Safety Talk Box 03- Introducing Managing Safely (a)

Greetings of the day!

This is a topic introduced by Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Institute of Occupational Safety and Health is registered in England and Wales. IOSH is a charted body for Health and safety professionals. 

With the studies given by IOSH, we as a member of an organization can set standards and support, develop and connect our team workers with resources, guidance, events and training. We can be the voice of our team workers and campaign on issues that affect millions of working people.

1)      Introduction-Managing Safely

This is a study for Site Engineer/ In-charge to understand their basic duties and responsibilities for managing the site works safely. How not managing safely can harm a worker, company and yourself. Why everyone at site should work in a safe manner. What can be the results of not working/ managing safely.

2)      Why is it important to manage safely?    

Think about the injured worker, their personal cost, pain and suffering and the effect on their colleagues, friends and families. Workers may have long hospital stays and may never work again. If it’s shown that the accident happened because of a failure to manage health and safety risks at site , regulator may take action, which in turn lead to prosecutions, fines and imprisonment. 

There may also be a huge amount personal injury claim from injured worker. What about the replacement of worker, accident investigation and increased insurance premiums. What about the reputation of your organization. 

You’ll probably find that your loss of reputation will cost more than those fines.  

Consequently, there are three key reasons to manage safely:

a)      Moral: It’s not acceptable for worker to suffer injury and ill health as a result of doing their job. Demonstrating that the Engineer/ In-charge cares about the health and safety of its staff will lead to a happier and more productive workforce.  

b)      Legal: Countries with safety and health laws in place usually require responsible people in organizations to assess reasonably foreseeable risks from the companies activities and to put in place necessary control measures that will reduce the risks- so far as is reasonably practicable. 

c)       Financial: As well as reducing the likelihood of fines and personal injury claims, managing health and safety can save money through reduced insurance premiums and safer and more effective ways of working. A reputation as a health and safety conscious organization can also open doors for organization in gaining new business, retaining and recruiting new workers. 

3)      What is your role in influencing managing safely? 

You should know that you have health and safety responsibilities. You are the front line of safety at workplace. As the representative of company, you will make decision about local safety practice. You are in control of what really happens and that means you are the duty holder.

“Responsibility leads to accountability” – you can delegate responsibility but you can’t give away your accountability – you’re ultimately accountable. 

Let’s take an example of a scenario in which a serious accident has happened at site. Put yourself in the position of in-charge of the worker who had an accident. For that accident- 

a)      You are accountable for assessing and managing the risk the worker is exposed to. 

b)      You will have to arrange replacement labour, carry out accident investigation, repot to customers, local authorities, your insurance companies etc. 

c)       In the worst case, You will have to tell your worker’s family that they won’t be coming home tonight.     

The scenario will help you identify your responsibilities and accountabilities. 

You need to know when you need to act, how to act, when not to act, when to pass things on to your seniors and when you’re out of your depth and need to call for a help. 

4)      Getting it right?

So health and safety is another thing on your list, along with discipline, communications, HR matters, resources and targets, to name but a few…. 

But think about it…. managing health and safety can give you a helping hand with managing all the other things that you have to deal with. Good health and safety management can- 

Ø  enhance your reputation 

Ø  increase your profits

Ø  reduce wastage and insurance premiums

Ø  maintain a happy and healthy team

In fact, managing safety must be a key to your site works. Treat health and safety matters with the respect they deserve, just like other risks to your works. 

It’s all well and good to say you agree with this, but you also have to live up to what you say – your actions must match your words. So

ü think about health and safety when planning work

ü talk about health and safety with your team

ü demonstrate safe and healthy behavior   

If you can prevent workers from being unsafe, do it.

If you can’t, make sure you’ve done everything possible to keep your workers safe, secure, and alive.

So manage your site Safely !!!

THINK SAFETY WORK SAFELY

This all is a general information and implementation required!