Strategies to Prevent Smoking in the Workplace

This report discusses the impact of smoking on work health and safety, steps to prevent smoking, and recommendations to control smoking as a problem at the workplace. It covers the creation of non-smoking policies, education on the benefits of quitting smoking, and smoking cessation programs. The recommendations include warning labels, mass media, prevention efforts, smoke-free policies, and school interventions.

RUNNING HEAD: Human Resource Management 0
Human Resource Management

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Work health and safety..........................................................................................................................2
Steps taken to prevent smoking.............................................................................................................3
Recommendations to control smoking as a problem at the workplace...................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The human resource management is a strategic approach for the effective management of
organizational members to help business to enhance productivity and gain competitive
advantage. It describes management and development of members at an organization. The
work health and safety is promoted at an organization for the efficient utilization of
resources. In order to promote workplace health and safety, certain issues are faced by an
organization. Smoking is the major issue taken in this report to discuss work health and
safety. The consequences of health issues impact the performance of an organization. This
report discusses the strategies to prevent smoking. These strategies comprise non-smoking
policies, education and cessation programmes. Further, the recommendations are defined to
control smoking which is considered the problem at workplaces.
Work health and safety
It is the responsibility of the organization to provide workplace health and safety. It is
required to provide information and training to the employees in order to ensure health and
safety at the workplace. It helps to reduce mental and work-related illness. It equally reduces
absence of employees. It promotes a positive health and safety culture. It encourages an
environment to work safely without any risk to their health. The employees have also right to
consult with employers about their health and safety matters (Winickoff. et.al. 2009). The
common health and safety issue faced by the contemporary organizations is smoking. It is
the most avoidable cause of disease, illness and health. Smoking decreases productivity and
increases sick days.
The health implications of smoking seem to be endless on the members of an organization.
Smoking causes disease such as cancer and damages to lungs, heart, veins etc. the smoking
does not badly affect body but mind as well. It has negative effects on the work performance.
The smoke of cigarette comprises 7000 chemicals and 60 cancer-causing chemicals. It causes
damage to every part of the body. It also results in the long term diseases which affects the
respiratory, cardiac and immune system. The smoking is highly known to damage physical
health which is a major factor in cancer and cardiac diseases. It also declines the
performance of the brain. It has been observed that smokers perform poorly and have bad
mental ability overall. The smoking also leads to the dementia and high blood pressure risk
(Siahpush, McNeill, Hammond & Fong, 2006).

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The consequences of smoking are disastrous for the health of organizational members. The
smokers suffer from various diseases which affects their stamina towards accomplishing
tasks. The smokers are less likely to be hired by the organizations. They take more breaks for
the smoking sessions which results in wastage of time. It also leads to wastage of resources.
This time can be used to improve productivity of an organization. The smokers are not
capable to contribute 100% effort towards the organization. As a result, they earn less when
it’s compared to the non-smokers. It automatically reduces working hours per week
(Albrecht, et. al. 2015).
The smokers affect the organization as they take longer and frequent breaks than the
arrangement set by the company. They have average performance only which leads to less
productivity. The smokers are likely to have more sick days (Purcell, O'Rourke & Rivis,
2015). The smokers took an average of 11 more sick days than the non-smokers. The
employees hired by a company who are smokers lead to more indirect costs as it creates more
absenteeism. It results in productivity losses and increased early retirement due to illness.
Steps taken to prevent smoking
There are no companies which implement smoke free policies at workplace as a part of work
health and safety measurements. It should be considered that work health and safety does not
only focus on the safety aspects but emphasis on the health aspects as well. Many
organizations have adopted smoke free policies as a positive remark (Brewster, 2017). These
improvements include increased productivity, decreased absenteeism among the former
smokers when it’s compared to current smokers. Further it was seen that health impacts were
immediate and dramatic. The heart attacks were found nearly halving. The steps which can be
taken to stop smoking are given below:
The creation of non-smoking policy: The non-smoking policy at workplace can enforce
restrictions on the smoking habits. This way the members can remain unaffected by the
negative consequences of smoking. This way creating policy which restricts smoking can
provide the following benefits:
 It helps in lowering indirect costs to the company.
 It is useful in keeping workplace healthy.
 It results in healthier employees and fewer sick days.
 The employees can more productive for the organization.

