Work, Health and Safety - Essay Example

Work Health and Safety Name: Tutor: Subject: Date: Job description My work description will be a supermarket based in Melbourne Victoria. With at most hundred employees, this will be working for a full time in the supermarket. The fact that supermarket is a busy business whereby you have to attend to the customers on both sides for example, attending to those who come to shop and at the same time attending to those who supply goods to the shop. There are risks that are encountered while performing all these operations and the most affected one are the employees. I will therefore design a plan that will help mitigate these risks and therefore ensure encounter of minimal risks. Firstly, I will assess the main duties of my employees; Carrying goods for customers Serving the customers Arranging products in the shelves Cleaning the supermarket Lifting heavy products like furniture and metals Offloading supplies Handling of fragile products After assessing the duties of my employers, I will therefore proceed on developing a report for risk management whereby I will design a risk management tool that will help in reducing the occurrence of risks to the employees and also to the environment surrounding the supermarket. My workplace will therefore exercise ways of managing risks whereby I will organize for forums so that we will communicate with the employees and other stakeholders on how to manage the risks. This will involve designing work control tools, managing control systems, policies and regulations and observing the culture of the organization. Control tool This will be aimed at controlling risks by designing programs that will help the employees in working upon risk management. My business will therefore design control measures in form of policies and programs to avoid risks. The contents of the control tool are below; Organizing job rotation so that the employees will work in shifts this will help in reducing the possibility of risk occurrence because the employees will have time to rest. The risk that will be reduced is mental stress’ Ensuring that employees wear protective clothes when handling heavy equipments; For example using helmets when offloading supplies because they will be subjected to risks of being knocked by heavy equipments Providing mitigation for health hazard risks for example he employees should be recruited when they are physically fit for the job requirement. Management for occupational health and safety Health related issues that concerns occupation of a person has been an issue in the work environment. The process of managing and controlling risks is a contribution of every subordinate in the workplace. There are mechanisms that are used to implement the work related health issues in most health unions. For example world health organizations always articulate for health in all the ways of human aspects. They articulate for the support of work health and safety and they therefore sensitize every organization that employs workers to create awareness on occupational health and safety. Therefore, my business plans on ways of addressing occupational health through consultative programs that aim at influencing all the subordinates in managing work related risks. Consulting programs This process involves influencing all the subordinates and the stakeholders to come together and design a risk management tool. This is done through consulting them by highlighting on the types of risks they are entitled to in the work places. The main reason of creating awareness through consulting is because most of the subordinates are not aware of the risks they might encounter. Consultation program will therefore implement ways in which risk management will be effected. This will be done through choosing leaders from every group of employees and these leaders will help in implementing the risk awareness and management programs. Importance of leaders in risk management They will be responsible for assessing the level of performance and the type of risk that the employer might encounter and therefore organizing for prevention. They will be responsible for ensuring implementation process of risk management programs They will encourage the employees to participate in consultative processes that will help the business to identify the best means of risk management They will organize for training and induction to educate the subordinates on the risks related to their occupational status Publishing reports on the welfare of the subordinates so as to help in analyzing the best risk management strategy Responsibilities for all the subordinates and stakeholders The employees and the stakeholders will be responsible for ensuring they adhere to the rules and regulations as per the supermarket plan on risk management. This will be important because it will help the business to achieve its objective of maintain the health of the people surrounding it. They will ensure existence of good performance in the business by adhering to the guidelines from their leaders. They will therefore be responsible by minimizing the risks. The business will ensure that there is an annual assessment of the risk management performance. They will be responsible for planning, managing, measuring, implementing and ensuring the use of available resources effectively Risk management and culture; This is the level at which the policies for managing risks will affect the culture of the supermarket. The managers will therefore design a risk management strategy that will comply with the culture in the supermarket. This will be done through developing culture related strategies whereby the subordinates and stakeholders will embrace those strategies and take them as part of organizational culture. The managers will therefore take part in encouraging the employees and motivating them so that they will embrace the culture change caused by risk management strategies. There should be philosophies in managing risks so that the subordinates and stakeholders will have this philosophy on their minds. Risk management process Risk management is a process of ensuring that risks are minimized up to the required level. It is achieved through communication and consulting all the participants in the supermarket. Both internal and external communication is useful in ensuring that the risks are minimized. The purpose of communication is to allow the participants to appreciate the benefits of the controls that are intended to minimize the risk. Communication will also allow the stakeholders to contribute their views towards the pursued control practices and therefore the supermarket will assess all the views and come into an agreement. Communication creates transparency with the subordinates and the stakeholders. Context establishment This is the process of establishing what should be contained in the risk management system. It defines the parameters within which the risk management implementation process will go through. It should consider the concepts of internal and external environment of a business. The purpose of establishing context is to enable the business set objectives that comply with the environmental concerns of the business and the legal framework that governs the business environment. Risk identification This is a step that involves identifying the risks