With 2018 upon us, it’s time to rethink and refresh your Health and Safety management strategy. Those of you who want to improve your standards, insure yourselves against the harsh penalties of not complying with the law and maintain your business reputation, keep reading… We have developed a five step survival guide which aims to help you identify the actions you may not have taken in order to eliminate (or reduce) the health and safety risks and nurture a positive workplace culture within your organisation. 1. TRAIN YOUR STAFF EFFECTIVELY The quality and variety of training which you provide is key for developing a positive health and safety culture across your organisation. It’s usually the lack of informed and sufficient knowledge about the risks related to day-to-day work activities, which result in incidents and near misses. Making your staff aware of the possible dangers and teaching them how to follow agreed safe working practices will help mitigate existing hazards and potentially save lives. Not sure where to start? Providing relevant and timely information, knowledgeable and experienced instruction, and investing in safety training courses, workshops and seminars is the most effective way to help your employees adopt safe and healthy working awareness. Yes, there is a financial investment to this, but it will also insure your business against the moral, legal and financial implications related to accidents and ill health. Moreover, it will improve productivity and long-term business performance. 2. LISTEN TO YOUR EMPLOYEES While listening to your heart is what you do when making decisions about yourself, that’s not always the case when you are responsible for the well-being and safety of your workforce. You might think that you know all of the risks that they face on a day-to-day basis. Well, you are at least 50% wrong. In order to create an effective risk management strategy, you need to use relevant, sufficient and up-to-date information. Monitoring and carrying out risk assessments get half of the job done. The other half you gather by involving the people whose activities you are assessing and listening to their thoughts and feedback. In the end of the day, who else would know better the health and safety hazards of performing a certain job, than the person who is assigned to it? 3. DON'T COMPROMISE YOUR WORKFORCE MENTAL HEALTH Time to brush up on your mental health skills! According to a recent survey conducted by the Chartered Management Institute long hours and the constant "always on" digital culture are having detrimental effect on the well-being of UK employees, including managers. Employee stress is a problem for any company and that includes yours. Furthermore, taking care of your staff well-being is your legal responsibility as an ultimate duty-holder. Learning what to do to reduce stress and mitigate against the related negative consequences can save your business reputation, your staff health and boost morale. To learn some stress-reduction tips that actually work, have a look at our blog post about 5 ways to combat employee stress. 4. COLLECT AND DOCUMENT DATA FOR BETTER JUDGEMENTS In order to improve your organisational health and safety standards, you need to adopt an accident and incident reporting strategy and have a plan of action with people assigned to it. Incidents, near misses and dangerous occurrences should always be documented and retained for five years. That’s not only a legal requirement, but also the backbone of your action plans and control measures which your workforce will be required to follow in order to reduce accident repetition. Analysing your health and safety data will provide you with invaluable insights about your overall risk management performance and help you easily identify issues requiring attention. If you are struggling with time and resources, there are online systems and apps out there that can facilitate and automate your management and monitoring processes. S2B Online is a risk management platform with pre-populated health and safety templates library which can store your documentation and improve your overall administration process for as little as £21 per month. They also partner with iAuditor, an inspection checklists app, which sets up audit forms for you in minutes, creates detailed analytics for your organisational audits and issues automatic reports which you can send to the management board with a click of a button. So there you go- a health and safety management automation at its finest which won’t break the bank and will improve your workplace performance in the long-term! 5. TURN YOUR RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS INTO A ROUTINE With all of the above said, what stops you from improving your business health and safety?
It’s all about flipping the coin and starting to look at it as your business best friend, rather than a boring responsibility or even an enemy. Without a doubt, the legal requirements related to workplace safety are here to stay and, just like your business, they are going to evolve and expand. In order to survive in a world where your every step is constantly monitored by the authorities, you need to turn your risk management process into a habit. Moreover, you have to make sure your workforce follows a well-structured and effective routine where everyone feels responsible and accountable for the tasks they are assigned to. With a little effort to begin with, your plan of action will be in place, and you will start reaping the rewards!
