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Health and Safety First

Presented to
Professor Barton, Instructor

MGMT 2215, Team Project

By
Amber Cassel

2/1/15

Early one morning, all the construction team arrived at work and received their
assignment for the day. There were several workers on a high roof and one decided that he was
going to remove his safety gear and he slipped and fell from a 10 foot roof. He was injured and
rushed to the nearest hospital. Thankfully, the worker will survive, but his company may not due
to violation of OSHA health and safety policies. Every company, no matter what the profession
is must have health and safety policies. From construction sites, restaurants, hospitals, even the
small local market has to abide by the safety rules. A health and safety program is a confirmed
plan of action that was designed to prevent accidents and occupational diseases in the workforce.
There is some form of a health and safety program required under occupational health in all
jurisdictions. A health and safety program must include all the elements required by the
legislation as a minimum. Since every organization runs different and there are different
professions, a program is developed for each organization to meet the needs of that profession. It
was designed to help big or small organizations develop programs to deal with their specific
issues or needs. It is vital that all employees are involved and are aware of the health and safety
programs at their current job. Most organizations offer a training before the employee starts the
job. The more comprehensive the program is, such as working in a biohazard work area, the
more involvement will be required from the employees.
Most organizations have a statement that lists the principles and rules that serve as a guide for
action if there was a health or safety violation that occurred at the workplace. Management is
responsible for ensuring that the policy is carried out to all employees and the health and safety
policy should have the same importance as any other polices in that organization, if not more.
The organizations health and safety policy should be fairly brief, but should explain the
managements commitment to protect the health and safety of the employees, which means that
if a worker spills and falls, then the management should take full control of ensuring that the
employee is well treated. The policy statement will include the objectives of the health and safety
program, the organizations philosophy regarding health and safety, meaning that the company
has a mission to provide safe and adequate working conditions to all staff. Most policies will list
who is accountable for occupational health and safety programs, such as there may be a
committee that each employee would report to in case of injury or accident. For instance, I work
at a hospital and there was a patient who came in off the street with a gunshot wound, bleeding
everywhere. The employees job would be to immediately call occupational health and safety
compliance office to follow the steps necessary to remove the blood and then whichever
employee that made contact with that individual would be responsible to go to employee health
to have proper screening tests done. This process is general responsibilities that any employee
would deal with in the mix of a health and safety issues and in the policy, it would clearly state
this. Lastly, the policy would list all unacceptable performances by employees or management
that would not be tolerated by the occupational safety board. For each organization, the policy
should be stated clear, signed by the Chief Executive Officer and it must be kept up to date
consistently. It should be relayed to all employees and adhere to all work activities.
There are essential elements for an effective workplace that improves the workers health and
wellbeing. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has developed a resource
document for companies to follow in reference to safety and health. It is intended for employers
and employees to partnership together to establish an effective workplace that will improve and
sustain worker health. There are twenty components of a comprehensive work-based health
promotion and protection program that guides principles and direction for organizations that seek