to be managed by the system. This is done through designing a well structured program that will help in identifying the risks that are to be encountered in the work and therefore selecting those risks that need to be managed. Risk identification process can be obtained through analyzing the various situations that often result to risk. for example; How, where and when do risk occurs; this process aims at analyzing the situation of how the risk can happen by identifying risk potentials in any activity. It also analyses where the risk might occur by identifying the activities that can be risky and therefore looking for a mitigation measure. It also identifies the rate at which risk occurs and the time the risks are likely to occur. Techniques of risk identification; this process aims at analyzing techniques that are used to identify the risk. This can be obtained through records of past experiences, judging the activities and the risk that might result. Risk analysis This is the process aimed at understanding the risk and therefore reaching for a mitigation measure that will ensure the risk control measure will help in minimizing that risk. It involves considering the source of the risk and its impact on the victim. The risk analysis process involves considering the impact of the risk in terms of high and low, and also considering the consequences of risk occurrence together with the likelihood of that risks to occur. When analyzing it is important to separate risks according to the consequences each risk entails. This will help in developing an appropriate strategy that will reduce these risks. Analyzing the consequence and likelihood of the risk The consequences of the risk is analyzed according to the impact it will have on the victim, for example analyzing a situation whereby the risk has occurred and there is a high impact .this is the same as information on the level of risk on the victim. Some events could result to multiple consequences whereby the risk will affect several objectives at once. Likelihood is analyzed based on the prediction that a certain risk may occur. Analyzing both likelihood and consequence will depend on the objective of risk control management and also the available resources for estimating the likelihood and the consequences. Monitoring and reviewing the risk Monitoring and reviewing the risk should be done in the supermarket to ensure that the processes of implementing risk management strategies are achieved. Monitoring should involve designing control measures that will influence the participant to effectively embrace the management process. Reviewing the management process should be done frequently to ensure that corrections and deviations are made, also reviewing helps in updating the risk management process and ensuring that it adheres to the legal requirement. The purposes of monitoring and reviewing are; Ensuring effective implementation of the control strategy Detection of changes that occur in both external and internal environment and organizing for the update on control strategy Obtaining information from the reports on the level of risk management and researching for more tools for risk assessment. Examples of information required in implementing risk management process SOURCE OF RISK RISK ELEMENT LEVEL OF RISK TIMELINE DATE OF REVIEW CONTROL MEASURE Natural risks Floods fire outbreak adverse storm Low High medium Yearly January Training Evacuation plans Human risks Drug abuse and substances sexual abuse peer pressure Low Low Medium Yearly January Training and counseling Commercial and legal risks Legal compliance risks Supplies Low High After 6 months June and December Continuous preview Political risks Industrial unrest new laws and policies High low After 6 months June and December contracts Management risks Quality overhead costs Low Medium weekly weekly Tools of performance control Operational risks Service delivery Medium weekly weekly Tools of performance control Personal risks Reduced sales reduced efficiency High High weekly weekly Performance control meetings Environmental risks Pollution Noise Medium Medium Yearly January Data review from reports Economic risk Monetary policies Fines market share Low High High Yearly January Financial review Occupational health and safety risks Safety measures mental stress injury risks High High High weekly weekly Training Safety reviews Security risks Theft white collar crimes cash handling High Low High monthly Last day of the month Security review Food and hygiene risks Hygiene work environment food hygiene High Medium Daily daily Training Safety reviews Working arrangements Consultation process I will extend my consultation process to the health and safety department whereby they will take a stake in developing appropriate management tool. They will have an opportunity of representing the subordinates by providing the levels of risks that are likely to be encountered Responsibility allocation Resources of the business such as people, time, information and equipments used will be assessed so as to develop a mechanism of implementing control while considering these resources. They may occur as a form of replacing old employees, allocating new responsibilities to employees. Organizing for overall effective management of the workforce will also contribute to successful implementation process Decision making in preparing risk control plan This is the process of determining the best control plan to use in the supermarket. I will therefore organize for a decision making process whereby we will gather all the risks associated with the workforce and analyzing them so as to come up with an appropriate plan for minimizing those risks. This process will involve determining those priority areas where the risk will affect, training and consulting the workforce on the importance of risk management while collecting views on appropriate management tool, setting up communication process where everyone in the supermarket will be informed on the plans of the entire risk management team, designing a work plan that will help in implementing the control and it will also help in setting up the best management tool. Hazards This involves thinking about those hazards that could result to risks, identifying these hazards are a step towards managing the risk. I will use such tools as; reports, inspection programs, research and information findings, past experiences, Information from subordinates and supplier information. This is a participative process that will involve all the workforce and also health and safety department. Implementing risk control program This is the final stage of risk management process, it is the stage where all the risks have been identified and therefore the control program will aid in minimizing these risks. For the case of my business, the control program will aim at safeguarding the lives of my employees by ensuring that the work environment is hygienic, they put on protective clothes while handling dangerous equipments, using lifters while offloading products, using energy saving equipment when transporting the products around the supermarket and ensuring that all my employees are insured. References http://safeworkaustralia.gov.au http://www.abs.gov.au/ http://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/ http://www.comcare.gov.au/ Read More

