Ensure a Safe Workplace

This document discusses the importance of ensuring a safe workplace and provides insights into risk management and hazard mitigation. It explores the legislations, policies, and practices that organizations need to follow to create a secure work environment. The focus is on the Australian Hardware store opening a new outlet in Hobart, Tasmania, and the steps they need to take to comply with workplace health and safety regulations.

Running head: ENSURE A SAFE WORKPLACE
ENSURE A SAFE WORKPLACE

ENSURE A SAFE WORKPLACE 1
Table of Contents
Assessment Task 1...........................................................................................................................2
Assessment Task 2...........................................................................................................................5
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Assessment Task 1
Activity 1
A company needs to have a plan for prevention of risks and threats in the workplace for the
employees to enjoy a secure environment where they can work effectively and put in their full
potential (Garg, 2017). The Australian Hardware store will construct a new outlet in Hobart,
Tasmania and that store has to commission a WHS Management System in order to ensure safety
for the workers from the very first day. The present store follows certain rules and regulations
relating to the risk management and hazard identification processes that has to be adopted by the
new store as well and that is what this report presents. Implementation of legislations of the state
like the Work Health and Safety Act 2012, the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012,
Equipment (Public Safety) Regulations 2007, and many more are to be done in the store in
Tasmania in order to comply with the codes (Garg, 2017). The codes of compliance guides the
management system to introduce codes for confined spaces, first aid provisions in the place of
work, communicating work health and safety languages, preventing the circumstances that leads
to falls in the general construction, etc. For further improvement of the management systems in
the new store, the managers, contractors as well as the employees who are to be appointed needs
to have the risk management processes embedded with their orientation procedures (O'Leary &
Hunt, 2016). The senior managers are responsible for the cooperation and consultation of the
workers for moments of emergency and for personal safety as well. Finally, the human resource
department are to review and report all financial and budget oriented aspects that have been
initiated for the WHS processes.

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Activity 2
The legislations and policies that have been adopted by the new store of Australian Hardware in
Hobart, Tasmania have to be operated with the help of a positive and efficient risk management
team who will be responsible for the reviewing and reporting of all the possible areas where
there is a chance for risk to occur (Dollard, Dormann, Tuckey & Escartín, 2017). While a Chief
Risk Officer can manage the risks internally, an external auditor can locate the risks that have
survived even after the internal hazard mitigation. Consulting with the workers on the OHS
regulations on a monthly basis can be done to maintain a positive environment in the workplace
(Dollard, Dormann, Tuckey & Escartín, 2017). The employees, stakeholders and the contractors
have definite tasks to perform for the mitigation of risks like fulfilling individual tasks in a safe
way, complying with the risk management plans of the store and of the state, acquiring
knowledge of the WHS issues, reporting any risks or injuries to the responsible authorities,
looking after the fact that no personal conduct affects another person in an adverse way,
understanding the nature of operations and ensuring mechanisms of communication for all, etc
(Carden, Boyd & Valenti, 2015). The workers of the store can be trained further to act in the
proper way when an emergency arrives. They have to be provided with knowledge of the plan of
escape and the place of refuge during an emergency. The management team has to put in their
best efforts in order to truthfully inform them about previous incidents and train them to mitigate
fatality (Loeppke et al. 2015).
Activity 3
The Australian Hardware store that is to be constructed in Hobart, Tasmania can have better
potential to survive in the field of business as they can learn and adopt from their store in

