To create a healthy and creative workplace environment, it
is essential to promote work health and safety (WHS) in an organisation. It is
the duty of employer or business owner to identify the risks and proactively
apply the solutions for mitigation. Further, WHS includes physical as well as
psychological aspects.
Physical hazards are simple but psycho-social hazards are complex
that includes management of work, social and environmental context. For this
area, business owner must have to collaborate with all stakeholders to reduce
the cost associated with psycho-social issues. Risk assessment is the most
critical area because without knowing the risks and its complication it is hard
to eliminate that risk or hazard.
For risk assessment and identification employer must consult
with professional risk assessors due to the complex nature of this task. Furthermore,
training programs and assessment tools can be used on regular basis for
awareness.
A proper action plan needs to be implemented if some
incident happens at workplace. Action must be carried out depending on the
level of the risk and concrete steps for mitigation. Instructions and guidance
must be provided based on the nature of the workplace. For example, on
construction sites, management must have to debrief all the employees at the
start of their work about the risks associated with their tasks. Pictorial representation,
sign boards and videos with examples are the best way to inform the workers as they
belong to different demographics.
Therefore, having well established assessment criteria,
mitigation techniques and awareness programs will help creating more productive,
healthy and workplace environment.
