How to get started with occupational health and safety

A good occupational health and safety management system can help to reduce risk and improve working conditions for everyone in an organization. However, it can be harder for business leaders to grasp the importance of tackling less tangible threats to health, such as noise and stress, as well as more obvious ones like trailing cables.

New guidance aims to help organizations find their own route into improved occupational health and safety.

Why does occupational health and safety matter?

In 2016–17 there were 1.3 million workers in the UK suffering from work-related ill health, whether newly diagnosed or long-standing conditions. Each year around 13,000 people die as a result of exposure to hazards at work.^[1]

We might think of work-related conditions as involving physical injury, for example through trip hazards, use of machinery or toxic chemicals. However, 40% of work-related ill health takes the form of stress, depression or anxiety.^[2]

A new international standard, ISO 45001:2018, Occupational health and safety management systems, has been developed to help organizations improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks and create better, safer working conditions. The standard follows a similar structure to other ISO documents, such as ISO 9001. 

Interpreting the ISO standard

New guidance published by BSI provides assistance in implementing ISO 45001 within a UK organization. BS 45002-1:2018 (guidance on managing occupational health) and BS 45002-3:2018 (guidance on incident investigation) pick up on areas where British businesses may need extra assistance and support.

The guidance documents are designed to be used alongside ISO 45001. They use the same terminology, language and approach, aiming for plain English throughout and a user-friendly structure. The documents have been kept relatively brief, at around 12 pages, to make them more manageable.

Not a one-size-fits-all solution

BS 45002-1 and BS 45002-3 are not dogmatic in approach: you won't find a list of actions that must or must not be taken. They encourage a context-based approach, looking at the organization's current position and working on a plan for how to move forward that suits the individual needs of that business.

The guidance functions like a series of stepping stones for businesses to pick their way through the most useful parts of the ISO standard, ultimately leading to full certification if that is right for the organization. The organization identifies risks and opportunities and uses these to develop occupational health objectives and plans for how to achieve them.

The key priorities for an organization will be determined by individual characteristics of the business. This might include the nature of the activity. For example, it might be an industrial process involving hazardous substances or extreme temperatures or a trade that involves workers carrying out a lot of travel.

The employee profile is important too, as different approaches will need to be taken to safeguard health depending on factors like age, diversity, disability status and so on. It should be recognized that the needs of some employees will be more complex than others.

Will we need outside help?

A common concern among business leaders is that occupational health and safety will involve a lot of expensive consultants. This is far from the case. For most small or medium organizations, the risks will be easy to understand and manage internally. The guidance emphasizes the importance of choosing a proportionate response so the resource committed matches the scale of the problem.

Only in cases where a large organization is involved or the need is complex will an outside expert be required. For those who are new to occupational health and safety, it can be challenging to work out exactly what type of expert is required to assist with a problem. That is why BS 45002-1 includes an annex setting out key job roles within occupational health to make it easy to understand whom to call.

Managing workplace incidents

In the heat of the moment, an employer's response to a workplace incident can be confused. The priority should be making the environment safe and helping any injured people to get treatment, but sometimes concerns about documenting what happened can get in the way of this response.

The guidance to ISO 45001 helps businesses plan ahead for these situations, working through the steps they would take, such as calling emergency services, assessing risks, making safe and treating casualties, and planning to make the incident scene secure. There should be a pre-prepared matrix setting out whom to call if an employee is involved in an incident, such as emergency services, next of kin, regulators, managers and insurers.

The focus is on worker engagement and cultural change, moving away from a system whereby people worry about who will be blamed towards a situation in which the organization anticipates risks, reduces their likelihood and is fully prepared for dealing with any unfortunate events.

There is also help for communicating findings clearly and establishing ways to put changes into action safely and with input from employees. Trend analysis is emphasized as an important part of this process, looking at issues such as incident frequency and severity, locations of incidents and lost time. Through careful analysis, businesses can often detect underlying issues that contributed to an incident, which may be harder to spot than the immediate cause.

The value of consultation

Ultimately, the guidance documents are a team effort. The documents were developed by key stakeholders, including occupational health specialists, and they were then put out to consultation so any interested party could comment and contribute. This part of the process is hugely important and ensures that the final published documents are as robust and user-friendly as possible.