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Geelong (Burke, 2016). The procedures and policies that the Geelong store lacked can be taken
up the store in Tasmania in relation to the identification of hazards and the management of risks
in the place of work. They can employ measures that can safeguard the employees from potential
hazards as well as can train them to cope better in situations of emergency and risk. They can
evaluate the following processes and can implement them accordingly:
 Support and supervision of the employees for a safe work environment (Burke, 2016).
 Ensuring the fact that there are no employees whose addiction to drugs or alcohol can
affect other people in the store.
 Encouraging workers for healthy work practices.
 Participation commitment by the supervisors and staff as well as managers in an equal
way.
 Assessments done for controlling of risks (Bonnivier, Brooke-Lander & Lewis, 2015).
 Requesting for external advices from auditors for better management of threats.
 Following the hierarchy of controlling risks through elimination, substitution, isolation,
controlling aspects of engineering, personal protection of clothes and the equipments too
and finally administrative control over limitation of hazards by rotation of jobs and
reduction of employees who can access hazardous areas.
These conditions can be taken and employed by the new store manager in the Tasmania store and
they have to be followed effectively by the contractors and employees of the store (Bonnivier,
Brooke-Lander & Lewis, 2015). Then only the WHS management system in the store can be
fully functional and be completely successful too. The focus has to be on the benefits and
security of the employees and not always on the financial gains to be earned. Prioritising these
aspects can help a store build a plan that is perfect.

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Activity 4
The store in Tasmania has to employ an expert who can manage the risks and mitigate the
potential threats at the workplace (Ross, 2018). The following steps help to reassure all the
employees who work at the store and aims to apply for recruitment in the future to understand
the WHS Management System of the store under the expert supervision of the superior
managers:
 The expert has been successful in identifying objectives and aims relating to the
management of risks and has introduced them to the employees at the time of their
orientation (Ross, 2018).
 The expert has adopted the legislations of the state and of the company to control all
work related threats and hazards.
 The management team has initiated a training program for the employees to help them
acquire the knowledge of action at the time of an emergency (Bong et al. 2015).
 Communication and consultation between the management and the employees and the
contractors too regarding personal safety in clear and straight.
 Compensation for injuries, management of injuries and resolving the disputes are the
other initiative taken by the superior managers for the employee safety.
 Policies of rehabilitation after a drastic injury and employing a rehabilitation officer to
look over the issue have been done as well for the betterment of the workplace (Bong et
al. 2015).

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Assessment Task 2
Question 1
The store in question, which has to be discussed in terms of Workplace Health and Safety, is the
Australian Hardware store that has decided to open a new store in Hobart, Tasmania and that has
to be free from the hazards that risk the safety and security of the employees (Osman, Awang,
Hassan & Yusof, 2015). Therefore, for properly conducting methods of management of risks in
the workplace, the store managers and owners have to decide on certain policies and legislations
that have to be initiated within the work field. First of all, all organizations conducting business
have to follow a few legislations and acts like:
 Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004
 Dangerous Goods Act 1985
 Equipment (Public Safety) Act 1994
 Accident Compensation Regulations 2012, etc.
They also have to comply with certain codes of conduct that will ensure ethical consideration of
the health of employees in a specific workplace (Osman, Awang, Hassan & Yusof, 2015). These
involves codes regarding confined spaces, providing first aid to the employees in the store,
manual tasks that are hazardous in nature, environment of the place of work and the amenities
present, managing of materials like asbestos in the store, and many more. These and the WHS
policies that ensure workplace safety according to legal as well as ethical obligations help to
preserve the wellbeing of the employees (O'Leary & Hunt, 2016). Practices like Return to Work
and managerial supervision makes the wok environment safe for the employees as well as the
contractors of the store in question.

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Question 2
While the section above have already focused on the presence of acts, policies as well as
legislations in an organizational context for the management and mitigation of risks and hazards,
this section will further elaborate specific policies and practices for ensuring a safe workplace
that is non-threatening in both a physical as well as a psychological context (Loeppke et al.
2015). All the steps taken for the mitigation of risks can be further specified into segments. The
other kinds of policies, procedures and practices that is initiated and operated in a workplace are
as follows:
 Risk management policies like the identification of risks to strategising tools of
mitigation (Loeppke et al. 2015). Securing the help of the employees and the
management team is required for the success of this step.
 Material Safety and Data Sheets are to be considered for the construction of practices of
working that are safe.
 Preparing the employees for any kind of emergencies as a part of orientation.
 Procedures of emergency have to be introduced like vacating the store when required,
reaching the points of assembly on time, etc (Komljenovic, Loiselle & Kumral, 2017).
 Notifying the people of the store about critical incidents and providing first aid is
required as well.
 Providing a plan of WHS management through staff handbook as well as documentation
can be done too.
 The workers can be trained to act quickly in situations of risk (Hofmann, Burke & Zohar,
2017).

