Health and safety in modern business

Published: November 30, 2015 Words: 3531

Health and Safety have become one of the most important facets of the business today. According to Fulwiler (1996), business success in today's highly competitive global climate is inextricably linked to health and safety success. It can be noted that almost all organizations in the world are facing various changes in their business activities ranging from a shift from manufacturing to service industries or from agricultural to industrial activities with the adoption of new technology and flexible work patterns. These changes bring along a multitude of hazards in the workplace and expose the workers to a number of risks thus requiring a systematic approach to manage health and safety at work. Thus, the rights approaches helps business to control risks cut cost and gets a competitive edge.

It is often stated that "Good Safety Is Good Business", and conventional wisdom dictates that companies that effectively manage their risks operate successful businesses. However, it can be noted the risks are more inherent in the Logistics Industry due to vulnerable nature of the work taking place in that particular sector. Thus, the importance of tacking Health and Safety at work is indisputable and in recent years has emergent as the dominant player in launching initiative in this field. The following literature review stresses upon the different key elements for an effective management of health and safety practices at the workplace. Thus, emphasis has been laid upon some framework for the successful management of health practices and the different components namely management commitment, employee involvement and participation, health and safety communication, health and safety training and safety culture have also been addressed.

1.1 Framework for the Management of Health and Safety Practices

More and more organizations are concerned about demonstrating their commitment to occupational health and safety. This is mainly crucial for employees, but also for customers. In addition, stricter legislation demands that organization shows a clear, proactive commitment towards health and safety of their employees. Different framework exists like the International Labour Office (ILO) Standards, Legislations pertaining to Health and Safety Issues and more importantly, OHSAS 18001, for the effective management of health and safety practices at the workplace.

1.1.1 OHSAS 18001

Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001:2007 is the latest certification specification for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems Basically; it is a standard for occupational Health and safety management system jointly developed by a number of international third party certification bodies, national standard bodies, and other interested parties. It enables organizations to mange operational risks and improves performance. Thus, it provides a framework that allows your organization to consistently identify and control its health and safety risk, reduce the potential for accidents and improve overall performance.

OHSAS 18001 is designed to help organizations formulate occupational health and safety policies and objectives. It was first released in 1999 and revised in 2007 and is the world's most recognized framework for occupational health and safety management systems. It is applicable to any organization, large or small, and within any business sector. OHSAS 18001 is largely aligned with the structure of ISO 14001 and is based on the two concepts of continual improvement and regulatory compliance. Paradoxically, The OHSAS 18001 enables organization to demonstrate their commitment to occupation health and safety, as well as continuously improve related management systems.

OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational Health and Safety Requirements

OHSAS 18001 sets out the fundamental requirements for the management of Health and Safety and the main points and interpretation of Clauses 4.1 to 4.6 are set out as follows:

4.1 General Requirements

Develop, Implement, Maintain and Improve the organizations OHSMS in accordance with OHSAS 18001.

4.2 Policy Requirements

The health and safety policy must be authorized by top management. The policy must clearly state overall Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) objectives and a commitment to improve health and safety performance.

4.3 Planning Requirements

The organization need to establish procedures to identify OH&S hazards and assess the organization's risks.

4.3.1 Respect legal and non legal OH&S requirements

The organization must establish and maintain procedures for identifying and assessing legal and non legal requirements applicable to the organization. The information must also be communicated to employees and other relevant interested parties.

4.3.2 Establish OH&S objectives

OH&S objectives need to be established and documented at each relevant function and level within the organization. Moreover, the organization must establish an health and safety programmes to achieve these objectives.

4.4 Implementation Requirements

4.4.1 Establish Responsibility and Accountability

The roles, responsibilities and authorities for people managing health and safety needs to be clearly defined, documented and communicated. The ultimate responsibility rests with top management and make sure management is committed to health and safety in the organization.

4.4.2 Ensure Competence and Provide Training

Personnel are to be competent to perform tasks that may impact on OH&S in the workplace.

Provide training to meet your OH&S training needs.

Evaluate the effectiveness of your OH&S training activities.

4.4.3 Establish Communication and Participation

There is a need to establish an internal and external OH&S communication procedure to ensure that important health and safety issues is communicated to and from employees and other interested parties. Moreover, organization must develop a procedure to manage worker involvement.

