Health and Safety2 Health and Safety Introduction Health and safety has been among the things that all organizations are supposed to consider in their operations. The reason why considering this aspect is fundamental is that not only being a legal requirement, it makes an organization to realize various benefits including reduced costs, high commitment to work, reduced turnover rates and absenteeism, the proper relationship between the company and its stakeholders among others. To enhance health and safety in workplaces, organizations use various approaches. This paper aims to examine some of these tactics through basing the discussion on those used Boots Company. The paper shall also discuss equality and diversity by analyzing some of the measures which Boots has been employing to ensure it attains these aspects in its operations. The paper shall also examine how these two aspects of human resource influence strategic effect and how each approach is affected by both internal and external factors Approach to health and safety In its operations, boots has been enhancing health and safety for not only its employees but also for other stakeholders. The primary reason that makes this company emphasize on improving well-being is that it believes everyone is essential to its business and therefore enhancing their safety by ensuring they are healthy and secure has been fundamental in its operations.Susanne (2013, p, 148)affirms that businesses that implement safety and health measures realize constant success because all stakeholders experience no barriers to visiting their premises. This means Boots is likely to succeed because it prioritizes these aspects in its
Health and Safety3 operations by implementing various approaches aimed to ensure all stakeholders are protected from things that may harm them. To ensure everyone is safe, this company has constantly been challenging itself to make improvements in this aspect by implementing effective measures to ensure that the safety of all stakeholders is stronger than before. For this reason, it has been using various measures including policies aimed to ensure the management does what is right for the safety of all. One of these approaches is health and safety policy. To make this approach meet its purpose, the company has been updating and refreshing its health and safety policy to make it easier and clearer to read. According toSingh (2013, p. 61), companies should always update their approaches from time to time to identify what needs to be changed to address emerging factors fully. Through this strategy, Boots has been able to safeguard its employees by ensuring all necessary measures are taken to make them safe and healthy. While enhancing the well-being of its people, the company also uses health and safety document which aims at protecting colleagues, customers, and visitors. According toShahid & Mohd (2017, p. 59), organizations that review their approach to ensure the safety and health of its stakeholders are at the right status succeeds because things keep changing and therefore requires the policies to be revised. This company employs this idea because from time to time, it rechecks the changes that occur and adjusts its policies to ensure they match the changes. To enhance the effectiveness of the health and safety policy, the management has been considering various aspects such as principles of its approach, importance of both safety systems and behaviors, and safety governance. Its management also rechecks the manner in which it
Health and Safety4 monitors health and safety business risks and also continues to review it on a monthly basis through the Boots UK governance committee. The company has also established a safety culture plan because it trusts that proper safety management system cannot work in isolation. This culture has been enabling its management to find out various strategies which it can integrate on its day to day activities to enhance safety, and also incorporate its colleagues in implementing tactics which can improve their wellbeing and that of the customers. The company has established a positive relationship with various bodies including the Highland council to help in advancing its health and safety measures. From time to time, its management has been conducting numerous reviews in its stores with the aim of understanding the effectiveness of its safety systems and safety plan implementation. After undertaking this activity, it feeds the reviews back to its safety steering group to improve its safety strategies. The company has also implemented the concept of feeling good as one of the mechanisms of improving health and safety of its stakeholders. Some of the measures employed to attain this concept include implementing work well campaign, bike to work week, and other strategies such as offering wide products and services for its teams, safeguarding and preventing the policies it uses to help the young or venerable colleagues on how to stay safe, listening to the matters raised by its support among others. The other approach used by this company to advance health and safety in its work environment is through learning from any investigations.Dino (2015, p. 254)affirms that anything observed whether minor or major should be prioritized when making some of the decisions that affect the well-being of not only the employees but also for other stakeholders. By
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Health and Safety5 learning from any investigations, Boots attain knowledge concerning some of the factors which are likely to affect the health and safety of its employees and other stakeholders and take necessary measures to ensure they are protected. The company has also been using safety governance to ensure its people are protected. According toTanya et al (2014, p. 90), safety governance is kind of management or leadership that is focused on safeguarding other people from all factors which may harm them. Having this kind of approach is fundamental especially for companies that strive to prevent the wellbeing of its people because asPeter (2017, p. 25)affirms when the leaders trust that something is good, it becomes easy for the juniors to attain it. From these strategies, Boots seems to have been keen on enhancing health and safety of its customers and colleagues. The strategies are well formulated and appear to be effective because irrespective of different, they attempt to address the same issue: health and safety. According toLeeanne (2012, p. 58), implementing various measures to address the same issue plays a crucial role in addressing matters which affect business operations because if one of the strategies fail, the others work. Partnering with other agencies and reviewing its strategies on a regular basis is also an effective way of enhancing health and safety.Brian (2017, p. 35)affirms that health and safety issues keep changing and therefore organizations need to review their strategies to ensure they adjust them to address the changes. Partnering with other agencies to enhance health and safety can play a significant role in assisting this company in attaining assistance on matters that seem to challenge it in addressing the well-being of its customers and colleagues.
