Managing A Healthy And Safe Environment Assignment Sample

Introduction - Managing A Healthy And Safe Environment Assignment Sample

Health and safety refers to the set of rules and regulation for protecting individual from injury and illness at their workplace. My is Trevor and currently I am working for Harvest Healthcare as a field service manager. Harvest healthcare was established in the year of 1997 at Rotherham, south Yorkshire and employs more than 200 employees (Description of harvest healthcare Ltd, 2024). The organization provides healthcare equipment to NHS; community markets and care home across UK and other part of the world. My duty is to oversee the working of 30 plus engineers of the servicing departments. I am involved towards evaluating their efficiency, customer relation, quality control, team management and overall efficiency.

Learning Outcome / Section 1: 1 Understand the importance of working in a healthy and safe environment

AC 1.1 Review current UK legislation and law on health and safety.

The HSH or HSWA 1974 also refers to the Health and safety at work Act 1974 is the framework used for managing health and safety at the workplace within UK (UK’s Health and safety regulation, 2023). The current act defines the general duties for both employees and employers which help in managing overall safety at the workplace. The Act was further amended in the year of 2015 which includes six key points that should be followed at workplace:

Providing safe workplace: This indicates that premises should adhere with general health standard that includes providing fire safety, handling harmful substances, waste management and cleanliness.

Offering safe equipment: Employers should involve regularly initiating safety evaluation of equipment which supports in determining any risk associated with the equipment and helps in taking the effective measures for mitigating all such risk and uncertainties.

Provide proper training: For managing adequate workplace safety, regular training should be provided to employees that help in reducing the scope of error. Both onsite and offsite training should be offered which helps in promoting fire safety and manual handling of the technology.

Risk assessment: It is the most crucial part of HSWA act which indicate that regular risk assessment should be initiated which helps in timely implementing preventative actions in the organization.

Providing adequate facility: The health and safety legislation stated that basic necessities such as heating, air condition, clean drinking water and sanitation facilities should be provided for avoiding any health issues at the workplace.

Appointing competent employees: Last crucial requirement under HSWA act is to hire skilled and competent employees which could oversee health and safety at the workplace This includes routine safety inspection, managing daily practices and initiating changes to align with safety legislation.

Regulation of 1999: This legislation stated that organization should concentrate over determining elements which could cause illness and injury to employees (Work regulation 1999. 2024). Further, it includes identifying who will be harmed and that too at what extent.

Online safety Bill: This legislation provides a list of over 130 ‘priority offences’ that tech firm needs to follow and take necessary actions to avoid occurrence of such risk (Online safety bill, 2023).

AC 1.2 Evaluate the benefits of having a health and safety policy in the workplace

In the current times, each organization is aiming at formulating various health and safety policy to provide an adequate working environment to employees. There are large number of benefits and advantage of having health and safety policy at the workplace which as follows:

Fewer accidents: By formulating adequate health and safety legislation, organizations are able to reduce the risk of accidents which support in promoting healthy workplace environment (Hu et al, 2021). This legislation includes in-depth information regarding various strategies to mitigate risk which eventually help in reducing scope of accidents.

Increased productivity: It has been depicted that business entity is adhering with health and safety standards are more likely to improve productivity of the employees. Workers generally feel healthy, happier and motivated at safer workplace which ultimately leads to completion of task in less time and cost resulting in enhancing overall productivity.

Enhance firm’s reputation: A safe and health workplace is capable in attracting new investors, employees and customer which helps in creating competitive edge in industry (Saks, 2022). In the current times, investors generally take decision after critically evaluating employee’s condition and work place environment. Effective health and safety legislation denotes organization’s concern over their employees which result in high growth opportunities.

Manage employee’s turnover: Establishment of effective health and safety guidelines support in reducing the risk of physical and mental illness among employees which reduces level of absenteeism in the organization. Further, with effective care over worker’s health an organization is able to develop sense of belongingness which eventually results in managing overall turnover rate of the business entity.

Improve Legal and regulatory standing: Aligning with health and safety legislation such as COSHH regulation and Safety at workplace Act 1974 helps organization in avoiding any type of legal penalties which help in reducing risk of costly legal disputes (COSHH regulation, 2024).

