Human Resources – Health & Safety Requirements Assignment

We are concerned in our company that workplace injuries and accidents will cost us astronomic prices including direct workers’ compensation and indirect costs such as lost production. As we want to reduce the number of workplace accidents in our facility over the next 6 months, please see below some of the possible solutions we discuss:

Solution 1: Incentives for No or Minimum Number of Injuries Happened

We know that there are some employees who already work safely without any need for motivation that incentives can provide, and there are others who need an incentive to work safely. Therefore, one of the solutions we have is to offer incentives to our employees in case no or a minimum number of accidents or injuries happen in our workplace in the next half-year period. Those incentives could be extra money in their next pay check, some gifts, or other benefits that can encourage them to act cautiously and safely.

We are also aware that it could be argued that offering incentives to employees to work without an injury or accident can encourage “underreporting”. This can result in a situation where we, as management, think there is no accident happened, but actually employees hide them without reporting in order to be entitled to the incentives. Therefore, our aim would be finding the balance between reducing injuries and encouraging “safety culture” in the company which will prevent employees to prefer underreporting.

Solution 2: Provision or Upgrade of Personal Protective Equipment

Provision or upgrade of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) could be the most effective solution to lower accident rate to an acceptable level. The purpose of PPE is to reduce worker exposure to hazards and physical harm to the minimum. PPE such as eye goggles, gloves, safety shoes, and protective helmet are essential kits that could prevent unnecessary injury in the workplace, especially in plants or factories. More importantly, because it is legally required, the company not only should equip its workers with good quality and correct size PPE to make it most effective but also should spend time to instruct them how to use PPE properly.

Solution 3: Forming of Health and Safety Committee

The existence of a health and safety committee could promote cooperation between employers and employees in terms of their responsibility and contribution to reduce workplace accidents. Health and safety committee would meet on a regular basis for representatives of staff and employers to consider all the health and safety complaints in our manufacturing plant. The objective of these meetings will be to take into account and inspect the factors that cause high accident rate, to ensure that all safety regulations and measures are comprehensible and are incorporated by workers. Regular consultation from the committee is a practical solution to build a trusting relationship between workers and managers, to inspect and prevent workplace hazards, and also, it is a place where managers can disseminate the above two solutions to employees.