Health and Safety Emergency Management in Construction Industry - Coursework Example

HSEM in Construction Industry Name Class Unit Introduction Employee’s health and safety are of paramount importance in the workplace. This has led management in organizations to come up with health and safety systems for their employees. The quality of the work is based on the health system in place and its implementation. Despite having the best health and safety systems in place, countries have found themselves with poor health and safety record in the workplace. For example, New Zealand construction sector has a poor health and safety record despite having great health and safety systems (New Zealand: Dept. of Labour, 2007). Organisational culture, attitudes and behaviours plays a role in health and safety. Research has proved that Attitude and behaviour are the main determinants of workplace safety (Hughes & Ferrett, 2007). This report will prove that effectively managing for health and safety is not just about having a management or safety management system. The success of whatever process or system that is in place still hinges on the attitudes and behaviours of people in the organization (HSE 2014). This will be done in relation to the construction industry. Effective management of HSEM To have an effective health and Safety Emergency Management (HSEM), the safety management system in place should be auditing in terms of policy, organisation, planning and implementation, measuring performance and reviewing performance. The employer must give a written policy based on the health and safety of the employees and organisation. The written statement should also contain arrangements which will be used to carry it out (Fleming & Lardner, 2002). There should be a management board which should ensure that the work environment is in line with high levels of safety. Despite this, it’s a duty of every employee to make sure that they take care of their own safety as well as for others (United States Dept of Labor, 2008). In USA, through attitude and behaviour change, the number of occupational fatalities has reduced. For example, in 2012 there were 4,405 fatal work injuries as compared to 4,628 in 2012. The board is supposed to work in creating a positive attitude among the workers on health and safety. The organisation involves the employees in making decisions. There is also need for continuous monitoring for the health and safety system in place. This makes it easy to make improvements where necessary. The management board in the construction industry has a responsibility to review the safety action plan given by HSEM. This should be published annually. An example is the construction sector in UK. The report is done and published annually in the public domain. During implementation, all involved are supposed to carry out their roles. Different groups have different responsibilities which makes HSEM effective. For example, managers are supposed to ensure that the set requirements in health and safety act are able to be in line with the employees’ premises and based on their responsibility (Stranks, 2010). The management is also responsible in ensuring that employees are aware of their responsibilities. Adequate safeguards are also required during implementation by the staff. The health and safety action plan is meant to be reviewed annually in the construction industry. This is through updating and making a publication annually. The review should also look at exceeding the minimum standards set by the body (Fleming & Lardner, 2002). During the review, the industry is supposed to ensure that employees are updated on what is happening. The industry thus has a role to ensure that their employees are well informed and trained to meet the responsibilities. Impacts of attitudes and behaviours in construction industry According to Hughes & Ferrett (2007), statistics have placed the construction industry as the second highest in fatalities. The major fatalities in the construction industry occur due to falls from heights. Through studies, it has been proved that the rate of fatalities in the sector is due to lack of safety statements and poor consultation. Despite this, it have been noted that individual factors such as attitude and behaviour contribute highly to health and safety in the industry. Behaviour based interventions have proved to be the most successful to change the safety in the construction industry. It has also been observed that in construction work setting, the main reliance is on safety signs, training, talks and pre-briefs. Though they lead to evoking behaviour initially; they do not necessarily mean that the behaviour will occur repeatedly. There is a need for reinforcement to ensure that the behaviour change component is well understood and maintained. For example, when the employees are taught on the importance of wearing a hard hat, they should also be shown the consequences of not wearing one. There is a need for examination of the consequences of not complying. Working experience and attitude have a great influence on their perception of risk. In USA construction industry, the construction industry was able to reduce fatalities by 5% in 2013 due to change in attitude and behaviours (United States Department of Labor, 2014). For the employees working in an environment with high uncertainty, avoidance and feminist, they are likely to have