However, ineffective Health and safety regulation will result in increasing health and injury risk which will impact on overall productivity level of workers. This will also result in negatively impacting on overall reputation and goodwill of the organization and also increases employees’ turnover rate. For overcoming the situation, firm should involved in critically evaluating all the potential risk at workplace based on which most effective health and safety policies are introduced.

AC 1.3 critically review own organisation’s health and safety policies and procedures

Harvest Healthcare has established various policies and procedures with the aim of protecting employees at the workplace. Following is the critical evaluation of all the legislation which has been followed by Harvest Healthcare:

• Organization is effectively aligning its action with Health and Safety Act 1974 which help in creating safe working culture for the employees. However, managers are incapable in adjusting firm’s policies based on changing regulation which create issue in effectively aligning with HSWA 1974.
• Harvest healthcare is involved toward regularly initiating auditing and routine servicing of all the equipment which helps in reducing the scope of accidents. This auditing has been initiated as to compile with Bed rail regulation, CQC legislation, PUWER and LOLER regulation (Fleming et al, 2020). This regular audit supports in reducing scope of error and malfunctioning of technology which aids in reducing scope of accidents. On the other hand, firm has initiated review on annual basis rather than month which increase risk of technical error for the business entity.
• The company is focused over maintaining mental peace of employees by offering them with flexible working opportunity which helps in reducing stress and anxiety within them. This also aids in managing employees’ social life which eventually result in overall well being of employees.
• Further, necessary sanitation, clean drinking water and adequate environment have been provided by Harvest Healthcare for maintaining physical well being of workers.
• Manager in Harvest Healthcare is involved toward arranging training sessions for employees that support in aligning with occupational safety and health (Imathiu, 2020).

However, organization is not emphasis over appointing a highly professional manager which could successfully implement policies. Due to lack of effective policy, organization is not capable in providing safer working environment for employees.

Learning Outcome / Section 2: Be able to manage a healthy and safe environment

AC 2.1 Risk assessment in Field service manager

Risk assessment refers to the process of determining potential risk and hazard which is impacting on overall well being of the employees. Below mentioned are various health and safety risk that are faced as the field service manager:

Scope of accident: Any technical default or short-circuit could result in increasing scope of accident which creates huge impact on overall physical health of the individual (Johnson, 2020). File Services manager, one needs to work with large number of computers and other technology that increase the risk of accidents. Due to the faulty power supply to motherboard, computer and laptops could result in ignition which leads to negatively impact on physical health.

Increases stress: As field managers required to manage a team of more than 30 engineers which result in huge amount of mental stress and anxiety (Senna et al, 2021). High stress level leads to increasing mental pressures which eventually lead to negatively impacting on overall well being.

High risk of Musculoskeletal: In the role of service manager, there is limited amount of physical movement which increases the risk of back pain and arthritis among manager. This situation in long term results in causing permanent disability which hampers overall physical well being.

Increase Ergonomic risk: Workers of Harvest Healthcare are spread all around the UK which requires manager to continuously visit one branch to another that increases mental pressure. Further, manager needs to ensure effective alignment with all the policies as non compliance results in facing legal obligations which hampers mental peace of manager (Sunarti 2021). Along with this, manager is required to reduce conflict in the organization and inefficiency in effectively managing team members creates issue in attaining goals and objective.

High radiation and noise: Harvest Healthcare is involved towards manufacturing healthcare equipment which includes facing high issue of radiations and noise at the workplace. The radio frequency, microwaves, infra red and ultra violet rays are produced in the manufacturing process which influences overall physical and mental health of the individual.

AC 2.2 Risk assessment report with suggestion for better health and safety

In the above session all the potential physical and mental risk faced by field service manager has been identified. Further, field service manager at Harvest Healthcare is facing numerous mental and physical issues which create negative impact on the overall well-being. Organization is not effectively aligning with “The regulatory Reform order 2005” which is increasing risk of fire accidents at workplace (The regulatory Reform order 2005, 2023). In this context, below mentioned are various recommendations by which all the potential risk could be mitigate:

Initiating regular risk assessment: For overcoming the risk related to technology malfunctioning, regular risk assessment should be initiated in the organization (Ng et al, 2020). This will help in determining the potential error in technology and supports in taking proactive actions on timely basis as to avoid any accidents in the future.

Using Time contractor management: It has been identified that manager is facing ergonomic risk due to continuously travelling from one place to another, To reduce such hazards, a robust real time contractor management software schedule should be initiated which helps in easily identifying the field condition from any place (Romanello et al, 2022). This reduces mental pressure on employees and support in effectively managing safety at workplace.

