NEBOSH

KNOW - WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY

PRINCIPLES (INTERNATIONAL)

UNIT ID1:
For: NEBOSH International Diploma for Occupational Health and Safety
Management Professionals

Assessment
ANSWER TEMPLATE – PAPER 2 OF 2

Available for 30 working days

Learner name
NEBOSH learner
number
Learning Partner name

Please note: You must use this template for this Unit.

Please upload your answers to Paper 2 to the activity ‘Examination paper 2: Part 2 -
4’ in Moodle.

You do not need to copy out the questions.

Please save your completed answer document with your surname,

your first name, your NEBOSH learner number, and your Learning
Partner’s name.
For example, a learner called Dominic Towlson with the learner number
12345678, who has taken their course with a Learning Partner called
GMMTA International will name their submission:
Towlson Dominic, 12345678, GMMTA International

Answer sheet ID1-0002-ENG-OBE-V1 March22 © NEBOSH 2022 page

Part 2: Workplace-based activities
Activity 1: Description of your chosen organisation
The organization that I work for is KBR, Inc. which is a global provider of various

professional services and technologies to both the energy sector firms and government.

The organization KBR currently employs 37,500 workers situated across various sites and

it has customers worldwide across 80 countries and operates across 40 counties. The

various solutions that it provides to various sectors and firms include government

solutions, technology solutions and energy solutions.

The government solutions provided by the company is to serve the government customers

across the world that includes capabilities covering the full lifecycle of various

departments like defense, aviation, space and other programs and missions of the

government through systems engineering, program management and test and evaluation

for maintenance, operations and field logistics.

The technology solutions include proprietary technology that focuses on monetization of

hydrocarbons, in ethylene and petrochemicals; and other chemicals like ammonia,

fertilizers, nitric acid, oil refining and gasification.

The energy solutions provided by the company includes the onshore gas and oil, LNG,

GTL, offshore oil and gas both in shallow water and deep water and subsea. It also

provides floating solutions like FPSO, FPU, FLNG and FSRU.

Currently I work for this company which is a contractor to SADARA chemical company

and we are responsible for maintenance activity in the SADARA chemical plant. My role

is that of safety supervisor and I work as HSSE.

As a HSSE supervisor, my responsibilities include managing the HSSE policy and

guidelines so as to ensure confirmations regarding requirements of the customers and the

industry’s best practice. I work at the Isocyanates chemical plant of SADARA.

Isocyanates are highly reactive chemicals, and they are used in the manufacture of a wide

range of products like rigid or flexible foams, coatings like varnishes and paints and also
Answer sheet ID1-0002-ENG-OBE-V1 March22 © NEBOSH 2022 page
 fibers and elastomers which are increasingly used in automobile industry. Working in

such a chemical plant poses several health and safety hazards and hence our maintenance

activity is very important for proper efficient running of the chemical plant.

Activity 2: Management of contractors

Activity 2 (a)
Identification of job – Whenever a contracting job arises in a department the respective
department head is authorised to create a job description that best suits the requirement.
Such a requirement is a cause driven requirement and a specific date with which the
contractor needs to take the job is also mentioned unless it is a specialised job. For
general works like welding jobs, piping jobs etc., to name a few there are templates
available which can be used to describe the job and the need for the job and its urgency
and these are labelled as contractor requisition. For specialised contracting job
requirements there are special requisitions which require the templates to be filled in
larger detail.
Criteria for selection of contractors – Based on the type of job there are pre-qualification
criterion that need to be fulfilled by the contractors and contractors who have experience
in similar jobs are only entertained to participate in the procurement process. For
example, we have our own jetty where tugs are used to carry goods to large mother
vessels. When any contracting jobs are required there such a dredging or break water
jobs, we need to identify contractors who have the specialised experience in these works.
Assessing the risks from the work – In the contractor requisition the risks arising during
the performance of these works are made as a part of the system and attached along
with the requisition system which need to endorsed by the HSSE department.
Provision of information, instruction and training – Any specific operational information,
instructions and trainings are made mandatory to the contractor and is mandated to the
contractor. These are identified during the procurement process and also finds place in
the contracting requisition.
Co-operation and co-ordination – one person from each side is assigned to be the project
leader and another person from each side is also assigned to be the HSSE leader as
well. The project leaders would interact in regards to the project needs and the HSSE
leaders would interact regarding the HSSE standards to be adopted and followed during
the execution of the contract.
Consultation with workforce- All consultation with workforce, foremen and supervisors are
considered while creating the contracting requisition and also during the execution of the
job. A workforce representative, respective department foreman and supervisor are also
signatories to the contract requisition form.
Management and supervision of contractors while on site – A project leader who has
been assigned the project is responsible for the management and supervision of
contractors and their workforce while they work on our site/s. The project leader from the
contractor’s side would be responsible for the management and supervision of the
contractor’s workforce.
Relevant legal requirements – All employees employed by the contractors must comply
with the legal requirements of the land such as in overtime wages, number of hours of
work per day, insurance and other such basic requirements. The overtime wages if any
should be paid @ 150% of the basic wages is the legal requirement in the country and
normal working hours should be observed at 8 hours per day.