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Christmas is time for positive emotions, however, it's also time for increased health and safety hazards. We have put together a selection of the top 8 (according to us) health and safety risks during the festive period. Please have a look at our proposed precautionary measures to ensure that your holiday is filled with joy and laughter and that you are educated about how to prevent possible incidents which can kill the Christmas spirit. Have a merry, safe and healthy Christmas! 🌟☃️🎄 Employee stress is a problem. For any company, including yours. Low productivity levels and bad health are more and more often caused by it. A recent report has revealed that over 300,000 people suffering from long-term mental health problems lose their jobs each year. This costs the UK economy between £74bn and £99bn. The annual cost to employers is between £33bn and £42bn, with over half of the cost coming from presenteeism. It is your responsibility as an employer to keep close attention to staff well-being and this includes the somehow overlooked mental health. Today is the national stress awareness day, so we give you 5 simple steps to support your staff by combating stress at the workplace. Your business will thank us for that.
We live in a world where danger hides behind every corner, and it takes a real leader to ensure that what can be done to eliminate or reduce those risks, is actually done. If you are a business owner or are responsible for health and safety within your organisation, we encourage you to take a look at six simple steps which you can take now to raise the bar and keep it high when it comes to protecting your workforce from unexpected, negative events. Beware of the usual presumption that “it won’t happen to me” – this attitude in itself can increase risk of harm. Furthermore, we cannot run away from the consequences and escape scot-free. If an accident happens at your workplace, responsibility lies within the business. The duty holder will have to pay the costs – legal, financial and moral – and also identify and fix the root causes of the accident. Our message is not all “doom and gloom” - here are some actions which you can implement within your overall management strategy immediately. These solutions are not ground-breaking, new discoveries, but they demonstrate that sometimes improvements in the most obvious areas can enable you to achieve your goals. Your ultimate purpose - and the one which every business owner should have - is to protect your workforce and always put safety first. This would not only insure you against human and financial costs, but will also boost your business reputation both internally and externally. 1. PROVIDE INFORMATION Do you provide your staff with a written Health and Safety guidance explaining in detail the risks to them in carrying out their daily duties? Your Health and Safety Management policy as well as your Safe Working Procedures are not going to be successfully implemented if you are ticking boxes just for the sake of it. Your workforce should actually be able to understand the control measures you expect them to follow, and it is your responsibility to provide additional support and make sure the information, instruction and training you provide is processed and comprehended. With this in mind, if English is a second language for some of your employees, suitable communication and checking understanding is of paramount importance. Here are some facts for you to consider: According to Workmobile’s safety report "27% of staff who have received and read their company’s health and safety manual thought that the information didn’t go into enough detail about their role and the dangers they could face, or how to deal with risky situations." That’s more than a quarter and it’s putting the lives of your workers at unnecessary risk- Risks created by the company itself, not by unexpected or natural events. 2. TRAIN YOUR TEAM Here is an indisputable fact- you can’t expect people to know how, when and why they could be at risk of being hurt. You would never acquire new skills if you did not go through a learning process, right? Even if you think there are situations or actions which are self-explanatory, you can’t know for sure that what is common sense for you, applies to each single member of your staff. Providing the necessary, relevant information to your workforce regarding their responsibilities, and teaching them what to avoid and how to react in certain circumstances, will not only reduce the risk of incidents, but will also protect your business from costly penalties which could potentially destroy it. If you need an extra affirmation then bear in mind that the first question which HSE ask when they come for an inspection is “Do you have training documentation?” Then they want to see evidence and they also may check with your staff whether you actually carry out Health and Safety training sessions on a regular basis or not. The choice is yours! 3. COMMUNICATE AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION Communication is key when it comes to running any type of organisation and without it you would never be able to manage your workforce and develop your business. Your plans and control measures would not be enacted if nobody knows about them, right? It’s no surprise that large organisations have departments dedicated to communication. Don’t worry if you are a small business- you don’t need excessive resources to get this right! What you can do is replicate the best techniques that competitors and leaders in your industry use, and incorporate these into your own HR model. Make your business strategy a conglomeration of all the positive examples you see around you, and ensure that you are always available and open to dialogue with your staff. What many organisations forget is that communication is a two-way process and there should be respect given if the same is expected in return. Always ask them for their opinion and ideas to show them they matter and are an important part of your business success. As the business coach Zig Ziglar put it: You don’t build a business. You build people and then people build the business. 