Occupational Health and Safety: The Need and Importance

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Introduction

Occupation Health and Safety (OHS) can be termed as the rules, legislation, policies, procedures and activities intended to care for the health, safety and welfare of the workers and all the individuals in an organization. It involves looking at the social, mental and physical well-being of workers (Lingard & Rowlinson, p. 124). Moreover, Occupational Health and Safety in an organization help uphold and sustain a high threshold of physical, mental and social well being of all the workers and their employer; protect worker from adverse health effects emanating from poor working conditions; shelter worker when carrying out their activities from risks emanating from factors unfavorable to their health and finally assist workers adopt physically and mentally to the working environment.

In the current world, many organizations tend to put more emphasis on occupational health issues than occupational safety issues as occupational health issues are trickier to tackle. However, when occupational health issues are addressed, safety in a workplace is promoted; this is because when a workplace is termed as a healthy workplace, it also means that the workplace is safe (Reese, p. 232).

It is important, therefore, to ensure that Occupational Health and Safety is observed as it reduces illness, death and injuries to the workers and other individuals that may arise from poor working conditions in a particular workplace. This is because, if the working conditions of an organization are poor, the health and safety of the workers is affected and this may reduce the output of the organization. Moreover, poor working conditions may affect the living environment of the worker and thus affect the workers family and the community at large. The occupational hazards caused by poor working conditions may affect the physical and mental health of the workers, his family and the community (Reese, pp. 235-37). For instance, in an agricultural organization, the chemicals that they use to spray the plants in the fields ends up in the near by water bodies especially when it rains. This contaminates the water which the community may be using for domestic purposes causing diseases like diarrhea and eventual death to them. Moreover, the chemicals may be blown by wind and be inhaled by the people living nearby causing serious health problems.

Occupational Health and Safety in an organization is important as it helps reduce the cost incurred when a worker has been injured, is sick or has died due to occupational diseases or injuries. When an occupational injury or disease occurs, the employer is faced with both direct and indirect expenses. For instance, compensation to the injured worker, repair of the broken machine, payment of unlabored work among others are some of direct cost while replacement of the injured worker, training of a worker to replace the injured, reduction in output are some of the indirect cost that an employer has to pay. For an organization to achieve the above the employer, workers and the unions should be committed to health and safety and thus ensure that workplace hazards are minimized, records of injuries, car accidents and deaths due to occupation diseases or injuries are well kept, risk assessments are carried out and finally ensure that there is an effective occupational health and safety committee that incorporate individuals from all sectors (Dudley, pp. 34-67).

Importance of Occupational Health and Safety professionals being a capable leader

When an organization is choosing an Occupational Health and Safety leader it must look at the current leadership qualities of the potential leaders. Although leadership qualities can be acquired through learning it is important to determine the existing leadership qualities so as to determine what other leadership qualities the leaders need. It is crucial for an Occupational health and Safety leader to be a capable leader and this he/ she can only achieve if he / she has the following qualities;

Vision; a good leader should have a vision for his/ her organization or department. He/ she should be able to evaluate where his/ her department is, future success and how to achieve it. This vision should be shared with all the individuals in the organization so that each and every worker can strive to achieve the future success. Occupational Health and Safety leaders should have a vision on how they will reduce occupational injuries, accidents and occupational diseases. This can only be achieved through improving the working conditions of a workplace, educating workers on safety, its importance and how to achieve it and training workers on occupational health and safety (Lindgard & Rowlinson, pp. 245-67). Moreover, OHS leaders should involve all the workers in all departments of the organization. This ensures that safety is observed in all departments of the organization. Furthermore, by having a vision, the OHS leader is able to set rules and regulation that will govern the behavior and activities of all the workers thus promoting safety in the workplace. However, the leader should be realistic and he should bear in mind the available resources, support by other leaders and support from the workers.

Motivation; a good leader should know what motivates the workers and what activities de-motivate them. An occupational Health and Safety leader should formulate favorable conditions where the employees will feel enthusiastic to work hard and achieve the OHS set goals. This is so because, for an organization to attain the set performance objectives the workers must be capable, work hard and their leaders must support them (Dudley, pp. 80-90). Therefore, an occupational health and safety leader should ensure that all areas are equipped with qualified personnel who are well supported by the leaders and are motivated to work well. This ensures that the set Occupational Health and Safety goals are met. It is important therefore, for OHS leaders to be motivational as this boosts the workers desires to achieve the set Occupational Health and Safety goals. Moreover, the OHS leader should ensure that his OHS goals are realistic and achievable as if they are not the worker will feel de-motivated to work to attain goals that are not attainable. However, when the leader uses rewards as a form of motivation he/ she should evaluate the perception of the workers on the reward as this may bring conflict and strains in the workplace.

Emotional and Intelligence; leaders should be sensitive about the feelings of their workers / those they lead. However, they should be clever as to identify genuine and fake feelings portrayed by the workers. Occupational Health and Safety leaders should be sensitive about the safety and well being of the workers, workers family and the community in which the organization or the firm is in, for instance, when the firm pollutes the a water body that is used by the surrounding communities, the leader should listen to them and offer reasonable solutions (Reese, pp. 245-67) The Occupational Health and Safety leader is liable to creating a working environment that promotes the safety and health of the worker. Moreover, he/ she should value and reply to the needs of the workers and listen to them all the time. This is important because it facilitate workers participation in decision making.