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Activity 2 (b) format table
Recommendation for improving
contractor selection or management
Safety and health presentation along with
vendor presentation
Justification for selection of
recommendation
One among the two key recommendations
would be the conduct of a presentation by
the contractors during the procurement
process in which the contractors would
conduct audio/video presentations or PPTs
about their prior experience in similar
projects. Such presentation should give
importance to the HSSE regulations and
the standards that are followed by the
contractor and its infrastructure that are
used by them in work sites. All across our
sites we are mandated to use hard hats but
most of the time contractor employees do
no wear them as they are aware of the
same and it becomes a sensitive issue.
Penalty clauses for non-usage of hardhats
while at site should be made part of the
commercial contract.

Safety and health presentation from HSSE
leader of vendor
The next key recommendation is to have
another presentation by the HSSE leader of
the contracting organization to conduct a
brief presentation on their HSSE activities
and the policies, procedures and protocols
followed thereto. This needs to be made
mandatory for specialised work as they
involve larger risks when to compare to
general contracting works.

Activity 3: Risk assessment and sensible/proportionate risk management

Activity 3 (a)
As a highly hazardous workplace our company uses chemical risk assessment method
which is based on the Quantified Risk Approach (QRA). As a proactive system we keep
updating our risk management system on a quarterly basis through our risk management
department which works very closely with the health and safety department. There are
multiple committees in various department which include workmen, foremen, supervisors,
risk managers and health and safety department people. These committees meet once in
a fortnight and review every minor incident or review existing standards that are in place
and seek suggestions from all directions. In the event it is required to contractor’s HSSE
managers/supervisors are also incorporated into the committees on a need basis. For
example, the risks in the acid handling department are reduced to a large extent with the
use of robotic machines in handling and transfer of strong acids and whatever workers
who are working in these departments are required to wear PPE suits. Even technicians
who arrive from time to time to check on any problems with the robotic equipment are
required to wear the PPE suits while at these places.

Activity 3 (b)

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 As a company that is committed to the health and safety of its employees our
management spares no efforts to ensure that our employees are safe. Labelling of
materials is a very key aspect in every chemical processing plant, our management has
offered decentralized printing options which are shared by two departments placed next
to each other where labels can be created in an instant and pasted where and when
required to.

In a chemical processing facility, location of storage of raw materials and finished goods
is very critical. All these materials are stored highly insulated from each other at a
distance of 1000 meters from each other and the pedestrian walkways there to clearly
demarcated and barricaded. In the same manner truck approach facilities and roads
leading to various storage places are clearly demarcated and barricaded.

Safety checks and precautionary / preventive equipment using latest technology using
IOT and AI are installed at all possible places which would raise immediate alarms. This
equipment also would notify the concerned internal authorities, external authorities and
internal fire service teams in the event of any leakages or any such issues. Such
equipment is calibrated and audited bi-annually to check their working status and the
effectiveness to prevent larger incidents.

Activity 3 (c)
All chemical storage, raw materials, by-products and finished products are stored in
insulated spaces and for liquid storages there are trenches built around the storage area.
In the event of a leak these trenches would be able to take the flow of any leaked liquid
chemicals. For gaseous chemicals sufficient engineering controls are made in the gas
storage tanks that detect any possible leaks in them. These tanks are checked once in a
month for their stability and for any other possible defects in the tanks. Any leaks of raw
materials, by-products or finished products can be very fatal or injurious as per the nature
of the product / chemical involved.
All pipelines used internally are clearly painted with separate colours to identify the risk
involved with the materials that flow inside and these pipe lines are marked individually at
a space of 100 meters. All pipe lines are leak tested every quarter and the results thereto
are documented for the sake of posterity. These pipe lines are equipped with leak
detection and safety valves that shutoff in the event of any leak detected.

