If you are running a business, you have to take care of workplace health and safety. This is not only a legal requirement but also a real-life necessity that is designed with the purpose to protect your employees from all sorts of occupational hazards.
The International Labor Organization estimates that some 2.3 million people around the world succumb to work-related accidents or diseases every year. It’s a huge figure that can be reduced easily by following the latest security standards.
The first step in the employee-protection process is to create a solid health and safety policy. If you don’t know how to do it, keep reading to see our step-by-step guide.
Key Segments of the Health and Safety Policy
Health and safety policies don’t have to be the same everywhere, but the vast majority of companies stick to the same structure. The simplest model includes three basic components regulating workplace safety as a whole. The three elements are:
- A statement of intent
Jake Gardner, a safety officer at EssaysOnTime AU, says that the statement of intent should be a general overview of the organization’s plan to protect employees in the workplace: “This is where you need to explain company’s security objectives and tell workers that you expect compliance with the official procedures.”
- Organizational structure
The second section describes the individual responsibilities of each person in the chain of command. Your team members need to understand who is in charge of what and who to consult with in case of safety issues. At the same time, you must set up clear security instructions and protocols. The list of other duties mostly depends on the character of your own business, but you should definitely consider details such as the roles and accountabilities, title descriptions, management charts, and so on.
- Arrangements
The third section determines specific arrangements that help you to implement the health and safety policy. This segment consists of concrete details such as employee training requirements, housekeeping, safety equipment list, machine maintenance, noise reduction, fire prevention, emergency situation protocols, accidents, and reporting.
If necessary, your health and safety policy can contain additional information concerning on-premise risk reduction signs, security guards, lighting improvements, and similar details.
How to Write and Implement a Health and Safety Policy
Now that you know the basic structure of the document, you should focus on creating it. Once again, the process can vary depending on the peculiarities of your business, but we can show you a five-step guide that works well in most cases. Let’s take a look:
- Appoint a health and safety officer
Each company needs to hire a professional to perform the role of the health and safety officer. It is a person who has the skills, education, and practical experience to manage the process.
- Write the policy
The next step in the process is to actually write a health and safety policy. The officer you appoint should be able to complete the job on his/her own and cover every segment we mentioned above (statement of intent, organizational structure, and arrangements). If you need external assistance to get the job done, you can always consult with professional writing services such as Australian writing to help you with policy writing.
- Risk assessment
Writing a policy is one thing, but risk assessment is something different. Mark Hudson, a member of the writing services who specializes in work protection, says a safety manager must identify the risks employees are facing in the workplace and find a way to prevent possible accidents.
- Employee education and training
Employee education and training are very important for the implementation of the policy. Make sure to organize a sufficient number of training sessions and repeat lessons on a regular basis, especially if you are about to add new elements to your policy.
- Get liability insurance
Liability insurance is what keeps you protected against injury compensations. Once you’ve taken the necessary steps to ensure workplace safety, you can handle injury-induced compensation requests through employer’s liability insurance.
Now that you’ve completed the entire process, the only thing left is to monitor the implementation. There are all sorts of mechanisms to keep an eye on safety procedures, but we recommend you to pay close attention to the following:
- See whether your employees really respect safety measures in everyday work.
- Analyze monthly reports from your health and safety manager.
- Take an occasional walk through the facility to check for possible safety threats.
- Talk to your employees to hear their opinion about the current situation in the field or workplace protection. Ask them to give you suggestions on how to improve.
Practical Benefits of Having a Health and Safety Policy
Some entrepreneurs consider it to be a routine job without practical value, but workplace safety is actually very important for every organization. It brings you all sorts of benefits, with the fundamental features being these:
- It proves professional responsibility and shows that your organization is taking care of health and safety issues.
- The policy prevents occupational hazards and keeps your employees protected 24/7.
- The system is designed with the purpose to ensure effortless functioning and allows employees to focus on their work only.
- It gives instructions in case of emergency.
- The strategy defines the rules of behavior in your company.
- The policy saves you time and money because you won’t have to deal with frequent workplace incidents. That way, you won’t have to go through expensive and time-consuming follow-ups.
- This is also how you diminish sick leave and improve employee retention.
- Companies with strong health and safety policies are building a professional reputation.
Conclusion
A health and safety policy is extremely important if you want to run a successful business. The system is designed so as to protect workers from getting injured and to prevent possible lawsuits against employers.
In this post, we explained to you how to create a health and safety policy for your organization. Make sure to follow our tips and your employees will stay perfectly safe at all times.
Author Bio
Michael Gorman is a security analyst at the best dissertation writing service and a part-time content creator at https://www.paperwritingpro.com/ and Buy College Essays Online. Michael specializes in cybersecurity, but his portfolio is much broader as he also writes about topics such as self-improvement and personal development. If not working, Michael is probably out jogging or playing basketball with his friends. Feel free to contact him via Facebook or check his Twitter.