4.4.4 Documentation

The OH&S policy and objectives of the organization pertaining to health and safety must be clearly documented.

4.4.5 Control the Organization's OH&S Documents

Procedures are to be established and maintained to control all documents as required by OHSAS 18001 and these documents must also be periodically reviewed and revised as necessary.

4.4.6 Implement Operational OH&S Control Measures

Identify those operations and activities that should use controls to manage OH&S hazards and reduce risks.

Implement controls to manage OH&S hazards and reduce risks.

4.4.7 Establish an OH&S Emergency Management Process

The organization must establish and maintain plans and procedures to identify potential and response to incident and emergency situations.

4.5 Checking Requirements

4.5.1 Monitor and Measure your OH&S Performance

The organization need to establish procedures to monitor and measure OH&S performance on a regular basis.

4.5.2 Evaluate Legal and Non legal Compliance

Establish a procedure to periodically evaluate how well your organization complies with legal and non legal OH&S requirements.

Investigate Incidents and Take Remedial Action

The organization must establish procedures to investigate OH&S incidents and take corrective and preventive action to remediate the situation.

Establish and Control OH&S Records

Establish OH&S records for your organization.

Develop procedures to control your OH&S records.

Conduct Internal Audits of your OHSMS

The organization must establish and maintain an audit programme and procedures for periodic audits of the safety management system.

4.6 Review Requirements

The organization top management must review the system at pre-determined intervals to ensure the effectives of health and safety system and address possible changes to policy and objectives.

1.1.2 PDCA CYCLE

The OHSAS Standard is based on the methodology known as Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). PDCA (Edward Deming, 1950) can be briefly described as follows

Plan: Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the organization OH&S policy.

Do: Implement the processes.

Check: Monitor and measure processes against OH&S policy, objectives, legal and other requirements, and report the results.

Act: Take actions to continually improve OH&S performance.

PDCA CYCLE

400px-PDCA_Cycle

Source: Wikepedia.org./Wiki/PDCA

1.1.2 International Labour Office (ILO)

The right to decent work, safe and healthy working conditions and environment has been a central issue for the ILO since its creation in 1919.The preamble of the ILO constitution specifically provides that the "Protection of the worker against sickness, disease and injury arising out of employment" is a fundamental element of social justice. The past 90 years have also witnessed the development of a significant body of laws and regulations at national level, covering many areas relevant to occupational safety and health. The ILO stated that based on the principle that decent work must be safe work, safe work aims to create worldwide awareness of the dimension and consequences of work related accidents, to place occupational safety and health on the international and national agendas, and to provide support to the national efforts for the improvement of occupational and health system and programmes in line with relevant international labour standards.

Despite global efforts by the ILO to address health and safety concerns, an estimated 2 million work -related fatalities and 330 million work-related accidents still occur each year. (International Labour Conference 98th session 2009). The annual cost of major occupational accidents alone is estimated ay US $5 billion. Further statistics revealed that an average of 6000 people die ach day as a result of work-related accidents. Thus, to mitigate all these damages at the work place, companies worldwide have to be in line with the ILO'S action Plan. An ILO action plan for the promotion of safety and health at work (International Labour Conference 91st Session, 2003) includes some of the following guidelines:

The fostering and promotion of a preventative safety and health culture is a fundamental basis for improving OSH performance in the long term.

Endorse the establishment of an annual international event or campaign (world day or a safety and health week) aimed at raising widespread awareness of the importance of OSH and promoting the rights of workers to a safe and healthy working environment.

With a view to increasing the relevance of ILO instruments, the development of new instruments in the areas of ergonomics and biological hazards should be given the highest priority

The ILO should develop practical and easy-to-use training materials and methods focused on the "train-the trainer"approach on key aspects of safety and health at work.

1.2 Management Commitment

The human element is the most vital aspect in any organization and hence protecting them from the various hazards in the working environment should entail a priority and commitment from the management. At the heart of safety management is an organizational commitment to a comprehensive safety effort. This effort should be coordinated from the top level of management to include all the members of the organization. According to Hale et al (1997), recent trends have demonstrated that organization are giving due consideration to organizational and management impact on safety performance more predominantly in the area of health and safety management; thus this interest have been aroused due to the major disasters that have highlighted the failing of management to protect the health and safety of their worker thereby resulting in the failure to abide by health and safety legislation. History bears testimony that major accidents like the Piper Alpha (Cullen 1990), the Herald of Free Enterprise (HSMO 1988), The King Cross Fire (Fennel 1988) among others have propelled management to give increasing importance to Health and Safety practices at the workplace. Employers should be able to manage health and safety on an equal basis with other aspect of the business such as profitability and productivity.

