Time, trouble, cost and effort.
Health & Safety, why bother investing in all the time, trouble, cost and effort?
There a many reasons why you should, I’ll expand on the three most important ones below-
Moral.
Employers have a duty of care to ensure the safety and health of their Employee’s and others who may be affected by their works.
Legal.
Employers have a legal duty to comply with H&S Legislation. This includes the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and all other associated Regulations.
Failure to comply with H&S Legislation is a Criminal offence and could lead to prosecution.
Financial.
The costs it takes to set up an adequate Health and Safety Management System including having access to competent H&S advice, either internally or externally, will be far less than the potential fines from the HSE (Fee for Intervention) for not complying with H&S Legislation, costs from civil claims where accidents have occurred, bad publicity, lost work from submitting incident statistics on PQQ’s, costs of having to pay for sickness absences, costs of having to hire replacement persons, costs of having to buy replacement equipment. The list is endless.
Be Proactive.
Don’t wait until an accident occurs to one of your Employee’s, contractors or a member of the public before you take H&S seriously. Be proactive and ensure you’re complying with H&S Legislation now.
The benefits from improving the safety culture of a company is incredible. If your Employee’s feel safe in work then they will be happy. A happy workforce is a more productive workforce.
Less accidents also means less sick pay, less requirement to hire replacements, less accidents to inform that prospective new Client about on that tender for work, less fines and less compensation to pay through civil claims.
Competency.
You can manage H&S within your company. You just need to be competent. Competency generally comes down to having the skills, ability, knowledge, training and experience.
You could employ an internal H&S Professional or use an external consultant. Both have pro’s and con’s.
Internal.
Pro’s – Understands company procedures, can spend more time influencing people
Con’s – Very costly to have a full time competent H&S Professional, Managers can think all H&S responsibilities are the internal H&S Professionals job, can become friendly and in turn can become complacent
External.
Pro’s – Cheaper than paying for internal H&S Professional as you only pay for what is required, an external set of eyes who looks at things from a non-biased point of view, lots of new idea’s to bring to your company
Con’s – There are many external H&S Consultants and in turn, many may not be competent. Ensure you do your research and choose a competent H&S Professional. A good starting point is to ensure they are Chartered Members of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Another key area to start would be looking on the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR).
More information on IOSH and OSHCR can be found by clicking on the links below.
Contact us on the contact details below to arrange your FREE no obligation consultation.
Written by Dean Oliver CMIOSH
Managing Director of Oliver Health and Safety Ltd.
W – www.oliverhealthandsafety.co.uk
T – 0800 772 3950