Where I started
This portfolio is based on the personal experience gained throughout the course which I am pursuing. The report stresses on various features like what could be my possible gains after completion of this course and how the ideas, and acquired change of thoughts are going to influence my work after completion of this course. Apart from that, this portfolio deals with the factors like how the learning from this course is influencing my course of life and how they broadened my ways of thinking and many other issues.
The course Social Health Environmental management aims to equip the students with the desired expertise and level of confidence, in order to be able to manage the health and safety activities of any organization. In this course we are taught by some industry experts, expanding our knowledge regarding safety, health and environment management and some control in the area we have some responsibility for, or it may be about the area that would suit our career ambition. It is matter of fact that, with the institution’s approach towards teaching, we, the students would be able to learn and develop various innovative ideas and methods to deal with various oddities while managing issues regarding health and safety.
Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) act was amended to cover all the workplaces on the year of 2011, and under this act the employees of organizations are compelled to manage risk factors and they must adhere to work practices which are safe. Under this act all the workers are compelled to keep their coworkers and the workplace safe under any circumstances. As a valuable employee of an organization there are certain roles of an employee and those are mentioned below.
- We should follow all the safety and health procedures at our workplaces.
- We should not endanger ourselves along with our coworkers.
- We should not tamper the safety tools or we should not commit any reckless acts inside the workplace.
- We, the employees should report regarding any unsafe working conditions, unpleasant behaviors and any incidents in the workplace that could potentially harm the safety and health of the employees.
- Apart from all these points, any employee should try to give some valuable inputs regarding the betterment of safety and health at workplace.
This act also ensures the safety and health of each of every employees of any organization, and there would be some responsibilities of the general workforce, and those are mentioned below.
- The employees should remove or control any kinds of risks within their organization.
- The employees should maintain a work environment that is safe for all.
- The workers should ensure that the safety is maintained by the handling of all the safety devices in the organization.
- The workers should make a plan B in case of any kind of emergencies in the workplace.
- The organizations should provide their employees with crystal clear plans and resources to keep the organization out of any kind of workplace hazards.
When I enrolled my name for Bachelor of Science degree choosing Social Health Environmental Management as my honors paper, I had very less idea about the topic and I naturally had no practical idea about the importance of this topic. After attending a few classes, I realized that health and safety management is an important issue for any organization. This course is designed in a way that in can be seen as a vocational qualification for the students who need health, safety and environmental management related jobs, on the other hand, some people can pursue this course for personal and professional developmental issues in the organization they are working for. This course provides an opportunity for post graduation study of environmental and occupational health and safety. If we complete this under graduate course, we can cope up with the social, technological and organizational changes by promoting an understanding of the relevant topic. The demands of various industries managements have changed some of the contents of the course which reflects the tendency of the organizations to combine the health and safety functions with the environmental protection. If we successfully complete this course, we will be able to cope up with the social, technological and organizational changes by promoting a basic understanding of the relevant concepts. Pursuing this course would also help us building our critical and analytical ability regarding social health safety management and makes it sure that we get prepared for conventional professional practice.
W.S.H ACT and our Roles and Responsibilities
Two different case studies are provided in this section to prove the importance of work health safety social environmental management.
Case I: A catering assistant, who was working in a restaurant got herself some burn injuries on her back when she slipped and fell on hot oil boiling over 100 degree Celsius. The woman was trying to pour that boiling oil into a small plastic bottle unaware of the fact that what could possibly that oil can do to the bottle. The bottle melted and the hot oil spilled on her feet and got her a severe injury. The deep fat fryer where the oil was boiling was replaced thee moths before this incident took place and that particular fryer did not have a filter along with a collection tray. The organization was unaware of this fact and thus failed to provide some additional tool to safely remove the oil. This led the staffs to improvise and they started cooling it off before transferring the oil to the bucket of designated barrels. The supermarket was supposed to provide a combined fat filtration unit so that there would have been no contact of the oil and the operator and the incident would not have take place. When investigation was done, it was proved that there were no safe system of work in emptying the fryers and the training and supervision system of the organization was very poor. In the organization a trend was being followed and that is employees help each other for training and no specialized training process was being followed in that organization for years. Not only that, they did not even check the emergency tools whether they are in working condition or not. While the court proceedings were going on, the court heard that after the accident took place, the organization installed a new filtration unit to allow the workers emptying the oil safely, and also brand new fryers were bought and hugely changed the total training process for the betterment of the organization. The organization admitted the fact that they were guilty for this unwanted incident, and they were charged to pay 16000 Euros and they were asked to pay the injured employee a sum of 9500 Euros as compensation. From his particular case study, it is evident how social health safety management course has a high importance in the workplace.