Health and Safety6 Additionally, including its colleagues in planning concerning health and safety measures is also an effective way of ensuring best strategies are implemented to enhance health and safety of its people. According toSambasivan (2012, p. 51), companies which include its stakeholders in implementing policies related to their wellbeing attain their goals because they get every detail that they need to consider in their decisions. Company’s approach to managing equality and diversity in the workplace According toMihaela-Lavinia (2017, p. 128), maintaining diversity and equality is fundamental in businesses because it enables the staff members to feel appreciated and accommodated in the workplace. From this case, Boots uses various measures to ensure these aspects are considered in their operations. One of these approaches is ensuring it addresses gender imbalance through women in IT.Prentice & Neve(2017) affirms that one of the factors that lead to lack of equality in workplaces is failing to consider women in some activities or areas of responsibility. By having this approach, Boots attains gender balance by encouraging women to play a role in IT related issues and other aspects which are rarely given to people of this gender. Ensuring that equality is considered in businesses is one of the factors that enhance performance and the proper relationship between the management, employees, and the society (Leilanie 2011, p. 128). To promote equality in its operations, this company ensures the pharmacists are part of the local community. When an organization hires people from the local community, it enhances its relationship with it and hence builds its reputation because the society views it as one which minds the wellbeing of the people around.
Health and Safety7 This company also ensures there is equality and diversity in its workplace through recruiting, retaining and promoting a diverse mix of colleagues who are representatives of diverse community. According to Loise (2014, p. 88), maintaining people of diverse backgrounds results to positive effect in businesses because it makes the workplace to have people of different ideas, opinions, and cultural beliefs. This aspect plays a crucial role in promoting good performance because it makes employees to learn from one another. Additionally, it also makes the society to develop a positive relationship with the company, which in turn, leads to increased sales and productivity. To enhance diversity and inclusion in Boots, the management has implemented workshop days which assists in giving the company a greater focus and various ways of refreshing its plans concerning this issue. According toJonathan & Leigh (2012, p. 28), diversity and equality succeed when there are proper mechanisms of identifying some of the measures which can be used to ensure all people in the workplace understand its importance. This company has also implemented various programmes targeted to improve the aspects of diversity and inclusion. Some of them comprise of a broad range of career programmes for its colleagues, actively delivering a work experience programme with communities that are traditionally hard to reach, and a diversity e-learning package. Based on this programmes, one can state that this company does not discriminate any community or individuals. It seeks to give opportunities to people according to their potentials, skills, and experiences.Anne (2012, P. 28)affirms that organizations which encourage high levels of inclusion in their operations tend to prosper in their business. Therefore, because Boots
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Health and Safety8 considers this aspect in its business, there are chances of attaining great success in various issues such as talent retention, low turnover rates, increased productivity and so forth. This company also has teams that teams that strive to inspire great ideas drive new plans forwards and assist in making Boots a fantastic place to work. This implies that Boots is dedicated to ensuring its workplace attracts people of varying opinions and ideas. The company also inspires its employees, train them, develop talents and also gives them opportunities of attaining career growth without discrimination by gender or ethnicity. How these two aspects of human resource can affect strategic effect and how each approach is affected by both internal and external factors According toAli (2013, P. 215), health and safety help in delivering strategic effect due to various reasons. For instance, it enhances the relationship between the company and the key stakeholders such as the customers and employees. When this relationship advances, the company performs better due to workforce and reputation. When a company set goals and objectives, it requires proper workforce and plans to attain them. These goals cannot be attained in a workforce where employees feel unsecure. Monika (2014, p. 99) affirms that in organizations where safety to employees is not guaranteed, the workers tend to underperform because they pay much attention to what is likely to affect their wellbeing than the tasks they undertake. This means it is essential for organizations to ensure their employees feel safe by implementing strategies which can prevent them from all factors that are likely to harm them. Health in the workplace also has a significant impact in determining whether an organization will attain its strategic goals or not.Rupert (2015, p. 56)affirms that when
Health and Safety9 employees are healthy, they fully commit their efforts to tasks, but when they are unhealthy, they spend a lot of time seeking for medical attention. Lack of promoting health in workplaces also leads to high absenteeism, which in turn affect performance.Viktoriya (2016, p. 56)affirms that giving employees a lot of sick offs impacts the possibility of attaining goals because it leads to lack of sufficient workforce. Enhancing health and safety plays a crucial role in delivering strategic effect because it makes organizations to have favorable working environments. According toSmith (2010, p. 68), companies attain their goals when they have a work environment which encourages its staff members to commit their efforts towards better performance fully. Because health and safety are among the significant determinants of the work environment, they determine whether employees will be willing to dedicate to their tasks, and therefore means that they have a significant effect on strategic planning and other factors that can make an organization to attain success. The level of health and safety in businesses control risks and boost businesses.Halili (2015, p. 469)affirms that low levels of risks in businesses increase productivity because it makes all people in the organization to have a common focus and also to participate in their tasks without fears. Health and safety in organizations aid in minimizing healthcare and insurance costs, and also decreasing the risks of lawsuits and federal fines. According toNadia (2017, p. 89), businesses have the responsibilities of ensuring their employees are safe and free from all factors that may make them to be infected with diseases. When they fail to comply with this requirement, they may end up spending a lot of money in paying fine, compensating injured