Activity 4: Monitoring and measuring – audits

Activity 4 (a) (i) format table

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4

What the organisation currently

Requirement Findings
does to meet the requirement
Audit plans for the last three years have
EXAMPLE 1
been reviewed. It would appear that the
An audit programme is drawn up in
previous year’s programme is copied
January each year. The aim is to
Establish audit and used. Changes within the
1.1 complete an audit of the entire
programme organisation may, therefore, be missed.
organisation within the following 12
Consideration should be given to
months. The audit plan is submitted to
drawing up an individual audit
the organisation’s directors for approval.
programme each year.
EXAMPLE 2
Carry out a The organisation has not carried out a Each audit plan should ensure that a
2.4 document document review in audits carried out relevant document review is also
review over the last three years. Audits usually included.
consist of only talking to workers.
0.1 Create new Strong acid storage is one of the Most audit are done by foremen and
audit program most vulnerable areas in the entire HSSE managers merely sign off on

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 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4

What the organisation currently

Requirement Findings
does to meet the requirement
facility and this needs a very serious what the foremen have audited and
in strong acid
audit which is often ignored. Audit is presented. A system of rotation of
storage
conducted every quarterly personnel should be considered
All future
audits to be
The present audit reports are saved in
computerized
0.12 hard copies which are difficult to Many past audit sheets are missing.
for ease of
retireve
storage and
retrieval

Activity 4 (a) (ii)

The audit program is a very generic one in nature and covers the entire manufacturing
facility and is a bi-annual audit. Being a chemical manufacturing facility, we have to
conduct the bi-annual audit as per laws of the land. However, the audit of the hazardous
chemicals, mostly strong acid storage and handling systems is conducted once in every
three months. Though this quarterly audit is not mandated as per law we do the same as
a proactive measure.
All audit will be done using a tailormade software that can have handheld tablet
computers as the front end data collection devices and the software needs to be updated
as and when required.

Activity 4 (b)
The audit team that conducts the audit must be rotated every quarter and one person
from the previous audit team must find place in the new team. This would ensure there is
no copy paste job in the audit process and audit findings will be subject to the view of
new eyes every quarter.

The use of external audit team such as from third part qualified audit agencies must be
included and the same must compared with the internal audit results.

As already mentioned, relevant standards call for bi-annual audits our management is
particular on quarterly audits.

The impact of a quarterly audit is that the safety of the most hazardous place in the
manufacturing facility is considered very sacrosanct and the company recognizes the
need of a safe working environment.

Workers in the hazardous storage and handling areas are very aware of the quarterly
audit and their chosen representative is also part of the audit team the same person can
not be on the team for more than one quarterly audit.

Financially this is a burden for the company however, the management has approved of
the costs and has factored the same in the costing.

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Part 3 - Reflection
Task 1: Professional practice

Task 1 (a)
Respect – In a large facility such as ours there are many employees who have put in
many decades of service to the organization for many years. Most seniors by age but
who are at a lower level such as at a workforce level such as welders, piping technicians
etc., for example are highly skilled in various aspects of the plant because of their
decades of experience in this organization. Respecting their experience and taking
constructive inputs from them is the solemn duty of every leader irrespective of whether
he or she is in the health and safety department or any other department.
Competence of people should be respected and due importance to the competence be
offered rather ignoring competence. Any job requires a competence level and people
reach such competence level after many years of putting in experience. Whatever be it
whether a highly skilled job or a menial job it is very essential to have competence level.
A person who measures readings from some meter achieves the competence levels after
consistently doing the job, if the meter readings were to be recorded automatically and
manually the person doing the manual reading would notice any minute difference and
report it immediately to his superior.

Task 1 (b): format table

Action(s) required to What difference will the
improve personal ethical action(s) make to your
principles professional practice?
Increased professional
Training
competence
Upskilling Increase skill competencies
Reading Increase communication
skills
How will you review the
effectiveness of the
action(s)?
I utilize every opportunity
to undergo trainings
whenever I get the
opportunity within the
organization or from any
professional bodies in
HSE. As an organization
that is committed to
HSSE there are two to
four trainings that are
organized every year and
I try to participate in all of
them
Upskilling by undertaking
various courses on an
online basis without
disturbing my job
schedules is another
aspect that I am
undertaking to improve
aspects of my career.
My readings from great
authors too have
influenced my ethical
thinking process that has
given considerable help
to my career. I would do
appropriate self-
appraisals of my
performance on my job

