Understanding Health and Safety in the Workplace in 2022
All You Need To Know About Health and Safety in the Workplace
Successfully managing health and safety in the workplace is the key to establishing a pleasant and secure working environment that supports a motivated and productive workforce. Read along to find out more about workplace health and safety, from its definition to its importance and what you need to do to achieve it.
What is health and safety in the workplace?
Health and safety in the workplace (also referred to as occupational health and safety or OH&S) covers everything you can reasonably do to manage risk in the workplace. Whether you eliminate or control hazards, the actions you take should be sufficient to protect your workers, third-party contractors, visitors and members of the public who are present in your place of work from any foreseeable risks.
The definition of occupational health and safety, as defined by the NHS, extends beyond the physical well-being of your staff to also include their psychological well being. Therefore, your health and safety practices should aim to create an occupational environment that values and promotes social and mental wellness.
Why is health and safety in the workplace important?
OH&S may sound like an abstract concept but it can have a significant impact on your business and the people within it, both financially and emotionally. Here’s why you, as an employer, should be invested in your workplace health and safety management:
Prevent Accidents, Injury & Loss of Life
Whether conducting a risk assessment or organising health and safety training, ultimately, the main aim of every health and safety management strategy is to prevent workplace accidents that result in physical harm or loss of life.
In addition to the harm inflicted upon an individual, injury or death at work can have a serious negative impact on the mental well-being of all workers causing a drop in motivation and productivity. The reputational and financial damages to a business involved in such incidents are also significant.
Also, in case of a death caused by an accident at work, the employer could face criminal charges, such as corporate manslaughter, potentially resulting in large fines and even a prison sentence.
Implement Positive Safety Culture
Building a positive health and safety culture in the workplace results in the improved mental and social well-being of all employees within your organisation. Implemented with a top-down approach, a positive safety culture encourages employees to report potential risks at work and demonstrates that their safety truly is a priority for the employer.
This not only helps identify foreseeable hazards before anyone gets hurt and allows you to implement a proactive approach to risk management, which in turn, brings you, as the employer, a step closer to achieving regulatory compliance.
With a positive safety culture in place, where the leaders of the businesses are open and receptive to feedback from their employees regarding any concerns they may have in their day-to-day experience at work, the workers feel valued. This increases their job satisfaction, motivation and productivity, resulting in long-term gains for the business.
Reduce Sickness Absence
Poor working conditions can lead to poor health and subsequently result in prolonged periods of sickness absence. In 2021, sickness and injury reportedly cost 149.3 million working days across UK businesses. Putting health and safety measures in place is a secure method of bringing those numbers down and limiting the financial impact of sickness absence on any company.
This is why during a health and safety risk assessment, you would also be looking at factors within the working conditions that could potentially cause chronic conditions and result in a prolonged illness. This is especially important in high-risk occupations, such as where manual handling operations or handling hazardous materials are involved.
Comply With Legal Requirements
There are various laws and regulations that apply to the health and safety in the workplace – from the general Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to the more specialised regulations, such as the Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH), Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) and Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER).
Depending on the industry you are working in and the speciality of your business you must be able to prove that your health and safety management practices are fully compliant with all relevant laws and legislation in the UK.
Who is responsible for the health and safety in the workplace?
According to the UK’s health and safety regulations, it’s the business owner’s legal duty to protect his employees at work. This is defined in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 which states that the responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of workers in the workplace (so far as is reasonably practicable) belongs to the employer.
What this actually entails is detailed further under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (MHSWR) 1999 which explains that
- Identify all reasonably foreseeable hazards in the workplace
- Implement control measures to manage and mitigate these risks
- Carry out regular risk assessments
- Keep a written record of all risk assessments (for businesses with 5+ employees)
- Have a written health and safety policy
- Provide health and safety training for all employees
Depending on the level of risk associated with the nature of your business, you might need to implement simple, straightforward measures or some more complex risk management actions may be required. This is why conducting risk assessments is important – they help you identify the hazards, risk levels and the possible steps you could take to mitigate those.
How do you ensure health and safety in the workplace?
We’ve just established that as an employer, you have the legal responsibility to follow all relevant regulations and keep all staff and visitors at your workplace safe. Here are some tips on how to achieve the desired level of health and safety in the workplace:
Conduct regular risk assessments
Conducting regular risk assessments that are “suitable and sufficient” is an essential element of regulatory compliance with the health and safety regulations in the UK. They help identify reasonably foreseeable risks in the workplace and implement actions to mitigate those. Keeping a record of all risk assessments, even if your business is small (less than 5 employees), allows you to build evidence of your compliance with the laws governing health and safety in the workplace.
Encourage Near Miss Reporting
Near-misses often get neglected as no one really got hurt but in reality, they can be important warning signs of workplace hazards that haven’t been properly addressed yet. This is why it’s crucial that you promote near-miss reporting in the workplace.
Get ISO-45001 certified
A good way to implement a superior risk management strategy is to comply with the internationally recognised ISO-45001 standard. Obtaining ISO-45001 certification ensures that your H&S policies and risk management practices, as well as the training and resources provided to your employees, are adequate and proportionate to the potential occupational hazards that may occur.
Implement The Right Risk Management Tools
Risk management often comes down to efficiency. In large organisations, poor data quality, hours of paperwork and lack of visibility can easily lead to mistakes, failed compliance and dangerous work environments. This is where having the right tools can help.
Switching to a multi-purpose regulatory compliance platform, such as RiskMach, for example, can bring a number of benefits allowing you to streamline the entire risk management process, from planning inspections to executing them and actioning reports to control risks efficiently.
Interested to learn more about health and safety in the workplace? Check out the articles below:
Risk Assessments in Construction| Risk Based Inspections (RBI) | How Health & Safety Risk Assessments Are Monitored & Reviewed | Risk Management at Work