Health and Safety10 employees and paying hospital bills. This hinders success in businesses because the money which would be used in other important things is used in addressing other unplanned issues. Health and safety also have a strategic impact on businesses because it enables a company to enhance its reputation. According toWilliam (2013, p. 146), companies associated with high levels of safety and health-related issues have a bad reputation because they are seen as ones which do not care about the wellbeing of their stakeholders. Reputation plays a significant role, especially when hiring and therefore it is crucial for businesses to ensure they portray a good picture to the public. William (2013, p. 58)affirms that employees who are confident concerning their safety at work tend to be highly satisfied with their bosses, and therefore have increased levels of morale. When workers have high levels of morale, they strive to not only impress their employers through better performance but also to make themselves happy through attaining their career goals. Having health and safety considering also has a strategic effect in businesses because according toRupert (2015, p. 59), one of the strategic aspects in businesses includes targeting better performance through identifying the responsibilities of every person. Considering these aspects is one of the factors which make the management to make employees understand what they are responsible for when it comes to the matters safety. Although companies strive to ensure these aspects are considered in their operations, there are various internal and external factors which influence their success. According toDino (2015, p. 255), one of the internal factors which affect the aspects concerning the wellbeing of employees is lack of enough resources. For the safety and health aspects to be enhanced, the
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Health and Safety11 company should have enough money to meet the costs of safeguarding the staff members from harm. Some of the costs incurred, in this case, comprise of installing safety equipment and purchasing safety gear. Training is also another aspect which influences safety and health in workplaces.Alan & Nicole (2010, P. 56)affirms that for organizations to succeed in the measures that they have established to enhance health and safety in workplaces, there must be proper knowledge concerning these aspects. For this knowledge to be attained, the management should ensure their staff members undergo training to understand various things such as how to avoid risks, the role they should play in promoting safety and healthy environment, what they should do in case an emergency occurs and so forth. The other internal factor which affects health and safety in businesses is employee behavior and their understanding concerning change. This is because for health and safety measures to implemented, a change must occur, and because employees sometimes reject change because of various factors such as fear for the unknown, implementing these measures can be challenging in some cases. This means for organizations to succeed in enhancing the well-being of their workers, they should first inform their staff members concerning the strategies that they want to implement and the likely changes that may result. One of the external factors that influence health and safety in organizations is legal requirements. This is because the law requires all organizations to have health and safety measures in place, meaning the management should not take it as an option but something which they must implement.
Health and Safety12 The other external factor which influences this aspect is public demand. For organizations to attain reputation, they must portray that they can enhance safety and security of their employees. This means because reputation plays a crucial role in the success of businesses, every organization that wants to prosper in its business must implement measures that protect not only its employees but also other stakeholders from any form of hazard. They should also implement this measure to be able to attract many and potential applicants when vacancies arise because people like working with organizations which guarantee their safety. Conclusion From this analysis, it is clear that Boots uses various approaches to ensure health and safety are enhanced in its operations. Some of the approaches, in this case, comprise of using various policies, implementing a culture of health and safety, training its staff members concerning this aspects, learning from investigations, refreshing and reviewing its strategies from time to time among others. The company has also been working to ensure there is equality and diversity in its operations. Some of the measures used to attain this aspect comprise of implementing Women IT programmes which aid in ensuring there is no gender discrimination in allocation of tasks and responsibilities. Other measures include ensuring the pharmacists are part of the local community, and hiring, retaining and encouraging a diverse mix of colleagues who are representatives of diverse community. These two aspects of human resource can have strategic effect in business operations because they have a significant impact on various key areas which determine the chances of success. For instance, they determine employee turnover rates, absenteeism, relationship with the
Health and Safety13 community, costs incurred and so forth. Various internal and external factors influence each of these factors. Some of the internal factors which impact them comprise employee knowledge, the relationship between the management and employees, the level of training, resources available among others. On the other hand, some of the external factors comprise of legal requirements, the relationship between the company and the public among others.
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