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Task 2: Transferable leadership skills
Task 2 (a): format table
Characteristic How characteristic is
reflected in your
leadership style
Vision A good leader needs to be
a visionary and translate
visions into action, I believe
I have the vision to be a
great leader in the HSSE
department of a large
organization to lead the
organization for its activities
towards employee safety
and health.
Inspiring A good leader needs to
inspire others into
performing their actions and
a leaders inspiring
thoughts, words and actions
can have a great impact.
Strategic and Critical Strategic and Critical
thinking Thinking is essential for any
leader as this has the
potential to create solutions
to many problems that arise
in the course of work.
Health and safety is a
critical aspect especially in
hazardous working environs
as in my place of
employment. In such
scenarios it is very
important to have strategic
and critical thinking that
leads to problem solving
Communication A good leader must be a
good communicator, written
and oral. Though I have a
Answer sheet ID1-0002-ENG-OBE-V1 March22 © NEBOSH 2022
role and take the help of
peers to take feedback of
myself. I would participate
in the various
competitions conducted
by various professional
bodies to undertake a
measure of myself.
Personal experience
example(s)
In my organization I have
had the privilege of
providing many visionary
deeds, for example the use
of IOT /AI based controls
for various storage systems
was suggested by me
which help remote
monitoring of various
hazardous chemicals.
I have noticed on how I
created an inspiration on
some workers who did not
suit up properly in their
PPEs while working in the
places where they should
be wearing PPE.
The engineering
department in our
organization had a major
issue that almost led
towards a tiff with the HSSE
department. Using my
problem-solving skills, I got
to diffuse the situation and
reached an amicable
solution that did not
compromise on the
engineering aspects and
safety aspects of the issue
in hand.
I have had the privilege of
doing many important oral
communications during
page
 bit of a problem with written
communication I take the
liberty to think that I am
good oral communicator at
my workplace
Open mind and creativity A good leader needs to
have an open mind that is
creative, the leader needs
to accept ideas from all
around and use it creatively
Flexibility A good leader needs to be
flexible and should not be
rigid in character. By being
flexible the leader must be
able to achieve a good
rapport with people all
around the hierarchy. A
leader does not need to sit
in a comfortable office
rather he should always be
willing to roll up his sleeves
and get his hands dirty (in
words and actions).
Honesty A good leader needs to be
honest in actions and
words. Being honest is a
virtue which very few
people realise
Ethical A good leader must practice
ethics in all walks of life
most importantly in work
Answer sheet ID1-0002-ENG-OBE-V1 March22 © NEBOSH 2022
many HSSE open meetings
with workforce and during
management meetings.
During workforce meetings I
can speak the language
that can be understood by
the workers easily and
during managerial level
meeting I can speak the
language understood by
managerial level people.
Suggestions coming from
workforce or from any third
party can be accepted by a
good leader and put to use.
In my work place a worker
gave a simple suggestion
about a welding area
discipline that needed a
minor change, I accepted
this idea and communicated
the same to our
management which was
accepted.
I recall an instance when a
very frontline level worker
approached me to discuss
his problem at his work site,
he was very upset that
none would listen to his
problem. When I got to
know about the problem, I
could understand that it was
a serious issue and the
same was redressed
immediately under my
initiative.
I recall an instance where a
colleague tried to hide the
truth and covered it up with
distort facts. I
communicated to the
colleague in private and
convinced him on how
impactful this would be and
then helped him in
changing his stance.
Our employer provides
150% of wages as overtime
and many workers try to
page
 place. misuse this facility quite
often. As a good leader I try
to counsel such workers
into the wrong ethics
involved in such activities
and overtime must be used
only if necessary. I try to
emphasize on the
importance of work-life
balance to them and urge
them to do their work within
the stipulated 8 hours of
duty.

A good leader must be

Courage courageous in words and I can recall a particular
actions. Courage does not instance where I had to
necessarily mean being admit about something I did
daring and dishful, rather not know during a meeting.
being courageous means to It was then I realised that it
admit wrong doings and takes courage to be honest.
admit something that is
unknown to one

Task 2 (b): format table

Characteristic to be Detail on the What difference will How will you
worked on development the development(s) review the
required make to your effectiveness of
leadership style? change?
Vision A leader needs to Better quality output Self-appraisal
be a visionary; he at work place
needs to imbibe
the vision of the
management and
translate the
vision towards
down the line to
the last man
standing. If the
leader is a part of
the management,
he needs to
create a vision
for the
organization, if
the leader is at
the middle level,
he needs to be a
catalyst for the
vision. To
become a
visionary, one
must read about
the life stories of
other visionary
leaders of the
past and

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 contemporary
leaders as well.
In such readings
I draw inspiration
from them and
translate these
inspirations to
vision.

