Employee safety
Introduction
Employee safety is one of the main concerns of human resource management since it entirely focuses on the well being of workers at their work stations. It aims to ensure that minimal or no injuries happen in the workplace. The occupational safety and health act (OSHA) was formulated and passed in 1970. The idea was to create the occupational safety and health administration that is tasked with overseeing health and safety in the workplace. Contrary to the belief that OSHA only applies to production, manufacturing, and construction companies, it should be noted that there are OSHA laws that are set for offices, and organizations should enforce them. For this instance, our focus will be on a soft drinks production companies and highlighting how OSHA is implemented.
Working at heights
Working at heights is sometimes overlooked in the production sector since there are only a few activities that might require one to climb. However, there are activities such as maintenance of the production halls and storage tanks that require one to climb up for a significant distance. To ensure that persons carrying out such activities are safe, the company needs to set up a fall protection program. This includes identifying areas where fall protection is necessary, providing fall protection equipment, training employees, and periodically inspecting and auditing the program to ensure it is effective. When setting up new structures, it would be advisable to consult safety professionals for guidance on things to consider beforehand.
Path designation
In such a company, there is a lot of movement of machinery, mainly forklifts, all over the place during most work hours. If not controlled, a lot of accidents could be happening every day. That is why there is a need to properly designate paths for pedestrians by marking out routes that they should use when walking around the organization. These paths need to be at the edge of the roads/pathways and should be visible to both the pedestrian and the forklift driver. In production halls, there are multiple wet surfaces, areas with shattered glass, and probably even holes. These areas need to be mapped out, and pathways should be mapped out to avoid such surfaces, hence reducing risks of accidents.
Emergency exits
Every building and structure is required to have a means of exiting in the event of an emergency. Such exit points should be strategically positioned and there should be no distraction or obstructions that may prevent a person from accessing them with ease. There should be emergency exit signs at all those points that are visible from any point of the room. In production halls, ensure that such exits are multiple. The doors to such exits should be regularly surfaced to ensure they are easy to open, and they should not be locked or fastened. Once a person is hired in the organization, they need to be given a tour and shown all the emergency exit doors and points for preparation.
Noise
A lot of noise is produced in production halls when the production process is in progress. The machines used are usually loud and occasionally, a glass bottle can get shuttered and the sound produced is a bit loud. The noise produced in such halls can get to upto 200 decibels, and these noise levels can be damaging to a human’s eardrum. To safeguard employees from this, they need to be provided with sound protective equipment such as noise cancellation earbuds or headphones. Also, when setting up the production halls, the organization should ensure that the walls have the ability to block most of the noise produced from going out.
Chemical handling
Production raw materials are often hazardous, and a lot of precautions must be taken when handling such materials. For instance, some of the raw materials used for production in the organization contain a high concentration of hydrochloric acid. They can be fatal to a person if handled without care. Also, there are cleaning materials that are used and also contain chemicals that can be harmful if mishandled. In this regard, there is a need to ensure that such materials are stored in designated areas and persons accessing them are restricted. Training and protective equipment such as hand gloves should also be offered to persons handling the materials for their physical protection. There should be proper procedures set to dispose of the materials too to ensure human and environmental safety.
Personnel Selection Inventory-Form 3S
Some people are just clumsy naturally, and it is important to identify them before giving them any roles. One way of doing that is by issuing the personnel selection test that seeks to assess a person’s consciousness to safety. The test results show the degree to which a person relates their own behavior to consequences that happen around. With this, the employer is able to determine persons who will hardly own up to their mistakes and are not careful when working, hence at a greater risk of getting an accident while working. Such employees are either assigned roles that are in areas with low risks or are not hired at all. Persons who pass this test are regarded as responsible and tent to exercise caution and be aware of their environment as they work; hence the chances of them causing or being in an accident are low.