The importance of management commitment plays a vital role in ensuring Health and Safety success at the workplace. According to Philson 1998, "the foundation to any process, policy, or cultural shift is built upon management's total commitment to the change. Half-heated commitment to any new direction will result in failure." Thus, emphasis has clearly been laid out on management total commitment to ensure success in health and safety practices in organization. Similarly, Hsu et al 2007 advocated that management commitment to safety is strongly correlated by the way in which the organization's top management demonstrates positive and supportive safety attitudes towards their employees. In the same vein, previous studies that have been carried out by Mitchison and Papadakis (1999) have shown that effective management will eventually lead to an improvement in the level of safety in the organization and ultimately there will be less damages and harm from incidents (cited from Bottani, Monica and Vignali, 2009).

However, Dr Judith Erikson (1997) stresses upon the fact that having health and safety professional does not necessarily indicate the presence of high safety performance at the workplace, it is rather active, genuine and continuous management support that are vital elements in ensuring a safe working environment for the employees. Moreover, Jop Groeneweg (1996) stated that without commitment to reduce the risks at the workplace, any attempt to control them is bound to fail and thus resources must be allocated and activities must be evaluated and stewarded.

1.3 Employee Involvement and Participation

Employee involvement and participation is an important part of developing and implementing health and safety practices at the workplace. Gregory (1996), a safety specialist stresses upon the fact the management should encourage employees to take part in the decision making and goal functions settings of the organizations. Thus, it stands to reason that employee involvement will improve safety conditions, since "people tend to support what they help create" (Bicos 1990). Moreover, according to Parmeggiani (1983), workers involvement in the protection of safety and health is of paramount importance. He also asserted the principle of active and priority role of workers in occupational health and safety. Concurring with Parmeggiani, Johnstone et al (2005) stated that that the involvement of workers alongside with employers will be very helpful in the reduction of injuries, death and illnesses.

According to Painter and Smith (1986), a participatory safety and hazard management programme conducted in British Columbia, Canada revealed that by involving employees in health and safety programmes resulted in a 75% in accident frequency. Similarly, in a recent survey of small business owners carried out in Illinois, 46% of those surveyed believed that workers have the greatest impact on the frequency of workplace accidents, while only 4% said mangers have the greatest impact. (Insurance Council of Wheaton, Illinois 1955). Thus, Ariss (2002) concluded that the diverging views between the employees give a strong indication that there is a need for involving employees in preventing workplace accidents.

However, Ariss (2002) highlighted that the creation of successful safety program will be best achieved through a joint commitment on the part of management and employees. Correspondingly, the committee on underground coal mine safety 1982 stated that the best safety programs developed by the most dedicated management will be successful only if it has the total support and active collaboration of its employees.

1.4 Health and Safety Communication

The systematic dissemination of health and safety communication across the organization is one among the key component in ensuring the successful management health and safety practices.

According to Simons (1996), a relationship that is built on trust and communication between management and employees will lead to a successful safety program. Erikson (1997) stated that open communication can be strengthen by encouraging employees to voice out their opinions and make feasible suggestions on health and safety issues. This will eventually make the employees feel appreciated and respected at the workplace. Moreover, for effective communication to take place, the element of positive feedback must be present. Gregory (1996) propounded that positive feedback have a prominent role in developing an environment that promotes a safe behavior. Similarly, Philson (1998) enhanced that feedback is an essential component of communication. However, Philson made a clear distinction between positive and constructive feedback. He stated that "positive feedback will encourage the employee to keep performing in the way he was recognized, while constructive feedback on what an employee did improperly will open up communication".

