As an employer, the primary responsibility lies with you protecting the Health, Safety, and Welfare of your employees: Environmental Health and Safety Management Essay, ATU, Ireland
University | Atlantic Technological University (ATU) |
Subject | Environmental Health and Safety Management |
As an employer, the primary responsibility lies with you; protecting the Health, Safety, and Welfare of your employees and other people, who might be affected by your Entity should be central to your institution management. As well as being legally compliant, it makes good institution sense because a happy and healthy workforce is a productive workforce.
An employer must protect the health, safety, and welfare of their employees and other people who might be affected by their institution. Employers must do whatever is reasonably practicable to achieve this.
It’s quite important to understand the fact that people are social beings and others’ support is a must. Therefore, people need to contribute as much as possible to their surroundings by being helpful to them. All people had their way to be helpful to others. I deeply believe that the field of Health Safety and Environment which attracted me at the beginning of my Human Resources Professional career, is my way to do something for society, a comprehensive way to be helpful, especially for the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority and Liberia at large.
As it’s already known, Health Safety and Environment are applicable anywhere there is a workplace, for example, in the Fisheries sector, the transportation industry, mining industry, manufacturing industry, hospital, etc. Each sector of the industry has its difficulties based on the process. To maintain an Institution with good HSE performance (zero incidents, zero occupational diseases, and zero environmental damage), it needs a very solution for every problem that occurs.
A safe place to work in and safe systems of work
To provide a safe place to work in and safe equipment to work with, your starting point is a risk assessment.
Risk assessment
You must assess all of the risks in your workplace and then put into place measures to reduce, control, or eliminate the risk. This doesn’t mean you need to eliminate all risks; that would place an unworkable burden on employers and prove undoable. But you must do whatever is “reasonably practicable”.
Information and training
You must provide your workforce with information about the risks in your workplace and how they are protected. This will most likely include some instruction or training on how to deal with the risks.
Consultation with employees
You must consult your employees on matters to do with health and safety. You can do this directly, or where there is a trade union or health and safety representative, you should use these channels instead. Find out about any concerns they have. Your workforce is in the best position to understand the risks in their jobs so listen and involve them in decision-making.
A Health and Safety Policy
The law requires every business to have a health and safety policy that should set out how you manage health and safety in your place of work. This should include an overview of how you will manage health and safety in your place of work. It should also list all people who have some responsibility for any area of health and safety including the person with overall responsibility and people with specific responsibilities such as a competent person, first aider, or fire warden. The policy should also detail how you are going to manage your health and safety; include details about your risk assessments, evacuation plans, staff consultation, and staff training.
Most but not all of the responsibility falls to the employer. It is also incumbent on employees to bear some of the responsibility for a safe place of work.
The responsibilities of the employee
Every employee has a duty of care to themselves and others. This duty is implied in all contracts of employment.
Employees’ duties are set out in every entity
To take care of themselves and of others who may be affected by their actions.
To cooperate with their employers on all matters concerning health and safety.
Not misuse any equipment provided for health and safety. This includes, for example, fire extinguishers and fire alarms.
Attend health and safety training.
Follow guidance and instruction from the employer on health and safety matters.
Report any hazards promptly and appropriately.
And, lastly, the HSE holds some responsibility.
The Role of the HSE
HSE’s emphasis is on preventing injury however, they can and do enforce the law where necessary.
For good health and safety management, the employer and employees need to work together. If not properly managed, the consequences of poor health and safety
can be disastrous, both in human costs and financial ones. Remember though, most health safety and environment, in an office environment, is largely down to common sense and good housekeeping. Good, well-managed health and safety save lives and it must be considered an essential and integral part of any institutional management. With planning and forethought, it need not be difficult or troublesome to provide a safe and healthy workplace for everyone.
I am a practical policy and procedure compliance-oriented and a flexible lifelong learner team player very gender-sensitive with a great sense of accountability, integrity, and custom centered who has always realized his dream trough managing a workforce to change a situation with a deep understanding of Human Resources Management in the development sector, its phases and its life of development including various management disciplines.
I love to crave new challenges with a great passion for doing meaningful work that makes positive change and always wanting to be part of a leading global aid and development organization with a big team of bright, energetic, and creative colleagues I am curiously interested in different people and cultures.
I strongly believe in creating a world in which all individuals and communities have the opportunity to reach their highest potential and improve lives in a lasting way by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions for human development, especially working in an organization where your voice and ideas are heard and most importantly with a competitive salary and benefits package.
I am confidently joining the team with a deeper understanding of Institutional and Organizational technical and financial management skills of program management disciplines with emphasis on justification, time management, understanding of the scope of the work, financial forecasting and budget formulation, managing and controlling risks that could impact program deliverables.
Further, during previous working opportunities, I responded to changing situations and diverse stakeholders in a flexible manner with excellent and proficient oral and written communication skills in English, monitored and evaluated implementation, and demonstrated the ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, and tasks efficiently supervised staffs technically leading the development and implementation of program descriptions, implementation plans, program strategies, reports, and work plans.
I strongly also believe that my education background as a graduate of Masters in Public Health and Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications, Human Resources Management (Diploma), Human Resources Management (Certificate), Leadership and Managerial Skills (Certificate), Business Reporting and Proposal Writing (Certificate), Public Sector Performance Management (Certificate), Customer Service Excellence (Certificate), Public Sector Risk Internal Auditing (Certificate), Safety at The Workplace (Certificate) as well as my ability to manipulate with ease various Microsoft packages including Excel, PowerPoint Presentation is an added advantage to be explored.
I plan to share my knowledge through writing. First of all, to fulfill this ambition, I’m going to make a relationship between my Entity and Country, which the course of l Health Safety and Environment is relatively new. I am also going to design a blog to share all my studies with my friends in Liberia who are doing the same job and ultimately follow my plan to establish a local institution that will be doing the consultant advice and supply all standard Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) for workers which is one of my concerns in my current workplace.
I have also taken a clearer proactive approach to complete various Health Safety and Environment courses.
Through completing these courses, I have developed an outstanding
foundational grounding in the key issues surrounding the methods of safeguarding public health through best safety practices. For instance, I have learned about how hazards or diseases can be affected and the underlying principles of health legislation. I, however, think that these courses don’t necessarily constitute a true expert in the field of Health Safety and Environment something which am keen to obtain through completing postgraduate study.
The MSC in Health Safety and Environment through the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority, World Bank, and the Liberia Sustainable Management Project seems to offer a unique level of thoroughness in its approach to this field. As a discipline, be Health Safety and Environment specialist, is very much an interdisciplinary field of studies and amongst others, Health Safety and Environment professionals need a theoretical and scientific knowledge of health issues and expertise in practical issues of policy implementation and legal matters.
I believe that the course would be the ideal starting point from which I can then go on to pursue a career as a Health Safety and Environment practitioner whether in the public or private sector. I strongly believe that my previous experience, current job, and study experiences demonstrate my ability to succeed in postgraduate studies and a career in Health Safety and Environment. I have also held a variety of professional roles that have helped me to develop into an able communicator and problem solver. Since 2014 I’ve been working as a Human Resources Professional at various institutions. Besides carrying out, this role demands excellent communication skills to make sure both involved parties in the conversation fully understand what the other is trying to convey just as health inspectors need to be able to convey vital information to business owners.