Safety and Security Work places

Abstract

Creating a safe and guided workplace is a requirement that should not be under looked at by any company. Understanding of the crucial definitions including workplace safety and workplace security is very important for both the employer and staff alike in order to create such a working environment. Hartnett (1996) confirms that establishing workplace security is a requirement as it is regulated Occupational Safety Health Administration (OSHA). Several paramount issues of establishing a safe and secure working environment are cited in the study. Dessler (2017) says that building a safe workplace reduces the rate of staff turnover. Also, obligations of both the management and workers to ensuring safety is guaranteed are discussed in this study. Further, the study mentions the impacts of safe working stations and highlights the measures that need to be taken to ensuring that workplaces remain safe and secure for the workers. Finally, it offers recommendations to employees and organizations.

Key words: OSHA, safety, security.
 
Creating a Safe and Secure Workplace

Workplace safety pertains to risks of injuries and employees’ illness. It specifies the procedures and policies in a place to ensure the health and security of employees within their workplace. It involves identification and control of hazards under the government standards and continuous safety education and training for employees. Workplace security pertains safeguarding employee’s inward and outward security risks such illegal activities from criminals and terrorists (Dessler, 2017).
This study is important because it creates employee awareness on their rights to have a secure and safe workplace. It also hints out to the management of organizations on how to build a safe workplace for their employees, and its importance.

Establishment of Workplace Safety

Establishing workplace safety is regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). According to Hartnett (1996), all employers, irrespective of the number of workers, have are subject to OSHA requirements, furthermore, they are penalized for their non-compliance. Dessler (2017) argues that apart from OSHA regulations and standards, establishing safety workplace is important in ensuring preventing various hazards that might be risky to the security of the employees.

Types of Hazards

Many hazards are unexpected and result from the company produces as part of the production processes (Dessler, 2017). There are also the obvious hazards such as slippery floors and the unprotected tools and equipment. According to Savage, Leroy & Simons (2013), workplace hazards are categorized into biological, chemical and Psychological hazards.

Biological Hazards

These are organic substances that act as threats to the health and safety of workers (Hartnett, 1996). Biological hazards include viruses, toxins from natural sources, fungi and pathogenic micro-organisms. They pose risks to employees in different ways depending on their type of duties. For example, healthcare professions are susceptible to biological hazards through contamination with human blood and other bodily matter. In the industrial process, exposure to yeast and moulds is common (Savage et al., 2013). Therefore, exposure to such hazards is widespread, and the risk of prone is not always obvious.

Chemical Hazards

Dessler (2017) confirms that chemical hazards in the work environment are mixtures, substances and materials, which are categorized according to their physicochemical and health risks and dangers. Hazardous physicochemical arises from chemical and physical properties of a material such as corrosive and flammable substances. Health hazards are carcinogens, skin irritants and respiratory sensitizers with severe effect on a worker’s health. They appear as a result of exposure or direct contamination with the chemical, either through skin contact, ingestion or inhalation (Dessler, 2017).

Psychological Hazards

A psychological hazard is any danger that causes stress to an employee (Hartnett, 1996). They affect the mental health of the employee and impact the ability of the employee to work safely and healthily. Sources of psychological hazards can be categorized into organizational work factors such as violence and harassment, working alone, change, to mention just a few, and personal factors such as substance abuse, depression, and work-life conflict.

Importance of Creating a Safe and Secure Workplace

Savage et al. (2013) argue that employers strive to keep the workplace safe for their employees. They use organization resources and spend the time to ensuring that their employees are safe. A safe working environment is always productive. They always offer on-the-job training regarding safety measures and have the procedures included in their organization policies (Hartnett, 1996). Ensuring the workplace is safe comes with different benefits, which include:

Ensures Safety of Employee

Death or serious injuries at a place of work changes live forever – for friends, families, co-workers and communities at large. Ensuring that workers return to their families and friend safely is the most key reason for companies to promote employee safety (Hartnett, 1996).

Reduced Employee Turnover

According to Dessler (2017), a safe working environment reduces the rate of staff turnover. Employees want to work in an atmosphere that is free from any dangers. If companies fail to provide adequate security measures for their employees, they resign from their jobs as they fear for their safety.

Increase in Productivity Level

Healthy workers tend to be more productive. Organizations that create a safe workplace for their employees experience high production levels since their staff feels more confident and comfortable when they are in their working environment. They are motivated, and their morale to work is high since they know that their safety is taken care of at all times. Productivity is boosted, and increased profit margins follow suit (Savage et al., 2013).

Reduced High Costs

Duke (2014) alludes that creating safe and secure workplace does not only make sense from a moral viewpoint but also makes sense regarding good financial standings. When the staff is injured while on duty, it costs the employer regarding increased insurance rates, worker's compensation premiums, lost working hours, replacement costs and legal fees. Therefore, ensuring the working environment is secure saves a company from increased costs.