4. HOUSEKEEPING If the only thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word “housekeeping” is cleaning floors and taking the dust off surfaces, then you’d better read this. Housekeeping at the workplace is so much more than that! It not only teaches order and builds morale, but it can also prevent costly injuries and improve overall productivity. If you are aiming to develop a positive business ethos, maintaining your workplace in good order develops positive habits and encourages compliance. What’s more, your management and you should faithfully follow this concept if you want it to be taken seriously by the rest of your team. Remember, you are the one setting an example so you’d better do it well! 5. PLAN, DEVELOP AND MONITOR PERFORMANCE When we are talking “Health and Safety”, not planning your course of actions is like playing a Russian roulette - you can get lucky for a while but leaving safety to chance will result in incidents sooner or later. As an ultimate duty holder, it is your primary responsibility to make sure your organisation follows the national standards and laws, and that you have outlined and available procedures that are embraced and fulfilled by all members of staff. And because legislation develops and evolves continuously, it is necessary to continually review and develop your control measures to ensure they remain relevant, effective and legitimate. Furthermore, it would cost you money (if not human lives!) AND your business if you don’t comply and/or provide sufficient evidence that you follow The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and associated legislation. 6. ASK THE EXPERT Sometimes, it can be hard to piece together a well-functioning Health and Safety strategy, especially if you are pressed for time or lack sufficient resources. Smaller organisations may fail to adequately address workplace safety – not because of indifference or apathy - but due to the challenges of the countless demands faced in the course of daily business. If you are one of those business owners who are eager to make safety a key part of their business then you have made the first and most important step towards being a great leader- you see what truly matters from the right perspective! What you actually need now is professional guidance on where to start. You may assume that this is costly, but the truth is it will surely be not as much as what you will have to pay if you are prosecuted! You can now be charged even in cases where no harm has occurred if it is judged that your actions have not been suitable or sufficient. Think from a moral point of view. If an accident happens and there’s been measures that could have been taken to avoid it, then who will be the one to be blamed? It’s the duty holder as he or she is the body who is not only responsible but also accountable. Think about your reputation- it’s a lot harder (and sometimes impossible) to restore it than to build or improve it.
As a sign of good will, we are giving you a free Health and Safety consultation with an expert from the Safety2Business team. You will receive a complimentary professional advice and discuss a plan of action that is absolutely bespoke to your business needs! Best news? If cost is an issue for you right now and your health and safety budget does not allow for hiring an expert, no worries. We can help you develop your workplace safety strategy with a low-cost online solution that you can access anytime and from anywhere and keep your business network constantly connected. If you are interested and want to learn more, please do not hesitate to give us a call at 0161 413 9027 or drop us a line here and one of our consultants would be happy to introduce you to our sister digital company S2B Online.
Can you think of any workplace that is totally safe? We neither! Whether you work in a high- or a low-risk environment, there are dozens of health and safety hazards which are often overlooked for the sake of the most obvious/dangerous ones. Unfortunately, a lack of adequate control measures increases the likelihood of incidents threatening the well-being of staff. In addition, there are the negative consequences for the business, which are rarely limited to financial costs only. In the aftermath of an incident, there are immediate business repercussions- loss of reputation and credibility, downtime, productivity issues, effect on current employees, reduced performance, just to name a few…
To help you avoid the catastrophic consequences of a workplace incident, we have put together a list of the top 5 invisible, health and safety risks which more and more businesses fail to address and pay well-deserved attention to. Beware, these could make or break your business aspirations so you better take a closer look!
GERMS
There are certain objects from our everyday life that we consider dirty. We can trace that awareness, imprinted in our minds, back to our earliest childhood memories. Can you count how many times you were warned by your parents to wash your hands after going to the toilet or playing with the dog? Well, a recent study (one of many) claims that all of this talking was not in vain… As a matter of fact, this parent-to-kid lesson should probably be part of a mandatory workplace health and safety talk because even if you work at an office, germs and bacteria are lurking on items you never thought of. Take your keyboard, for example. Did you know that it’s 20,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat? Yuk! And your smartphone? It has roughly 9,000 times more germs than a toilet seat. Vile, isn’t it? And just for the record- the name of the main bacteria which we are talking about is “gram-positive cocci” and is a common cause of pneumonia. So before you eat that apple smiling at you next to your keyboard, you better wash your hands or buy a pack of those anti-bacterial wipes you never thought you might need at your desk.
