The Management of Health and Safety at Work

The existence of regulators and inspectors is not the only measure or precaution taken into place to make sure that employees and employers are kept safe from harms way. There is a considerable body of good practise which exists to aid employers develop sound approaches and good systems for managing their responsibilities for health and safety cause in a workplace. The HSE advocates a systematic approach to ensure employers can cut through the complexities of the law and regulations and ensure compliance proactively.

Policies are put in place to be the guidelines for every employees and employers initiated by their work contract, meaning that if anyone works against these policies they are in breach of the contract agreement. Policies states the arrangements for identifying hazards and assessing risks. Successful health and safety policies should have strict structures that should always be followed and periodically reviewed to ensure that its up-to-date in order to reflect contemporary practise.

To maximise the effectiveness of the Health and Safety policy measures staff should always be involved and committed to execute the duties with all data/information. Therefore this where the health and safety representative is most needed who will in turn report to the employer. These representatives have the statutory obligation to investigate potential hazards and dangerous occurrences at the workplace, investigate complaints from employees relating to health and safety and make representations on these matters to the employer and to the health and safety inspector. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 employer must consult with employees either directly or through elected representatives over the introduction of any measure or new technology which might affect health and safety.

Generally to be able to manage the Health and Safety Policy, staff must build and encourage a cultural routine which will enable the policy to become part of the company's work ethic. Lets take a look at some of the key components that can assist a positive 'health and safety culture'-;

• Competence(Recruitment, training and advice)
• Control(Allocating responsibilities and securing commitment)
• Cooperation( Between individuals and groups)
• Communication (Formal Verbal, written and visible)

The skills that staff exhibit are supposed to be of the highest class effective in order to maintain an efficient operating policy.