Occupational health and safety is one of the workplaces’ major entities as mandated by various regulations and jurisdictions. According to the common stipulations which define occupational health and safety regulations, workplaces need to provide a safe working environment as a mechanism of reducing workplace-related injuries. When it comes to the enforcement of occupational health and safety regulations, companies are normally at liberty to evaluate their specific work environment and come up with a set of regulatory measures targeting reduction of worksite incidences. There is, however, a basic standard methodology that organizations and workplaces can utilize to come up with an effective workplace safety management system.
Evaluating the Workplace for Common Prevalent Risks
The first measure when seeking to come up with a safe and comprehensive occupational health and safety framework is to evaluate the specific workplace with a view to coming up with common avenues where workers can be exposed to a risk of injury. Different workplaces normally have different levels of and types of exposure to varying risks that can pose an injury upon workers. The idea of comprehensively evaluating a given workplace is to ensure that the particular specific risks are pointed out and understood by the management as well as the workforce. An office, for instance, would be prevalent to injuries related to repetitive strains emanating from common activities such as sitting and typing for long. This is as compared to a warehouse working environment whereby the major risk that a worker would face would include physical injuries emanating from working at great heights or being hit by falling objects.
Regular Workforce Training Sessions
The second measure that one should take in the bid to enforce a customized occupational health and safety framework is to ensure that all workers within the particular working environment understand the risks they face from time to time. They should also be made aware of how best to prevent themselves from getting injured while at work. In most cases, educating workers is normally the fundamentally emphasized idea as it gives workers an opportunity to understand measures they need to take to achieve self-protection. In the training workshops, for instance, the workers need to understand the various Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) they need to wear. They also need to be trained on first aid measures and what to do in the event of injuries to de-escalate safety incidences.
Safety audits and Compliance Inspections
The last but critical measure that workplaces need to enforce is undertaking regular safety audits and inspections to determine whether particular working environments are compliant with the safety regulations. The audits also help determine whether workers adhere to all the safety regulations outlined in the safety training workshops. A standard audit should make use of safety checklists, which help the safety auditors to comprehensively comb through a particular workplace and pinpoint even the slightest of occupational safety standard lapse. The outcome of the audit should be used as a benchmark against which changes can be made to ensure enhanced workplace safety.