Why You Need a Comprehensive Health and Safety Plan

Planning is key to achieving good health and safety performance. Without a clear and firm plan in place, your business will run into the risk of serious incidents that you will be liable for. Moreover, reviewing your plan annually ensures you are keeping up-to-date with any changes that may impact your business.

5 reasons for developing a health and safety plan:

1. Compliance – Every business needs to be compliant in order to operate. In the HSWA2015, a business has a primary duty of care for the health and safety of workers and others influenced by its work. A health and safety plan will ensure you have followed legal obligations and shows that you have taken the right steps in creating a safer workplace.

2. Reduce the risks – Risks to health and safety arise from people being exposed to hazards in the workplace. Risk management in your health and safety plan helps you take the appropriate steps to prevent workplace injuries or death. By properly managing your health and safety risks, you protect your workers and avoid and mitigate losses.

3. Helps you prepare – The reality is that incidents and accidents are inevitable. However, whenever you are faced with calamity in the workplace, having a health and safety plan will allow you to act swiftly and respond with the correct formal procedures.

4. Keeps everyone safe – You as a business are responsible for the health and safety of everyone that enters your workplace, that includes visitors, volunteers and contractors. A health and safety plan reassures everyone that you are prioritising the safety of anyone who walks through your door. Plus if an incident were to occur, you will be fully prepared to take action.

5. Retain staff – Putting your workers’ health and safety above all else leads to a more productive workplace. A strong health and safety plan proves to workers that you are committed to keeping them safe. They will feel more valued, motivated and happier knowing they are being looked after at work.

What should be included in a health and safety plan?

A health and safety plan is more than just a piece of document. It is core to how you manage all aspects of health and safety, and helps everybody understand how the workplace should operate.

Before putting your plan together, you must be familiar with how your health and safety is currently performing. This can be achieved through an audit or review. Following the review, the information gathered can then help you determine the health and safety priorities over the next 12 months.

Your health and safety plan should include, but not limited to:

• Specific goals and objectives you want to achieve
• Risk management
• Emergency management
• Roles and responsibilities
• How you will measure and track performance

Unsure about where to begin with developing a health and safety plan? Contact Working Wise today – we can conduct a review for your business and work together to implement a rigorous health and safety plan!