Discuss about the Health and Safety Culture at Workplace.
The case discusses about the various health and safety hazard faced by the workers working in Sopranos Smallgoods, which is a family managed company situated in Bundoora, Victoria. They serve Australian market with a wide variety of assorted meat products, cured using traditional Italian recipes. The workforce at the factory level plays a very important role in the production process required to meet the demand of such large market segment.
In any organization the decision and policy making authority lies in the hands of top level management and implementation of these has to be looked after by the middle level personnel. The CEO of Sopranos Smallgoods has been quite concerned about the safety of their workers and has taken all necessary steps to ensure a safe working environment but negligence can be seen on the part of the managers and supervisors who are not monitoring the factory workers. As it is the responsibility of the employer to provide a secure workplace, system and plant to their workforce. An unsafe working environment will risk the lives of the workers and not only increase the financial burden on the organization but also affect their goodwill in the industry.
The term refers to a combination of certain attributes and characteristics in an organization and individual that helps to identify and address safety issues according to their level of significance (IAEA, 2017). The employees are committed and dedicated to adopt various safety practices for the overall well-being of an organization.
Safety culture has been given less importance in many organizations until there are some serious accidents and injuries takes place and people don’t know how to deal with it. This cannot be developed overnight; it is a complex process. (IOSH, 2017) The first move has to be taken by the top level authority which includes formulation of strong and effective policies and procedure along with allocation of resources needed for the implementation of such policies in the organization (CANSO, 2017). The responsibility of implementing such policies should be handed to such a person who is action oriented and has strong leadership skills so that they can explain the importance of developing a safety culture and motivate them to participate actively (IOGP, 2017).
There are certain elements which are required in an organization in maintaining a strong safety culture:
An organization can improve its safety culture by identifying the stage at which they are operating in the safety culture model. The organization should identify the stage at which they are operating and take actions accordingly to improve and progress ahead in the model. Safety culture model involves 5 stages of making an effective safety culture. The stages are: Emerging, Managing, Involving, Cooperating and continuous improvement.
At the emerging stage the organization not concerned about the concept and importance of safe environment, resulting into unavoidable accidents and injuries. Management should get alert about their responsibility of promoting a safe behavior among employees; they should frame effective policies and ensure its implementation. The second stage involves following the safety rules and regulations on the part of the workforce to avoid any accidents. Employees should not only stick to the rules but also get aware about their personal safety responsibilities. At the third stage involvement of workers in the management’s initiative of creating a safe workplace can be strongly seen. At the fourth stage employees can relate to the vision of the management, they are willing to take an extra effort in maintaining a safe environment. They also motivate there workfellows to adopt a safe behavior. At the last stage the strong safety culture is created and continuous effort is done to improve the same by regularly updating and reviewing the safety policies and procedures by the management (Keil, 2017).
The benefit of having a strong safety culture in an organization is that each and every employee feels responsible about the safety issues existing in an organization and will report it to the concerned authority; as a result necessary steps can be taken to avoid any accidents and injuries in future. There will also be less accident cases as the employees will adopt safety practices, which will further lead to low absenteeism rate resulting increase in the overall productivity of the employee. Presence of strong safety culture gives employees a psychological satisfaction about being safe and secure at the workplace. The perception and attitude of employees with respect to management will change. The turnover rate of the organization will be low and employee retention ratio will be high. Employee’s morale will also increase. A secure workplace and a concerned management will give individuals a high job satisfaction. The goodwill of the organization will increase in the society as they will not face any law suits. The financial burden will also minimize as they don’t have to spend on the healthcare facilities and insurance cover will also be less (Barling and Frone, 2004)
Employees will be able to work in a safe and secure workplace which increases their self-esteem. The stress level will also lower down; as a result they will be able to deliver their best to the organization. Several incentive based programs are conducted to motivate safety behavior in an individual so apart from learning healthy safety habits they can earn monetary and non-monetary rewards too.
Safety Policy- There is a commitment from the side of the top level management to make the organization hazard free place for the employees. Nobody can foresee the future, but the risk of accidents and injuries can be prevented by making appropriate policies and procedures. This authority lies in the hands of senior level authority; they should state clear safety objectives to be followed in their mission statement. The work doesn’t stop here; the management should get their policies audited and make changes accordingly.
Safety Risk Management- Safety professionals should be hired to identify the possible hazards that can occur at the workplace, assessing the degree of risk and then take safety measures accordingly.
Safety Assurance- Safety Assurance refers to continuously reviewing the existing policies and standards for improving safety culture and minimizing risk. This can be done with the help of auditors and he
alth inspectors. It is recommended that a third party should be hired to audit the workplace safety because they will be able to provide a better and honest verdict regarding any changes to be done in the policies (Federal aviation industry, 2016).
