For the past 11 years, we have been advising companies on health and safety and related compliance solutions, in a country where not many people are clued up or sensitive towards such things.
This has given us the opportunity to learn from the many challenges that companies face as well as the chance to contemplate and engineer valuable solutions to these issues.
As we enter the new year, and new challenges are sure to present themselves, we’d like to give you some simple advice on how to ensure that your working environment is safe for all.
1. The only way to prevent accidents, is by expecting them.
We don’t mean for this to be an alarming statement, we simply want to bring your attention to the fact that accidents are going to happen in 2020; as they do every year.
Although we cannot prevent all accidents, we must always be prepared for them. By ensuring that your health and safety documentation is up to date, you can prevent many accidents and serious legal consequences-.
2. Allow your health and safety processes to grow with your company.
As any company grows, it becomes more vulnerable to risk. We must keep in mind that more workers will always equal more risk, and more people who are exposed to risk within an organisation.
Whether this is because of the fact that larger numbers of employees are more difficult to manage, or because of the culture that is bred in busier working environments, it is simply true.
Therefore we must adapt our companies at every stage of their growth, what worked when you had 5 employees will not work when you have 500.
3. Adopt a risk-based approach to thinking
The key to success when it comes to health and safety is knowing the risks that your employees are faced with and ensuring that they are properly trained to evaluate risk and be mindful of their own safety, as well as that of their colleagues.
If both management and employees are not fully aware of the risks your company is faced with, you are leaving your company exposed to not only occupational risk, but business risk as well.
By making use of a proper risk assessment, you can equip your workforce with the correct tools to set up and manage registers, legal appointments, toolbox talks, training, etc.
4. Upskill your employees
Giving your employees more responsibilities is one thing, but management should encourage and equip their employees with the right tools for them to make the shift.
Employers cannot simply expect their current employees to suddenly adjust, they need to be properly trained to be able to adapt and fully buy in to drastic changes in their working environment.
5. Get your hands on an electronic health and safety management system
We’ll bet almost everything in your company is done electronically. You send emails instead of mailing letters. You do electronic banking instead of going to the bank. You use electronic accounting systems. However, when it comes to health and safety, companies still use multiple outdated safety files or fragmented software modules offering only partial solutions.
If your safety management system does not add value to your company activities and you do not act on non-conformances, your safety management system will be nothing more than a paper exercise and extra workload.
Safe Working Practice has developed i-Manage Safety in response to the growing demand for a comprehensive health and safety management system. We provide our clients with an electronic safety management tool to revolutionise their Health and Safety systems, as well as the proper training to upskill their employees to adapt to the growing requirements for Health and Safety and Food Safety.
The system is accessible from anywhere in the world and allows our clients to effortlessly monitor and manage their legal compliance by means of a dashboard.
Our team understands the importance of onboarding in the success of any management system, and do our best to ensure that there is full buy-in from all parties.