Management for health and safety key reading

It is a pity that health and safety is often met by derision in corporate business as a spectre of doom and over indulgence in factors that managers feel are out of their control. But the fact is statistics quite clearly show that if it wasn't for occupational Safety training, regulations and standards, there would be a lot of organisations going out of business through injuries and accidents at work.

We cannot escape form the fact that over 200 people are killed each year in accidents at work and over one million people are injured. It is also a statistical fact that over two million will suffer illness (mental or physical) caused by, or intensified by their work.

We all want to feel as safe as possible in our workplace environment and that our management is taking all the necessary steps to ensure all activities take place to make it as reasonably safe as is possible. The business manager has a responsibility to:

• ensure employees are not injured or made ill by the work they do; 
• develop a positive health and safety culture, where safe and healthy working becomes second nature to everyone; 
• Continue to determine how you can manage safety in the work environment better; 
• meet your legal duty to protect the occupational health of your employees. 

Health and safety training is a factor which should not be taken lightly. Much basic training can be done in-house but there is a plethora of excellent training courses which can help avoid the distress of accidents and ill health, make your employees competent specialists, and reduce the financial costs that would occur through dangerous environments.

Everyone needs training. There needs to be thriving culture so employees can understand the organisations occupational health policy, where they fit in, and how you it should be managed for everyone's benefit. They may also need training in the specific hazards of your processes and how you expect the risks to be controlled.

NEBOSH offers a variety of Health and Safety training courses for varied working environments and levels of expertise. For those interested in following a career in in this lucrative area of work there is the NEBOSH National diploma which also opens the gateway to post graduate study.

Most health and safety training courses cover all industries, but there is sometimes a need for more specific courses that take into account the specialist needs of certain industries. The Site Management Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS), is a qualification for executives in the construction business. This is a course which traditionally is taken over a period of a week and will provide the supervisor with a license of 5 years. It needs to be re-taken after this time to refresh knowledge and ensure the candidate is aware of any changes in technology, accepted theory or policy.