Importance of Work Health and Safety

Discuss about the Ensure a safe workplace Health Safety Management.

As the manager of the company it would be my legal duty to put in place the safety and health practices in the organization. The company will have to make sure that there is no creation of health and safety issues to the workers, contractors, visitors, clients, volunteers and the general public. Therefore, the organization will have to know and understand the rules and regulations of WHS and how they are to be applied in the company (Vinshu, 2012). This is return will help in the prevention of damages and unnecessary cost to the business that could occur through workplace illness and injury.

The following are the key areas the organization should be concerned with in regard to WHS point of view.

• Provision of safe working place
• Assessment of risks and implementation of appropriate actions to control risks.
• Ensure safety in the usage and handling of products
• Provision and maintenance of both safe material and machines
• Evaluate workplace layout and ensure proper systems of work are provided
• Ensure provision of appropriate working facilities and the general surrounding
• Provide employees compensation and insurance
• The organization should also have procedure for risk assessment
• The company should also offer training to their staff to avoid unnecessary accidents

Although, the cost of implementation of safety practices and installation of safety equipment may be expensive, the repercussions of not implementing the WHS may be severe and very expensive (Schofield, 2014). Abiding by WHS requirements can assist the company from being fined or prosecuted, and assist in the retention of staff.

Policies and procedures that will be analyzed include the following:

• The selection and recruitment policies in the organization: the managers of the organization should ensure that the people recruited are well qualified to perform duties (Zanko, 2012). There should be no discrimination whatsoever in the selection of employees
• The training processes: employees should be trained with no discrimination of the background, race or level of education.
• The consultation criteria and policies of the organization: the organization should ensure that the consultation procedure is properly followed. The employees should be consulted on the better ways to improve the health and safety levels.
• Record keeping policies in the organization: there should be appropriate and organized manner in the process of keeping records in the organization (Schofield, 2014). There should be assured confidentiality, privacy and enough security on the records of people. Proper systems of security should also be used for the right documents.
• WHSMS policy: the policy provides risk evaluation assessments, conducts survey that assist in identification of hazards and ensure hazards are controlled.
• Record keeping policy: This ensures the records are kept safely and are easy to be retrieved (National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, 2001). This policy also ensures their privacy , confidentiality and safety of the document in the computers

The table below categorically analyzes how the codes of practice, the legislation and the industrial standards in the organization will have to be followed in the company.

WHS LEGISLATION	CODES OF PRACTICE	ORGANIZATION STANDARDS
Acts in the institute will provide ways on how the institute and all the facilities will be maintained to ensure a safe and healthy environment. The acts will outline the roles of each and every person in the institute. Regulations in any government setting especially campus will set the levels for the risks and hazards. The levels of noise, job and machine operations are to be met. Licenses for specific operations in the institutes are also set. Regulating agencies will help administer safety rules and laws. These are the organizations in the institute or outside the institute tasked with making sure that all the places in the institute are inspected regularly (Zanko, 2012). They also provide consultation services to the institutes. Additionally, in case of a damage then they give notices as well as hand out penalties to the people who make those damages.	Some of the codes of practice that may be legalized in the insitutes will include the following Hazardous Manual Handling Compliance Code will aid in controlling those risks associated with inefficient handling of manual operations in the institute. Excavation Compliance Code this code will show the requirements required before any operations, it will include all the licenses needed and a three day early notice to the work. Noise Compliance Code this code explains the effects of too much noise in any institute. It shows how noise damages the hearing process of any student or tutor in the institute.	Each and every campus has its own operational and legal requirements to ensure smooth operation of activities. Any lecturer, tutor will be affected by the environment of the institute (Zanko, 2012). So in that case then institute laws will affect the WHS rules and regulations and definitely affect these other parties. Here are some example  of the institute standards: Teaching institutes Financial and insurance services Professional, scientific and technical services

In any organization every worker and even the manager will have his/ her own role and responsibility to ensure that the work health and safety is managed adequately.

I will have to ensure that I adhere to all the legislative rules in the organization or at the institute. Legislation is what governs any company or institute (Mohamed, 2013). Adhering to these rules will ensure that everything in the organization is safe and healthy.

I will also have to ensure that all the codes and conducts of practice are followed. The codes are the duties that help achieve all the standards and levels of health in any institute or organization. Any manager or worker will be guided by this codes of practice to manage health risks. Since they are developed after extensive consultation with many parties these will have to always be followed at all times.

I will have to ensure that each person, I am working with understands the company advisories. All the managers will have to understand all the anticipations of the organization (Kelly, 2014). These anticipations must fall in line with the health standards in that particular organization.