Protective equipment
OSHA standards dictate that employees should be provided with personal protective equipment, especially those of eye, face and respiratory protection to ensure they are not exposed to hazards. In the production halls, persons manning or controlling the process should be provided with eye shields to protect their eyes from the glass shatters that may fly. Those at the yard also need such gear to protect their eyes from the dust, or hard hats to ensure their heads are protected from materials that might fall from above.
Sanitation
Sanitation is an essential aspect of ensuring hygiene and health standards for a human being. At workplaces, sanitation should be highly observed and measures should be put to ensure the same. For instance, there should be the provision of adequate toilets in the organization. These facilities should be cleaned on a daily basis and should be divided and designated for males, females and persons living with disabilities. There should be venim control equipment installed in all enclosed spaces to ensure there are no pests, rodents, or unwanted animals such as birds in such spaces to ensure the hygiene standards are met. Portable water should also be provided for all employees.
Housekeeping
Housekeeping means making the work environment neat and clean. Workers are entitled to having clean workstations and organized spaces around them. Crates should not be mounted all the way to the brim of the roof because, on top of them obstructing the sprinkler head, they leave the room less aerated and dark, hence making it uncomfortable for workers stationed there. Also, slippages should be wiped as soon as possible to ensure the place does not get slippery. However, it is important to note that housekeeping is not necessarily a job for those in the cleaning department. Instead, every person has the responsibility of ensuring that their workstation is clean and free of such risks.
Drugs and alcohol
A research conducted on non-medicinal use of drugs in the workplace shows that overdoses while on the job were 217 in the year 2016, and this was a 32% increase from 2015. Employers should have a clear policy on the consumption of alcohol and use of drugs in the workplace. This should also include working under the influence, that is not taking the drugs at the workplace per se but rather addressing those who come to work having taken the drugs outside, but they are still high. Such behavior puts them and other employees at risk because if, for instance, a person was driving a forklift while drunk, they will most probably cause an accident.
First aid kits
Accidents are prone to happen, and however, such a person may try to mitigate risks, it is impossible to make all of them go away. Therefore, organizations should be well equipped to deal with accidents that might happen to an employee. One way of doing this is by ensuring that there are adequate first aid kits on-site, and they are distributed and kept in strategic, accessible points. They should be fully equipped with the standard required items for a first aid kit and regularly inspected to ensure this holds. Also, having a few advanced kits with more first aid items is encouraged, and it might prove useful if a more severe accident happens.
Fire extinguishers
In a place where there is a lot of electric equipment that uses a lot of electrical energy, fire accidents have a high probability of occurrence. To prepare for those, the company should ensure there is adequate fire equipment installed all around the organization. They should ensure that this equipment is on site, easily accessible, and all employees are trained on how to use them if the need arises. Also, ensure that the right type of fire extinguisher is installed, considering the environment. For instance, it would be improper to install a water mist fire extinguisher around electrical devices such as computers because even though they might put out the fire, they will leave the machine destroyed.
Standards for machine guards and other power tools
In the production hall, the most significant and bare moving part of the machinery is the conveyer belt. If a person is not careful when around them, they can suffer injuries like getting their fingers crushed or even having their hands amputated. Safeguards need to be put in place to ensure that such accidents do not happen. This also applies to other machines in the production hall that may cause such harm or even prove to be fatal. The safeguards could be as simple as having an actual guard manning the place or having caution signs. When in the yard or walking outside, one should wear a reflector jacket to ensure they are visible to forklift drivers, even when walking on designated pathways.
Electrical safety
In the production industry, almost 90% of machinery uses electrical power to function. There are a lot of electrical power lines and wires running around the place and a lot of precaution needs to be taken when handling them. For starters, it should be ensured that such wires are never left bare. They should be well insulated and should only run in the wire trunks. If they have to run on the ground or anywhere outside the wire trunks, the area should be dry and should be in a place where there is a lot of human activity. OSHA electrical standards need to be maintained to avoid accidents such as electric shocks, fire, or explosion.
