Safety Teams
Today’s health and safety teams exist in an ever changing world. With every legislative and parliamentary procedure that passes, companies need to address these changes. In addition to managing physical plant conditions, such as ergonomics, product liability and safety monitoring, we also have to focus on personal effects such as employee medical health, ethics and workers compensation.
Along with the many external contributing causes safety teams deal with, there are also internal obstacles to face as well. Some of these internal factors the teams deal with are a lack of commitment. This involves management along with shift employees. Oftentimes a company will have team members who put production numbers over safety in an effort to increase the bottom line, not understanding that the costs of ignoring safer working conditions leads to overall costs for the company and its employees.
Creating a companywide commitment to the overall health and safety environment means creating and understanding goals as a team. This means working safe, while improving productivity, building brand image and producing a quality product with a cost factor that allows for a greater shareholder value.
It’s easy to spot a company that lacks commitment to safety. They tend to be focused on front office bureaucracy that keeps the main concerns on driving margins instead of providing a safe environment for its employees and customers, while simultaneously achieving a positive profit margin.
A lack of resources falls within the parameters of lack of commitment. In certain conditions, the health and safety team can fall by the wayside as funds are prioritized. It is up to the health and safety manager or administrator to fight for every safety dollar that the team deserves, just as each operating structure of the organization has to do. This manager or administrator must remember to assert that health and safety must operate as strongly as the other company facets do for the organization to be successful.
A successful safety team and manager will improve a corporate bottom line by linking their efforts to improving productivity, quality, costs and overall response times, while maintaining a safe work environment.
A well-structured, fully functional health and safety team will address these objectives by attracting the best team that is available. A safe workplace will always help secure a positive and strong employee base that consistently yields peak performance. By addressing health and safety concerns on a consistent basis, employees aren’t losing focus by worrying about potential hazards. They will invest in current technologies, not only to stay ahead in a competitive sense, but also in a progressive preventable manner, these two should go together hand in hand.
Finally they will understand the concept that investing in health and safety today will offset potential costs in medical and litigious situations that could possibly arise from not adequately addressing these issues in the beginning.
By building an affective team companies present themselves in a positive manner to their employees, customers, industry, and the world. By working to make the workplace safe, employees and customers are made to feel confident and valued to perform at their highest levels.
Find out how to manage your business' health and safety better
RIDDOR and COVID-19
Many employers are concerned about their reporting obligations for COVID-19/Coronavirus/SARS-CoV-2 under RIDDOR in the ongoing pandemic. You may be pleased to know that you do not have to report everything to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). We'll provide more info about when, what, and how to report.
The most common concern we've seen recently from employers is whether they need to report all COVID-19 and coronavirus testing results to the HSE. The short answer is no. According to the HSE: “There is no requirement under RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) to report incidents of disease or deaths of members of the public, patients, care home residents or service users from COVID-19. The reporting requirements relating to cases of, or deaths from, COVID-19 under RIDDOR apply only to occupational exposure, that is, as a result of a person's work.”
Generally speaking, the ordinary RIDDOR rules already cover COVID-19. You should only make a report under RIDDOR when one of the following circumstances applies:
• an accident or incident at work has or could have caused the release of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). (Report as Dangerous occurrence)
• a worker is diagnosed with COVID-19 due to occupational exposure. (Report as Disease)
• a worker dies because of occupational coronavirus exposure. (Report as Work-related death due to exposure to a biological agent)
The bottom line is that existing rules cover most COVID-19 measures, and most of the COVID-19 guidance comes from public health authorities rather than the HSE. The environment remains chaotic, but you can minimize your legal exposure by continuing your existing compliance steps. This will include communicating with your insurer about risks, following public health guidance, and communicating regularly with your workers or unions on any of their concerns.
© Gavin Coyle, 2021