A leader needs
Communication to communicate Better reach with Self-Appraisal
well both orally colleagues, peers
and verbally. and other
Developing stakeholders
language skills
by increasing
vocabulary and
reading more
would be an ideal
situation to
develop
communication
skills. By using
communication
skills a leader
can take his
whole team
members into
confidence and
work towards the
mandated
objectives in a
smart fashion. As
a great
communicator
the leader would
be able to
address the
issues of the
people in the
team and give
the best working
atmosphere
laced with safety.

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Part 4: Research project
Task: Short research report on risk assessment

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 Executive summary
Workers involvement in occupational health and safety management is separated into
three types -namely potential improvements that can be made to psycho-social and
organizational development, productivity gains to the organization and the fulfillment of
legal imperatives. The three critical success factors that has been discussed to improve
workers’ involvement in health and safety programs in the organization includes the
commitment of the management and employees, knowledge and expertise of the
workforce, effective involvement of the trade unions. The success of workforce
participation first depends on the commitment shown by the management in the ways it
handles these issues. It is also dependent on the employees’ commitment in that they
should desire to become a part of the organization and get themselves involved in such
issues. When they perceive to be the part of such initiatives, then they would be
committed towards more involvement. The second critical part is that they should be part
of the trade unions which support and provide training to such workers. Trade unions
seem to provide safety performance in many organizations, in other words, organization
where there are non-unionized employees voicing their concerns, there seems to poorer
levels of safety implementation. Thirdly the effectiveness of workforce involvement in
health and safety programs is closely tied to their knowledge and expertise. This in turn
depends on the culture, norms and social settings. This will be based on technical and
safety expertise of the workers. For such workforce participation based on knowledge
and expertise, training of workers on health and safety issue is a prerequisite for effective
participation. For workplace initiatives on health and safety to be effective, these should
be backed up by creative a positive culture with management commitment to health and
safety. While management commitment is a prerequisite for allocation of specific
resources to undertake specific health and safety measures, workforce commitment
should be complementary to this so as to achieve maximum benefits and to reduce
hazards and accident rates. Levels of employee commitment could be enhanced by
ensuring them assured level of access to making decisions and to see to that their
concerns are addressed. To gain their assurance and commitment, it is essential to have
trade unions to voice their opinions. Hence the three critical factors are complementary to
each other in enhancing workforce involvement in health and safety practices at the
workplace.

Introduction
There are several factors that are associated with the critical success of worker

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 participation in health and safety initiatives at workplace. First among them is knowledge
and expertise among the workforces. Second factor is the commitment among the workers
as well as the management towards workforce participation initiatives in health and safety
practices. Third one is the influence of trade unions (both formal and informal). This short
essay will focus on detailing each of these critical success factors for effective workforce
participation or involvement in health and safety management.

Justification for selection of three CSFs (including evidence of

research and referencing)
Knowledge as a critical success factor:
For any type of workforce involvement to take place in health and safety practices at
workplace, knowledge and expertise about the health and safety practices is a prerequisite.
It can be understood from the various types and positions that workers have at an
organization, that their extent of their knowledge and expertise about health and safety
policies and practices are also not equal. Workforce involvement will be most effective in
workplace safety and health management only when their participants have the relevant
knowledge that they can contribute to towards its management.
To improve the workers knowledge about health and safety practices, it is important that
they should be involved in various elements of health and safety management. This
includes involving worker’s involvement or participation in policy making, organizing,
planning, measurement and also audit & review of the health and safety practices and
policies at the organization. However, some researchers think that though knowledge is
important, it is only partial in the sense that that such knowledge about health and safety
practices rests on cultural norms and assumptions. These gaps in knowledge can be filled
by local knowledge about the work practices and processes involved at an organization.
As Lippin et al. (2000) point out effective workforce involvement is closely related to
how much these workers know about health and safety practices and how much they can
contribute given their resources and constraints.
Workforce involvement will be helpful in devising procedure and high-quality decisions
in policy making towards health and safety measures only when they have the relevant
knowledge so as to contribute to making quality decisions. For example, as pointed out in
the examples of good practices about employee involvement in health and safety, when
volunteers were trained for three days for writing of health and safety procedures, they
then identified and created the necessary procedures for their own organization.

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 Only when the workers are involved right from the policy making stage into health and
safety practices and policies, would they understand and stay committed to put into
practice the policies which they have been a part of (Lane et al., 2000). Employee
involvement in health and safety management not only is dependent on the knowledge
they get through training, but also how involved they are in the processes of planning and
implementing those measures.

