Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Introduction to Fire Safety Management
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well indicate a positive culture in that staff are motivated 
to report minor incidents because they believe manage-
ment will take some action to improve safety. Conversely 
minor accidents may be reported in order to fl ood man-
agement with paperwork or frustrate, or express disap-
proval of, the introduction of new equipment or work 
practices.
As with all other indicators, caution must be used to 
draw too fi rm a conclusion from this important but single 
indicator.
Managers will normally take comfort if in general the 
accident/incident rates are in ratios that would normally 
be expected, there are few serious injuries and the 
rate of injuries maintains a downward trend – as would 
reports from employees highlighting fi re safety issues, 
making a positive contribution to the management of fi re 
risk in the workplace.
4.3.2 Sickness and absenteeism rates
Sickness and absenteeism rates are often used in an 
attempt to draw conclusions about workplace culture for 
two reasons. First, they are easy to quantify and second, 
there appears to be a logical co-relationship between an 
absence from and a lack of desire to work.
In addition to the numbers of days lost through 
sickness and absenteeism, it is equally pertinent to 
examine the nature of the sickness or absence in terms 
of the duration of absences, the timing of absences 
through the calendar or work cycle and the reasons 
given for absence.
Absenteeism rates can also be affected by contract-
ual conditions of work, for example it is a recognised 
phenomenon that public service workers have signifi -
cantly higher absenteeism rates than their private sector 
counterparts.
Nevertheless sickness and absenteeism rates are 
seen as a reliable indictor of the levels of motivation 
and commitment to work. Job roles that provide little 
satisfaction for the employee will often experience high 
levels of sickness.