Case II: A few years back, the directorial body of Heyrod organization was deeply concerned with the increasing rate of accidents within their area of operation. They were deeply concerned with the strategies they used earlier and decided to amend the policies and strategies in order to reduce the rate of accidents were taking place within the organization. The managing director stated that they want to make sure that there organization would like to be known as the safest place to work in, and for that, they would make the necessary changes with high priority. He stated that when the company started recruiting more than five hundred workers, the rate of accidents started going higher, which clearly says that they had the capability of preventing accidents for not more than five hundred people. That clearly projects that in this situation the organization needs to revise their safety management policies in a way that no such unpleasant things occur and they should try to convey the message that there are no short cut route for completion of the work with full safety. The organization then started a quality management and invested a lot in improving the safety structure of the organization.
What I gained from the completion of the course
Supervisor training
Within the organization there was a team of supervisors who took care of the safety management system, but the strength of the team was not enough to handle a workforce of more than five hundred people. The company then recruited many supervisors for the benefit of the company’s work safety structure. The supervisors were given a specified uniform with black hats so that they could be easily identified. Bringing down the supervisor and worker ratio to 2:9 from 1:11 and that can be said as a huge initiative from the management of the organization. The supervisors were provided with ample training courses as well as the workers, so that the safety structure of the organization remains good as before.
Product evaluation
The organization started rechecking the products like gloves, helmets and other tools those prevent the accidents to take place as these are the most essential things in the case of preventing the hazards in the first place.
Health screening
The managers of the organization took an initiative of setting up a health screening process aiming that every employees are asked questions regarding whether they are suffering any work related health issues or not, like hand arm vibration, loss of hearing or dermatitis and many more. This can be referred to as the first base of identification of the safety issues.
Foreign workers
Heyrod recruits more than hundred employees from abroad, like from the countries of Poland and Portugal, for whom English is not their mother tongue. So, he organization has developed a wide range of strategies including an interpreter for each team of six foreign employees.
Not only had these, the organization made some other arrangements regarding the work safety management to ensure the safety for their employees. Thus, it is evident that the organization is really concerned with the occupational hazards that can affect the lives of their employees.
After taking these initiatives, the found result was awesome, as a flat 50% reduction in the occurrence of the accidents were seen. The retention rate of the employees was much better than before. The workers became more motivated and loyal towards the organization. a willful nature in trying new methods for completion of the jobs. The improvements in health of the employees were notable.
In case of asbestos industry, certain norms must be followed to run the operation in the workplace and those are mentioned below.
- The employees should be given proper training in order to carry out tasks properly in the workplace.
- The access to asbestos are must be restricted.
- Managers should look into the matter that no other materials can contaminate the asbestos.
- Cleanliness must be maintained in the asbestos work area.
- The supervisors should look after the asbestos removal plan of work.
- Designated asbestos removal contractor must take charges of removing asbestos.
Apart from these, there are some regulations regarding workplace safety in the asbestos industry and those are mentioned below.
- Holders of valid certificate are to be noted as approved asbestos removers.
- Only a mixture containing crocidolite, actinolite, anthophyllite, amosite, tremolite, chrysotile, amphiboles would be considered as asbestos.
- Asbestos removal work means anything which includes jobs like removing asbestos or materials containing asbestos those are installed in a building, ship or machine.
- Asbestos work area defines a place where any work related to asbestos is carried out.
- The term building work means the demolition of any building or making alterations in the building.
- An approved certificate is must for asbestos removal or installing asbestos.
- Competent workers are must for works related to asbestos, who have some experience in this field.
- Recognized testing body, thee term defines a testing body approved by the commissioner.
- A responsible person is who carries out the orders related to asbestos work.
Marine diving is a popular sport in many nations and there are some hazards related to this industry, so the prerequisites of maintaining health and safety in this industry are mentioned below.