For example, at the organizing stage of health and safety management, employees could
be given specific health and safety responsibilities that would make them to participate
more effectively. In an joint venture company where the accident statistics were poor and
the company being prosecuted twice by HSE, they set up two safety task teams with ten
employees and a team leader for each group. The team members were selected based on
their wide range of ideas and input they had and were often rotated on a regular basis.
Team leaders were selected based on their responsibility and caring attitude. This resulted
in reducing the accidents and effective worker participation in the organization (Lane et
al., 2000). There are various benefits of appointing safety task teams in organizations such
as these, as it would reduce the accident rates due to the effective worker involvement in
safety and health practices. It would also help in creating awareness about hazards that is
bound to increase substantially and this would increase the accident prevention actions by
the employees. This will also increase the productivity of employees who feel part of the
organization and take pride in their actions and achievements and lastly it would also
increase the morale and relationship between the management team and the
workforce(Ochsner and Greenberg, 1998).

Employees could also be involved in delivering messages about health and safety among
one another (communication) and also in designing and delivering training modules about
health and safety measures (increasing competence). Involving employees in the planning
of health and safety measures would increase their knowledge about the same and this
would help in increasing their participation as well (Shearn, 2005).

In the planning process, for example, the organization could involve employees in setting
the health and safety objectives for the organization; they could be involved in
assessments of risks, they could be involved in the procurement of safety equipment
which increases their knowledge. Employees could also be involved in designing new
ways of working at the workplace that is compatible with health and safety practices.
Employees could also be involved in problem solving and planning risk control systems.

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 For a new approach of including employees in the risk assessment model team of
departmental mangers, supervisors and employees from each department were selected
and taken away from their daily tasks for a week and they were provided with in-depth
training in risk assessment and issues that are related to particular accidents and hazards
(Lane et al., 2000). Involving employees in risk assessment models has been in
implementation in an organization since January 2000 and this has decreased accident
rates dramatically and there has also been financial benefits in terms of insurance costs
due to this.

Even for the measurement process, the management of the organization could involve
employees for carrying out the inspections and observations on health and safety work
practices carried out. This is called as active monitoring which when employees are
involved with, increases their knowledge and experience. Similarly, even with reactive
monitoring, the management could involve employees to monitor accidents, hazard
spotting and near miss investigations so as to make them more knowledgeable and
experienced.

For doing the audit and review processes, employee involvement in conducting audits
would increase the efficiency and reliability of the health and safety system and they
could also be involved in the review of performance that is based on data from the audits
and monitoring done.
Commitment as a critical success factor:
Commitment is of two types – management commitment and workforce commitment.
Management commitment is considered to be one of the critical success factor in
effective workforce involvement in health and safety measures implemented at workplace.
This is because the management ahs the power and authority in allocating the necessary
resources for safety programs implementation. This is the starting point of bringing out
the safety culture in the company and they also need to communicate with the lower level
of management and workers at various levels so as to communicate and demonstrate their
commitment towards health and safety. Among the 16 critical success factors identified
across four dimensions, management commitment was an important factor for safety
program performance for construction projects in Thai (Aksorn and Hadikusumo, 2008).
They had identified that adequate resources and management support provided by the top
management in the organization is the most influential factor in the implementation of
safety programs in construction projects. In addition to this, the communication and

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 regular meetings about health and safety between the top management and the workforce
would influence the teamwork and worker’s involvement in taking corrective actions and
to improving safety conditions at workplace(Othman et al., 2020).
Another study on management commitment towards safety among hospital workers,
management commitment is considered to be the important factor that is specific and
critical to workers perceptions and involvement. Management commitment towards health
and safety affects the workers perceptions about the commitment of the mangers to value
and support the working practices compatible to safety and health procedures. This in turn
impacts the workers involvement and safety behaviors. Managers communicate their
priority towards safety which in competence towards other demands of their employees
and this will impact the behavior of the workforce and also their work related injuries/
safety. For example, when confronted with a challenging situation in an hospital, workers
who perceive an higher level of management commitment towards health and safety are
likely to follow safety protocols more strictly due to the support they receive from
management when following such protocols and might tend to avoid needle stick
injuries(McGonagle et al., 2016). Hence management commitment in organizations
translate in workforce behavior which in turn reduces injuries and risks in a workplace
setting.
Another primary reason for commitment from the management side is that they have a
key role to play in authorizing any changes or recommendations for health and safety
programs, both of which have a key impact on transpiring employment involvement
initiatives. Also it has been seen in many organization that gaining commitment from the
top management level will only lead the way to commitment from lower level
management and also from workers(Rodgers, Hunter and Rogers, 1993). And studies
point out the fact that if the management does not have a genuine commitment towards
health and safety management, the workers would not get involved in such measures with
a full heart.