to develop effective programs in the workplace. It is designed to identify and support approaches
to reduce hazards in the workplace and promote worker health and well-being. This philosophy
was built off of scientific research and experience in each field. The policy takes into account the
physical and organizational environment that employees work in and addresses the personal
health risks for individuals to prevent disease or injury. National Occupational health and safety
divide the categories into four areas: Organizational culture and leadership would be the first and
foremost as it starts off by developing a human centered culture with effective programs that
thrive in organizations that have policies and procedures to promote respect and encourage active
worker participation, input, and involvement in the organization. It is designed to build a human
centered culture on trust and not fear. Next, would be to demonstrate leadership because
commitment to worker health and safety through leadership is critical to the connection of
workforce health and safety products, services, and values of the company. It should be
acknowledged by leaders and communicated throughout the company. Corporations recognize
the value of workforce health and wellbeing by incorporating it into the business plan with the
organization and making it a key operating principle which holds the leaders accountable for all
actions. It is important to engage mid-level management in promoting health and safety
programs. These types of managers are the direct links to the workers and separate the upper
management and will determine if the program will succeed or fail. Mid-level supervisors are the
key to motivating and communicating with employees. Another component of the essential
elements of occupational health and safety is program design. In program design, a company
establishes clear principles to focus on priorities, guide program design, and direct resource
allocation in the occupational safety programs. Prevention of disease and injury supports worker
health and well-being. In program design involves integrating relevant systems. Program design
involves an initial inventory and evaluation of existing programs and policies that are relevant to
health and well-being with a determination of their potential connections. Integrated systems
perform more effectively and reflect view of behavioral and mental health, along with physical to
equal the total health of each employee. No single organizations offer programs that fully address
the three dimensions of health. Integrate separately managed programs into a comprehensive
health focused organizations to coordinate with an overall safety and health management system.
Integration in a company is to have diverse data systems can be particularly important and
challenging. Eliminating recognized occupational hazards involve changing the work
environment like reduction in toxic exposures or improving the work station design and
flexibility that will benefit all workers. Eliminating recognized hazards in the workplace is the
foundation of an organization.
Being consistent in the workforce involves the workers willingness to engage in the worksite
health directed programs depending on the perceptions of the healthy supportive work
environment. Individual interventions can be linked to specific work experience that changes the
physical and organizational work environment to align with health goals. An example is that blue
collar workers that smoke are more likely to quit and in the future obtain jobs that are at a
worksite that would be non-smoking with a tobacco cessation program. The workplace dusts,
fumes, and vapors are in controlled and there are workplace smoking policies. Companies should
also promote employee participation because ensures that employees are not just recipients of
different types of services that engage to identify health and safety issues that contribute to
program design and implementation. Since there are always barriers that overcome through the
involving employees in coming up with solutions. Development, participation, and
implementation, and evaluation of health and safety programs is the most effective strategy for

changing culture, behavior, and any other system. Tailoring health and safety programs to the
specific workplace and diverse the workers needs. It is important that workplace environments
vary depending on the work that is needed, such as size, sector, product, design, location, health
and safety experience, and resources. Worker characteristics are concerned with age, training,
physical and mental abilities, resiliency, education, cultural background, and health practices.
Programs that become successful recognize diversity and are designed to meet the needs of the
individual, along with the enterprise. The programs are responsive to the diverse workforce and
follows the motto of one size does not fil all and flexibility is necessary. Any company that offers
incentives and rewards becomes one of the favorite companies, especially when there are
individual programs that offer financial rewards, time off, and recognition that encourages
engagement. Poorly designed incentives may create a sense of winner and loser brackets even
though that is not the intent, but it can cause unintended adverse consequences. Vendor contracts
should also have rewards and incentives aligned with the program accomplishments.
Finding the right tools to measure risk from the work environment and baseline health in order to
track progress, like using a health risk appraisal instrument that assesses both individual and
work environment health risk factors that can help establish baseline workforce health
information, direct environmental and individual interventions, and measure progress over time.
A programs effectiveness is achieved through the use of validated, relevant measurement
instruments to present optimal assessment. Successful programs reflect an understanding that
interrelationships between health and work are difficult. There are needs to adjust the program as
needed. New workplace programs and policies have to sometimes modify complex systems and
uncertainty is inevitable and consequences of change may not be noticed. Interventions are part
of a system that is likely to have predictable and unpredictable effects on a complex system.
Programs must be evaluated to detect unanticipated effects and adjusted analysis. How can the
company ensure that the program will last? By designing programs with a long term outlook to
assure sustainability and short term approaches that run with a value of in short term as well.
Programs aligned with the core product and values of the enterprise run. In every business, there
should be flexibility to assure that everyone from the top to the bottom is responsive to changing
the workforce and market conditions. Most people when going to the doctor or dentist have to
sign a HIPPA form and what this means is that the company is ensuring that they will not
communicate to employees is clear on all health and safety issues. If workers believe that their
information is not kept confidential, then the company is less likely to succeed. For instance, a
famous person comes into the hospital and if an employee looks up that persons medical record
without consent, then that employee is in violation of HIPPA laws and will be terminated. It is a
very serious offense.
Lastly, program implementation and resources are one of the essential elements of the
occupational health and safety program for companies. Companies must be willing to start small
and scale up with the overall program design, starting with the modest targets are the best
beneficial. For example, target reduction in injury rates or absence. Phased implementation is not
recommended and it is best to use pilot efforts before scaling up, be willing to abandon pilot
projects that fail. A company must provide adequate resources to identify and engage in training
and motivating staff appropriately. If the company uses vendors, they must be qualified and take
advantage of credible local and national resources from government and voluntary agencies.
Sufficient resources like staff, space, and time are used to achieve the results that most seek.
Direct and focus resources reflect the principles strategically, reflecting the principles embodied

