The Strategic Importance Of

Workplace Safety And Health

Fatemeh Hashemi
 Benefits Of A Safe
And Healthy Workplace
Organizations can become more effective if they have
safer and healthy workplaces. Because:

• They can have fewer day losts. Therefore they have

higher productivity
• They can increase efficiency and quality. Because
they have healthier workforce.
• They can reduce medical and insurance costs.
• They can improve a good prestige. Everybody
wants to work with them.
 Results Of An Unsafe And
Unhealthy Workplace
There are lots of results of an unsafe and unhealthy workplace .The
important results are
• Injury and Disease: For example every year a lot of employees have
back pain that reduce their job performance. And billions of Turkish
Lira is spent each year to treat back pain.
• Mental Health: Mental health is just as important as physical health.
Depressive disorders represent one of the most common health problems of
adult workforce.
• Death and Violence: Sometimes, workplace injuries result in
death.The most common workplace deaths are transportation accidents and
contact with objects and equipment.
• Economic Costs: Although deaths have reduced, the economic cost to
businesses of workplace deaths and injuries remains high.
 Promoting Safety And Health
Within An Integrated HRM System
There are lots of things that can be used for workplace safety
and health.
• Job Analysis and Competency Model
Job analysis and competency modeling have shown that some
personality characteri analyses predict workplace accidents
and psychological symptoms.
• Training: training is the most important activity that can be
used to improve workplace safety and health. If you teach
employees how to behave when an accident happens, they can
be calm. The training of managers may include detailed
explanations of the relevant laws and regulations that govern
workplace safety and health.
 The Organizational Environment
• Internal environment factors: are important for workplace safety and
health, include the organization’s culture and its leadership.
• Leadership: Effective leaders do more than just talk about the importance
of workplace safety.
• External forces that are important to workplace safety and health include
technologies, industry conditions, and the laws and regulations that govern
this aspect of work.
• Technology: The introduction of new technologies improves workplace
safety and health.
• Industry: Employees in some industries are more likely to be injured at
work than others. In Turkey’s shipbuilding accident rate is extremely high.
In fact, it is nearly 20 times higher than the developed countries
• Laws and regulations: Every country has laws and regulations about
workplace safety and health. I think in developed countries these laws are
strict .On the other hand in developing countries they are passive.
 Global Considerations
With globalization, there has been an increasing awareness of
differences in national standards for workplace safety and
health.
• Country differences: There are differences in national
standards about workplace safety and health.
• Global organizations: Two global organizations that
strive to improve workplace safety and health in the world
are the International Labour Organization and The World
Health Organization.They strive to improve workplace
safety and health around the world by educating employers
and employees, developing knowledge about how to improve
the health of workers, and establishing a shared view of the
rights and responsibilities of employees and employers.
 Safety And Health Hazards
In The Workplace

1-Organizational qualities
1. The working conditions and time
2. The tools and technology available to do the job
3. The availability of guns brought to work
The size of the organization has also been shown to be related to incidence rates.
Small organizations(those with fewer than 50 employees) and large organizations (those
with more than 250 employees) have lower incidence rates than medium-sized
organizations. Because supervisors in small organizations are better able to detect safety
hazards and prevent accidents than medium size ones, while larger organizations have
more resources to hire staff specialists who can devote their efforts to safety and accident
prevention.
 Safety And Health Hazards
In The Workplace
2-Individual qualities
Accidents result from the behaviors of people, the hazards in the work
environment and pure chance. Certain psychological and physical
characteristics seem to make some people susceptible to accidents. Employees
who have fewer accidents are more optimistic, trusting, and concerned for
others than those have more accidents.
Employees under great stress are likely to have more accidents than those
under low stress.
Older workers are less likely to have accidents. However, when older people do
have accidents, they are more likely to suffer facilities and they recover more
slowly.
Safety And Health Hazards
In The Workplace

3-Violent employees
Workplace homicides are primarily robbery related, and they often
occur in grocery or convenience stores, drinking establishment, and
gasoline service stations.
Although it may be difficult to identify the violent employee before the
fact, employers are urged to be on the lookout for some common signs,
such as;
Verbal threats; individuals often talk about what they may do
Physical actions; troubled employees may try to intimidate others, flash
a concealed weapon in the workplace to test reactions.
Obsession: An employee may hold a grudge against a coworker or
supervisor.
 Workplace Stressors

1-Organizational change : Often when changes are made, there is too little
communication about the necessity for change
and the nature of changes to come. People become concerned about whether the
change will affect them.
2-Physical environment:Office technologies can improve productivity, they
may also be reasons of stress, crowd,noise, lack of privacy, and lack of control.
3-Stress-prone employees: People differ from in how they respond to
organizational stressors. A classic difference is referred to as type a people versus
type b behaviors.
4-The manager: Employees working for a bad boss experienced more
exhausting, job tension, nervousness, depressed moods, and mistrust.
 Strategies For Improving
Workplace Safety And Health
Accident Prevention: Designing the work environment to make accidents
unlikely is perhaps the best way to prevent accidents and increase safety.
Ergonomics: Ergonomics considers changes in the job environment in
conjunction with the physical and physiological capabilities and limitations of
the employees.
Vary their tasks during the day
Take small breaks every 30 minutes
Take longer breaks every two hours
Minimize the number of keystrokes whenever possible
Have opportunities to learn about their job performance
Reduce sources of environmental stress, such as heat, glare,or noise
Health and Safety Committees: Such committees can be effective in
reducing the frequency and severity of workplace injuries.