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Health & Safety Management - The 21st Century Moral Challenge

By: William Penworthy


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Although health & safety management may have come under some fire in recent times for seemingly taking the issue of health & safety too far, the truth is that the very moment an accident occurs which can be attributed to an employer the solicitors are called and litigation is never far behind.

But it's neither healthy nor right that companies and businesses should look at the need for health & safety management to be governed only by litigation threats. There are very real reasons why it is essential to make sure that health & safety is considered to be one of the top priorities, and these are the reasons which should guide the decision making process when it comes to choosing and implementing health & safety procedures and systems.

The first is of course the moral obligation which an employer has as far as the welfare of its employees is concerned. By ensuring that employees are working within a healthy and safe environment with equipment which is both appropriate to the task and safe to use, employees can be considered cared for, and the employer's moral duty fulfilled.

To cut corners, to be disorganised or to consider the health & safety of employees to be below the priority level of achieving a high turnover, meeting targets or making a profit is to make a clear statement to all employees that they are considered to be of little importance.

This doesn't in turn result in loyal employees, and any health & safety management procedures or requirements that are introduced in some areas are likely to be met with scepticism and implemented only half heartedly. The trouble is that any health & safety management system that is only partially implemented or which is not kept to by employees in a thorough and accurate manner is of little or no benefit at all. Employees will almost certainly see this, and the system is then even less likely to be implemented.

However, should an accident occur, which is increasingly likely in such a situation, then the employer is still likely to face litigation for negligence, and perhaps if employees are feeling abandoned, undervalued or resentful, such litigation is even more likely.

It is also a fact that low esteem, low levels of loyalty and a poor view of the employer by the employees is quickly detectable and often widely known, meaning that recruiting new employees can often be difficult, or at least, it can become a hard task recruiting the sort of employees your business really needs.

So besides the litigation issues and the legal requirements it is important to consider the impact ineffective or mismanaged health & safety management systems can have on employees both existing and future, and for this reason it's important to make sure that any health & safety management system implemented is robust, complete, simple to use and highly effective.

The trouble is that many employers have struggled to find such a system, relying instead on either a range of in-house systems and procedures, or a collection of different tools and systems taken from different sources and applied throughout the businesses.

But this in turn leads to further problems, because the more systems introduced, the more procedures implemented and the more employees are expected to learn and apply, the less likely it becomes that such systems are implemented and used properly, effectively or accurately. Either through misunderstanding, confusion or laziness, many employees tend to skip as much of the health & safety management system as possible.

Often this is helped by the same employees being given tough targets, which only encourages shortcuts to be used wherever perceived - and sadly a weak health & safety management system is often one of the first and easiest shortcuts around.

However, there is good news for employers facing this situation. There is a health & safety management system available through a company called 'Intersafety' which is called 'Good To Go'. The 'Good To Go' health & safety management system provides a simple but tamper proof range of features which can easily be implemented across the entire business, providing a seamless, cohesive and consistent health & management system which can quickly be understood, takes very little time to carry out, and does not permit employees to take shortcuts.

The additional benefit of the Good To Go system, as well as being highly cost effective, is that at every stage a very clear audit trail is created, meaning that it becomes a quick and easy to task to create a full and comprehensive health & safety management audit at any time. In turn, it has been discovered that employees are often happy to use such a system, and see it not so much as another health & safety loop to jump through, but as a clear indication of the genuine concern for the welfare of all employees held by the company.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Health & Safety Management | www.intersafety.co.uk | www.intersafety.co.uk/work-equipment-safety-status-monitoring-safety-tags-checklist/s4 ">Good To Go

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