Conversely, Erikson (1997) pointed out that when employee's views and suggestions are not taken into consideration, it will result in a situation of alienation, consternation, frustration which could then be manifested as behaviors such as apathy and non commitment to the organization. Similarly, Philson (1998) argues that lack of open communication will also lead to a situation of dissatisfaction among employees. He advocated that when communication is not encouraged, "employees often complain to each other about hazardous conditions while never informing anyone with authority"

1.5 Health and safety Training

Safety training is an essential determinant to enhance safety performance and to reduce accident at the workplace. The principle criterion for success is a reduction in the incidence and severity of work-related injury and diseases. "Safety Training is defined as knowledge of safety given to employees in order for them to work safely and with no danger to their well being". (Law, Chan and Pun 2006). According to health and safety executive (1995), there is a strong relationship between a person's behavior and awareness of hazards at the workplace as little awareness in the workplace hazards will make the people deviate from the workplace rules and regulations; thus employees must be constantly trained about the workplace hazards in the organization. According to safety specialists, extensive training for new employees is highly important since, according to Philson (1998), the majority of accidents occur within the first six months of employment Conversely, Robotham (2001) highlighted that lack of safety training will lead to high risk of workplace injury and illness and eventually culminate in death, pain and suffering.

On the other hand, Christian Brauner (Swiss Reinsurance Company 1991) argues that "There is no such thing as a world free of disasters. Yet many of these catastrophes resulting from these disasters could be avoided if the opportunities for intervention were really exploited. To achieve this, steps must be taken ahead of time and not when chance factors are all that remain to prevent the very worst". Likewise, as put forward by Jop Groeneweg (1996), understanding and focusing on their prevention process is the only way to get as close to zero accidents as possible and to prevent people from being injured and this can be best achieved through effective training.

However, despite the provision of training to reduce the number of accidents at the workplace, empherical studies that have been carried out suggest that human error are equally the major sources of accidents. Human error is an important contributing cause in up to 90% of all industrial accidents. (Larson and Merritt 1991). Nevertheless, Groeneweg (1996) argues that accidents will be always a part of life; but then belief that human error is inevitable and the belief that accidents will happen should not function as an argument for not developing a sound safety policy.

1.6 Safety Culture

Culture is an integrative component for the success for any organization. Embracing a supportive a supportive safety culture is fundamental to improving sustained health and safety performance.

The concept of culture is well founded in organizational management literature. (Ronald 1998). Safety culture is a term often used to describe the way in which safety is managed in the workplace, and often reflects "the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and values that employees share in relation to safety" (Cox and Cox, 1991). Similarly, according to Kennedy and Kirwan (1995), an organization's safety culture is ultimately reflected in the way in which safety is managed in the workplace.The term 'safety culture' first made its appearance in the International Atomic Energy Agency's initial report following the Chernobyl disaster (IAEA, 1986). According to Dominic Cooper (1998), it has been noted that following inquiries on large scale disasters such as Chernobyl, the king Cross Fire, Piper Alpha, Clapham Junction, there has been a current shift to improve workplace safety involving the concept of an identifiable safety culture. Similarly Flin et al (2000) enhanced that the trend around safety culture originated after Chernobyl has thrown into limelight the importance of safety culture and the impact of managerial and human factors on the outcome of safety performance.

Erikson (1997) highlighted that when an organization's philosophy is modeled around a people oriented culture, management will be more motivated to respect employees and engage them in the decision making process and goal setting functions of the organizations. Furthermore, as per Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installation (ACSNI) study group on Human factor (cited from Dominic Cooper, 1998), it has been stated that "Organizations with a positive safety culture are characterized by communication founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety, and by confidence in the efficacy of preventative measures".

There is a trend for safety culture to be expressed in terms of attitudes or behavior. Thus, According to the safety advisor reports in the explosion of ESSO'S Longford gas plant in 1998, they view culture as a matter of individual attitudes which can be cultivated at work. Conversely, Reason (1997) pointed out that culture do have some implications in behaviors at individual level but argues that it is not only the aggregated behavior of individuals but it concerns the organization as a whole. Furthermore, one of the key components of safety culture put forward by Reason (1997) is a 'Reporting culture' which he defines as an organizational climate in which people are prepared to report accidents near misses and safety concerns. However, despite the diverging views on safety culture, there is a consensus towards safety culture being a proactive stance to safety (Lee and Harrison, 2000).

Conclusion

This chapter has reviewed the different components for the successful management of health and safety practices at the workplace. Thus, in the light of the above literature review, we can conclude the health and safety is of paramount importance to all businesses in the world but more importantly in the Logistics Industry. However, we cannot obliterate the fact that managing health and safety requires a substantial amount of resources and above all a cooperated working relationship between both management and employees.