6 OH&S areas you must make staff aware of
Although you might associate health and safety risks with specific industries, such as manufacturing or construction, all organisations face challenges. They may not be life-threatening, but accidents can lead to delays or chronic problems that manifest over time:
The most common accidents involve trip hazards and the unsafe use of machinery.
You also get ‘silent risks’, such as ergonomic hazards resulting from a poor workstation set-up.
OH&S (occupational health and safety) also encompasses psychosocial hazards – risks that can affect an employee’s mental health. For example, overworked employees, stress, bullying or sexual harassment.
ISO 45001 gives organisations a framework to manage a diverse range of risks, embedding health and safety in core activities. It also makes staff awareness training an integral part of that framework.
Unlike previous guidance on this topic, ISO 45001 doesn’t suggest that individuals are solely accountable for certain tasks. Instead, it encourages a joint effort across the team, which is why everyone needs to be aware of the risks they face and how to stay safe.
What does ISO 45001 say about staff awareness training?
Like most ISO management systems, ISO 45001 addresses staff training in two clauses:
Clause 7.2: Competence
Workers must be “competent” – including in their “ability to identify hazards” – through “appropriate education, training or experience”. Where needed, organisations must take steps to acquire and maintain that competence, including through appropriate training.
Clause 7.3: Awareness
Workers must be aware of health and safety policies and risks. Specifically, this clause outlines six areas for organisations to make staff aware of:
1. Hazards and risks related to employees’ jobs
An organisation’s first task is to make sure employees understand the risks they might encounter, whether they’re:
Universal;
Location-specific; or
Specific to certain roles or tasks.
Be sure to identify every risk and the roles affected.
2. OH&S policies and objectives that affect employees’ activities
The key to this area is understanding how employees’ activities affect your organisation’s health and safety objectives.
Your documentation should include rules that prevent individuals from performing non-compliant activities.
Nevertheless, certain risks and hazards are inherent to the tasks workers complete. For example:
If someone operates heavy machinery, risk of malfunction and injury is unavoidable.
If an employee’s job involves moving heavy objects, straining a muscle is always a possibility.
Your premises might come with fundamental risks – like a path that people might slip on when temperatures drop below zero.
More prosaic scenarios are possible too – e.g. staff staring at their screen for hours at a time, giving them eye strain.
Policies alone can’t eradicate these risks – which is why you must increase staff awareness and encourage them to take steps to protect themselves.
3. Employees’ contribution to the OH&S management system
Policies are only useful if employees read them – and recognise their obligations.
Staff should have a strong understanding of why the policies exist and how they keep them safe. This includes a more general awareness of the benefits that come with OH&S.
Simply publishing the policies and letting employees read them if they wish isn’t enough.
Documentation should be a central part of your staff awareness training programme, with a member of the team explaining the value of OH&S and the justification for the rules.
4. Potential consequences of non-compliance
Another aspect of staff awareness around OH&S policies involves educating employees on what happens if they fail to comply:
What specific injuries might they suffer?
How will an accident affect the organisation?
Explaining the risks like this shows that the rules have clear value – they’re not just bureaucracy.
5. Relevant past incidents
Health and safety policies are often created or amended based on experience. Real-life examples of accidents will help employees better understand the consequences of non-compliance and why these policies exist.
Since you may not be able to recall real-life examples for every single risk – or not their specifics, at least – document and review incidents as they happen.
You should already be doing this as part of your continual improvement process, anyway.
Organisations typically complement this process with a performance evaluation, in which you use KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure your key objectives. This helps you spot patterns like:
A link between employees’ psychosocial risks and their performance; or
The time of day in which accidents are most likely to occur.
As they say: you don’t know what you don’t know. So, review your records. See them as opportunities for improvement.
6. Removal from unsafe situations
Employees must understand that they can and should stop working when continuing would not be safe.
In some cases, an employee may be required to address the source of the risk. At other times, they have no choice but to wait.
Employees must recognise what action is required once they’ve identified an unsafe situation. This includes knowing who to contact.
How to implement OH&S staff awareness training
There’s no one way to deliver OH&S staff awareness training. Some organisations will require employees to conduct a thorough assessment before they start; others can provide on-the-job training.
However, everyone must understand the importance of OH&S and their obligations to keep themselves and their colleagues safe.
An introduction to staff awareness requirements is an essential part of the induction process. You should also conduct at least annual refreshers.
Our Health and Safety Staff Awareness Elearning Course contains everything you need to ensure staff stay safe and well-informed of the risks they face. At just 45 minutes, this course is ideal for initial and repeat training.
Also looking for awareness training on ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, and more?
Check out our Complete Staff Awareness E-learning Suite – a cost-effective option containing more than 24 elearning courses, covering health and safety, ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental sustainability), ISO 27001 (information security management), and much more.
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