in the program design and implementation. Communicating strategically is very important in

ensuring that the health and safety programs run effectively at each organization. Effective
communication is essential for success. Workers, families, managers with a stake in worker
health should know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how they are doing it. The
messages and the meaning of the messages should be delivered to target and tailored to a group
and individual that consistently reflects the values and direction of the programs. It is important
that managers communicate early and often to their employees, but also must maintain a long
term communication strategy, provide periodic updates to the organizational leadership and work
force. The company leaders must maintain program visibility at the highest level of the
organization through data-driven information that allows for linkage to program resources.
Communication is key in dealing with health and safety in the workplace because if an instance
occurs, it could take more than one employee to handle the situation, so it is imperative that all
employees and managers know how to communicate effectively to ensure that the issue is
resolved. Building accountability into a company implementation reflects leadership
commitment and it improves the outcomes of the highest levels of leadership and rewards
success.
The evaluation of the program is to measure and analyze the objectives of a selective system of
relevant measurements, recognizing that the total value of a program and simplify the evaluation
system and enable both tracking of results and continual program improvement. Adjusting and
modifying programs based on established milestones have measured and analyzed. The safety
and health of employees should come first. Management should be committed to doing
everything possible to prevent injuries and maintain a healthy environment. Managers are
responsible for ensuring that the employees are trained to work in approved procedures and to
obtain optimal output without injuries and accidents and to ensure that all employees follow
work environments that are safe work methods. All employees are required to support the OSHA
program and make safety a part of their daily routine to ensure that they are following safe work
methods and relevant regulations. All employees will be held accountable for implementing a
health and safety program. All relevant laws and regulations are incorporated into a health safety
program with many standards. Organizations will have different needs and a different scope for
specific elements that are required in each safety and health program included individual
responsibility, joint occupational health and safety committee, health and safety rules, correct
work procedures, employee orientation, training, workplace inspections, reporting and
investigating accidents, emergency procedures, medical and first aid, health and safety
promotion, and workplace specific items. The joint responsibility of management and workers is
being accountable for non-compliance to health and safety legislation. Safety and health
activities are based on specific individual responsibilities of which can be found in legislation.
These duties are mostly not know and the situation can be improved by including details of
specific individual responsibilities in the safety program. Responsibility in the workforce can be
defined as an individuals obligation to carry out assigned duties to all employees and authority
makes the decisions to power and direct others. Responsibility and authority can be delegated to
all employees and gives them the right to act as superiors. It is important that some
responsibilities be delegated and the managers remain accountable for seeing that all duties are
carried out appropriately.
Individual responsibilities apply to all employees, even including the chief executive officer. In
every workplace, there is safety officer that normally is appointed by the company and their job

