Top 10 Tips for Managing Health & Safety and Risk Management in the Work Place

Jan 1, 2010

  1. Integration

    The key to successful health & safety and risk management, is to integrate them into the day to day running of a business. This means that they are on the forefront of everyone’s minds at all times, not just at weekly or monthly meetings.

  2. Commitment

    Successful promotion of health and safety comes down to the commitment of senior management. They should show their commitment to employees by wearing the correct PPE when and where necessary and showing an interest in how things happen on the shop floor.

  3. Accidents and Incidents

    All accidents and incidents should be treated as learning opportunities, thoroughly investigated and used to educate management and employees as to best practices. It is important to reinforce a ‘no blame’ culture among the workforce so that unforeseen incidents can be seen as warnings and future occurrences can be avoided.

  4. Continuous Improvement

    The principle of continuous improvement should be applied to the health & safety and risk management procedures in all businesses.

  5. Policy

    It is vital that senior management sign a health & safety policy and ensure that all employees are aware of it.

  6. Consultation

    Employees are an invaluable source of useful ideas and views about risk management. By consulting their workforce, senior management will gain a greater insight into the real health & safety and risk management issues on the shop floor.

  7. Communication

    Communication must take place between all levels within an organisation. Not only should senior management communicate health and safety matters, but supervisors too should hold talks, focusing on the hazards in the workplace.

  8. Occupational Health

    The management of safety/injury hazards should be extended to potential health hazards as well.

  9. Risk Assessment

    It is important to carry out regular risk assessments for every task, process and item of machinery and update procedures accordingly.

  10. Competence

    All staff should be trained and competent at the tasks they are responsible for. It is therefore important that all jobs are analysed to assess what skills are required for them to be carried out safely.