October 21, 2009
Health and Safety at Work: a Lot More than Simply Education
It’s still a common misconception in a significant amount of companies that, if every last member of staff has decent health and safety instruction, they are adequately equipped to cope with a disaster. The truth of the matter is that, regardless your industry, an education in safety regulations and risk asessment simply is not sufficient. You need to provide your staff with sufficient supervision, the proper equipment, and last but not least regular practice. Each team must have an approachable supervisor to watch the work area, but this person must also perform another function on the floor. A supervisor has to be a good communicator and see health and safety education as great.
On top of encouraging conformity with health and safety legislation, the individual supervising also needs to make sure that employees perform all their tasks efficiently. This is a difficult role. In-depth product knowledge is vital in a supervisory position not to mention a high level of familiarity with current regulations regarding safety, risk appraisal and emergency assistance techniques.
It just isn’t sufficient to offer your employees health and safety instruction. They must practise risk assessment and the identification of hazards. Staff have to know how to deal with problems not to mention how to manage if disaster strikes. Only when these procedures become second nature are staff totally protected.
Instruction is in fact ineffective if you don’t have safety gear. When they are without gear they need, or find out that they’re not working properly only after an emergency has happened, even the very best instruction can not help them.
Regular maintanence of your apparatus is crucial. When you have a issue with your safety equipment, ensure it is repaired or call out a service engineer as swiftly as possible.
Health and safety instruction is essential for the well being of your employees, but they need the right supplies, the opportunity to practise, and a supervisor who has contagious enthusiasm. If you implement these steps you should find that health and safety legislation will before long be a natural component of life in the workplace rather than something that staff have to attempt to remember.