safety awareness (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). Despite having the best health and safety standards systems in place, New Zealand has been experiencing the highest number of fatalities in workplace as compared to Australia and UK. Research has proved that New Zealand workers’ attitude towards workplace safety may be the biggest contributor towards the trend (New Zealand: Dept. of Labour, 2007). The country construction sector has been blamed for poor investment in workplace health and safety. The country employees’ attitude which leads to them performing a task despite barriers leads to use of short cuts which increases risks of causing an accident. There is also a culture of employees fearing to speak up. This makes it hard for concerned employees to raise concerns on health and safety status (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). It has also been proved that when the innovative culture is high, there are high chances of inventing procedures that do not follow the established safety protocols. This is seen in countries such as USA and UK which have high innovation. In USA, the construction sector consists of 8% of the workforce but makes up to 21.7% of all occupational fatalities (United States Department of Labor, 2014. Another attitude is where people are expected to be staunch and complain less. This leads to employees taking unnecessary risks with an aim of being seen as hardworking. These are proofs that bad habits in the workplace can contribute to failure of the health and safety systems, despite their strength (Fleming & Lardner, 2002). Human attitudes and behaviours impact on implementation of HSEM Hughes & Ferrett (2007) assert that successful HSEM depends on behaviours and attitudes of the people in an organisation. Safety culture is more than just taking a checklist by the management. The employees’ attitudes towards the management system are vital to success. The fatalities in New Zealand construction sector are attributable to poor safety culture as well. The first step is ensuring that the employees are able to accept their working conditions and are aware of the existing constraints. This enables the employees to take action based on their awareness on requirements and aligning them with the system. The employee behaviours are either safe or unsafe (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). The beliefs in an organisation underpin the behaviours. Through behaviour, it becomes possible to determine the business culture. The way in which the organisation behaviour is manifested determines the success of the system in place. Also, a safety culture is required for a successful implementation of HSEM. A culture that looks at the environment as a stakeholder ensures that there is a successful implementation. Studies have proved that safety and environmental systems in an organisation are affected by the behaviour and attitude (Fleming & Lardner, 2002). Poor HSEM leads to fatalities and ill health. Ill health and fatalities is a major contributor to low organisation perfoamcne. For example, UK construction industry loses $1.1 billion annually due to ill health contributed to poor working conditions (HSE, 2014). For the environmental management system to be implemented successfully there is a need to enhance pro-environment behaviour. This involves beliefs, attitudes and awareness. Organisations with balanced employee and company environmental values are able to successfully implement the systems. In some instances, employees may be ignorant on organisations’ initiatives towards the environment. This shows that environmental communication is also needed for successful implementation of the policies. Studies have proved that to enhance implementation of HSEM, there is a need to ensure that employees’ attitudes and behaviours are looked at. There is a need to ensure that there is environmental behaviour change at the workplace (Taylor, 2005). Success of HSE based on attitudes and behaviours people Attitudes and behaviours turn systems and procedures into a reality. When used on their own, good systems do not ensure the success of HSE. In most countries, the main emphasis is placed on behavioural programs when implementing HSE. Positive behaviour and safety culture are the main determinants of success of HSE. Research has proved that effective risk control is based on individual attitudes and behaviours (Fleming & Lardner, 2002). In UK, the success of the HSE has been based on the increase in adoption of behavioural safety programs. This involves the use of behavioural modification techniques that helps in promoting safe work behaviours which prevent staff being injured. The efforts have seen a great improvement in the construction sector. Recent statistics shows that fatal injuries per 1000 workers reduced to 2.0 in 2013/14 as compared to the five year average of 2.1 (HSE, 2014). Behavioural modification has been used to help in critical health behaviour, management behaviour and risk control behaviours (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). The attitudes are also affected by the organisational culture. For example, the way the employees who report danger signals are treated (Stranks, 2010). An example of successful HSE due to attitudes and behaviours is the one adopted by Norway in their petroleum mining. The success of HSE is based on organisational