Codes of Practice, Legislation, and Standards

The table below will help in showing the roles, responsibilities of different people in the organization

Role	Responsibilities	Accountabilities
Senior managers	These are the people tasked with the most important task in the organization. They have to make sure that all the procedures and policies in the organization are appropriately implemented. They will also aid in supervising the operations of the junior employees at the same time making evaluations.	Chief Executive Officer
Store managers	They are tasked with ensuring that all the aforementioned procedures in any organization are followed with regard to maintenance of the warehouses and the stores. They will make sure that all the employees have access to adequate training that enables them make sure the stores are healthy and well maintained. They should also provide consultation and advisory services to the junior employees that will help them maintain the office stores.	COO
Employees	They must be ready to follow all the rules and regulations with regard to their work health and safety management systems. All the procedures and policies must be followed by the employees to ensure there is a safe workplace.	managers
Contractors	These are just like the employees of the organizations and must follow the policies and procedures in the organization to ensure that safe and health working conditions are in place	managers

These following are some of the duties and responsibilities of a health and safety officer.

The PCBU must maintain a work place that is risk free, offer training, supervision and information, must also monitor the health and safety of the employees, and provide enough facilities for to the workers.

Also, the health officers must inspect all the equipment, the working areas and all the type of operations being undertaken in the organization (Vinshu, 2012). Inspecting of these areas will help pointing out of any faults that could cause any damage. The health officers also gives consultations on how tasks are to be carried out in an organization. They will also report any incidences of defaults to their managers.

In the above situation, the following can be done to prevent the employee from being electrocuted.

• The health officer should have ensured that all the equipment in the organization are well inspected before they are used.
• The employee should have been first evaluated by the health officers to ensure if he/ she was capable of during any installations.
• The health officer should have consulted with the management about the employee before he commenced any operations.
• The health officer should have ensured that the employee had gone through enough training before being inducted into Morgansson Pty ltd.

In order for Nerida to communicate with her employees appropriately tehn the following techniques will be quite essential in ensuring that there is effective communication.

• Undertaking organized meetings and forums with her employees that will enable them communicate effectively
• Ensure that all the workers to be employed did pass through the right channels of interviews that identified their communication skills
• She can also consult with her employees or the managerial department to determine why there communication skills are quite low (Tadesse, 2006). He will then try to find recommendations on how to improve this skills.

To ensure that work health and safety information is dissipated to the employees then she will have to employ the above mentioned skills.

Additionally, she will have to monitor the operations of her employees to confirm if all the information was well received. By monitoring, she will have to:

• Ensure that all the employees have access to the work health and safety plan of all the operations that occur in her organizations (Khan, 2014). She will have to ensure that these employees have an opportunity to read and understand all the information in the plans.
• She will also ensure that the employees have the plan of the projects that are being undertaken in her organization.
• She will also regularly review the plans and make corrections in case mistakes had been done.                      

The table below shows the type of hazards that may occur in the environment. The hazards have been indicated together with their corresponding causes and and the risk assessments.

HAZARD	CONCERNS	ASSESSMENT OF THE RISK
Fire occurrences in the organization	sprinklers and detectors are not working properly	VERY HIGH
Electricity not working	Reception’s light bulb keep flickering each and every time	MEDIUM
Machinery  or  Equipment risks	Machines or Equipment not working properly	VERY HIGH
Unclear building entries and exits	No clear indication of emergency exit sign	MEDIUM
Dirty floor colouring	The floor and carpets of the organization has been stained by coffee and other drinks	VERY LOW
Air Conditioners damaged	Time to service the heating and Air Conditioning	MEDIUM
Less Lighting conditions	The lights are not lighting very well	LOW
Poor wire cabling	The electricity wiring in the organization is poor	MEDIUM
Unconducive environment	The toilets have strong odour that is polluting the environment	VERY HIGH
No Evacuation/emergency Procedure	There are no appropriate emergency procedures or evacuation notes	MEDIUM
Less Safety Procedures	The poster and exit signs have not been well placed and in other parts they do not exist	LOW
No First Aid Procedure/facilities	The first aid equipment are not being used adequately	VERY HIGH
Less Storage facilities	The storage facilities are almost full with other products not having places to be stored	HIGH
Less Supervision to the workers	Inadequate workers in the organization as well as the managers to supervise the workers	LOW
Increased accidents	The number of accidents has increased immensely	VERY HIGH

Here the risk facing them is noise pollution from the packaging machinery. The increased noise levels are becoming hazardous to the employees in the small production facility. The follow steps will help in analyzing and dealing with the issue.

• Identifying the risk(noise)

In the production facility, the packaging machine is the one that is producing a lot of noise. In this situation, this is the cause of the risk and thus must be dealt with.

• Assessment of the risk

This helps determine the extent of the risk.  Risk assessment is the evaluation of the risk in terms of its possibility to occur, its severity or its possibility not to occur. The type of information provided will help determine the extent of the risk. The level of noise will have to be well assessed before just falling into conclusions (Vinshu, 2012). These is where the factory manager starts consulting with the other employees on how this hazard is affecting them. The organization has to compile all the effects of the noise tio the surrounding as well as to the employees themselves and present it to the owners of the business.

