Design Safe and healthy systems of work

Exhibit Strong management commitment

Inspect Workplace for health and safety problems

Establish Procedures and controls for dealing with

health and safety issues

Develop Training programs

Set up Health and safety committees

Monitor Safety policies

Draw up Action plan and checklist

1. Design safer systems of work:

The most direct approach to ensuring a safe and healthy workplace is to design systems
of work that are safe and without risk to health. This can often only be done satisfactorily
at the design, planning or purchasing stage. It may be far more difficult to modify
existing machinery or systems of work to eliminate or reduce hazards, than at the
investment stage. Thus, management must take cognizance of long-term organizational
changes to control hazards. Simply trying to persuade employees, for instance by poster
campaigns, to adapt their behavior to unsafe systems of work is unacceptable. ‘Most
accidents involve an element of failure in control — in other words failure in
management skill. A guiding principle when drawing up arrangements for securing
health and safety should be so far as possible work would be adapted to people and not
vice versa’. As managers identify processes, machines and substances that are hazardous
to the health and well-being of employees, they must modify the process to eliminate or
reduce the hazard and risk ‘at source’. The provision of protective equipment is the
typical means used by organizations to reduce physical hazards, and it is also an
employer responsibility.

2. Exhibit commitment:
No matter how much activity on health and safety is initiated by HR professionals, health
and safety should be an integral part of every manager’s responsibility, from the chief
executive officer down to the lowest level supervisor. Anything less than total support
from top management raises questions about sincerity of the organization’s
commitment in the eyes of employees, government agencies and the public at large. To
exhibit commitment, managers’ salaries and promotion might be tied to a satisfactory
safety record and compliance. Larger organizations have also appointed specialists in the
area, including health and safety officers, safety engineer and medical technicians. If the
safety officer is to be effective she or he must be given adequate authority in the
management hierarchy to implement changes.

3. Inspect the workplace:

Another proactive approach to the management of health and safety is regular formal
inspections of the workplace, regular monitoring of the work environment and regular
physical examination of employees. For example, construction sites and manufacturing
plants require regular inspections to check the application of safety standards and
relevant laws. Organizations may monitor a wide range of matters relating to employees’
health, from routine eye tests and chest X-rays to screening for breast and cervical
cancer and incidents of infertility and abnormal childbirths. A ‘health’ survey of
employees can also help identify hazardous and unhealthy processes.

We can identify three main types of formal inspection, accident, special and general.
Accident inspections will follow an accident or dangerous incident in the workplace.
Special inspections might concentrate on a particular work station, system of work or
hazard. The safety committee might decide that it is necessary to examine the training of
fork-lift truck operators or dust problems; this would be the first step in a plan of action.
A comprehensive survey of the entire workplace is the purpose of general inspection.

4. Establish procedures and controls:

A healthy and safety policy is likely to fail unless there are effective procedures and
controls established. The procedures for handling and safety problems need to meet
some basic requirements:

1. Allow employees and union representatives to talk directly to the managers who can
make decisions.
2. Operate without undue delay.

3. Be able to handle emergency problems and

4. Permit discussion about long-term decisions affecting health and safety.

Clearly, these recommendations have important implications for HRM policy and action.
Problems might occur if line managers are expected by senior management to be
responsible for safe working practices, but at the same time are denied the authority to
make decisions and implement changes. In principle, organizational procedures should
ensure that the responsibility of each level of management to make decisions. The
appointment of a safety officer may be a necessary prerequisite to establishing effective
procedures and controls, but it is not sufficient. The position must be placed into the
management hierarchy with clear lines of reporting and accountability, which will enable
procedures for raising problems to operate without undue delay and avoid other
managers absolving themselves from responsibilities.

5. Develop training programs:

One way to obtain compliance with health and safety regulations is through enhancing
employees’ knowledge, understanding and commitment, which can be achieved through
healthy and safety programs. The purpose of safety training is generally the same as that
of any other training program: to improve job knowledge and skills and to ensure
optimum employee performance at the specified level. In health and safety training,
specified performance standards include attention to safety rules and regulations
regarding safe work behavior. Like any other training, health and safety training should
be developed systematically. First, problems or training needs are identified by
inspection, by accident reports, and through discussion at the health and safety
committee. Next, planning, execution and evaluation of the training take place. Top
management support is a key ingredient in the availability and success of health and
safety training.

6. Set up health and safety committees:

When health committees are not initiated by the union, organization often have safety
committees which have employee members and are chaired by the safety or HRM
specialist. Making the committee effective is mainly in the realm of senior management.
A safety committee may develop into a ‘talking shop’ with no effective decision-making
authority. To avoid this, a senior member of management team, with executive authority,
should be a member of the committee.

The functions of the committees, their terms of reference, depends on individual

company policy, relevant safety legislation and the employee-union relations situation.
Employers or their representatives are primarily responsible for compliance with health
and safety laws. The existence of this committee does not diminish the employer’s duty
to ensure a healthy and safe workplace. The work of the safety committee should
supplement management’s arrangements for regular and effective monitoring for health
and safety precautions; it cannot be a substitute for management action. All forms of
safety matters reduce the incidence of accidents.

7. Monitor policy:

Safety specialists argue that the safety policy should reflect the employer’s commitment
to develop safe systems of work, and to pursue a healthy work environment. Apart from
giving details of the specialist safety services provided by the organization, the safety
policy also outlines the safety responsibilities of all levels of management within the
hierarchy. This part of the safety policy is particularly important for identifying which
member of the management hierarchy should be involved when a health and safety
problem arises in the workplace. A proactive approach would involve HRM professionals
regularly checking to ensure that safety policy; management procedures and
arrangements work, and are changed to suit new developments or work structures in the
workplace.

8. Draw up action plan:

Thorough preparation, including designing a comprehensive set of checklists covering all

aspects of the workplace, is essential if managers are to discover physical hazards. HRM
professionals can be more proactive in the area of health and safety be developing an
action plan and checklist.

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