Top Workplace Health and Safety Tips for 2022
Workplace Health and Safety Tips
With the recent introduction of new workplace health and safety legislation in Western Australia, we thought it would be good to discuss some workplace health and safety tips to help organisations across all industries improve and optimise their safety management systems.
- Worker Participation
Worker Participation refers to the planned ways your organisation can take that will engage with and support your worker’s participation in health and safety-related topics. Those organisations that get their employees engaged and participating in health and safety will have successful outcomes and easily meet health and safety legislation.
If your workers and their representatives actively contribute to health and safety in your workplace then the research shows that you will lower occupational illness and injury rates.
Click here to learn more about how to enable worker participation in workplace health and safety. - Assess the Workplace Environment
Put yourself onto the floor in the workplace environment, observe and note any identifiable risks, and discuss workplace hazards and risks with your staff.
Look for anything that poses a risk to workplace health and safety. Remember, most hazards come from:
– The physical work environment
– The equipment, materials, and substances being used
– The work tasks and how they are performed
Keep notes of identified hazards and any ideas and feedback that you receive from staff and customers.
Once you have identified potential workplace hazards, assess them to understand:
– How much of a risk the hazard presents
– What you are doing to control the risk
– What you could be doing to control the risk
– How much of a priority is it to address the risk - Control and Mitigate
After assessing the workplace environment and risks, you need to take action and implement measures to address and control the risks.
The most effective way to control risk is to eliminate the hazard. If this is not possible, you need to work to minimise the risk as much as possible by doing things such as:
– Replacing the hazard
– Distancing the hazard from people
– Introducing administrative controls
– Adopting and maintaining safe work procedures
– Utilising protective equipment
In workplace environments that have hazards and risks present throughout the daily operations, training should be provided to workers so that they know how to operate safely within the working environment. - Continuous Review and Improvement
Workplace health and safety is an ongoing process that needs to be continuously monitored, managed, reviewed and improved. Review and improvement are key to an effective safety management system.
Schedule regular inspections of the workplace to identify new hazards and review the control measures that you have in place. If you introduce a new piece of equipment or a new process, it is important to schedule an updated review of your workplace health and safety with the new introductions. - Record Keeping
Keeping accurate and current records of your health and safety management systems can be critical to ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
It also gives you data that you can leverage to gain insights into potential issues in your safety management system and identify areas for improvement.
Consider utilising a health and safety management system software to assist in streamlining the management of your policies and processes across the organisation.
QSM Group is your local Mango partner. Mango is an industry-leading compliance management software solution, designed to integrate your management systems and maintain standards.
Click here to learn more about Mango software and whether it is a good fit for your business.
As always, don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need any support with your organisation’s quality, health, safety, and environmental compliance management.