Communication; a good capable leader should be able to communicate to his worker and his juniors in a polite manner. Effective communication is important for the success of an organization. An occupational Health and Safety leader should have good communication skills that will enable him/ her to acquire and transfer information freely from the workers and to the worker respectively. This leadership quality is important because it helps the Occupational Health and Safety leader to gather information from the worker and transfer it to other leaders on matters concerning health and safety of the workers and helps him transfer important information from the seniors to the workers (Dudley, pp. 99- 112). Occupational Health and Safety leaders should ensure that they use the right channel of communication; for instance, they can use written channels like hanging the information on the notice board when they are passing information that does not need immediate answer. But for the information that requires immediate answers an oral channel will be used where the leader may hold meeting with workers and inform them.

Trustworthy; a good leader should be trusted by the workers and his/ her seniors. A leader who can be trusted by the employee or the people who he/ she is leading, more information relating to the organization will be passed to him/ her easily. Moreover, the organization/ firm will have a good reputation in the public. When the employees/ workers feel that they can trust their leaders, they can talk openly about their feeling concerning a newly installed Occupational Health and Safety program and they can be able to contribute freely in decision making meeting and health and safety meetings (Lingard & Rolinson, pp. 134-44).

Assertiveness; a leader should not beat around the bush about something he/she want to be done and how it should be done. He/ she should state clearly what he/ she expects from the worker. An occupational Health and Safety leader should ensure that he/ she go straight to the point when it comes to matter concerning health and safety in the workplace. His/ her statement should clearly state what he/ she expect from the workers and the leader in promoting occupational health and safety and avoiding injuries and occupational diseases (Reese, pp. 287-98). Moreover, he/ she should ensure that the health and safety rules and their penalties are clearly stated with no misunderstanding. This ensures that the workers have no excuse when they break the rules and are liable to punishment with no exception. This is important because it ensures that all people practice safety in their activities and thus more less expenses to the organization.

Dedication; a good leader should be dedicated to his/ her work, for instance striving had to edge a step closer to the vision. An Occupational Health and Safety leader should be dedicate to ensuring that safety is observed in all departments of the organizations. Moreover, he should be dedicated to ensuring that workers are in good health and that the workplace is in good condition. A dedicated leader in Occupational Health and Safety ensures records of all health and safety issues are well kept so as to keep abreast on the trend of safety in the organization (Dudley, pp. 134-65). The health and safety records assist the organization in determining how safe the workplace and help in decision making concerning then health and safety matters. Dedication helps in giving an example to the workers on how to achieve and maintain health and safety in a workplace.

Magnanimity; this is where a leader gives a credit for a job well done. A good leader should ensure that all leaders give tribute to workers when they have done a good job. Moreover, a good leader should also account for failures and accept them as his/ her mistake. This help the worker feel proud about them selves and are motivated to work ever harder and adhere to the set rules and regulation. An Occupational Health and Safety leader should ensure that all efforts by the worker to achieve the set occupational health and safety goals do not go unrecognized. This motivates the workers who feel proud of his/ her achievement and will continue striving hard to achieve the goal. This quality of a leader promotes healthy relationship between the workers and the leaders and arose in the worker a feeling of belonging/ attachment to the organization or firm (Reese, pp. 267-90). Thus he/ she will do work with one heart ensuring that he / she observe the set health and safety rules and regulations.

Creativity; this is where the leader has the ability to think beyond the available solution and tend to look for alternative solutions for a problem. The leader sees thing the other people / workers cannot see, for instance, he/ she can see consequences of a certain decision made by a committee. An Occupational Health and Safety leader should ask him self questions like “what if…” thus ensuring he/ she do not look only at the positive and negative side but also at the possibilities and alternatives of issue (Lingard & Rowlinson, pp. 156-89). He/ she should also ensure that he/ she has alternative for every decision that is made concerning the health and safety of the workers. This is important because it eliminates the possibilities of failures in programs and training in Occupational Health and Safety as there are set solutions for any problem that may arise.

Conclusion

Occupational Health and Occupational Safety are two important issues that should be addressed in all organizations and firms. Occupational Health and Safety leaders should ensure that the workplace is suitable for workers to work on. This means that the workplace has the required conditions to guarantee safety of the workers. Moreover, an organization should ensure that safety to the community is adhered to, i.e. ensure that the surrounding communities’ health is not endangered by the activities of the firm/ organization. For an organization to achieve this, leader must have the required quality so as to deriver the best and reorient people in achieving the set occupational health and safety goals. These leadership qualities assist the leader lead the workers and other leaders in achieving the occupational health and safety goals. Furthermore, training offered to the worker during occupational health and safety workshop and training programs help the worker realize their role in ensuring safety and avoiding occupational diseases.

References

Reese, Charles. Occupational health and safety management: a practical approach. New York: CRC Press, 2003.
Lingard, Helen & Rowlinson, Stephen. Occupational health and safety in construction Project management. Cambridge: Taylor & Francis, 2005.
Dudley, Curry. Management accounting, second Canadian Edition. Canada: Prentice Hall, 1996.

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Occupational Health and Safety: The Need and Importance

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