Best Recommendations to Management Leaders for Occupational Health & Safety

by Isabel Blamey Professional writer

Management support and participation must ensure the establishment of a comprehensive and uniform management system in the organisation, even it is a workplace health and safety management system. The employers or top management of an organisation will provide strong leadership, unified vision, and necessary resources. This is why the role of management is so crucial. When it is about implementing an effective occupational health and safety (OHS) framework that will protect the employees of your organisation, the participation of your managers is needed. There are several steps or best practices that will promote a culture of safety in the workplace and reinforce the OHS management system into the core of the administration. With some recommendations of best practices, we will describe the key practices that your organisation’s management leaders need to undertake to manage your employees’ safety and ensure their health. From providing enough resources to implementing the OHS management system to visibly exhibiting the health and safety commitment with ISO 45001 certification, the role of the management leaders is important.

Let’s learn about the key practices that management leaders or organisational owners need to adopt to have an effective OHS program established for their employees.

Communicate to the Employees

The first important action is to properly communicate the organisation’s assured commitment to a workplace health and safety program to the employees. A clear, documented policy will help in universally establishing the OHS program and conveying the commitment to safety. Get assistance and opinions from experienced health and safety consultants who will help you formulate the most suitable OHS policy for your organisation’s specific workforce. The written policy should bear the approval seal from the top management and should be well communicated to every employee, irrespective of their position or role. Even those associated with employees through different processes, such as contractors, suppliers, vendors, customers, or visitors need to be aware of the OHS policy.

Define the OHS goals

This is the next important step after your organisation has settled with a definite OHS policy. In accordance with this policy, you need to establish the goals or objectives of health and safety that you should be achieving. This depends on what the workforce of your organisation wants regarding their safety and wellness. Consulting the employees and department supervisors is necessary to decide the goals of your overall OHS program. Their opinions matter because they are directly exposed to potential risks, hazards and illnesses while working. So, by enquiring about their tasks, daily responsibilities, timeframes, and resources/equipment used, you can focus on the vulnerabilities faced by each. This will help you develop the goals and actions for the OHS management system. Goals should emphasise preventing accidents, injuries, and illness rather than focusing on their occurrence probability.

Proper Allocation of Resources

To make the OHS program and policy effective, resources are needed. Resources vary with type of the organisation, hazard risks, workforce size, etc. The common resources include specified health and safety personnel, staff training, capital equipment, precautionary tools, safety equipment supplies, and access to information (employees’ health records, health checklists, safety measures list, injury/illness data, etc). You should first identify all the resources needed for your employees according to the nature of the workplace and safety/illness vulnerabilities. Align budgets as per the needs of the resources in your OHS program, and to meet all the specific safety and health goals with accessible resources, management’s interference is needed. Only they can consult professional health and safety experts and get recommendations to implement the OHS program efficiently with their available resources.

OHS Implementation

Lastly, the management of your organisation should lead the OHS management program by assigning roles and responsibilities to each employee. Collective participation and cooperation from the employees are needed to ensure the OHS program successfully addresses the occupational vulnerabilities. Also, the implementation of the program needs a culture or environment that promotes safety and hygiene. To accomplish the health and safety goals, management needs to identify a team that will lead the OHS management framework, coordinate precautionary activities with employees, and track the performance of the workplace safety culture. Apart from that, disciplinary measures, health insurance programs, effective reporting, training, regular workplace inspections, and proper employee-management communication are essential to ensure effective implementation of the OHS management system.

Well, management leadership is the most vital requirement to establish a health and safety management system in your organisation. It is the management leaders who will provide a vision, plan, and resources to lead an effective OHS program. From making the supervisors accountable for employees’ safety to providing resources to implement the OHS, management leaders have an immense role to play. These are some steps that will help them integrate a culture of safety at the core of their organisation.

Author Bio:

Damon Anderson is a trained health and safety consultant who practises at a reputed ISO certification compliance agency. He helps organisations with effective plans to adopt an occupational health and safety management system and even ensure its compliance with ISO 45001.

Contact Details:

Business name: Compliancehelp

Email: sales@compliancehelp.com.au

Phone: 1-800 503 401