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 External auditing can be conducting for the management of risks that are not mitigated
through internal operations.
Question 3
A hazard at any kind of workplace can be defined as something, which results in the physical or
mental injury of an employee in that environment (Zwetsloot et al. 2017). It can also be called
occupational hazard as the setting where it happens is the place of work. Hazards can be
physical, chemical, accidental, etc. and risks the safety of a worker, therefore, a store like
Australian Hardware has to keep a keen eye to locate any possible hazards or risks and have to
employ policies to mitigate them (Zwetsloot et al. 2017). Identification of any potential threat
will lead to its management, which will be a positive impact on the people of the organization,
the customers, the assets of the firm as well as the environment. Policies that need to be
implemented for the safety of the employees have to be done with their involvement in it (Shea
et al. 2016). According to the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, the hazards can be
identified as toxic materials, tools that are sharp or heavy, personal clothing, and many more,
which can be eliminated or substituted for controlling the risks. Risks can be managed in the
store by:
 A collaborative approach from all the stakeholders can be conducted to analyse risks.
 Utilizing compliance codes as well as the OHS legislations to consult the employees
about risks.
 Evaluating areas of risks with the managers and introducing procedures to change them.
 Conducting reviews on an annual basis (Shea et al. 2016).

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 Treating the risks categorically according to their impact and reducing them in a cost-
effective way.
Question 4
The section above have already discussed the ways to identify and eradicate hazards and risks
from the Australian Hardware store so that their new store in Hobart, Tasmania can be a model
store where workplace risks are minimum to zero percent (Saha, Perera & Murphy, 2017).
However, this has to be done in a hierarchal way so that the most dangerous ones are treated
first. This hierarchy according to the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 involves the
elimination of toxic materials and hazardous plants, substitution of toxic items with less harmful
materials, isolating the toxic substances with fume cupboards or enclosure of sound, controlling
the engineering processes, methods for the personal safety of workers have to be applied and the
administration has to control the employees from accessing the hazardous objects present in the
work field (Raineri, Mejía-Morelos, Francoeur & Paillé, 2016). For further control of the risks
and to employ the structure of the hierarchy in an efficient manner the store can follow the steps
that have been listed below:
 Monitoring issues like elimination, isolation, substitution, and updating policies for
mitigation of hazards that have been identified.
 Updating the risk treatment profiles to the management to build an effective framework
to form strategies (Saha, Perera & Murphy, 2017).
 Human resource and financial policies like safe travelling, WHS policy, equity or
discrimination policy, etc., have to be considerate of risk control.

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 Reports have to be presented on a monthly basis on staff meetings, budgeting processes
and business planning for risk management.
Question 5
The store that is to be constructed by the Australian Hardware store in Hobart, Tasmania needs
to have managers responsible for the proper management of risks and hazards (Hayes, 2015).
The store manager or the WHS manager have to be present at the location of work at all times to
identify risk as well as manage risks that are reported to the by the employees or the contractors.
The Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) are recruited in the workplace and
according to the WHS legislations and they are responsible to consult with the workers about
their health and safety (Gupta, & Jain, 2015). The store can also appoint a Health and Safety
Committee and employ representative of that committee who can manage and regulate workers
as well as agreements of safety. They are to be the representatives of the store owners and
responsible for the risk management procedures and elimination tools as well. The Chief Risk
Officer is present at the Geelong to identify and review risks and a similar position have to be
present in the new store as well (Gupta, & Jain, 2015). Superior managers provide effective
assurance systems to the workers who have been afflicted with a hazard or risk and are suffering
mentally or physically.

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