Stop for a moment and consider what would happen if there were a serious accident in your organisation. How would it affect you and others?
Consider the harmed individual. Imagine their individual pain and suffering, and how their household will cope in the aftermath. It may be that they will have an extensive stay in hospital and may never work again. Or what if the accident had been a fatality? Imagine how you would feel, as well as how their family would feel.
With deathly or sever incidents enforcement agencies shall begin their involvement which will include the authorities and definitely the local inspectors or Health and Safety Executive. There shall be an investigation that will take up a lot of time and work.
After this the regulator may decide to take action, which may lead to fines, prosecutions, even jail time for individual directors or managers.
Contemplate some of the outcomes for your business - these could be:
- Replacing the worker
- Reduced or delayed production
- Slowed or stopped production
- Substituting the worker
Don't forget about the press. How do you cope with the local publicity and TV outlets that learn about the incident? How do you think the clients will respond? How would potential and present customers, the public, clients and staff, feel about your business?
So as you can see there are three imperative objectives for managing safely - these are:
1) Legal
2) Moral/ethical considerations
3) Legal
Let's view these each in more depth.
Legal Motives
Managing health and safety at work is not an optional activity. It is mandated by criminal law and any employer who fails to comply is exposed to very significant legal risks - both at an organisational and an individual level. Directors and employees can and do go to prison for health and safety breaches and significant fines are handed out.
Moral Reasons
There are clear moral arguments for health and safety. To be safe and healthy is the most fundamental right we all share. Unfortunately many workers and members of the public are seriously injured or killed every year due to the activities of employers across a wide range of sectors.
Expense of Accidents
Ill health and accidents in the work place are very costly and are a large, often unseen, cause of costs. Expenses can be direct and also indirect. These expense losses may be covered by insurance or may be uninsured. Either way, employers affected will end up having to pay the costs in full eventually.
Remarkably, an investigation by the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) found that indirect costs were one third more than direct costs. So, the direct seen cost is just the peak of the iceberg where most of the expenses are hidden unless you seek them out. Let's take a look at the many types of costs that companies are possible to encounter when something goes array. The direct costs, which are sometimes insured, could be:
What are manager's liabilities?
So, managing safely is vital - but what specifically are manager's duties in this area?
You are in the foreground of health and safety if you are an employer. As an employee of your company, it is your duty to make sure choices about safety in your area are dealt with. You are the one who decides what takes place in your department.
Responsibility leads to accountability - as a manager you can give those people who work under you various responsibilities, but you are still the employee who will be held accountable.
Reviewing our position from the start, when we asked you to think about a serious incident happening within your corporation. Put yourself in the position of the employer whose worker has been hurt.
* It is your duty to inform your worker's family that they will not be home that day.
* It is consequently your position to plan replacement workers, fulfil an investigation into the incident, let clients know that their orders will be late, liaise with law enforcement, and communicate with the insurance company and the press.
* It is your job to notify your employee's family that they will not be returning home.
These are clearly very important management duties. At the end of the day, there is no other task that you will perform that is more important than ensuring that everyone goes home safely.
Consider the harmed individual. Imagine their individual pain and suffering, and how their household will cope in the aftermath. It may be that they will have an extensive stay in hospital and may never work again. Or what if the accident had been a fatality? Imagine how you would feel, as well as how their family would feel.
With deathly or sever incidents enforcement agencies shall begin their involvement which will include the authorities and definitely the local inspectors or Health and Safety Executive. There shall be an investigation that will take up a lot of time and work.
After this the regulator may decide to take action, which may lead to fines, prosecutions, even jail time for individual directors or managers.
Contemplate some of the outcomes for your business - these could be:
- Replacing the worker
- Reduced or delayed production
- Slowed or stopped production
- Substituting the worker
Don't forget about the press. How do you cope with the local publicity and TV outlets that learn about the incident? How do you think the clients will respond? How would potential and present customers, the public, clients and staff, feel about your business?
So as you can see there are three imperative objectives for managing safely - these are:
1) Legal
2) Moral/ethical considerations
3) Legal
Let's view these each in more depth.
Legal Motives
Managing health and safety at work is not an optional activity. It is mandated by criminal law and any employer who fails to comply is exposed to very significant legal risks - both at an organisational and an individual level. Directors and employees can and do go to prison for health and safety breaches and significant fines are handed out.
Moral Reasons
There are clear moral arguments for health and safety. To be safe and healthy is the most fundamental right we all share. Unfortunately many workers and members of the public are seriously injured or killed every year due to the activities of employers across a wide range of sectors.
Expense of Accidents
Ill health and accidents in the work place are very costly and are a large, often unseen, cause of costs. Expenses can be direct and also indirect. These expense losses may be covered by insurance or may be uninsured. Either way, employers affected will end up having to pay the costs in full eventually.
Remarkably, an investigation by the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) found that indirect costs were one third more than direct costs. So, the direct seen cost is just the peak of the iceberg where most of the expenses are hidden unless you seek them out. Let's take a look at the many types of costs that companies are possible to encounter when something goes array. The direct costs, which are sometimes insured, could be:
What are manager's liabilities?
So, managing safely is vital - but what specifically are manager's duties in this area?
You are in the foreground of health and safety if you are an employer. As an employee of your company, it is your duty to make sure choices about safety in your area are dealt with. You are the one who decides what takes place in your department.
Responsibility leads to accountability - as a manager you can give those people who work under you various responsibilities, but you are still the employee who will be held accountable.
Reviewing our position from the start, when we asked you to think about a serious incident happening within your corporation. Put yourself in the position of the employer whose worker has been hurt.
* It is your duty to inform your worker's family that they will not be home that day.
* It is consequently your position to plan replacement workers, fulfil an investigation into the incident, let clients know that their orders will be late, liaise with law enforcement, and communicate with the insurance company and the press.
* It is your job to notify your employee's family that they will not be returning home.
These are clearly very important management duties. At the end of the day, there is no other task that you will perform that is more important than ensuring that everyone goes home safely.
About the Author:
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