Roles and Responsibilities of Individuals

This is the last step in the analysis of the risks and actually the most important. This step will involve elimination of the risk or just some minimizing. Past experiences from employees is very important in this step. These employees will always come up with ways to solve this issues (Tadesse, 2006).  To control the risk, at first employees were provided with hearing protection buds to help them not be affected by the noise. That was not a long term method of preventing the risk since it was just minimizing the problem and not curing it. Later on, the manufacturer of the machine recommends a way that was a more permanent solution to the problem. He suggests that the machine could be enclosed in a soundproof cabinet that will control the level of noise produced from the machine.

• Evaluation of the control measure

Later on, the manager will have to evaluate the control measure to determine if it was effective enough in eliminating the risk. The soundproof cabinet solution should be reviewed to see if there is still noise being produced from the cabinet.

 The manager and other delegated persons to assist in the investigation shall ensure the following:

The investigation is done in consultation with:

• The hazard reporter
• The Health Services Research Personnel
• Other employee with the knowledge of the hazard
• ICT Consultant or Coordinator
• The personnel will identify the reasons for the occurrence of the hazard.
• Estimate the consequences of the hazard and the number of people affected.
• Ensure the risk is controlled through the use of determined hierarchy of controls with the aim of elimination.
• Monitor the applied controls and re-assess the current controls (Zanko, 2012). This done to establish whether the control is appropriate to the given situation.
• The risk is to be managed through implementation of corrective actions.
• The planned actions should be incorporated in the Local Action Plan
• The selected control measures are evaluated and monitored to make sure the planned action are effective for execution

To prevent the staff from getting gastroenteritis the following action plans will be put in place:

• The staff will be required to regularly and thoroughly wash their hands before eating food, having contact with people who are already infected and after visiting the toilets.
• Ensure that they stay at home after work and avoid sending their children to school or day-care centers until the signs and symptoms of the illness have been eliminated.
• Clean and disinfect kitchen surfaces, ensure that they prepare their meals well and a safe and clean environment, the staff should also drink treated water and clean their fresh produce before eating them
• To prevent the spread of the disease the children and infants will be vaccinated with rotavirus so as to prevent the spread of the virus.

A Work Health and Safety management System is systematic approach that addresses safety and health issues in an organization. Having the elements of the system in place enables it to address various specific work pertaining health and safety of the organization (Tadesse, 2006). To achieve the goals and objectives of the WHS management system the implementation should be carried out within the timeframes that is realistic. WHS can be very essential to any organization through the following ways:

First, the system creates a safe working environment for each and every employee. Also, by having the system in place there will be reduction of injuries and injury related expenditures. The system is capable of preventing injuries hence enabling the employer to save money that probably could have been spent on medical expenses, wages on injures workers, labor replacement, increased insurance premiums on workers’ compensation, excesses on insurance claims (National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, 2001). Another benefit of WHS management system is the improvement of business opportunities. It is to be noted that currently a lot of organizations prefer purchasing rules and regulations that are in favor of acquisition of goods and services from organization that use WHS. WHS management system also provides measurable systems that are able to carry out OHS performance verification. A company that has WHS in place is more reputable unlike one that doesn’t have. WHS also demonstrates that the organization meets legal requirements.

For any WHS management system to be effective it must have the following components:

• a safety plan
• policies, procedures and processes
• monitoring
• training and induction

• reporting
• supervision

It is not enough to adopt the WHS management system it is important that is implemented fully and adopted by the people at the workplace (Kelly, 2014). To achieve this the company must ensure that the following policies are applied:

Employees are supposed to comply with the policies, procedures and instructions.

The employees are well trained on the application of the system.

Supervision is continually carried out to avoid injuries.

References

Mirghani Mohamed, A. M. (2013). The role of information and communication technology (ICT) in mobilization of sustainable development knowledge: a quantitative evaluation. Emerald Insight, 4-22.

National Occupational Health and Safety Commission. (2001). Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems:A Review of their Effectiveness in Securing Healthy and Safe Workplaces. Sydeny: Commonwealth of Australia .

Tadesse, T. (2006, August 4). Occupational Health and Safety. Retrieved from www.cartercenter.org: https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/health/ephti/library/lecture_notes/env_occupational_health_students/ln_occ_health_safety_final.pdf

Tim Kelly, D. S. (2014). The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in Postconflict and Reconstruction. USA: The World Bank Study.

Toni Schofield, B. R. (2014). Australian workplace health and safety regulatory approaches to prosecution: Hegemonising compliance. Journal of Industrial Relations, 5-9.

Vinshu, D. (2012). Risk assessment: A neglected tool for health, safety, and environment management. Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 5-42.

Waqas Ahmed Khan, T. M. (2014). Occupational Health, Safety and Risk Analysis. International Journal of Science, Environment , 4-15.

Zanko, M. (2012). Occupational health and safety management in organizations: A review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 3-8.