Before expecting workers commitment on health and safety issues, it is important that
the managers should set clear objectives for such safety measures and programs, they
should conduct regular site visits, safety walks and should be participating themselves in
such initiatives, managers and workers should participate in WHS audits, hazard
identification, inspections and incident investigation. They should encourage
accountability among workers for WHS issues, putting WHS first ahead of other
priorities, promoting such WHS initiatives. Management should encourage open
communication in such health and safety issues, involving the workforce and also
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 encourage continuous improvement. These measures should be accompanied with proper
arrangements for recognizing outstanding performance of workers in Health and safety
programs by the personnel. Recognition could include specific contributions made by the
workers with regard to identifying and/or rectifying a significant hazard and this can be
given through various means like monthly rewards, praise, certificates, monetary rewards,
valuable rewards like household appliances or even other rewards like weekend holiday in
a resort. All these rewards and recognition provided to workers would have them to stay
committed towards health and safety procedures adopted at workplace. To enhance
commitment on the part of the workers there are five action items that could be
implemented by the leaders.
 The first action item is to encourage workers to participate in health and safety
programs. To accomplish it, workers much be given adequate resources and time
to participate in the program. They should be acknowledged and be provided with
positive reinforcement for participation in such programs. The organization should
also maintain a open door policy so as to create an environment for the workers to
take to management about the health and safety issues and to provide suggestions.
 The second action item is of encouraging workers to report their concerns about
health and safety at workplace. This is accomplished in many organization through
establishing a process for workers to report hazards, injuries, close calls or near
misses, illnesses, safety and health outcomes. They should also be allowed to
respond to reports promptly either directly or anonymously that would provide
them some confidentiality and privacy in reporting events. The management
should also report back to its workers on the fact that whether their concerns and
suggestions are being addressed. These workers should also be empowered with
resources to initiate or suspend temporarily work operation that they may seem or
believe to be unsafe. Management should also encourage workers to find solutions
on reported health and safety hazards (Shearn, 2005).
 The third action item is to give enough information about safety and health to the
workers. This can be accomplished by providing workers with safety data sheets
(SDS), collection and providing information and data on injuries and illness, and
also revealing information about the results of environmental exposure. Workers
should also be encouraged to review inspection reports and incident investigation
reports as this would enhance their knowledge and commitment towards such
programs.
 The fourth action item to gain commitment from the workers is to involve them in

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 all the aspects of such programs. This can be accomplished by providing
opportunities for all the workers and involve them in developing the safety
programs and to set goals; involve them in reporting hazards and developing
solutions for them, involve the workers in analysing hazards in each job process;
define and document the safe work practices to be followed, involve workers in
conducting site inspections, etc. Workers could also be involved in training new
hires at the organization on the safety procedures and to evaluate program
performance at workplace.
 The final action item for gaining workers commitment is to remove the barriers in
participation for workers. This can be accomplished by ensuring that all workers
irrespective of their skills, education or language can participate in safety
programs, provide them with regular feedback so as to show that they are being
heard and their concerns are being addressed; authorize sufficient resources for the
workers to facilitate their involvement in safety programs, etc(OSHA, 2022).

Influence of trade unions for workers involvement:

The importance of trade unions for increasing the bargaining power of the workers have
been highlighted in many research studies. For example, it could be difficult for the
workers to speak to the top management about an workplace hazard or health or safety
issues or even bargain for their overtime wages and/or to resolve their concerns single-
handedly. This is where unions come into play. Unions have many advantages on the fact
that when all the workers collectively speak with the same voice, their bargaining power
is also increased and at the same time, their concerns are also more likely to be effectively
addressed by the management. Union means workers come together to talk about their
problems and take collective decision to talk about their concerns and put forward their
views to the management. They select an representative amongst themselves to take and
discuss their concerns with the top management. With trade unions, whether they are
formalized or informal, is likely to confer many benefits to the workers and get them to be
become more involved with safety and health policies of the organization.
Unions provide a way for improvind communication between the workers and their
employers which is likely to build commitment and trust among the employees and will
ensure that their concerns would be addressed fairly and quickly. This will increase their
productivity and would also likely increase the profitability of the company. Dealing with
the union, it also becomes easier for the management to deal with a single point of contact

