A safe and healthy working environment is good for business because it ensures the wellbeing of staff — which is essential to business performance and success. Expenditure on employees accounts for a huge quantum of overhead costs for most businesses. Therefore, creating and maintaining a safe and healthy work environment for the security of you and your employees is not only important for your business, it also makes certain that the necessary health and safety legislation and regulations are complied with.
Health and safety should not be done merely to satisfy legislative requirements. It should be embedded in an organisation’s culture. Companies that value and management health and safety at the best standards, actually benefit from it.
You may be wondering, ‘Is health and safety is really that important?’ Yes, it is! According to the latest statistics (key annual figures for 2012/13) published by the industry regulator, Health and Safety Executive (HSE):
• 148 workers were killed at work
• 78 000 other injuries to employees were reported
• 175 000 over-7-day absence injuries occurred
• 1.1 million working people were suffering from a work-related illness
• 27 million working days were lost as a result of work-related illness and workplace injury
• Workplace injuries and ill health cost society an estimated £13.8 billion
There is the tendency to shrug the above statistics off as a remote concern. But wait a minute! Health and safety non-compliance/inadequate compliance invites prosecution and other enforcement. According to the Health and Safety Executive statistics for 2012/13:
• 574 cases were prosecuted by HSE in England and Wales.
• 105 cases were prosecuted by local authorities in England and Wales.
• 27 cases were prosecuted by the Procurator Fiscal in Scotland.
• 13 503 enforcement notices were issued by all enforcing authorities.
Why don’t you avoid the health and safety (workplace accidents and ill-health) risk as well as the very probable risk of enforcement action?
Most cases of workplace accident and ill-health are as a result of employers ignoring their health and safety responsibilities. You can become compliant and avoid the unwelcome and unpleasant eventualities by undertaking best industry-standard assessment of your workplace as well as awareness training for you and your employees.
WaruSM ’s health and safety awareness training is designed to give you the information, insight and knowledge you and your employees need in order for your workplace to be compliant.
The objective of our health and safety awareness training is to:
• equip you with the necessary health and safety regulatory knowledge
• identify health and safety responsibilities applicable to both you as an employer and your employees
• discuss reasons why health and safety is essential in the work place
• understand what hazardous materials are and how to identify them
• know how to ensure fire safety and safety of life from fire
• demonstrate how to handle weights and loads in a safe way
Other specific training sessions are available such as manual handling and DSE training and son.
