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As previously reported by Unionsafety, (8th November 2012), the HSE is currently revamping it’s website and the information and guidance it provides for businesses, in order to simplify their understanding of health and safety practices, legislation and their responsibilities. A series of new guidance documents are being rolled out, such as ‘Health and safety made simple - The basics for your business’ and ‘Health and safety training: A brief guide’; both of which can be downloaded from the HSE or from the Unionsafety E-Library Datatabase.
The Government has decided that so-called ‘low-risk’ areas require little in the way of health and safety inspections and appearts happy to allow places such as office based environments to go uninspected and largely to self regulate when it comes to health and safety protection of the employees working in such environments. To this end, the HSE has produced a new tool, previously reported by this website and available on the HSE website in a section called ‘The health and safety toolbox: How to control risks at work’ This includes several ‘interactive tools’ aimed at different workplace environments: Below is a personal perspective by Unionsafety Editor, Chris Ingram on the new website tool: The office environment risk assessment tool is simply to use, but is rather bland in its wording. For example, it does not specifically refer directly to health issues as stress, WRULD, and mental health; but it does cover activities which can result in workers suffering from the above health conditions. In the risk assessment tool section entitled ‘Health of workers in the office environment’, the wording used is typical of an approach which does not easily translate for the non-safety aware individual manager into understanding the causal effects of particular work activities resulting in illnesses such as work related stress and work related upper limb disorders. The wording is not at all informative.
Given that this is an on-line tool which can be archived and/or printed off, it lacks one major feature which would benefit the user and make this tool invaluable – links to guidance on the remedial processes and actions required by the findings of the risk assessment. For example, when it comes to DSE, there could be a link to the various guidance documents provided by the HSE in dealing with the issues involved; be it the correct seating posture and workstation layout or in the case of call centres to the document on avoiding work related stress through appropriate user-defined rst breaks. That said, the tool is a good introduction to risk assessment that a novice safety rep/manager can use and learn from. Whether or not employers will benefit and make UK workplaces safer as a result is doubtful, given the attitude of the government that health and safety is mere ‘red tape’ and the sad history of the failure of previous HSE/Government sponsored websites designed to support and educate UK businesses into understanding their health and safety responsibilities. Source: HSE Go to Unionsafety E-Library Database here You can go to the Risk Assessment Tool for Offices here See also: Radical Revamp For Workplace Safety And Health Advice Launched By HSE |
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There is also a series of example risk assessments, including working environments such as cleaning in offices, call centre working, and Motor vehicle repair shops.
The words ‘All staff could be affected by factors such as lack of job control, bullying, not knowing their role etc.’ will hardly bring to mind work relates stress to the hardened manager who does not believe that the health and welfare of his/her employees is at risk if the office environment, work processes and equipment is not regularly assessed, adjusted in an optimum fashion and monitored.