Setting up a Business
So, you’re in the process of setting up a new company and you don’t know where to begin when it comes to health and safety?
An easy way to think about a robust health and safety system is to break it down into five main parts:
Policies and procedures provide a structure for your company when it comes to handling health and safety. They are the foundation of your system.
Essential elements are:
- A policy statement – your overarching policy
- A code of conduct
- Operational policies
- An emergency management plan
Business owners and leaders are required under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to manage any risks to workers and any other person that may be affected by their work. This means that hazards must be identified, assessed, controlled and monitored. There are several tools that you can use for this process, including;
- Hazard/incident register
- Risk assessment matrix
- Hazardous products and substances register
- Workplace inspections
- Plant and equipment register
- Monitoring activities
- Hazard boards and danger signs
Ensuring your workers and contractors are safe at work is your main priority as a business owner. The following are essential elements of your health and safety system when it comes to keeping your people safe.
- Code of conduct – provides clearly set “house rules” for your workers and contractors on how you expect people to behave while at work.
- Worker involvement in their health and safety – allowing people to be part of the process will encourage engagement and ownership of health and safety in your business.
- Induction, training and competency supervision – workers need to be inducted into a new workplace, this provides information and outlines your expectations of them immediately. Similarly, workers need to be trained and assessed if competent at the tasks they are expected to do in their jobs. If workers are not competent they need to be supervised.
Tools you can use to ensure that you are managing the health and safety of your people are:
- Visitor/site induction register
- Training and competency register
- Training pathway
- Personal protective equipment and clothing register
It’s important to keep on top of your system once it is in place. Your system is the way of keeping records that allows you to remain compliant but also allows you to see if you are achieving anything. This means regularly reviewing and keeping your system up-to-date is important.
Site Safe recommends:
- Regular review of daily or weekly operational records, such as;
- hazard identification
- incident reports
- inspection results
- induction register
- pre-starts
- Yearly review of your strategic data and targets – this data is used to set targets and goals for the coming year.
It’s up to leaders to drive the health and safety culture in any organisation, which encourages workers to engage in the culture and keep your workplace safe. Lead by example to create an environment where health and safety is a transparent and approachable part of your company.
Leaders can run toolbox talks, complete audits or attend a health and safety meeting. Leaders should continually monitor health and safety in the organisation, and address health and safety issues quickly and transparently.