There are a number of industries that we know are dangerous. Some of the most dangerous industry sectors include working at a construction site, in an industrial kitchen or at a manufacturing plant, but what many people don’t know is that an office environment can also be a dangerous place to work.

We’ve seen a reduction in construction accidents of late and this is a good sign. However, we have seen the hospitality industry struggling with uneducated employees working machinery in the kitchen.

You wouldn’t think of an industrial kitchen as a dangerous working environment, but when you look at the knives, dough machines and other equipment, it is easy to see that without the right training, staff can sometimes become seriously injured.

Is Health and Safety Important In Your Workplace

The health and safety legislation is for all industries whether you sit in front of a computer on a daily basis or you climb scaffolding three or four floors high. Accidents can happen in any working environment and it is essential that all supervisors, managers, directors and owners are comfortable and knowledgeable about the risks and the regulations in place to offer staff a safer working environment.

If you are a manager or supervisor then you should review the risk assessment for the company on a regular basis, go through the accident book and see if the accidents mentioned have been covered in the assessment. This may sound trivial, but if you want to achieve a safer working environment and a happy and safe work compliment, then this is an essential step.

Health and Safety Training

It doesn’t matter whether you are a director of a large manufacturing plant or the head chef of an industrial kitchen, adequate training in the health and safety legislation can be beneficial to your entire business and how it operates.

Knowing and understanding the legislation will help you ensure that your staff are working in a safer environment, they are abiding by necessary rules that reduce accidents and that you are less likely to find an injury on site.

Take a kitchen for example: all head chefs should be knowledgeable and be trained on the health and safety in the workplace along with the food safety and hygiene requirements. Without these he or she is not only putting the kitchen staff at risk, but also the customers.

Training is an essential part of any business and going over the legislation during staff meetings can keep the safety fresh in the minds of the staff and help keep accidents at an absolute minimum.

We’ve already seen this year a reduction in accidents on construction sites. This is because the site managers have undergone extensive training on the health and safety legislation, risk assessments have been carried out and the workers have all had adequate health and safety training to reduce the risk of accidents.

The Follow Through

Once you have put a health and safety manual together for the business; that is not simply the job over. The health and safety legislation should be taught to every employee, the risk assessments should be revisited regularly and changes should be made on an as and when they are needed basis; this way you can rest assured that your workers have the safest working environment possible. What’s more you can by doing this, reduce the risk of ending up in serious financial trouble caused by a claim against you after someone injures themselves on the job.

The health and safety legislation has been put in place to ensure that every working environment has a reduce risk of accidents.

Popular Health and Safety Courses