Workplace Safety

It is a known fact that an individual needs a safe, secure and comfortable atmosphere to perform his tasks well, be it your home or workplace. The dynamics of the workplace has transformed dynamically over the years. It is vital to ensure that employees are provided with a safe and conducive work atmosphere to facilitate and maintain employee productivity. Workplace safety may be broadly defined as a category of management responsibility in places of employment that includes health and safety of workers. It mainly deals with taking care of your employees and your bottom line. Despite the fact that different businesses differ in terms of physical hazards they pose to employees, no domain or particular industry is entirely injury-proof.

Identifying health and safety hazards

A ‘hazard’ is something that in itself may cause harm or injury. Workplace hazards comprise of moving parts of machinery, working at heights, slippery floors, electric energy, excessive noise, toxic or flammable substances and lifting heavy objects. A ‘risk’ means the likelihood that a hazard will cause specific harm or injury to persons or may damage property. Hence, a hazard is any activity, situation or substance that can harm or pose harm to someone. Hazards may broadly be classified into health hazards and safety hazards.

A health hazard is any agent, situation or condition that can cause an occupational illness, also referred to as occupational hazards.

There are five types:
• Chemical substances such as battery acid and solvents
• Biological agents such as bacteria, viruses, dusts, and moulds
• Physical agents or energy sources that are strong enough to harm the body like electric currents, heat, light, vibration, noise, and radiation)
• Work design, also referred to as ergonomic hazards that are associated with musculoskeletal
• Injuries/illnesses which could be due to combinations of forceful exertions, constrained poor postures and long duration/continuous work)
• Harassment, violence, working alone, etc.

A safety hazard is anything that could cause an injury. Injury caused by a safety hazard
Could be a physical injury such as a cut or fracture, that is usually obvious. Safety hazards cause harm when workplace safety controls are not adequate. Some examples of safety hazards include:
• Slipping/tripping hazards, for example injury caused due to electrical cords across floors
• Fire and explosion hazards
• Moving parts of machinery, tools, and equipment (i.e. pinch and nip points)
• Work at height (i.e. work done on scaffolds or ladders)
• Ejection of material (i.e. from moulding operations)
• Pressure systems (i.e. steam boilers and pipes)
• Vehicles (i.e. forklifts and trucks)
• Lifting and other manual handling operations
• Materials falling from height, rolling, shifting, or caving-in
• Unsafe use of explosives

If certain industries like the Manufacturing industry pose opportunities for physical injury, highly demanding jobs can be stressful for certain employees, thereby affecting their mental health. For any individual to perform well and work productively, it is of prime importance to provide a relaxed, congenial work environment which not only ensures the physical safety of the employee but also helps to maintain the mental balance of the employee.

In fact, workplace safety is emerging as one of the key risk management and regulatory compliance focus areas among many global companies.

Safety Measures

Risk management is a process by which the management assesses the risks, determines the control measures and takes appropriate measures or actions to reduce such risks. Risk assessment is a key instrument to reduce risk at the workplace. Effective workplace safety and health programs and measures have proven to reduce injuries and illnesses in the workplace.

When it comes to an effective policy that adheres to effective workplace safety, it has to satisfy the following criteria:

• Working in a safe and healthy way is a condition of employment
• Safety and health is everyone’s responsibility, both the employers and employees are accountable for the same
• Safety is given as much importance as productivity, quality or cost control
• All hazards are identified and controlled
• Safety and health education needs to be consistent and ongoing.
• All accidents and near accidents are reported and investigated into

It is extremely important that all companies provide a safe and healthy environment in which their employees can work effectively sans any hazard or at the risk of worrying about their safety!