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These policies are recommended to maintain a smoke-free environment which can prevent
from the exposure to smoke. The smoke-free environment is promoted in order to save the
environment from the emissions of smoke. These policies prohibit indoor smoking totally and
the areas outside the entrance of the building. It is also recommended to remove ashtrays
from the working areas. The data should be made available to employees on the harmful
effects of smoking and e-cigarettes should be exposed more (Brewster, Chung & Sparrow,
2016). The smoke-free environment should be promoted by not allowing cigarettes at the
workplace. It explains smoke-related health risks and benefits of quitting cigarettes. It should
be ensured that employees are aware of occupational safety and health risks which are linked
with their professional life.
Education on the benefits of quitting smoking: Another step which can be taken to maintain a
healthy environment is to educate employees on the benefits of quitting smoking. The more
focus is given on the persons who currently smoke. The seminars conducted especially to
educate employees are highly effective. These seminars are also effective to educate non-
smokers as the awareness can be spread regarding harmful effects of smoking and the health
consequences. For instance, education aims at improving general health and wellbeing of
employees. It has prevented occupational illness due to smoking. The educational programme
has been practiced in various organizations; as a result, it protected workers from the hazards
of smoking. It addressed the use of e-cigarettes to protect from the consequences of smoking
(Polosa, et. al. 2016). It was observed that e-cigarettes declined more than 50% employees.
Smoking cessation programme: It is the best approach to improve the state of smoking in the
organization. It is helpful in utilizing an existed structured programme to assist smokers in
quitting smoking. The smoking concession programme is supported by offering eLearning
onsite initiatives. This programme is recommended to implement in the organization because
it has introduced measures for the effective protection from smoking at workplaces (Arbury,
Zankowski, Lipscomb & Hodgson, 2017). It also includes measures for interrupting smoking
and treatment for the smokers. These programmes offer benefit to the employees such as
economic, health and legal. The health and economic value from these programmes can be
evaluated from the improvement in employee’s health.

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Recommendations to control smoking as a problem at the workplace
It has been observed that smokers earn 20% less money compared to the non-smokers. It is
recommended to control smoking not only to increase productivity but to improve the health
of employees.
There are various strategies and interventions to manage the impact on the members:
Warning labels: The warning labels on the cigarette packaging are introduced to control
smoking which is a rising problem. The graphic health warnings have been also revealed to
serve as a key source of health information for the consumers. It is helpful in increasing
health knowledge and perceptions of risk. Australia is the first country to take initiative to
introduce advertising on the packages regarding health warnings. It is a major initiative taken
to control smoking for the sake of members (Romer, et. al. 2017).
Increase price of cigarettes: The strategies such as higher prices have been adapted to reduce
consumption of cigarettes. The increased prices of cigarettes can be helpful in reducing trend
of smoking among the members (Cheng, McBride & Phillips, 2015). It has been observed
that higher prices of cigarettes have reduced smoking participation of members.
Mass media: The advertisement campaigns are helpful in preventing smoking especially in
the case of individuals. The media channels used for the tobacco advertisement are TV, radio,
billboards and more (Purce, 2014). These advertisements focus on the health consequences of
smoking. The advertisements have a strong impact on the viewers. The anti-smoking
campaigns are also promoted through the advertisements. The anti-smoking advertisement
reduces the probability of future smoking.
Prevention efforts: The prevention efforts are launched to prevent smoking initiation. The
tobacco industry ensures that effective strategies are suppressed. The anti-smoking material is
made available to the individuals. It is helpful in preventing smoking. These efforts are
considered effective in reducing sales of tobacco industry. It prevents smoking with the help
of possible anti-smoking interventions (Halpern, et. al. 2015).
The strategies to manage impacts on the organizational members as a whole are given
below:
Tobacco control interventions: The tobacco control inventions aim at reducing smoking
initiation. These interventions comprise programmes, warning labels on the packaging,

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restricting on the advertisement of tobacco, increasing rate of taxes and restricting minors to
purchase tobacco products. The aim of such programmes is demoralization of tobacco in the
organizations (Phillips, et. al. 2015). The proper checking of workers should be promoted so
that they do not carry tobacco products with them in the organizations.
School interventions: It is one of the initial approaches used by organizations to demoralize
tobacco. The organizations enable training for the members to quit smoking as it is
considered a big threat to the performance of employees. The interventions are made to resist
temptations of employees to smoke. It is an effective programme designed to control
consumption of tobacco by the employees in an organization.
Smoke-free policies: The smoke-free policies are promoted by the organizations to control
smoking in the workplace. It promotes a number of laws and ordinances to promote smoke-
free workplaces. It contributes to the denormalization of tobacco at workplaces. It protects
employees from the exposure to tobacco (Lawn, Feng, Tsourtos & Campion, 2015). Various
public laws have been associated with the adoption of the smoke-free environment.
Conclusion
The health and safety is such a big concern in the work environment. Smoking is such a big
health and safety issue faced by the organizational members. Smoking has negative effects on
the health of employees such as cancer and damages to lungs, heart, veins etc. Smoking not
only affects body but mind as well. It has negative effects on the work performance of
employees. The consequences of smoking can be revealed from the factors like employees
are not able to contribute efforts towards organization due to health illness. As a result, an
organization cannot enhance it’s productivity. The organizations also like to know the
smoking habits of employees at the time of interview as smokers tend to take more sick
leaves due to their deteriorating health. In this report work health and safety standards
prevalent at organizations have been discussed. Smoking is the most common health issue
which has been concluded. The steps as strategies have been discussed to stop or control
smoking. These effective steps are non-smoking policies, education, and smoking cessation
programmes. Finally, the recommendations are discussed for the smoking which is
considered the problem at workplaces. It includes warning labels, mass media, prevention
efforts; smoke-free policies and school intervention are effective recommendations to prevent
smoking.

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