is to ensure that the place is following OSHA or jcaho regulations. For instance, in the medical
field, it is imperative that all employees check for expired medications, lotions, hand sanitizer,
and not have any drinks in a clinical setting. All employees will know what is expected of them
to fulfill their individual responsibilities, they must know what these responsibilities are and
communicate is required, have sufficient authority to carry them out and have an organizational
issue, and have the required ability and competence like training and certification is required.
Once all these criteria have been finalized, safety performance can be assessed by each
supervisor that the employee works for equal basis and health is not just an extra part of
employees job, it is an integral, full-time component of the employees responsibilities. There
are several responsibilities that workers must include to follow safe work practices, enforce
health and safety regulations, correcting unsafe acts and making sure there are no unsafe working
conditions, ensuring that only authorized trained workers operate equipment that they are not
licensed driver, reporting and investigating all incidents that occur within the workplace,
inspecting each employees own area and taking remedial action to minimize hazards and
potentially eliminate them, ensuring equipment is maintained, and promoting safety awareness
with all employees.
Management has big responsibilities in ensuring that they abide by the health and safety
occupational rules by providing a safe and healthy workplace, establishing and maintaining this
employment of safety, ensuring workers are trained and certified to perform their job at the best
of their ability within their scope, reporting accidents that occur within the occupational disease
to the proper staff, providing medical and first aid facilities to all employees who are involved in
an accident, ensuring personal protective equipment like when a patient comes in the hospital
with Ebola symptoms, it is imperative that all staff are provided with the personal protective
equipment, supporting supervisors in their health and safety activities, and evaluating safety and
health performance of all supervisors and employees. The safety officers are responsible for
advising all employees on health and safety matters, coordinating interdepartmental health and
safety activities, such as doing regular mock trails to prepare for emergencies or accidents that
occur, collecting and analyzing safety and health statistics, providing health and safety training,
conducting research on special issues, and attending safety and health committee meetings as a
resource person.
Part of the effective safety programs that are involved at the workplace need the cooperative
involvement of all employees, along with management. An occupational safety and health
committee is like a forum for involvement that all employees represent both in labor and
management. Such committees are statutory requirements for organizations of a specified size in
most jurisdictions. The responsibilities of members are generally spelled out in the safety and
health legislation. A joint safety and health committee brings together labor in depth and the
practical knowledge of certain jobs and management larger overview of job interrelationships,
the company general policies and procedures. The team can be more effective in solving safety
and health problems when it involves more than individual, but a whole team. To function
properly, the committee needs structure that reads a clear statement of purpose of duties and
procedures that have standards for meetings. An employer does all this by establishing terms of
reference for the committee by allocating proper resources. Any form of documentation that
helps establish a joint health and safety committee means that its role is to be organized and
operate in compliance with law that is effective and involves the widest range of employees and
provides resources. Terms of reference include stating senior management commitment to act on

the recommendations of the committee, defining how long a person will serve on the committee,
and establishing how a committee member will be chosen. Once the committee members have
been chosen, they should participate in decisions on the details of its duties, structure, and
procedures. A key decision that should be made is the question of reporting the responsibility of
the structure. Each member is responsible to the chairperson and the committee is responsible for
fulfilling their specific duties. Follow up recommendations are to be expected and each
individual should be named in as a person of authority to expedite directions if an action occurs.
The joint occupational health and safety committee members should be participants in the
development and monitoring of all the phases involved in the health and safety program.
In government jobs, there are health and safety regulations that represent certain requirements
and in all cases, the organizations have to abide by these regulations with specific rules and
follow a healthy and safe workplace. Rules are made to protect the safety and health of all
workers, but there are dangers in having too many rules or not enough rules. The less the rules
may be, the more they are interpreted as a sign that health and safety are not important or that
common sense is lacking in that organization. Too many rules seems like they are not treating
employees as thinking adults and makes enforcement of rules turn out to be less likely.
Following the guidelines for establishing rules are rules should be specific to health safety
concerns in the workplace, the joint occupational health and safety committee should have their
formulation, rules need to be said clearly and where all employees can understand what they
truly mean, when you are applying rules, dont make it seem like it is such a bad thing and make
it positive and in reasons that can be explained to the individual, the rules have to be enforced,
otherwise everyone will disregard the rules and when the company has a true issue, then no one
will know what to do, rules should be available to all employees in written form, in the
languages of communication of employees, and rules should be reviewed to evaluate
effectiveness and to make changes for improved effectiveness every so often to change if needed.
Compliance that involves health and safety rules should be considered a condition of
employment and rules must be thoroughly explained to all new employees and I believe that it is
best to do through orientation and then once the employee is at his/her job site, it should be done
again with another employee or the manager to ensure accuracy of all information. The employer
must establish procedures for dealing with employees that violate rules and the managers are
responsible for correcting the unsafe acts, like breach of rules and management has to support
them with this activity. Points that should be considers in establishing procedures are ensure that
employees are aware that the rule exists, ensure that the employees are not encouraged or forced
to ignore the rule by other employees that do not follow rules, make sure that all rules are
observed and no violation will be disregarded, the role of discipline is that it is a managers
responsibility to educate employees are what occurred and not necessarily punish when it is a
first time offense, after the first time offense then it is managements responsibility to take action
promptly on that employee, a company should have guidelines in place for penalties for the first
offense or infraction and some flexibility is required for applying the guidelines since each case
would vary, and all discipline actions should be recorded and done in private. Correct work
procedures are the safest way of doing a job, job instruction, monitoring performance, and
accident investigation.