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 to negotiate the terms with the workers which makes the process more simple and
efficient than it would be deal with employees’ concerns individually.
Unions play a strong role in representing the workers concerns about safety issues and this
help in addressing them effectively so as to lower accident rates and hazards at work
thereby ensuring safe work practices that would reduce the stress related ill health among
workers. For example, issues like long working hours, poor working conditions, being
bullied at work could be some of the issues that could be taken to the management by the
unions, which are resolved effectively when unions take up such issues to the
management. Evidence shows that unionized workplaces seem to safer for workforce and
this would add benefits for the employers as well as it reduced costs of ill-health and
accidents happening at workplace.
Unions provide a good source of information about practices at workplace and they are
well placed to communicate and work with employers so as to identify and rectify poor
working conditions for workers and check on the non-compliance of working conditions
with the labour standards. In other words, unions play a key role in the enforcement of
labour standards, and they also create awareness among the workers about proper working
conditions. They often conduct audits to see whether there is compliance with the labour
codes and trade unions often provide a route to workers to report non-compliance without
any fear of reprisal.
By providing voice to the employees and supporting them when they have work related
concerns, trade unions often improve staff retention and also reduce absenteeism of
workers. Improved working conditions in unionized work environment gives employees
incentives to stay put in their jobs for longer periods and also increase their productivity.
Trade unions also help the employers to make better decision to upgrade their standards to
include safety and health related programs in workplaces by receiving inputs from
workers and also help the companies to make informed decisions about health and safety
equipment that the management can invest in.
When unions help in identify work related safety issues, it helps in significant savings by
reducing sick pay, compensation payments given for accidents and hazards and also helps
in reducing staff turnover.

Conclusion
Health and safety culture in organizations is considered to be key factors when
determining the effectiveness of such systems in companies. However culture goes
beyond health and safety policies and includes every day actions and decision that
management and employees integrate into their core values so as to implement and
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 maintain good health and safety behavior. Health and safety policies are just a starting
point. When workers are involved in every stage of the planning, implementing,
measuring, monitoring process, they become more committed in such safety and health
measures. The commitment from the top management, middle level management for
maintaining and promotion safety and health at workplaces, and the involvement and
commitment of workers at all levels is as important as their knowledge and training
provided for such issues. When the management implements shop floor visits and address
the concerns faced by the employees, these provide opportunities for the employees to
voice their concerns about any health and safety issues they might be facing. Regular
attendance of health and safety meetings could increase their awareness about such issues
and provoke their active involvement so as to reduce the hazards and accident rates.

Documents and 1. Aksorn, T. and Hadikusumo, B. H. W. (2008)

sources of information
you used in your
‘Critical success factors influencing safety program
examination performance in Thai construction projects’, Safety
Science, 46(4), pp. 709–727. doi:
10.1016/J.SSCI.2007.06.006.
2. Lane, B. et al. (2000) Employee Involvement in
Health and Safety : Some Examples of Good Practice,
Human Factors.
3. Lippin, T., Eckman, A. and Calkin, K. (2000)
‘Empowerment‐based health and safety training:
Evidence of workplace change from four industrial
sectors’, American Journal of Industrial Medicine:
Incorporating environmental and occupational
health. Available at:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1097-
0274(200012)38:6%3C697::AID-
AJIM9%3E3.0.CO;2-T (Accessed: 17 April 2022).
4. McGonagle, A. K. et al. (2016) ‘Management
Commitment to Safety, Teamwork, and Hospital
Worker Injuries’, Journal of hospital administration.
Answer sheet ID1-0002-ENG-OBE-V1 March22 © NEBOSH 2022 page
 NIH Public Access, 5(6), p. 46. doi:
10.5430/JHA.V5N6P46.
5. Ochsner, M. and Greenberg, M. (1998) ‘Factors
which support effective worker participation in health
and safety: A survey of New Jersey industrial
hygienists and safety engineers’, Journal of Public
Health Policy, 19(3), pp. 350–366. doi:
10.2307/3343541.
6. OSHA (2022) Safety Management - Worker
Participation | Occupational Safety and Health
Administration. Available at:
https://www.osha.gov/safety-management/worker-
participation (Accessed: 17 April 2022).
7. Othman, I. et al. (2020) ‘Critical success factors
influencing construction safety program
implementation in developing countries ’, Journal of
Physics: Conference Series. IOP Publishing, 1529, p.
42079. doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/1529/4/042079.
8. Rodgers, R., Hunter, J. E. and Rogers, D. L. (1993)
‘Influence of Top Management Commitment on
Management Program Success’, Journal of Applied
Psychology, 78(1), pp. 151–155. doi: 10.1037/0021-
9010.78.1.151.
9. Shearn, P. (2005) ‘Workforce Participation in the
Management of Occupational Health and Safety:
Report Number HSL/2005/09’, Health and Safety
laboratry, 09(September 2004), p. 34.

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