The Case for an Integrated approach to Occupational Health and Safety Management
Often Occupational Health (OH) and Health & Safety (H&S) functions within an organisation are run as different departments who only work together and share information on a reactive, case-by-case, basis.
Today, this ‘compartmentalised’ approach is increasingly coming under scrutiny as it may be putting employees at risk, exposing organisations to higher costs and unnecessary claims.
Many organisations are considering bringing these disciplines together to share resources, information and expertise. This ‘joined up’ approach enhances H&S and OH practice, allows better management of employee needs and facilitates better interventions. This approach enables faster and safer return to work and allows employers to take a more proactive approach to employee health and productivity.
There have to be mechanisms in place, for example, so that accidents, injuries or illnesses are recorded effectively. If there is an injury, then that injury has to be assessed as to what is going to be the impact on that person’s job, which can’t really be done solely by the H&S department. That should be done with a contribution from a clinical point of view, so there has to be integration between H&S and Occupational Health Departments.
If it is then deemed that the person isn’t able to perform their normal duties, then there has to be some communication through either Occupational Health or H&S back to their Line Manager, which may need the involvement of the HR department to see whether another role can be created for that person. It is important to look at the cost of creating that role and the financial impact of replacing that person in their original role.
It is also a requirement to prevent the situation arising again, and this brings us firmly back to integration. There has to be a flow of information to relevant parts of the organisation
In order to examine the case for an integrated occupational health and safety management system we need to consider those activities which are sometimes carried out in isolation, but which might be better with some form of cohesion.
It is not unusual for all of the following activities to be carried out in isolation or held in an organisation on separate databases or on paper:
· Absences management
· Training records
· PPE issues
· Accident and Incident recording
· Hygiene monitoring
· Work restrictions
· HR and Personnel functions
· Hazard inventory
· Risk Assessments
· Health Surveillance populations and records
· Line Management
All of these activities can be linked either directly or indirectly. Failure to do this means that very often, one part of an organisation is not aware of the whole picture which is a very dangerous situation in today’s litigious climate. It is often worse for an organisation to know about something and not act, than not to know at all.
The key to many of the data sets defined above is Risk Assessments. These look at a process, operation or activity, and break it down into component tasks. They look at the potential hazards associated with that task and assess the risk to people involved in the activity. The risk will be evaluated based on the hazard’s potential to do harm. This may involve monitoring the degree of exposure to the hazard, or assessing how ‘dangerous’ the hazard is in a physical sense.
The first approach should be to remove the hazard or replace it with something less hazardous, or to change the task to accommodate less ‘risky’ activities, but failing that, the requirement is to put something between the employee and the risk. This might be physical guards, extraction units, other methods of control or PPE. These controls need to be maintained and checked as being fit for purpose.
Having done that, employees need to be trained in the use of the equipment, or PPE so that it is used properly, i.e. safely. Safe working practises need to be defined and communicated. The employees carrying out the task should be identified so that these exercises can be accomplished.
Once these things are in place, there are other related actions which need to be carried out to ensure that the above process is effective.
Routine Hygiene monitoring will ensure that exposure levels to not exceed limits determined in the risk assessment. Analysis of accident/incident causes and other related data help to ensure that PPE, barriers, guards and other physical controls are effective as well as identifying whether safe operating procedures are being carried out, and that employees are adequately trained.
Health Surveillance will identify whether the health of employees is being adequately protected. Identification of at-risk populations is key to ensuring that all individuals have appropriate surveillance. Health Surveillance is also used to determine whether employees are fit for task, checking whether they have any existing health problems which may mean that they should not be carrying out a particular activity.
Sickness Absence monitoring will similarly help identify any inadequacies in the process.
Any occupational accidents or illnesses need to be related back into the risk assessment to ensure that they do not happen again. Identification of at-risk populations will allow any accidents and illnesses to be linked to risks and tasks. Availability of company HR data may help accomplish this. It is important that all risk assessments involving similar hazards should be examined, and so appropriately accessible databases need to be kept, and common key fields should be set up so that cross reference is possible.
This is where an integrated system comes into its own. Should there be a failure in control of the risk, then corrective actions will have to be put into place and the risk assessment adjusted appropriately if required.
The above review highlights the fundamental benefits of an integrated approach to Occupational Health and Safety Management and identifies some of the risks and pitfalls of not following these principles.