- The trainee must possess a valid medical fitness certificate.
- The trainees must be of 21 years of age or higher.
- Trainees must be able to solve simple mathematical problems like multiplication division and many more.
- The trainees must be able to read and write.
- The trainers should be able to sow enough maturity, leadership and management skills to become a trainer or diving supervisor.
- The trainers must have an experience of trainee CSCUBA diver of 6 months.
- The employees must be trained in work safety management.
Thus these case studies indicate that a large organization may have extensive portfolio of policies, risk assessments, procedures, but those are of no use unless they are implemented in the basic grass root level of the problems.
From the discussions above it is quite evident that social health environmental management as a course possess much importance, as the learning this course offers are very important for maintaining safety in the workplaces, and without any proper idea about this topic no one would be able to manage safety issues in the workplace efficiently. In my opinion every organization must deal with the issue of work safety management with special care as this involves the lives and the future of the employees working for them.e managements of various organizations need to stress on these work safety standards to ensure that the employees are safe and if the employees see that the management is concerned about them, their moral and confidence would get an immense boost and their loyalty towards the organization would get increased. The learning what we get from the social health environmental management studies are applicable to all the workplaces as there should be a minimum work safety issues in every industry and no organization can deny the importance of these learning what we get from this course.
New ideas gathered from various cases
I have to agree with the fact that knowledge from other industries have really broadened the ideas of us as we are getting to know the detailed story of the oddities they faced while carrying out any work and the sharing of experiences are enriching our knowledge base, and we can perform our jobs better with correct understanding of the situations. Experiences gathered from various industries are very helpful in executing our jobs as by this we would have a huge base of knowledge and would be able to implement those ideas when needed.
So, it can surely be said that, the courses regarding social health environmental management has immense importance in today’s world. As we all know that with time awareness regarding the safety in the workplace is getting prioritized. The importance of this course according to me is undeniably high in recent times as, in today’s market; technological advancements are leading to expansion of industries in a rapid manner. It is a matter of fact that this expansion of industries are bringing in various types of occupational hazards to the workers of various organizations. The managing body of various organizations are stressing on the factors of safety management for the betterment of their organization. It is a fact that, there are a lot of acts in favor of work safety management and the organizations are compelled to abide by these rules as these rules are made only for the betterment of the lives of the workers as well as these rules would help to increase the productivity of the organizations indirectly. These acts help in increasing the productivity of the organizations because if these work safety issues are prioritized in any organization, the workers would feel safe and they would be grateful towards the management of the organization and they would gain some confidence and they will be much more loyal towards the organization. Apart from the boost in the employee’s level of confidence and loyalty, the course makes sure that the supervisors know their duties properly if they complete these type of courses and with their professional help many lives could be saved from various dangers in the workplace, so in short, it can be said that, the importance of courses like these are priceless in today’s market. It is a matter of fact that, each year over 200 people get killed and over a million people get injured in the workplace. This statistics is somewhat very frustrating in today’s market, and there lies the importance of these types of courses. These courses ensure that the employees does not get injured or fall sick due to the work they do. Implementing ideas from SHEM courses would develop a positive health and safety culture. Apart from these the learning and implication of these courses would meet any organizations legal duties to protect health and safety of their employees. Not only these benefits, learning of SHEM contributes toward making the employees competent in health and safety and it would help the organizations to avoid kinds of distress that accidents and other negative issues cause.
In my opinion I would like to stress on the factor of practical learning more than theoretical, because, that would enrich our knowledge base as we need to manage risk factors in the practical field. Only theoretical knowledge would not be apt for managing risk factors in the field. That is the only change I would like to make.
Thus it is quite clear that in today’s world, industrialization and courses regarding SHEM goes hand in hand, and they are essential for the growth of industries. Thus, in short, it can be said that, preventing accidents and health issues must be a priority for all the business leaders as they should look after the employees, as employees are the nucleus of any organization. Workplace safety is thus one of the most important responsibilities of the employers, and providing safe work environment is must for the managing bodies of various organizations. So, for an employee there is nothing more important than ensuring the safety of their employees and that justifies the importance of the course related to social health work safety management in today’s world. Thus, it is a proven fact that we cannot deny the importance of these types of courses if we want progress in industrial sector without harming the general workforce, which would be sheer unethical.
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