Tag Archives: health & safety

General Safety Issues, Health Issues

HEALTH & SAFETY REDUCES WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS – AND IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS! (GUEST POST)

Paying attention to health and safety can protect a business’ bottom-line. In the newspapers, there are regularly stories about “Health and Safety Gone Mad,” but in many cases it turns out is not health and safety to blame for the problem in the article, but is due to other factors, such as insurance policies, or overzealous ‘jobsworths’, or workers lying about safety regulations due to laziness or incompetence.

In reality, health and safety should be a benefit for businesses, and not just because it prevents accident at work compensation claims. Occupational cancer costs the UK’s economy £30 billion every year, and workplace accident claims or industrial disease claims are responsible for a huge number of missed working days.

 Prosecutions or enforcement notices can cost businesses a fortune, but investing in health and safety counts for more than just avoiding these expenses. The Health and Safety Executive estimates businesses have to pay out between eight and thirty-six times as much money as insurers following accident at work compensation claims.

Major workplace accident claims can easily spell the end of a business – fires, explosions or the death of workers can be impossible for firms to fully recover from. Employers who lose a member of staff in fatal workplace accidents caused by negligence will undoubtedly experience emotional difficulties, including guilt and anxiety, and this can be very hard to cope with.

 Businesses can spend years building up worker morale, only to have their efforts ruined because of a personal injury leading to an accident at work compensation claim. If workers feel like they are not safe in their employment, they will be unhappy, and if they regularly take time off because of avoidable injuries, or have to continue working while injured, they could become irritated by the negligence they are subjected to.

Strong leadership and positive business management prevents accidents at work

Providing strong leadership on health and safety issues, and integrating them into the rest of a management system, can inspire workers and help to maintain a positive safety culture. Personal injury claims can also be avoided by developing good communication, supporting employees when whistleblowing and enabling people to discuss workplace safety confidently.

Not all businesses are supportive of whisletleblowing – the large-scale construction industry in particular has been found to blacklist whisleblowers, although many medical negligence claims could be somewhat due to a ‘culture of silence’ within the NHS.

However, maintaining strong management and handling whistleblowers in a supportive manner can make all the difference to workplace health and safety and help to avoid accident at work compensation claims.

Health and safety should be a part of every aspect of a company, from human resources, to environment, to management, to personnel development. It is worth considering health and safety throughout a business’ operations – it is not just good for business, it is essential.

Most companies should be able to implement effective health and safety in-house; those that cannot could consider hiring consultancy services to help them.

Hellen Geek has worked alongside professional indemnity insurance firms when deciding the total value of clinical negligence claims and http://www.clearwatersolicitors.co.uk/personal-injury/accidents-at-work/accident at work compensation. She is passionate about raising standards in hospitals and other healthcare settings, and supporting doctors as well as patients. She lives in Somerset and loves the beautiful fields and farms around her small cottage.

General Safety Issues

Steps through which you can Implement Health and Safety Training (Guest Post)

4 Comments

Sent by Jayanta Chatterje

Business owners should ensure that every employee working within the organization is provided with a safe environment so that in case of any accidents the employees should have the complete knowledge of the preventive measures. The organization has certain legal obligations due to which they are bound to provide with the safety training to their employees. But, if any organization fails to provide the training and maintain the safety then they are subject to prosecution and it might also happen that they are charged with a heavy compensation amount and in worst condition the company can also be subject to shut down.

But, it is also essential to understand that the law is not the only obligation for which you should provide health and safety training to your employees. It is the best way through which you can improve the productivity and also provide a good and secured life to your workers. You can easily improve the revenue and earn more profits as the employees suffer from less illness and injury and this contributes to the overall improvement of the workplace. It is found that in a year millions of people get injured in their workplace and  in order to avoid such situations,  it is essential on the part of the organization to ensure a safer environment.

There are certain steps through which you can implement the health and safety training in your organization:

  • It is essential to understand the requirement of the organization and should search for the skills and the knowledge that is necessary for the employee to work in the particular organization. It is the duty of the organization to understand the skills that the employee possesses and the skills that the company needs and work on the necessary field to reduce the gap.
  • The company should also prioritize the training and understand the requirement of the health and safety course within the organization. It is the duty of the organization to focus on the area where there is a lack of information and should provide training in that particular area so that the employees can enhance their skill as well as their knowledge.
  • The organization should also adopt the proper training method so that the employees can learn every aspect of safety and can be sure to implement them while the necessity arises. There should be proper classrooms, coaching centers, information passing mechanism and is also provided with improved interactive training so that every employee can have a better understanding of it.

Organizations that involve high risk jobs have to spend huge amounts of money on their employees, as everyday some or the other person gets injured and die due to the careless handling and lack of knowledge on how to perform their duty in the workplace. Providing safer working environment can reduce the absence of the workers and improve the productivity that will lead to the ultimate revenue generation of the business. A sense of security among the employees can lead to the improvement of the business and help them to perform and reach the desired goal.

Another important responsibility of every company is to ensure that they provide the correct personal protective equipment that fits each particular job.  Employees must be trained to wear their PPE at all times, keep it maintained, and ask for a replacement when it is damaged. pb