Job safety analysis is the first step in handling a hazard on the job and developing a correct
procedure. Each job task is specific to identify hazards and to determine what is the safest way to
perform your job, it involves the following steps: select the job that the employee fits best at to
perform the job to the best of their ability, break down the job into steps for the employee to do,
identify all the hazards that are involved with the job, and define preventative measures within
that job. All critical tasks should be the first priority and include frequent accidents and injuries
occur in this job, where severe accidents and injuries occur and what are the potential injuries
that can happen to an individual, new jobs modified, and maintenance on performed jobs
established. Job safety analysis is generally carried out by observing a worker doing the job.
Members of the joint health and safety committee should participate in this process by observing
the employees perform their job and correcting any mistakes that could cause injury or an
accident in the process. It is important that the employee know that this is not about them, but
that it is important to watch how they perform their job to ensure accuracy occurs. Another
approach, useful in the analysis of infrequently-performed or new jobs, is group discussion
because this is a great opportunity for all co-workers to discuss any issues or concerns that would
improve their job quality. A work procedure may consist of more than one specific job function
and each separate job function should be analyzed to complete a job safety analysis for that
procedure. For the final work procedure version of the correct work procedure should be
presented in a narrative style format that outlines the correct way to do the job in a step-by-step
outline, so each employee has the ability to access this. The steps are described in positive terms,
pointing out the reasons why they are to be done in this way and not referred to in a negative
way. Emergency procedures are plans for dealing with emergencies such as fires, explosions,
major releases of hazardous materials, violent occurrences, or natural hazards that can occur in
any work environment. When such events occur, the need for speed is imperative, but also all
employees have to be smart, for instance at my job we know if there is a fire-you must close the
doors, get the patients, rescue, alarm, confine, and extinguish. The objective is preventing any
fatalities, injuries, and even damage. The procedures for the organization should be as followed:
compile a list of the hazards for a fire, comb, etc., identify the possible major consequences of
each like injury, death, or damage, and determine all escape routes for evacuation, rescue and
fighting the fire, inventory resources will need to be carried for the planned actions like medical
supplies, equipment for rescue and training personnel, establish the necessary emergency
procedures for the organization and communication and training is the most important event that
needs to take place. First aid facilities and medical aid is generally prescribed under the safety
and health legislation for workers compensation and includes the following information like the
location of first aid stations and medical facilities, identification of medical supplies and where
first aid attendants will be located, identification on where all staff will meet and prepare to
evacuate, the policy on pre-employment and follow up medical examinations, the provision of
medical training, the procedure for recording injuries and illnesses. A policy on returning to work
after a lost time accident might be included in each modified work that agrees to a clear policy
and in some jurisdictions that legislation covers. The work must be productive and suitable, the
workers physician must agree that employment will not harm the worker or slow the recovery or
pose a threat to other workers, and the off the job injuries and under no circumstances should the
reduction of severity ratings be a reason for starting a modified work program.
Once the health and safety program has been in place and the program appears to be running
smoothly, all efforts are required to maintain an interest. Studies have shown that the
effectiveness of safety and health educational techniques depends largely on how much the

management shows concern and interest in the program and can it be maintained at that high
level. Accountability for individual performance is a main factor and safety awareness is met by
setting realistic goals and monitoring the progress, the distribution of all important information,
individual recognition for impeccable performance, and well-designed incentive programs.

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http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/checklist.html.
U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Rothstein, Mark. Health Risk Reduction Program in Employer.