factors, job factors and personal factors. The organisational factors include a positive health and safety culture. This is supposed to ensure that employees’ commitment at all levels is promoted. The culture is supposed to show the employees that deviating from the established standards is unacceptable. Job factors involve having tasks which are designed according to the capabilities and ergonomics of the employees. This ensures that the capabilities of making human errors are eliminated. When the job requirements and the capabilities of an individual are mismatched, there are high chances of making errors. Personal factors are the attributes which employees add to their jobs. This involves their strengths and weakness on tasks (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). Attitudes and behaviour forms a critical aspect in health and safety implementation. The use of behavioural modification programmes have been a major success in most organisations. This is through changing range of behaviours in the construction industry that hinder HSE success. Research has proved that 80% of the accidents in the construction industry are based on human attitudes and behaviours (Rowlinson, 2004). It has also been observed the effective behaviour change is carried out by changing the environment but not the person. A research done on the UK construction industry on behaviour modification proved the need for attitude and behaviour in successful implementation of HSE. The use of the behavioural modification involved weekly feedback. By the end of the program, there was an increase in safe behaviour practice. Accidents rates reduced due to effective implementation of HSE aided by behaviour change. This is a proof that behaviour modification which leads to change in attitude and practise of safe behaviour leads to success in the implementation of HSE (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). Behaviours support a safety culture as evidenced in the construction industry. A good example is UK where number of deaths in construction industry has been reducing due to safety behaviour. In 2002, there were 9.2 fatalities per 1000 employees a number which have reduced to 2.0 fatalities per 1000 employees due to behaviours and attitude change (HSE, 2014). This is due to fact that behaviour and attitudes are components of a culture. A safety culture is defined as a collection of values, attitudes, perceptions and patterns of behaviours. The attitudes and perceptions define the safety of a working environment. When the employees perceive that safety is not their responsibility, there are high chances of an accident occurring. When the attitudes and behaviour promotes safety, HSE is easily implemented (Fleming & Lardner, 2002). The management commitment to the process of implementation of HSE in the construction industry is the key to success. This is through ensuring that they instil the right behaviours to the workplace which will enhance the adoption of HSE and implementation (Great Britain, 2001). It becomes easier to implement HSE when the workers are actively involved through having the right attitudes and behaviours. An example of a disaster caused by poor attitude and behaviour is the explosion of Deepwater Horizon rig. The management of the facility mostly focused only on conditions rather than checking the behaviours of the system. A system which is safe can be easily damaged by the unsafe behaviour that is practiced by organisation. In the case of the Deepwater Horizon rig, the inspection team looked only at the floor of the drilling rig and were keen not to disrupt the activities. The outcome of their attitude towards the whole project was that the rig exploded hours after they had inspected. This shows how important safety culture is. Individual employees’ behaviours and attitudes should be aligned to safety and reinforced by the management (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). Limitations of attitudes and behaviours Despite the fact that attitudes and behaviours have a profound effect on health and safety correction, they are not a complete solution (Lester, 2014). The construction sector is diverse and use of attitudes and behaviour management program cannot work on their own. Attitudes and behaviours are also very susceptible to organisational factors. Low level of knowledge on safety can contribute to high rates of accidents despite behaviour change. This is seen in countries such as New Zealand why factors such as risk taking culture contribute to high fatalities. This is due to the fact that organisational factors have greatest influence in occurrences of accidents and incidents (Flin et al. 2000). It is also important to view behaviour and attitude as a product of organisational culture. When the organisational culture changes attitudes and behaviour also changes (Fleming & Lardner, 2002). This gives an organisation extra task in ensuring that they are able to monitor changes in organisational culture. The attitudes and behaviours are supposed to be integrated into all aspects of HSE implementation which involves policy, planning, organising and implementing. This leads to arguments on the way in which behavioural programmes should be integrated (Alberta, 2009). Attitudes and behaviour implementations face obstacles from a poor commitment by the management. There is also a lack of appropriate understanding