Introduction
It is important to be conscious of the barriers to good health and safety within the workplace. Spotting and resolving barriers early significantly helps to maintain good standards, and establish a positive culture towards health and safety.
Possible barriers to good standards of health and safety include…
Complexity
Legislation and regulations can be difficult to understand. The shear quantity of requirements can become overwhelming.
This can lead to poor communication, ultimately resulting in employees becoming unhappy with the amount, type and quality of the information they receive.
Tailoring information specifically to each role can reduce the complexity of health and safety within the workplace.
Competing and Conflicting Demands
Production output vs safe operation. This is often how such barriers manifests within the workplace.
Managers demanding production output whilst safety officers demand workers follow safe systems of work. This always leads to a conflict in the decision making of workers. Often at the compromise of health and safety.
Planning what is to be communicated and when is key to reducing competing and conflicting demands on a workforce. Creating ways of working that require managers / supervisors from different department to collaborate on what is to be communicated and when, proves really useful in structuring additional or changes in demands.
Behavioral Issues
Peoples behavior towards health and safety can become a serious risk to an organisation. Like in any other discipline, changing behavior is one the biggest challenges in health and safety.
Developing peoples understanding of why health and safety is important for their specific work is a strategic method to gain their buy in.
Getting people on board is key to building momentum and establishing change within an active workforce.