ALLERGIES
Researches show that over 20% of the UK population suffer from at least one allergy. Now, that is a serious percentage, isn’t it? While some allergies are mild and harmless, others might cause severe allergic reactions, such as the anaphylactic shock which can cause death. Common triggers, involve foods, medicines, insect strings, contrast agents and even latex found in rubber gloves. You already know that as a duty holder, every business owner is responsible for providing a safe working environment to their employees. We can’t stress enough that knowing your staff and their individual needs and health conditions is paramount for identifying potential risks and taking the necessary control measures to avoid harm. Preventing the consequences of allergies is no different than any other hazard at the workplace- you need to identify the triggers and avoid them whenever possible. To ensure you can protect your workforce, your requirements for sufficient qualified First-Aid provision should be assessed and proactively managed.
ERGONOMICS
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We are living in a modern world where technology is a vital part of our daily routine. Some of us have jobs which require prolonged use of computers, otherwise called “display screen equipment”. Inevitably, long hours in front of the screen cause a variety of musculoskeletal disorders such as low back pain and wrist discomfort as well as eye-strain, headaches and fatigue. These should not be underestimated and must be considered as workplace health and safety hazards. In addition, the long-term health consequences of sedentary work activities should be considered. Remember, discomfort complaints are rarely a case of pure laziness! More and more organisations are beginning to see the link between worker discomfort and lost productive time. Not taking the necessary control measures, might result in employee health implications such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. From a business perspective, embedding ergonomics into your organisation’s health and safety program will reap benefits within your business due to the positive benefits that it brings both immediately and in the long-term. Let us start with the demonstrated care for your staff health which will not remain unnoticed. Employees’ positive reaction will increase job satisfaction leading to higher productivity and commitment levels, which by itself will assist on shaping your company ethos and this will also have a positive impact on your reputation as a caring business and employer. The best marketing tool for your reputation is your staff and just like with any other some investment is needed!
WORKPLACE STRESS
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Imagine you are a parent (Parents, you don’t have to J ). Cooking dinner, giving your children money and teaching them right from wrong- is this the full list of your responsibilities? To be a good parent you also need to listen to your kids. This will help you understand how they interact with the world around them and how the world responds. You can’t know how your children are treated by others unless you ask and show them they can trust you and talk to you about their problems. It is mostly the same with your staff- respect is earned through communication and winning the trust of each one of your employees. And if it is not for the respect, their health and safety could be at risk without you even noticing! Bullying and harassment, lack of respect and abuse in all of its forms… The list of invisible psychological, and sometimes physical threats, is a lot longer. Even you, as a workforce manager, can unintentionally be the reason for someone’s mental state. Stress can be really difficult to identify in the workplace because not every employee will be willing to share and talk about it. It can be caused by a number of factors such as excessive workload demands, lack of control, bad relations with colleagues, bullying and harassment, low pay, the work environment and even by boredom. Workplace stress can cause mental and physical illnesses that are equally destructive. By law, it is the responsibility of the duty holder to take care of their employees on every level while they are at work and look for ways to resolve a variety of problems they might encounter. Mental health issues should be afforded the same importance and equal priority to any other workplace risk. As a starting point, talking with each member of your staff and building trust with them is proven to be the best method of identifying and addressing invisible psychological factors.
WORKPLACE DESIGN
Breathe in and out and take a careful look around you… Now have a fresh look from the perspective of your staff even if this means that you have to literally put yourself into their shoes and feel what they feel. Are you happy with your surroundings? You might already know the answer because you work within the same premises as your employees. Designing a better and more friendly workplace doesn’t have to be expensive, you know? It is all about small changes such as removing clutter from the workplace and dividing a few housekeeping tasks between each member of staff. Do you have a “chill-out” zone? The benefits shouldn't be under-estimated. Perhaps it could be as simple as a water cooler in an open area, perhaps with a window for staff to relax their gaze, get a break from their desk, and even promote a sense of community. Add a coffee machine and some comfy chairs and you're well on your way to creating a social-hub where staff can share information, develop relationships, and where team spirit can flourish. Is your workplace air poorly ventilated? A few well-chosen plants act as natural air purifiers, cleaning up harmful pollutants and regulating oxygen levels. They also provide a visual break from the hard lines and harsh impact of office equipment - in other words, they look nice!
