is that it ensures that there is standardized reporting in regard to risks. Risks assessment usually offers better reporting, structure and analysis to the risks. The application of standardizes reports that can be able to track the risks improves the focus of the business managers since it offers data that will ensure that there is better mitigation of the risks. The diversity of data assists those in leadership positions understands the core risks areas that need to be dealt with. The risk assessment reports also assists the leaders when it comes to developing a better understanding of risk thresholds, risk appetite and risk tolerances (O’Brien 2002). A major value of risk assessments reporting is timelines, improved, conciseness as well as the flexibility of the collected risk data. This offers all the data that may be need in making more improved decisions within the director and executive and all the other layers of management in an organization. Risk assessments assist in managers in that it helps them in recognizing and unlocking the synergies by sharing and aggregating all corporate risk information data and factors through the evaluation in a more consolidated manner (Health and safety executive 2006). The other benefit of risk assessment is that it improves focus and perspective of the risks. Risk assessment develops the core indicators that help to detect the potential risk and offer earlier warning. Key measures and metrics of risks in a way helps in improving the values of analysis and reporting and offer the ability to keep track of all the potential changes in likelihood and vulnerability of the risks and this potentially cause a change in the risk profiles of organizations. Risk assessment also provides a more complete view of the risk (O’Brien 2002). The traditional risks practices that were practiced majored solely on mitigation, acceptance or avoidance. However over time effective risk assessment processes offer the management team with a framework through which they can be able to evaluate the risks as being an opportunity for them to use in increasing their competitive positions and exploiting certain markets or their operational conditions. Risk assessment also ensures that there is effective coordination of the regulatory and compliance issues. Since risk assessments data is more concerned with identification and monitoring of control as well as mitigation efforts in an organization, this kind of information usually helps in reducing the effort as well as cost of such reviews and audits. The last benefit is that it ensures that there is efficient use of the resources that are available. In organizations where risk assessment is not a core issue a great number of individuals may be involved in the process of reporting and managing the risks in almost all departments (Health and safety executive 2000). Risk assessments improve the tools and framework that is usually applied in risk assessments in a consistent manner. Elimination of all the redundant processes has a direct impact on the efficiency since there is the allocation of the right resources to be used when mitigating all the potential risks. Based on all these benefits that have been outlined above, risk assessment ensure that there is better cost management as well as risk visibility when it comes to the operational activities. Also risk assessment can enable better management of the competitive and economic conditions in market. Risk assessment implementation This is the first step in risk assessments is the identification of the hazards. All the possible causes of harm should be identified at this stage. The second step involves the identification of who might be harmed and how. For each of the identified hazards in the first step there need to be a clear articulation of who might be harmed (Hudson & Stephens 2000). This will go a long way in helping in the identification of the best measures that can be placed to manage the risk. This step is closely followed by the evaluation of the risks and come up with a list of precautions that need to be considered. Having spotted all the possible hazards, in regard to this step everything need to be done reasonably so as to protect all the employees from harm (Health and safety executive 2006). These need to be compared with best practice. In this step there need to be a consideration of what is already being done, and the controls that are currently in place and how the work is organized. This need to be compared with best practice and a check is done so as to ascertain anything else that needs to be done. The fourth step involves the recording of findings and their implementation. By putting the results of the risk assessment into practice this will assist a lot in making a lot of difference when looking at the business and the employees working on it (Health and safety executive 2000). The aspect of writing the results of the risk assessment as well as sharing them with the employees in a way encourages the employer to do so. The last step in risk assessment is the review of the risk assessment and updating it if necessary. In the modern business very few businesses will remain the same, in most organization new equipments, procedures and substances as will be introduced into an organization and this will come along with new hazards (Health and safety executive 2006). Based on these there need to be a constant review of risk assessments and updating it so as to cover any new hazards. The importance of conducting safety audits in the organization and how is implemented A safety audit is termed as being a proactive process through which a business is able to continuously monitor and evaluate the development of its health and safety programs. Audits are usually designed so as to rate of organizational health and safety, identifies all the weaknesses and strengths; show all the areas that need to be improved and obtain commitments and specific dates when the problems will be corrected (Hughes & Ferrett 2011) One of the major benefits of the safety audit is that it can be used by the management team to uncover all the safety and health issues prior to property damage, personal injuries or business interruptions. The other benefits that is closely related to safety audit is that it serves a visible process through which those in management positions can use for them to be able to execute and demonstrate to the employees that they are rely interested in their safety (Health and safety executive 2000). Thus in regard to this it cats as a morale builder among the employees and thus the employees will be working towards the achievement of the business goals and objectives. The self interest and involvement offers certain advantages to the audit process as well as to the overall organization. Also through safety audit there is the uncovering of all the unsafe conditions as well as the poor work practices that are in place in organizations which are in most cases the core causes of accidents in organizations (Hudson & Stephens 2000). Thus in relation to this issues safety audits can in a way reduce the injuries as well as the illnesses and associated insurance, medical and litigation costs and thus a reduction in the operating cost of the business. In addition to the improvement of health and safety of all the employees, the safety audit also improves all the business operations. Safety audits can in a way maintain and increase the productivity in an organization by the very aspects of reducing all the interruptions that may be caused by accidents. It identifies all conditions where equipment, machinery or tools that need to be repaired and replaced thus there is an increment in the efficiency of all the business operations. The bottom line of it all is that through an effective safety audit there is improved productivity, quality, quantity, profitability and performance of the business (Centre for chemical process safety 2011). How safety audits are implemented When carrying out a safety audit the following steps needs to be followed to the letter Assessment of the existing safety management system in the organisation Review of all the relevant documentation Carrying out interview with all the key personnel in the organisation Walk though inspection and lastly a preparation of a report of all the findings and the prioritised recommendations so as to ensure that there is compliance with the set out health and safety legislation, best practice and guidance (Fagel 2010). References Cahill, L. 2001, Environmental, Health and Safety Audits, Lanham: Government inst Press. Centre for chemical process safety 2011, conduct of operations and operational discipline: for improving process safety in industry, New Jersey: Centre for chemical process safety Fagel, S.M. 2010, Principles of Emergency Management and Emergency Operations Centre. Florida: CRC Press. Health and safety executive 2000, management of health and safety at work, Britain: HSE Books. Health and safety executive 2006, Essentials of health and safety at work, Britain: HSE Books. Hudson P.T.W. & Stephens, D. 2000, Cost and Benefit in HSE: A Model for Calculation of Cost-benefit using Incident Potential, Proceedings 5th Society for Petroleum Engineering International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Production and Exploration. Hughes, P. & Ferrett, E. 2011, Introduction to Health and Safety at Work: The Handbook for the NEBOSH National General Certificate, London: Routledge. O’Brien, M. 2002, Making better environmental decisions: an alternative to risk assessment, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Read More