VCA have been ensuring that our companies are as compliant as possible when it comes to Health and Safety in the workplace

Sprains and strains, trips and falls and most commonly, back injuries. These are typical injuries that happen on a daily basis across the globe – all which can be easily avoided when the correct Health and Safety training is in place. When there is not enough training introduced into the workplace, many employers try to respond to these injuries by buying new products, adding new and unnecessary policies and procedures into the workplace, conducting the same training that has been previously conducted, or advising delegates on the premises to be more careful. Unfortunately, this usually provides short term relief, and stays as a long term-hazard within the organisation because it has already been identified and not correctly dealt with. The injuries caused can affect the organisations TRI rate and can lead to a continuous struggle to bring the rate down – is it honestly worth a 6-month waiting period to submit a claim to the Compensation Fund?

Once an incident has occurred within an organisation, he Health and Safety Representatives are usually left asking why the incident took place – in other words – WHAT HAPPENED? Usually, employees within an organisation choose to take short-cuts which create higher risk rates known to them, by doing this, they are ignoring the policies, procedures and rules that have been laid out. Once this has led to an injury, it may lead to a Health and Safety Representative feeling hopeless or confused as to why employees are deliberately ignoring the rules that have been put into place to ensure their safety. Therefore – rules and equipment is not always enough, this is why PPE should also be provided to employees. Organisations should also always follow two plans – the measures to be taken to ensure safety, and how it should be introduced/influenced into an organisation.

The “us vs. them” mentality is usually present in many organisations; this is when the every day working culture is management vs. frontline workers. This causes employees to become very held-back and not want to engage in changes that take place within the organisation because it seems as if the organisation is only protecting itself. Employees also do not want to take accountability for their own safety. When employees do not take part in a safety culture, supervisors and employees will witness at-risk behaviour but do not intervene. Once this occurs, a clear path to improving engagement and building a stronger safety culture is rarely seen by an Occupational Health and Safety Manager – this should always be prepared for when implementing Skills Development plans and looking at the organisations Learning and safety Culture.