Health Safety Management Systems: Cost Effective and Business Efficient Tool

摘要

The costs of poor health and safety management are enormous. Statistics show number of people killed or injured due to work related accidents and millions working days lost to work related ill health It entails costs to the economy of the country (e.g in UK these have been calculated at 2% of GDP) and to employers (between 5 and 10% of UK business profit). Similar trends can be found worldwide. Whilst these are averages, the costs to individual businesses can be prohibitive. The costs of fines and compensation can be exceedingly high (unlimited in some circumstances) and if a company has a poor health and safety performance record it may become effectively uninsurable. Although a financial argument can be made for improving health and safety management arrangements it is not the only benefit or reason for doing so. The costs of pain, suffering, sadness and worry associated with a serious accident, ill health or even death are virtually impossible to calculate and cannot be put in purely financial terms. Anyone involved, whether it be the injured person, family, friends, work colleagues, or even company management, cannot help but be affected by the experience. Some people are so badly affected that it changes their lives forever. Such an outcome is an obvious terrible consequence of poor health and safety management but so is the stigma attached to the organisation causing the incident. Customers and clients can be affected and may not want to deal with the company again. Managers and supervisors can also suffer terrible feeling of guilt and this can destroy working relationships and management culture. Some companies do not survive a major health and safety incident. The law is also changing, forcing companies to improve health and safety management. Linked to this is an increasing understanding of the nature of H&S problems amongst the workforce. Employees (in many countries) now expect the highest levels of protection in the workplace (indeed they see it as a basic human right) and when this is backed by active trade unions and legal assistance it puts considerable pressure on companies to maintain the highest standards. Finally our awareness of H&S problems is constantly changing and this also forces business to implement changes to their existing practices. Historically improvements in health and safety management have been brought about by introducing strict prescriptive legislation to deal with each new issue as it arose. However it is now increasingly recognised that health and safety needs to be managed proactively. It cannot be left to prescriptive rules and common senses and it cannot be managed by one individual alone. History has shown this simply does not work. Some of the most serious health and safety incidents in recent years have resulted from failures to actively manage health and safety risks. Disasters such as the fire and explosion on the Piper Alpha oil drilling rig and the sinking of the passenger ferry the Herald of Free Enterprise, were caused by management giving insufficient attention to health and safety and as a result they: 1. cut timescales for projects putting people under pressure to cut corners and reduce supervision; 2. developed work schedules which led to fatigue; 3. did not provide sufficient training; 4. restructured management - leading to individuals having responsibility without sufficient experience; 5. developed control systems which failed to take account of individuals making mistakes; 6. developed control systems which did not anticipate difficulties in communication. The management of health and safety risks needs comprehensive management tools which include policies, organisational elements, implementation controls, performance monitoring and system audits. Risks have to be evaluated, procedures for controlling risks have to be developed and people need to be trained in these procedures. These control systems have to be monitored and audited and communication systems should be