Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

Exceptional violations
rarely happen and usually 
occur when a safety rule is broken to perform a new 
task. A good example are the violations which can occur 
during the operations of emergency procedures such as 
fi res or explosions. These violations should be addressed 
in risk assessments and during training sessions for 
emergencies (e.g. fi re training).
Everybody is capable of making errors. It is one of 
the objectives of a positive health and safety culture 
to reduce them and their consequences as much as 
possible.
4.6 
The development of a positive 
health and safety culture
No single section or department of an organization can 
develop a positive health and safety culture on its own. 
There needs to be commitment by the management, the 
promotion of health and safety standards, effective com-
munication within the organization, cooperation from 
and with the workforce and an effective and developing 
training programme. Each of these topics will be exam-
ined in turn to show their effect on improving the health 
and safety culture in the organization.
4.6.1 Commitment of management
As mentioned earlier, there needs to be a commitment 
from the very top of the organization and this commit-
ment will, in turn, produce higher levels of motivation 
and commitment throughout the organization. Probably 
the best indication of this concern for health and safety 
is shown by the status given to health and safety and 
the amount of resources (money, time and people) allo-
cated to health and safety. The management of health 
and safety should form an essential part of a manager’s 
responsibility and they should be held to account for 
their performance on health and safety issues. Specialist 
expertise should be made available when required (e.g. 
for noise assessment), either from within the workforce 
or by the employment of external contractors or con-
sultants. Health and safety should be discussed on 
a regular basis at management meetings at all levels of 
the organization. If the organization employs suffi cient 
people to make direct consultation with all employees 
diffi cult, there should be a health and safety committee 
at which there is employee representation. In addition, 
there should be recognized routes for anybody within 
the organization to receive health and safety information 
or have their health and safety concerns addressed.
The health and safety culture is enhanced consider-
ably when senior managers appear regularly at all levels of 
an organization whether it be the shop fl oor, the hospital 
ward or the general offi ce and are willing to discuss health 
and safety issues with staff. A visible management is very 
important for a positive health and safety culture.
Finally, the positive results of a management commit-
ment to health and safety will be the active involvement 
of all employees in health and safety, the continuing 
improvement in health and safety standards and the 
subsequent reduction in accident and occupational ill-
health rates. This will lead, ultimately, to a reduction in 
the number and size of compensation claims.
HSG48 makes some interesting suggestions to 
managers on the improvements that may be made to 
health and safety which will be seen by the workforce 
as a clear indication of their commitment. The sugges-
tions are:
➤
review the status of the health and safety committees 
and health and safety practitioners. Ensure that any 
recommendations are acted upon or implemented
➤
ensure that senior managers receive regular reports 
on health and safety performance and act on them
➤
ensure that any appropriate health and safety actions 
are taken quickly and are seen to have been taken
➤
any action plans should be developed in consult-
ation with employees, based on a shared perception 
of hazards and risks, be workable and continuously 
reviewed.