Probably the biggest priority in any business is the health and safety of their employees and product or service they provide. Compromising on health and safety is something that is not negotiable, and the bar organizations set is extremely high to prevent accidents. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of other things that a business can do in order to prevent accidents and robustly investigate any that happen. Here are some suggestions of these.
Training
Sometimes the regulations and procedures around health and safety can be complicated. If these are incomprehensible to some, then there is a risk that they are not followed. Depending on the industry that people operate in, these can be even more difficult. As such it would be a good idea to put nominated employees through a health and safety awareness course. These types of one day courses are ones that give the holistic view to the employees around the high-level regulations and procedures. Additionally, if employees regularly work at events, event courses would also be effective for safety training. It gives the foundation to the employees that they can choose to build on and get more advanced training.
Culture
Creating a health and safety culture is something that can be difficult to do. With the pressures of the job, it is very easy for human factors to play a part in potential accidents and culture. This can include complacency and skipping procedures. As a result, it is important that employees are surrounded in a compliance driven organisation where employees feel empowered to make a difference and raise issues. This can also include consequence of non-compliance where if people do not follow all the Health and Safety rules that is mandated, there is a direct consequence of this (which could include disciplinary / dismissal).
Visual Management
Posters in areas can have a significant impact in the compliance and safety improvements of an organisation. This can include “rules” where people must wear specific Protective Equipment such as eye protection or ear defenders. Generally, when people go into a new organisation, they will get some sort of induction however these types of visual management techniques support this and promote compliance. It is important to not overdo this though. If there are posters everywhere then there is a danger these become wallpaper and employees take no notice of them. Other areas of Health and Safety visual management can include the performance measures. If these are visible, then people will see how they are performing in this area and directly influencing a safe environment. It also encourages people to come up with ideas / discussions is there is a decreasing trend where they can actively input to the improvements for the business.
Summary
Although, health and safety are top priority in a business, it is easily overlooked if pressures of delivery / tasks get tough. Organisations must ensure that the health and safety is not compromised at any cost and these topics may be food for thought to support this drive.
