Importance of Health and Safety Programs at Workplace
Safety at workplace is a growing concern for the management of different organization & industries. Irrespective of the industries that are now enhancing their focus on implementing the safety related programs at workplace to avoid any unwanted accidents. The report provides an overview about the construction industry of UK (Holt & Allen, 2015).
Legislations for the health and safety related terms at workplace is very much required for any industry in order to implement certain guidelines to the management, employees and all the stakeholders. These guidelines if successfully implemented, put forward the area of work for everybody that are associated to the workplace to achieve the risk free environment (Glendon, Clarke & McKenna, 2016).
- To implement occasional safety and health related programs at workplace
- Consultation and cooperation with every staffs on the health related programs
- Providing all the resources that are required to achieve a safe workplace environment
- Allocation of resources to meet with the required urgency
- Verifying the implementation of legislative guidelines at the workplace
- Responding to the health and safety related program
- Cooperating with the safety representatives
- To implement safety parameters at the workplace
- To use all the preventive measures while at the work
The industry area, which the learner has selected for this assignment includes the construction companies that are engaged in various construction projects.
Services & products generally include all the works that are related to the construction such as building of bridges, buildings, malls and many more.
Nature of work include crane operation to uplift the required materials, ground level works of labour, working under open sky at the site and many more (Hughes & Ferrett, 2012).
Few of the legislative bodies in UK are as follows (Harris & McCaffer, 2013):
- The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 that ensures the safety and health of employees at workplace
- The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 dictates the proper designing and management for safety parameters at the construction sites to prevent the unwanted accidents
- PPE is a regulative body that include gloves, safety helmets, safety footwear and many more, which is mandate for employees during their site works
- The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 instruct the employer and in charge supervisors to keep track of accidents at the work sites
Before developing the safety related program at the workplace, some of the necessary elements are needed to be ensured in order to prevent any failure in the program. Those steps includes deciding on the required control measure, arrangements of appropriate tools and process, training to the employees and supervising the proceedings (Griffith, Stephenson & Watson, 2014).
Documentation is another important approach for the implementation of the safety program as it seeks for the approval on the prepared safety related documents. Moreover, the management is required to approve the profiling of the programs (Cooke & Williams, 2013).
Implementation is another major part of this program as it includes the required ways for the implementation of the program. Less threatening activities, such as ground level works of labour are required to be addressed with less priority in the development program. High-end works such as crane operation, working at heights and many more need to be provided with the highest priority in the program. Prioritising in between the activities releases some amount of burden from the management by allocating resources to the appropriate places (Hughes & Ferrett, 2015).
The most important aspects of the program are seeking approval from the management and cooperation from the employees. Approval from the management is helpful in supplying necessary financial support to the program, in absence of which the program can never prosper. Cooperation from employees is another important aspect of such kind of programs as safety and health can never be achieved without proper implementation (Emuze & Smallwood, 2013).
Necessary Elements for Developing a Successful Safety Program
Employees are required to be assigned with the obligation of following all the safety and health related parameters to bring and maintain risk free work environment.
Employers are required to check the proceedings of the program to nullify any sort of program failure.
In-charge officers have the responsibility to instruct the employees at the workplace on the safety parameters. They also need to keep track of all the incidents at the sites to analyse the causes and the relevant solution for that (Holt & Allen, 2015).
Written instructions are the best resource to provide information on the health and safety parameters to the employer, supervisors, contractors and few others. It includes important elements of a health and safety program such as follows:
- Risk factors
- Available resources to tackle to mitigate the risk
- Hazard level at the workplace
- Preventive measures for that
- Probable injuries that may occur if the instructions are not followed
Written instructions and verbal communication are the most effective ways to communicate the safety related information with the employees. Verbal communication can usually be carried by the in-charge supervisor, which inspects the site progress (Harris & McCaffer, 2013).
Figure 1: The Plan, Do, Check, Act approach
(Source: Hughes & Ferrett, 2015)
The above picture is helpful for the implementation of health and safety remedies at the workplace. After the planning phase, risk is profiled that are needed to be undone with effective measures. It is followed by checking and monitoring the progress of a program to have measures of controlled actions with the help of safety parameters. The derived results then encourages for the inclusion of training if required. The training is required for the employees on how to follow the guidelines. For the supervisors, training is needed on the application of guidelines at the work sites (Holt & Allen, 2015).
- Forms of incidents
- Data collection on accidents
- Analysis of monthly and annual results on risk profiling & implemented measures for the same
The data is collected by performing a statistical analysis on the monthly and the annual basis at the work sites that helps to measure the follows:
- Risk level at the workplace
- Available resources to mitigate the risks
- Requirement of resources to nullify the risks
Conclusion
Workplace safety is the utmost requirement of any industry irrespective of their nature of work as it lifts the morale of employees by citing the employer’s concerns for them. Occasional health related program is needed for any kind of industries. However, safety parameters are the one thing that needs its consistent application on the work sites. It depends verily on the nature of work of the industry.
References
Cooke, B., & Williams, P. (2013). Construction planning, programming and control. John Wiley & Sons.
Emuze, F., & Smallwood, J. The integration of health and safety (H&S), Lean and Sustainability in construction: A literature review. IGLC-21, July-2013.
Glendon, A. I., Clarke, S., & McKenna, E. (2016). Human safety and risk management. Crc Press.
Griffith, A., Stephenson, P., & Watson, P. (2014). Management systems for construction. Routledge.
Harris, F., & McCaffer, R. (2013). Modern construction management. John Wiley & Sons.
Holt, A. S. J., & Allen, J. (2015). Principles of health and safety at work. Routledge.
Hughes, P., & Ferrett, E. (2012). Introduction to health and safety in construction. Routledge.
Hughes, P., & Ferrett, E. (2015). Introduction to Health and Safety in Construction: For the NEBOSH National Certificate in Construction Health and Safety. Routledge.
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