The need for a health and safety professional in the workplace

Everyone has heard the old saying "accidents don't just happen, they are made". The fact is that this is the truth and ambivalence is the first step in creating an accident. Thinking that it can't happen to you at your firm or simply assuming that accidents come with the territory and are unavoidable to one degree or another.

You can call another safety meeting and go over the same old material, but is that really doing any good? Is this done more to ease your conscience in the event of an injury or to comply with terms that your insurance carrier has laid out?

Today there are new options that owners and managers are taking advantage of to do a better job of addressing safety issues. Private services that specialise in helping companies actually identify the sources of, and reduce the occurrence of, workplace injuries.

To make it easier for the owner or manager, they offer their services in set service packages that make clear from the outset precisely what will be provided and how much it will cost.

As an example, the typical least cost service package of this type will often include the following but can also include more, depending on any special requirement that your business's may present:

• Analyse, inventory and audit the business with an eye towards compliance with health and safety codes.
• Hands-on assistance in establishing a set company safety policies to present to employees, and help in periodic updates of this policy.
• Prompt notification of any imminent changes in legal requirements that would have an impact on the company.
• Ongoing support aimed at ensuring compliance through any legislative changes.
• Management level risk assessment assistance, where it is deemed appropriate.
• The assessment of fire risk.
• Email and telephone support on an as needed basis from certified health and safety specialists who are familiar with the business genre.
• Creation and compilation of driver and equipment operator handbooks.
• Health and safety courses.

By bringing in outside help in the form of specialists of this type, you send a stern message to your employees that you are serious about safety in the workplace and a solid irrefutable message to those who might imply that you were somehow complacent or negligent in the event of an accident.

--Safe2use

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Health and safety.
• Health and safety as an essential aspect of the workplace.
• Health and safety at work etc act 1974.
• health and safety defined.