We hope that we have opened your eyes about some of the invisible health and safety risks at your workplace which probably never even crossed your mind. Now, take a moment to chat with your staff, update your health and safety hazards register and decide how you are going to address each one of the newly identified risks. Encourage your employees to report any potential hazards they’ve noticed- you never know what they will come up with. It might be life-saving and/or positive for your company culture. Both are important! It’s New Year already and, hopefully, after a few days off, you have managed to get some rest and clear your head from the things that made you feel tired and anxious in 2016. In keeping with tradition, you might already be wondering which New Year’s resolution to stick with. Apart from the new “healthier” you which is probably going to last for a week or so, you might want to pick something that will eventually pay off in the longer term. If you are an employer and would like to operate your business better then we’ve got something for you the potential of which is often underestimated. You already know that taking a systematic approach to management makes operating your business both easier and more effective. However, to be successful you should never limit your attention and priorities to the demands of your business only. Remember the old saying that “Your staff are your greatest asset”? There’s one more by Donn Carr which says that “People work for people- they do not work for businesses.” If you put both of these quotes into a single sentence you will soon realise that in order to have a prosperous business you should take care of the people who develop it. You do that by restlessly and religiously looking after their wellbeing and health and safety. That is the best all-year-round gift which you can give your employees. But first things first… WHAT IS A HSMS? By definition a health and safety management system is “the means by which an organisation controls risk through the management process.” Consequently, a HSMS aims to eliminate or at least reduce the hazards posing health and safety risks within your organisation and cut down the subse quent costs which are not only financial. Now guess who is responsible for bringing that into place? (Hint: Employers are legally responsible for assessing reasonably foreseeable risks and putting in place the necessary control measures so far as is reasonably practicable.) KEY PARTS OF A HSMS There is a simple principle that gives the basics of a good HSMS which, in fact, can be used for the overall management of your business too. The Deming or Shewhart Cycle links 4 actions (Plan, Check, Act, Do) which, through leadership and continual improvement, should benefit your organisational efforts in terms of health and safety. We have created an illustration with the key elements (below) to give you a better picture of the actual process: KEY BENEFITS OF HAVING A HSMS The key benefits of introducing a HSMS to the overall strategy of your business are equally advantageous for your organisation and for your staff. We have listed 5 for you which we believe are top on the ladder:
Think about the injured workers, their pain and suffering and the effect this has on their families, friends and co-workers. When a serious accident happens word-of-mouth is your worst enemy. Once the local (or even national) media gets hold of what has happened, it won’t matter whether you are a SME or a large multinational company. You will lose reputation at the spur of the moment and your clients, staff, contractors and local community will turn backs on you which will cost you a lot more than the legislative fines. You would be surprised that most of the workplace accidents are due to lack of a proper health and safety strategy. Get your organisation at the front of this and be a better employer and businessman than your competitors. Your staff, clients, contractors and the locals will notice and guess what? People work for people and when they know that you care about their wellbeing they will surely care about yours, too. Bingo- that’s your bonus competitive edge that you never really thought about!
DEVELOPING A WINNING STRATEGY To be successful your HSMS has to be actually yours. In other words, it should match your particular organisational needs and its distinctive management approach. You can’t just use your best buddy’s construction company HSMS and expect it to work miracles for your hospitality business. You need to adapt all of your business systems to your own organisational culture and goals in order for it to be sustainable and worthwhile. Having a HSMS will help you understand how to assess reasonably foreseeable risks and what control measures to put in place in order to reduce risks down to the lowest reasonably practicable level. It will also guide you when to and when not to act as well as when you might need some professional assistance. To put it in a nutshell, all of the above would never work if you did not link each element of your winning strategy together. The only way to build this special bond is to get everyone involved into the process from start to finish and then again and again. Remember, this is all about continual improvement so the cycle never stops spinning. Workplaces and staff change so will your health and safety procedures. It is through revision and renovation that you make your health and safety management strategy a success! |
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