Importance of leaders in risk management They will be responsible for assessing the level of performance and the type of risk that the employer might encounter and therefore organizing for prevention. They will be responsible for ensuring implementation process of risk management programs They will encourage the employees to participate in consultative processes that will help the business to identify the best means of risk management They will organize for training and induction to educate the subordinates on the risks related to their occupational status Publishing reports on the welfare of the subordinates so as to help in analyzing the best risk management strategy Responsibilities for all the subordinates and stakeholders The employees and the stakeholders will be responsible for ensuring they adhere to the rules and regulations as per the supermarket plan on risk management.

This will be important because it will help the business to achieve its objective of maintain the health of the people surrounding it. They will ensure existence of good performance in the business by adhering to the guidelines from their leaders. They will therefore be responsible by minimizing the risks. The business will ensure that there is an annual assessment of the risk management performance. They will be responsible for planning, managing, measuring, implementing and ensuring the use of available resources effectively Risk management and culture; This is the level at which the policies for managing risks will affect the culture of the supermarket.

The managers will therefore design a risk management strategy that will comply with the culture in the supermarket. This will be done through developing culture related strategies whereby the subordinates and stakeholders will embrace those strategies and take them as part of organizational culture. The managers will therefore take part in encouraging the employees and motivating them so that they will embrace the culture change caused by risk management strategies. There should be philosophies in managing risks so that the subordinates and stakeholders will have this philosophy on their minds.

Risk management process Risk management is a process of ensuring that risks are minimized up to the required level. It is achieved through communication and consulting all the participants in the supermarket. Both internal and external communication is useful in ensuring that the risks are minimized. The purpose of communication is to allow the participants to appreciate the benefits of the controls that are intended to minimize the risk. Communication will also allow the stakeholders to contribute their views towards the pursued control practices and therefore the supermarket will assess all the views and come into an agreement.

Communication creates transparency with the subordinates and the stakeholders. Context establishment This is the process of establishing what should be contained in the risk management system. It defines the parameters within which the risk management implementation process will go through. It should consider the concepts of internal and external environment of a business. The purpose of establishing context is to enable the business set objectives that comply with the environmental concerns of the business and the legal framework that governs the business environment.

Risk identification This is a step that involves identifying the risks to be managed by the system. This is done through designing a well structured program that will help in identifying the risks that are to be encountered in the work and therefore selecting those risks that need to be managed. Risk identification process can be obtained through analyzing the various situations that often result to risk. for example; How, where and when do risk occurs; this process aims at analyzing the situation of how the risk can happen by identifying risk potentials in any activity.

It also analyses where the risk might occur by identifying the activities that can be risky and therefore looking for a mitigation measure.

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