Health and Safety in Workplace

“ Safe work creates no obstacles to being competitive and successful. In fact, no country, and no company in the long run has been able to jump to a high level of productivity without making sure that the work environment is safe” (International Labour Organization, Global Employment Agenda cited in Ministry of Labour and Labour Relations, 2014, p.1). Safety & health has become a key topic in organizations worldwide.  With the outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic, the necessity for programs aiming proper health and safety has emphasized, to better manage the new post-pandemic working environment, while boosting employee psychological mindset by instilling and assuring safety at all tiers of the organization (World Health Organization, 2021) . As explained in Figure 1 below, Good Health and Well Being is one key factor of the United Nations Sustainability Goals of 2016. In 2020, United Nations highlighted the need for workplace safety &health in facing the post epidemic period t...

“Workplace health protection and promotion enhances the overall well-being of a workforce by more closely integrating health promotion and health protection activities along a continuum. Health promotion interventions contribute dynamically to improved personal safety, in addition to enhancing personal health, while occupational safety interventions contribute dynamically to improved personal health in addition to enhancing personal safety. The two factors, personal health and personal safety—each essential to a productive worker and to a productive workplace– are effectively combined in a symbiotic manner that increases their impact on overall health and productivity. Once health protection and promotion programs are intertwined and deployed strategically to enhance each other, a healthier workforce thus becomes a safer workforce and vice versa” ( Hymel et al., 2011, p.695). Leadership of the organization plays a key role in the process of implementing a health and safety program. All...

“People are the most important and valuable asset of any organization” (Casos Singulares, 2021).   The development of a healthy Human Resource Management (HRM) is vital for organizations today, to instill skills and knowledge to support the health, safety, and well-being of employees (Barlund et al, n.d). Perception of Human Resources has changed in the current organization context, which demands creativity and innovation-based competencies to achieve total quality and well–being (Meri, 2020). Further, since an organizational safety culture would be based on the values, norms, and behaviors of the employees, managing HRM is important for an organization to achieve a better safety culture. Management by Objectives (MBO) developed by Peter Drucker, based on his book, The Practice of Management of 1954, explains that each hierarchy of the organization should be integrated to fulfill the need for commitment, responsibility, and maturity (Communication Theory, 2017). Through proper HRM,...

Safety Climate and Safety Culture Safety climate is the perceived value on the level of safety existing in an organization at a particular time. The attitudes, values, norms, and behaviours of the employees of the organization are key influencers of the inconsistent nature of the safety climate. Safety culture expresses the level of engagement towards safety and the degree to which employees act personally responsible towards the safety of an organization (Queensland Government, 2021). Development in the approach to safety and health of employees  Researches have proven that the approach to the employee safety and health of organizations has evolved over a period of time from reactive approach to proactive approach (Haslam et al., 2016). Adopting a proactive approach towards the safety and health of employees has proven to have benefited the organizations economically, as such management focuses on identifying losses in order to search for new methods of safety culture improvement....

  Sound Financial and Social performance of the organization are interconnected with the organization’s health and safety performance, due to the impact from contributors such as employee satisfaction, lesser risk of accidents, and improved operational results. This is further enhanced by the level of awareness and compliance to health and safety guidelines at different aspects of an organization. (Hart, 2009).   Guidelines, Legislations and Compliance Systems The International Labor Organization (ILO), through internationally agreed principles defined by ILO tripartite constituents, has set out certain guidelines for organizations as a practical tool aimed towards achievement of continual improvement in occupational safety and health (OSH) in organizational performance (International Labour Organization, 2001). The approach, “Safety + Health for all” of the International Labour Organization (ILO), focuses on reducing the incidents of work-related deaths, injuries & diseas...