Safety Promotion: The management should make every employee accountable for promoting and practicing safety behavior among their coworkers. This can be done by organizing training sessions and seminars in which awareness about workplace health and safety can be generated (OH&S, 2017)
The top level management of the Sopranos Smallgoods only consists of the members of the Sopranos family. They are involved in making meat products and the work is totally factory oriented. The risk of including a professional at the senior level who has the full knowledge about the safety practices to be followed will not only ensure a safer environment but will also increase the efficiency of the management decisions. However if the family members are not interested in hiring someone from outside their management committee, they can form a body of safety professionals having the required qualification which may include health safety executives, safety engineers, coordinators and risk analysts. These professionals will help in analyzing and anticipating risks and design a protocol to be followed in case of any emergency (Newnam, et al., 2016). Also, assigning the job titles such as safety manager or safety buddy to the employees working in the organization will make them feel responsible and accountable for a promoting a safe behavior among their coworkers and also they will motivated . In case any accident still takes place, a team of experts will be there to handle the situation by providing necessary aid at the first place (Safework Australia, 2017).
The careless attitude of frontline managers and supervisors are clearly visible as they are least concerned about the safety practices being followed by the workers at the factory or not. This may lead to fatal workplace injuries; as a result the organization will have to pay heavy loss compensation. This can be prevented by designing an incentive and reward based safety programs. They can be in both monetary and non-monetary terms. While giving performance appraisal not only the productivity of the employee should be kept in mind but there safety habits should also be evaluated (Bernardin, Kane & Wiatrowski, 2013). Giving rewards such as monthly gift vouchers, acknowledging safe behavior of employee in front of their coworkers etc. The management should make sure that the benefits of these rewards and incentive should be extended to all the level of the organization in a fair and just manner irrespective of the position of the employee (Beus, McCord & Zohar, 2016) A benefit of having a reward system is that it will increase the morale of employee and give them a sense of recognition, promote safe working habits; employees will report more unsafe practices as a result accidents can be prevented, workers compensation claims will also reduce resulting in lowering down the financial burden on the organization.
The auditor appointed by the soprano’s family noticed many instances where the safety measures were not following properly. The most commonly used machine in smallgoods industry to chop meat pieces are mincers or shredder. Many a times the shredder is not guarded and they are often blocked with meat chunks, workers try to remove the chunks with their bare hands and end up losing their hands or fingers (AMIEU, 2017). In order to avoid such severe injuries it is very important to follow safety measures such as isolating and guarding the equipment and employing competent operators to operate complex machines. Safety signs should be put at all places and frightening messages should be posted near all dangerous equipment’s. It is the responsibility of employer to provide personal protective equipment’s to all the workers working in the factory such as gloves, safety glasses and shoes, earplugs, hard hats, respirators, or coveralls, vests and full body suits. The auditor also found out that the forklifts were not used properly (HSE, 2017). Tipping over of forklifts are very common, major reasons being overloading (BMPA, 2014). Proper information regarding safe handling of such equipment should be provided by professionals to the workers so that the accidents can be avoided. A first aid kit should be kept ready in case of any medical emergencies ( Worksafe queensland, 2017).
While recruiting new people in the organization the HR should not only evaluate them on the basis of their qualifications but also see how concerned and aware they are about their own as well as organization’s safety. Psychometric test is the most suitable and commonly used method in analyzing the safety behavior of individuals. It consists of set questions regarding safety practices (Psychometrics, 2015). When new workforce is being hired they should be engaged in an induction program which involves explaining the safety culture of the organization and to be accountable for safety behavior at the workplace. The management should also invest in training sessions and seminars organized by safety professionals in which the workers both new and existing will learn to work on complex machines, they will also identify possible workplace hazards and get trained to deal with such situations in case of an emergency (Australian government, 2016). Employees should also have knowledge of personal protective equipment and know how to use them correctly. The method of training may be on the job training, classroom teachings or group discussions. Training sessions at regular time intervals will not only increase the workplace safety awareness among employee but also lower down the accidents rate.(HSE, 2017)
Conclusion
Safety policies and procedures are mere a written document if they are not reviewed and monitored timely. Management should conduct regular safety audits to ensure an effective safety culture. The auditor examines the condition of the work environment and includes any changes needed in the safety policies in the audit report. This audit report is then presented to the senior level authorities and they make necessary changes to ensure a safe working culture (Friend & Kohn, 2017). Apart from auditing, inspection is also important. Inspection can be done by managers or any health safety executive. They can come uninformed at the factory just to check that whether proper safety rules are followed or not on the part of the workers. Factory equipment’s should also be inspected on monthly basis. The inspection and audit report help the safety committee to identify the loopholes in their safety policies and prevention of any workplace hazard or injury (OSHA, 2004)
By the above report it can be concluded that a strong safety culture proves the commitment of management towards safe workplace practices. A safe working environment not only minimizes the risk of injuries and accidents but also motivate employees to work productively and help the organization in achieving their goals and objective. Safety driven initiatives not only affect the current performance of the organization but they also help in maintaining the goodwill of the firm. It’s high time that Sopranos Smallgoods should keep a strict eye on their health and safety practices otherwise the company may face serious troubles such as employees leaving the organization and joining the rival firms where better safety procedures are followed. They may face law suits and heavy compensation which may affect their reputation in the society. Workplace safety should be considered as an integral part of the organization’s vision and mission statement and this vision cannot be achieved without the cooperation of every individual working in the organization.
References
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