Today, every workplace in Britain is subject to health and safety regulations, as laid out by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), reporting to the Health and Safety Commission (HSC). Formed in 1974 following the Health and Safety at Work etc Act, their mission is to protect employee’s health and safety by ensuring risks in the changing workspace are properly controlled.

A fundamental principle of the British regulations on health and safety is that the responsibility for their compliance lies with those who own, manage and work in commercial and industrial concerns. This includes the self-employed, who must themselves assess the risks attached to their activity and take appropriate action. This involvement from the workforce, particularly appointed health and safety representatives, has been instrumental in raising health and safety standards in the last 30 years.

Still, accidents do happen, and high-profile industrial accidents such as the BP oil refinery explosion in Texas in 2005 remind us that adherence to health and safety regulations is more than just bureaucratic legislation to allow employers to avoid punitive measures. The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, inspecting the Texas-based oil refinery, released its findings earlier this year, identifying numerous failings in equipment, staff management, risk assessment, maintenance, working culture at the site and general health and safety assessments. This negligence led to a major explosion in an isomerisation unit at the site, which claimed the life of 15 workers and left over 170 others injured.

The need to reduce risks and take appropriate action under British health and safety law lies behind the qualification ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’. This essentially requires that good practice should be followed whenever it is established, and sets the high standard that is ‘reasonably practicable’ for the duty holder to take precautionary measures, such as maintaining the standard of the on-site safety equipment up to the point where taking further measures would be grossly disproportionate to any residual risk.

Ultimately a common goal for both employers and employees is to ensure a productive and safe working life for all employees and a retirement free from long-term consequences of occupational injury and disease. Changes in technology and our culture may change the way business is done and the demand for new products, but it is still vital for employers to keep up-to-date on new legislation and continuously asses risks associated with the processes within their business.

Almost all companies are faced with risks in their jobs. This is not the risk of loosing the job. But risks associated with health and safety. Even a clerk is faced with such risks. Merely sitting down for 8 straight hours can have health consequences. It would mean back pains, strained eyes, or stiff necks. For more sensitive bodies, it could lead to anal hemorrhoids. Then there is the ergonomics and eyes issue in using computers.  Not every business can see these details. They would notice this only when the employee got sick already. When this happens, there is high rate of absenteeism. And for the business, this is truly not advantageous.  

 

Before a business could ever experience the consequence of absenteeism of employees due to sickness, it is important that they recognize the causes of such illness. Surely, since employees spend considerable amount of time at work, it must be that the set-up or the business environment has a contributory factor of the employee’s health. It is then important that businesses call health and safety consultant to evaluate the working environment as well as any factors that can possibly be detrimental to the employees’ health. Remember that it is hard to regret. What is important is prevention of illness before illness of employees ever strikes. And preventions mean knowing what would affect the health of the employees in the working environment.

 

Relevance of Health and Safety Consultancy

 

Businesses owners and employers who are truly concerned on the welfare of the employees can call upon health and safety consultancy. Those who are concerned are those who see that people are important in the function of the business. If you are one of the business owners or employers who value the works of your employers, then you are most likely concerned with the health and safety of the employees. Otherwise, it would not matter to you if they leave their work because of sickness. You would not also mind if employees have frequent absences. In which case, this means that it’s better that you have no workers at all. What does it leave you then? Would your business continue to operate without people working for you? Do you want to invest in employment only to find out that there are no people who are willing to work for you because they are faced with health risks? If the answers to these questions are a big NO, then you truly need to be concerned about the health of your employees. If you don’t know how to start getting concerned, you need to talk to health and safety consultant.

 

Function of the Health and Safety Consultant

 

When you find health and safety consultant like Proactive Health & Safety, they would give you comprehensive health and safety consultancy. The business environment, set up, and any employee concerns will be taken into account. Then matched with the consultant’s expertise on how general health and safety of the working environment, they will give suggestions, rules, and policies that you can employ in your business. The aim is to provide utmost health and safety consultancy so that employers can utilize the employees’ function.

 

Overall, it is important that businesses go into health and safety consultancy. This is to avoid employee absenteeism due to sickness. This is also to prevent fast turnover of employees who find it risky to work in the hazardous and unsafe working environment. With health and safety consultant like Proactive Health & Safety available, businesses can create a safe and employee-concerned working environment.