HSE-Ordered Risk Assessment and Management Guidelines That Employers Should Follow to Prevent Accidents at Work

HSE or Health and Safety Executive have, for long, interfered with the risk management and safety maintenance standards and techniques of employers at work. The recklessly growing count of injurious accidents inside work premises has impelled them to exercise stringency into the whole safety affair to get things in control. HSE strongly recommends a thorough risk assessment of every work premise before operations involving humans commence. While risks cannot be totally eliminated as long as employees are made to work with stupendous machines and hazardous components, certain precautions are required to be taken to minimize accidents at work.

Read the following to know what all your employer needs to follow to ensure your safety.

• Determining the stakes: The person who is in control of the duty needs to detect the risk factors at the workplace and assess their varying degrees. Risks that threaten the health and safety of the workers are only to be considered for assessment. HSE instructs the duty-holders to take preventive measures against the determined risks so that the workers’ safety is not made vulnerable. Starting from inspection of the work environment to the external elements, from the machineries involved to the components the employees will be exposed to, everything has to be conscientiously assessed to learn about their risk potential.
• ALARP: HSE instructs the business organizations of the UK to keep the risk level in the workplace to as low as is reasonably practicable. Since the term ‘low’ can have multiple interpretations, the organization has made it straight by allowing only the lowest physically possible risk factors to exist in the workplaces.
• Social responsibilities: Risks looming in the commercial premises cast negative impacts on the people and the society at large. Events like death of multiple workers in industrial accidents, spread of contagious diseases, and permanent disabilities in victims cause irrevocable damages that put the society at stake. Hence, on the socio-political ground, the companies should aim to minimize individual hazards in order to eliminate societal stakes.
• Risk transfer: Risks are often transferred or bypassed from individuals to a collection of people. For example, industries often release the gaseous byproducts into the air after considerable treatments. This reduces the risk of development of respiratory problems and other heart conditions in the workers. On a flip side, it contributes to air pollution, thus, endangering the health of the entire population outside. HSE strictly prohibits transfer of risks, unless they are reduced to ALARP.
• Ethical practices: General good practices should be done to ensure the safety of the workers for all times. Introduction of labor-saving technologies, refresher training courses, supply of safety gears, manageable work pressure, standard duty hours, etc. ensure a healthy working atmosphere inside a work premise that encourages high productivity and a progressive society.

The catalogued rules are mandatory for all organizations that have a taskforce employed to execute the jobs, to follow with fail. Any kind of violation will subject the work ethics of the organization to scrutiny by HSE and can consequently jeopardize its repute in its market.