Impacts of Safe Workplace

Several implications come with ensuring that the workplace is safe and secure. They are positive effects such as having less injured workers, stress-free employees and low medical costs (Savage et al., 2013). The impacts are seen in two perspectives, to the employees and the employer. For the employees, one of the critical implications of a safe and secure working environment is that there are lesser cases of injured workers. This motivates employees and boosts their morale to continue working hence higher productivity. Another impact to employees is that their stress is relieved. Safe and secure workplace makes employees forget their stress, as they feel comfortable while working. In the end, their pressures are taken away by their on job concentration (Dessler, 2017).
To the employer, there are a couple of impacts but the major one being lower medical costs. Safe working environment contributes to secure and health workers. Since there are fewer employee injuries, the company ends up spending very little cash to cater for their employees’ medical costs (Duke, 2014).

Responsibilities of Creating a Safe and Secure Workplace

According to Dessler (2017), ensuring the working site is safe and secure is a joint responsibility between the employer and the employee. Both have roles to play in ensuring that the working environment is safe and secure. Therefore, it is wrong for the employee to rest the burden of providing a safe workplace to the employer. In a nutshell, it is a joint responsibility of both the employer and the employee to establishing a safe working environment. However, there are roles of the management as well as the functions of the employee that each party needs to act (Dessler, 2017).

Role of Management

Savage et al. (2013) argue that the management needs to serve as an example to ensuring the safety of their employees. Telling workers to “work safely” is ineffectual unless the workers know that the management is serious about it. Therefore, the management must be in the front line by performing various roles to promoting safety in the workplace. These functions include staff training on safety, implementing and abiding by the OSHA standards and regulations, providing the right tools and equipment, identifying new ways to improving safety, and performing examinations and different medical screening procedures to ensuring good health of all staff.

Role of Employee

Workers are not an exemption to ensuring they have a safe and secure working environment. They are responsible for adhering to OSHA standards, obeying all staff' health and safety rules and regulations set by the employer and for identifying and reporting hazardous materials and conditions to the management. Also, it is the role of the employees to ensure OSHA has inspected their organization, and to ask when the inspections will be done if not yet (Dessler, 2017).

Measures to Ensuring a Safe and Secure Workplace

According to Duke (2014), several steps need to be taken to providing a safe work environment. It begins by identification of hazards and controlling, prioritizing and making strategies, correcting, evaluating the change, commitment and involvement, training to provide the right tools as well as building a culture of a safe workplace.
Identification of hazards in a workplace is achieved through inspections. Companies are subjected to inspections from OSHA officers. They visit the workplaces and inspect by taking serialized photographs of the identified hazards. The company can take controlling measures by relying on the OSHA inspection report (Duke, 2014).
According to Hartnett (1996), managers also need to prioritize on issues regarding safety measures of the employees. One of their agendas should be on the safety and security of their staff. Then, they need to lay down great strategies to ensure that the working environment of the workers is safe and secure from any risks and harms.
In case anything that compromises the safety of the staff is identified, corrections need to be done immediately to avert the risk. All necessary amendments are carried out, and possible changes were done to prevent any dangers from occurring. After implementing the changes, an evaluation of the effects brought by the change follows to ensure that indeed right changes were implemented and that the risks were mitigated (Savage et al., 2013).
Duke (2014) eludes that commitment and involvement by both the management and the workers is a critical measure in creating a secure and safe working environment. The management needs to fully commit themselves to perform their roles as well as the employees. Also, training on safety issues at the workplace is necessary since it adds knowledge and provides for the necessary tools to counter insecurity. Finally, building and maintaining a culture of safe workplace guarantees the safety of employees all through (Duke, 2014).

Conclusion

It is evident from the discussion that a safe and secure workplace is an essential requirement for every employer to implement as it is one of the worker's privileges. The study fulfils its purpose by looking at the types of hazards in a workplace, the importance and impacts of creating safe and secure working environment, the responsibilities of each party and the necessary measures to achieving a safe workplace. Therefore, a safe and secure workplace is paramount for every organization as it is punishable by law if neglected.

Recommendations

The study offers various recommendations to both employers and employees. To the employer, he must ensure that safety and security of employees are guaranteed and that OSHA standards are implemented. To the employees, they must make sure that their rights of enjoying a safe and secure working environment are fully implemented and that in case of any obstructions, to take necessary legal actions.

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References

Dessler, G. (2017). Human resource management.15th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson
Duke, P.L. (2014, June 16). 6 Ways to Imrove Workplace Safety Without Going Broke. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234630
Hartnett, J. (1996). OSHA in the Real World: How to Maintain Workplace Safety While Keeping Your Competitive Edge. Santa Monica, Calif: Silver Lake Publishing
Savage, G. T., Leroy, H., & Simons, T. (2013). Leading in Health Care Organizations: Improving Safety Satisfaction and Financial Performance. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.