It is important that health and safety is taken seriously in the workplace. In the UK alone, over 200 people are killed every year whilst working. Over a million more are injured and a further two million suffer illnesses (or have existing conditions made worse) as a result of their work. As well as causing the individual(s) a great deal of pain and suffering, what would a serious accident mean to you and your organisation?
Preventing accidents and injuries should be a priority for any business. A good manager or supervisor will recognise the importance of looking after his staff, and keeping hold of experienced or competent individuals.
The reasons for health and safety can be categorised into three key reasons; Moral, Legal and Economical.
Moral: it should be considered unacceptable for a worker to suffer injury or ill health as a result of carrying out their work. If an organisation genuinely cares about the safety of its staff and tries to improve conditions for staff, they are likely to be a lot happier and more productive. Managers should also have a desire to set a good example to the workforce and lead by example.
Legal:Both the employer and employee have a common law duty of care to each other and to other employees. This includes exercising reasonable care in order to protect others from the risks of foreseeable injury, death at work or health problems. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requires you to provide whatever information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of your employees. This is expanded upon in the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which identify situations where health and safety training is particularly important, e.g. when people start work, on exposure to new or increased risks and where existing skills may have become rusty or need updating. It also requires people within organisations to assess the foreseeable risks and put control measures in place to eliminate, or reduce the risks. This is not surprising – it is the companies that create these risks for workers!
Economical: in the event of an injury, it is highly likely that the company will incur a number of expenses. On the ‘news’ page you will be able to see details of a number of accidents, and the associated costs, many of which can be crippling for a small business. But as well as fines and claims, there are many other forms of cost which may not be immediately apparent. For example what about replacing the labour, the cost of downtime or time spent investigating the accident? Have you considered increased insurance premiums as a result of an accident? These costs can often be far more than the immediate outlays. If you were to receive bad press as a result, would customers and clients move to competitors. Below is a picture which likens the costs of an accident to an iceberg, where the bit that is ‘seen’ above the water, is actually only a small part of the overall cost, which is hidden below the surface. On the flip side of this, being seen as a safety conscious employer can help gain new business or staff easier, as well as retaining them.
