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Discussion on: Importance of Health and Safety Audit in an Organization

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Angel Paudel

Workplace health and safety is introduced to protect employees and other people who might be affected by what the company does or produces. An example of this can be employees suffering from burns in a tire manufacturing company due to extreme heat if the company doesn’t employ proper guidelines and standards for the safety of the employees (Armstrong, 2012). It can also have long term impact in the health of the individual which the company will be responsible for. Thus, this policy helps protect the employees while also ensuring that the company doesn’t have to lose out money for the same with proper precautions at place beforehand (Safety at work, 1995). Another example of it can be a pharmaceutical company producing drugs. Considering that they brought a new product/medicine in the market; people took it and the effect of which isn’t as it should be. In this case the company will be liable for the damage and have to pay huge cost while also keeping the health of people at risk. To minimize issues like those, health and safety in the workplace was introduced. It thus deals with preventing accidents and to minimize the damage to people and property while also ensuring the loss is kept lowest. It also deals with the prevention of health issues resulting from the working environment.

In an organization, be it small or large, the business formulates a new plan once in a while depending on the business climate. Like a business plan, it’s equally important to carry out health and safety audits on a regular basis. The necessity of conducting health and safety audits are as stated below:

  • It helps to identify problems. The sooner they’re discovered, the damage can be kept to minimum. For example, an employee is suffering from Level 1 cancer due to the work environment itself. So, in that case, the company can initiate the treatment process straight away. Had there been no audits, the problem may have never been known until very later on causing both financial and reputational loss.
  • Helps identify areas of improvement to fulfill legal duties while also promoting the wellbeing of the employees.
  • To ensure that the safety equipment are in working conditions and effective
  • To identify potential hazards and place safety measures for any hazards discovered
  • To ensure that all the health and safety programs activities are properly documented for further references
  • To evaluate the competence of both supervisors and employee’s safety training and performance

References

Safety at work. (1995). Safety Science , 21(1), pp.79-80.

Armstrong, M. (2012). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (12 Ed ed.). Kogan Page.