How Can Compliance Help In Managing Workplace Health And Safety?

20 May

Safety and health are as important to a successful business as product development, marketing, sales, customer service, inventory control, and financial management, particularly in the current climate. Having a commitment to health and safety is one of the best ways to protect your greatest resource - your employees.

Statistics released by Safe Work Australia show the total number of fatal injuries reported in 2019: 157 workers were fatally injured at work. Even though workplaces are becoming safer, to help in managing workplace health and safety and to ensure that your employees understand and adhere to work safety requirements, compliance training is mandatory.

With many businesses beginning to look at re-opening their doors, now is the perfect time to conduct a workplace health and safety evaluation to ensure you are complying with current regulations.

Compliance Creates A Workplace Safety Culture

Some things to think about when evaluating your workplace’s culture of safety include the following:

How often do you convey the importance of workplace safety to your employees?
Does your office furniture come with a good ergonomic design?
Are boxes stored in a safe manner?
Do your employees know the safe load-lifting techniques without injuring themselves?
Are your employees well aware of the exit routes in case of an emergency?
Does your workplace have the required COVID-19 related signage as recently set out by SafeWork Australia?
Are remote workers aware of their WHS responsibilities while working from home?

If you make compliance training an important part of your company’s culture, you begin to:

Regularly survey your workplace for potential safety and health hazards.
Be aware of the chances of hazardous circumstances.
Be conscious of the dangerous situations that could be hazardous.
Understand how grave any harmful situation could be.
Employ the most efficient control measures.
Make certain they are working as planned.

Compliance Helps Identify The Hazards

With a well-defined compliance program in hand, it is easy to identify the potential hazards in your workplace. The step-by-step process includes walking around the workplace and observing your employees work or how your equipment is used. This can help you gauge what could go wrong. Preparing questionnaires and asking your workers about any health and safety problems help to obtain information that could hint potential hazards. An analysis of workplace incidents and with the subsequent investigation results, along with the worker complaints and inspection results will definitely lead you to certainly identify the possible hazards.

Compliance Makes Your Employees Alert

Regular compliance training helps to educate your employees to understand possible hazards in your workplace. They become alert and make a conscious attempt to learn which situations have the most potential to be hazardous and keep clear of those areas and situations.

Compliance Helps You Assess The Risks

Effective compliance helps you in assessing risk and lets you avoid a lot of unnecessary mishaps. It helps you understand how likely it is that a hazard will harm someone and how serious the injury could be. For example, what factors could influence the severity of harm that occurs when exposed to a toxic substance? Both the proximity to the substance and concentration of the substance could determine the gravity of an injury. Could a small mishap spiral to a much larger disaster with more grave concerns? For example, a short circuit could lead to a minor spark which, if detected immediately, is not harmful. But what happens if a large amount of combustible material is present, it could burst into flames and be very dangerous.

Compliance Helps You To Control The Risks

Accidents can happen, even when you’re on guard and well prepared. Nevertheless, with a proper compliance management structure, it is possible to control or at least minimise the risks. Managing risks could include a single control measure or a combination of different controls that together could eliminate or minimise the risk. A lot of risks can be fixed at the design or planning stage of the workplace, work process or product stages. You could prevent and control occupational hazards by designing out the hazards, ie, integrating safety into the design itself. For example, there are instances when objects kept on top shelves often fall and hit workers. Providing adequate storage cages in the design can reduce this risk.

With safety regulations in place, your employees can focus on their work, instead of worrying about the dangers in their workplace. A safer workplace:

Produces happier employees.
Results in less turnover and absentees.
Increases productivity and leads to more profits.
Results in fewer injuries and less compensation.

All in all, it’s a win-win situation.

Compliance Helps You Create A COVID-safe Workplace

As Australian businesses start to re-open and employees begin to return to the workplace, it is vital that employers ensure they are complying with the new SafeWork Australia guidelines regarding COVID-19.

There are several things businesses currently need to be doing to create a COVID safe workplace. SafeWork Australia’s new guidelines outline six things employers need to be doing, including having signs and posters around the workplace to remind workers, contractors and customers about the risks associated with coronavirus and the measures we should all be undertaking to stop its spread.

Businesses have been warned that a lack of compliance with these new guidelines may have severe consequences, including employees having grounds for legal action which your business insurance may not cover.

You can download the relevant signs from the SafeWork Australia website.

Safety is not an after-thought. So, be aware of your workplace hazards.

If you would like to know more about how to regularly review your WHS compliance, contact us today for a free phone consultation with HR expert, Iolanda Hazell, Director and Founder of Infinity HR. Call now on 0400 489 743.

References:

Signage and Posters -COVID-19 | Safe Work Australia

Iolanda Hazell