Why It's Important to Teach Safety Policies at Work

Health and safety compliance in the UK is driven by two organisations; NEBOSH (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety) and IOSH (Institute of Occupational Safety and Health). Qualifications by these two organisations are seen as the 'gold standard' for businesses and organisations in the UK.

Health and safety has been given a bad name in recent years by unnecessary regulations and excessive compensation culture. This is unfortunate as proper h&s management is essential in businesses of all sizes. However, the questionable cases make good news and the media picks up on these stories and puts the whole issue under a dark cloud in public perception. Who can forget images of children playing conkers wearing safety glasses?

The Government organisation regulating this area is The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and their stated mission is to prevent death, injury and ill health in Britain's workplace. That is undeniably important work.

Lord Young recently published a report at the request of the new Prime Minister, David Cameron, with the objective of improving the way health and safety is applied and tackling the compensation culture. The HSE has welcomed this report and professionals in this field generally agree that changes are needed to alter the perception of health and safety regulation and restore the industry's image to one of fairer balance.

There will be changes in the industry, but the core objectives will remain the same. These are well summed up by the HSE's mission statement; to prevent death, injury and ill health in the workplace. While this common sense approach may be applied there will remain serious consequences for managers who ignore safety or approach risks in their business in a cavalier fashion.

At first glance h&s management may seem a huge challenge. However, it is not so difficult as it may look if a business approaches it in an organised, step by step way. In fact, good policy management will have positive effects throughout a business and it can be linked in to such areas as improved efficiency and marketing by presenting public relations opportunities through good business practice.

The first step is to delegate primary responsibility to an individual or, in larger organisations, a team. Their job will be to learn about the subject, maintain awareness of new issues and to ensure that necessary information is filtered down through the organisation.

Businesses have two areas of risk to consider; the everyday organisational risks that all businesses will be faced with and then the unique risks which come from the operation of their specific business.

The individual or team will need to attend courses approved by NEBOSH and IOSH which cover the general business risks. Those courses will also teach attendees how to manage the unique risks in their business; how to assess risk, what to do when risk is acknowledged, what records to keep and generally how to approach good health and safety at work.

The crucial issue is choosing the right people or team to oversee this task. A good health and safety officer will have an eye for detail and the ability to see tasks through. With such a person or people in this critical role a business can be sure that good, common sense health and safety procedure is followed.