Health and Safety in the workplace

– Assessing and addressing the risks.

Occupational health and safety is a very important element in any UK workplace. Its purpose is to help educate and empower employees so that they are less likely to suffer an accident or injury while working.

Health and Safety involves a series of rules and guidelines whose main goal is to reduce the risk to anyone working in the area. Hopefully, by assessing and addressing the risk well in advance, the situation will not develop into a potential catastrophe. These rules and Regulations are not only good for employees. They have also been shown to be a positive benefit for employers, as keeping employees safe and comfortable can be greatly beneficial for business.

Examples

Several examples could be given as useful applications of health and safety. One might be asbestos Surveys and testing. It is important to ensure that employees are not exposed to asbestos or any other dangerous substance. A dangerous substance is defined simply as anything that might cause harm to the health of anyone in the area. If this danger is inevitable due to the nature of the work under scrutiny, then measures will have to be taken to reduce the risk. This might include offering the employees suitable protective equipment.

Protective Equipment

Health and safety can be seen very easily on a building site. These are dangerous environments with many potential hazards. Suitable protective gear must therefore be worn at all times. This includes hard hats, steel-toe-cap boots, high-visibility vests and the like. It is arguable that it is never possible to eliminate risk completely, since even something minor and unremarkable could pose a hidden danger and escalate into a life-threatening situation.

However, the goal of health and safety is to reduce risk as much as possible. While it may never be possible to ensure the safety of employees fully, it has been very successful in improving it a great deal.

Employees And Employers

Occupational health and safety does not only help employees. While some people may view the rules as unnecessarily restrictive or imposing, in practice they have been shown to be a net positive for employers. This is because even though more time, effort and money must be spent in advance to ensure employees’ safety, these costs must be seen in context.

The increased levels of health and safety and reduced risk lead to greatly reduced compensation and medical bills resulting from accidents that could easily have been avoided.

Conclusion

Occupational health and safety aids both employees and employers. As a system for assessing risk and attempting to reduce it as much as is realistically possible, it works very well. Some people may feel that it imposes unnecessary restrictions on workers and businesses, and in some cases that may be true.

Overall however, it has been highly successful in ensuring that people stay in the workplace and out of the hospital. Everyone involved, both managers and workers, should pay close attention to the suggested guidelines in order to keep themselves and everyone around them safe. Doing so will increase long-term satisfaction and enjoyment no end.

Health and Safety