on the amount of resources that are required to sustain behavioural programmes. Some of the organisations have failed in changing attitudes and behaviours due to fact that leaders may write behavioural observations that meets their needs (Arezes, P. M. 2014). This implies that the program to change attitudes and behaviours can be tampered with leading to deviation from intended outcomes. It is also important to note that hazards cannot be managed with behaviour change alone. In New Zealand, there is low education for the occupational health officers. This means education will be required first to the officers in addition to behaviour and attitude change. There are hazards which require plant and equipment redesign, especially in the construction industry (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). Despite the limitation, attitudes and behaviour change have been a success in many construction companies. Case studies done on US and UK construction firms prove that with a change in attitudes and behaviour, it becomes easier to implement health and safety programs. Employees become more aware of the need to protect themselves through carrying out responsibilities. For example, through a change in attitude, employees are able to know that they need to wear helmets at all times during their tasks. Attitudes such as one exhibited in the New Zealand construction industry are eliminated. All studies done have proved that through change in attitudes and behaviours, it becomes easier to implement systems. In my opinion, change in attitudes and behaviours is a major milestone in ensuring health and safety systems are implemented successfully in workplaces (Fleming & Lardner, 2002). Conclusions From the report, it is clear that effectively managing for health and safety is not just about having a management or safety management system. The success of whatever process or system is in place still hinges on the attitudes and behaviours of people in the organization. This is evident especially in high risk sectors such as the construction industry. Statistics prove that construction industry experiences a lot of accidents from falls. Countries with poor health and safety records are associated with wrong attitudes and behaviours in workplaces. For example, employees not wearing safety clothing while at work or working in a dangerous environment. Through examples and literature, this paper has proved that success of organisation depends on attitudes and behaviours of people in an organisation. Adoption of behavioural safety programs in the UK have helped in successful implementation of HSE. It is also important to note that attitudes and behaviour alone cannot be relied on as there is a need to look at other organisational factors. In my own opinion, managing for health and safety has been a success through use of attitudes and behaviours of people in an organisation. References Alberta. 2009, Final report: Review and comparison of government programs and services that support workplace health and safety in the residential construction industry, Edmonton, Alta.: Alberta Employment and Immigration. Arezes, P. M 2014, Occupational safety and hygiene II, Boca Raton, CRC Press Fleming, M & Lardner, R 2002, Strategies to promote safe behavior as part of a health and safety management system, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office,St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich. Flin, R., Mearns, K., O’Connor, P & Bryden, R 2000, “Safety climate: Identifying the common features”, Safety Science, Vol.34, no.1, p. 177-192. Great Britain 2001, Health and safety in construction, Sudbury, HSE Books. Health and Safety Executive 2009, Reducing error and influencing behavior, Office of Public Sector Information, Information Policy Team, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, p.3-73. Health and Safety Executive 2008. Successful health and safety management, Office of Public Sector Information, Information Policy Team, Kew, Richmond, Surrey p.1-98. HSE, 2014. Health and safety in construction in Great Britain, 2014, Retrieved 19th Jan 2015 from, http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/construction/construction.pdf Hughes, P & Ferrett, E 2007, Introduction to health and safety in construction, Amsterdam, Butterworth-Heinemann. Lester, A 2014, Project management, planning and control: Managing engineering, construction, and manufacturing projects to PMI, APM, and BSI standards, Oxford Butterworth-Heinemann. New Zealand: Dept. of Labour, 2007, Construction sector action plan 2010-2013: Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015, New Zealand: Dept. of Labour. Rowlinson, S.M 2004, Construction safety management systems, London, Spon Press. Stranks, J. W 2010, Health & safety at work: An essential guide for managers, London, Kogan Page. Taylor, B 2005, Effective environmental, health and safety management using the team approach, Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Interscience. United States: Dept. of Labour 2008, Effective workplace safety and health management systems, [Washington, D.C.],U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. United States Department of Labor, 2014. Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, Bureau of Labour and Statistics 2013, Retrieved 19th Jan 2015 from, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm Read More