Regular movement: For avoiding musculoskeletal risk at workplace, employees should be provided with effective sitting chairs and infrastructure. Along with this, 10 minute exercise session will be established which help in effective muscle movement and avoid risk of stiffness at workplace.

Equipment risk; it has identified that in the technical department, employees faced huge amount of risk related to equipment failure which impact on overall health well being.

Avoiding conflict: Another crucial method of reducing stress at workplace includes creating a conflict free environment which helps in efficiently attaining all the goals and objective.

Align with legislations: Harvest Healthcare should align all their activities with Health and safety law which helps in creating an effective working environment for all managers (Ali and Kannan, 2022). Along with this, Harvest Healthcare should align with FSO 2005 which will support in mitigating risk of accident and support in creating safer workplace environment. Moreover, regular safety assessment should be initiated at workplace which help in identifying potential issues and support in avoiding all such issues.

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AC 2.3 Implementation strategy of the health and safety policies

After identifying all the suitable policies, it is pivotal to form an implementation plan through which all the strategies could be effectively included in the Harvest Healthcare. The first step of implementation plan includes clearly defining all the strategy which will be initiated for achieving the goal. Below is a SMART goal which needs to be achieved for better health and safety at workplace:

After setting up the desired strategy, a plan will be drafted which guide manager regarding the activities which needs to be initiated. This plan will guide employees regarding their expected behaviour through which goals could be achieved. Third step of plan includes setting up KPIS for measuring overall efficiency of the plan. In the current case, number of accidents and employees absenteeism will be considered as performance indicator (Boadu, Wang and Sunindijo, 2020). The fourth step includes implementing the above mentioned strategy for improving overall health condition at the workplace. The last step includes comparing the actual outcome with set KPIs as to determine any deviation so that necessary changes could be initiated.

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

• Ali, I. and Kannan, D., 2022. Mapping research on healthcare operations and supply chain management: a topic modelling-based literature review.Annals of Operations Research,315(1), pp.29-55.
• Boadu, E.F., Wang, C.C. and Sunindijo, R.Y., 2020. Characteristics of the construction industry in developing countries and its implications for health and safety: An exploratory study in Ghana.International journal of environmental research and public health,17(11), p.4110.
• Buomprisco, G., Ricci, S., Perri, R. and De Sio, S., 2021. Health and telework: New challenges after COVID-19 pandemic.European Journal of Environment and Public Health,5(2), p.em0073.
• Hu, X., Yan, H., Casey, T. and Wu, C.H., 2021. Creating a safe haven during the crisis: How organizations can achieve deep compliance with COVID-19 safety measures in the hospitality industry.International Journal of Hospitality Management,92, p.102662.
• Ng, K., Poon, B.H., Kiat Puar, T.H., Shan Quah, J.L., Loh, W.J., Wong, Y.J., Tan, T.Y. and Raghuram, J., 2020. COVID-19 and the risk to health care workers: a case report.Annals of internal medicine,172(11), pp.766-767.
• Romanello, M., Di Napoli, C., Drummond, P., Green, C., Kennard, H., Lampard, P., Scamman, D., Arnell, N., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Ford, L.B. and Belesova, K., 2022. The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: health at the mercy of fossil fuels.The Lancet,400(10363), pp.1619-1654.
• Saks, A.M., 2022. Caring human resources management and employee engagement.Human resource management review,32(3), p.100835.
• Senna, P., Reis, A., Santos, I.L., Dias, A.C. and Coelho, O., 2021. A systematic literature review on supply chain risk management: is healthcare management a forsaken research field?.Benchmarking: an international journal,28(3), pp.926-956.
• Sunarti, S., Rahman, F.F., Naufal, M., Risky, M., Febriyanto, K. and Masnina, R., 2021. Artificial intelligence in healthcare: opportunities and risk for future.Gaceta sanitaria,35, pp.S67-S70.
• Vlaicu, P.A., Untea, A.E., Varzaru, I., Saracila, M. and Oancea, A.G., 2023. Designing nutrition for health—Incorporating dietary by-products into poultry feeds to create functional foods with insights into health benefits, risks, bioactive compounds, food component functionality and safety regulations.Foods,12(21), p.4001.