Road safety
Truck drivers are involved in the distribution of finished products. In most cases, their welfare, health and safety are disregarded or misinterpreted since they are rarely in the organization. However, it is important to acknowledge they are also part of the workforce and need to have their safety concerns addressed. They are supposed to be equipped with cargo handling gear and equipment to ensure they are comfortable handling the products, especially when in transit or when they arrive at their destinations. Also, they need to have their vehicles occasionally serviced and awarded road worthiness certifications, and adopt the us department of transportation standards.
Adequate training
Above all measures that can be put in place to ensure employee safety at the workplace, it would all be in vain if they are not trained adequately. Offering refresher courses periodically on work safety and how a person is expected to behave at their workstation is important. It ensures that the employees are constantly reminded of their role in ensuring safety at the workplace and what they should do in the event an accident happens. This should especially be emphasized for casual labourers since they are the ones who are usually at more risk of accidents than the rest of the employees.
Employer consideration
- Government guidelines
My employer follows the government’s set guidelines and regulation of safety at the workplace, especially those set for a production environment. To face and resolve OSHA issues, the management has employed a work safety professional. The safety manager ensures that the employer is complying with federal regulations and procedures are periodically assessed and revised to ensure they are up to date and meet the current demand. Since the organization has more than ten employees and can be regarded as a high hazard industry, it is subject to inspection. The employer ensures they have complied with most of the set standards.
- Provision of PPE
Accidents are bound to happen, but in most cases, employers are in a position to prevent them from happening. Causes of accidents in the workplace are classified in three categories; employee error, equipment insufficiency and procedure insufficiency. My employer has put effort in trying to subdue risks that fall under the last two categories. There has been provision of enough personal protective equipment at the workplace and a number of hazards have been put up. However, some safety devices are inpoerative and for newly added equipment and operations, clear work procedures and training has not been provided to concerned employees.
- Use of personality tests
Use of personality tests has become a common and necessary thing to do to understand a person’s character and way of thinking. Most of these tests are administered when hiring a person. For safety purposes, the hr department, in conjuction with the safety department administers a personnel selection inventory form 3s. This is a test tailor made to assess an employee’s safety consciousness by measuring how they percieve the connection between their actions and consequences. If a person scores low on this test, they are considered to be at a greater risk for accidents and are either assigned to posts that are less accident-prone or not hired altogether. This ensures risks due to employee error go down significantly.
- Safety audits
When accidents happen in an organization, there are financial and legal repurcussions that might be faced. For instance, if a person dies from a work accident, the employer usually gets a heavy fine from the federal government and also faces jailterm. To prevent this, our employer conducts regular internal safety audits before and after the external audit by the organization safety and health administration. Employees are observed as they carry out their duties, notified of unsafe acts they might have, and finally a follow up is done during the next audit to see whether they have changed. This ensures that unsafe practices that one is doing consciously or unconsciously are identified and corrected before an accident happens.
- training
Above all things, training has to be done to ensure that workers are aware of accident risks and know how to ensure they do not happen. Our organiozation has put effort in training employees on safety procedures, but the trainings are not sufficient. Employees are trained when they are being oriented, and then offered annual refreshment courses. This is insufficient because new equiment and procedures are introduced over the year and since employees do not know the safety procedures around them, they tend to be at a greater risk of accident. Also, offering more comprehensive trainings is important and the hr department can certainly improve on that.
- Noise
A lot of noise is produced in production halls when the production process is in progress. The machines used are usually loud and occasionally, a glass bottle can get shuttered and the sound produced is a bit loud. In the case of my organization, the management has followed OSHA standards on noise management. However, there are areas where noise levels are not indicated and if a person stands there when production is not ongoing, they are not aware of the noise levels or the impending danger that they are in in the event production starts all of a sudden.
Conclusion
Safety at work is important for every employee, regardless of their position in the organization. Relevant departments, under the guidance of the human resource department are obligated to ensure that work safety standards are enforced and strictly followed. Organizations are encouraged to conduct regular internal audits to ascertain how well their measures are working and probably identify areas that could be improved. There is also a need to comply with OSHA standards at the workplace to guarantee health and safety.