Managing Human Resources: Health, Safety & Well-being at Workplace-UK

This report provides a comprehensive overview of managing human resources with a specific focus on health, safety, and well-being in the workplace. It begins by outlining the business and moral reasons for prioritizing these aspects, followed by a discussion of key UK legislations, including the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA). The report details the duties of both employers and employees under HASAWA, explains the concept of "as far as reasonably practicable," and explores various considerations and approaches to health, safety, and well-being at work. It concludes with recommendations for the board, emphasizing the importance of creating a safe and healthy work environment, providing adequate training and supervision, and addressing presenteeism. The report underscores the necessity of prioritizing health, safety, and well-being to enhance productivity, performance, and overall organizational sustainability.

MANAGING HUMAN
RESOURCES

TABLE OF CONTENT
• INTRODUCTION
• Business & Moral Reasons for Health, Safety and Well-being at Workplace
• Key Legislations within UK
• Employer’s and employee’s Duties as per HASAWA, 1974
• Explanation of “As far as reasonably practicable”
• Considerations and approaches to Health, Safety and Well – being at work
• Recommendations to board
• CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION
• Managing human resource refers to an effective and efficient management of
people within an organization in an attempt to gain competitive advantage.
• One of the common way of doing so is to have appropriate health, safety and
well - being practices in place to promote positive well - being such as
happiness, comfort and contentment and is not restricted to the provision of
protection from getting ill and occurrence of accidents.
• This presentation is based on researching over health, safety and well – being
with reference to the workplace such as Admiral Group Plc, which is a British
organization headquartered in Cardiff, Wales. The primary activity of this
organization is to provide financial services.

Business and moral reasons for Health,
safety and well – being
• It is the moral right of employees to return
their homes in safe and healthier manner at the
end of each working day. (Moral)
• It aids in reducing absenteeism and thus,
promotes efficiency and productivity among
workforce. (Business)
• One of the most important reason is that it is
necessary on human ground to fulfill the
obligation towards other to ensure their safety.
(Moral)

CONT.
• Much of the business savings could be possible due to the reduction in down
time that is caused by accidents and illness. (Business)
• Protecting workers demonstrates CSR and sustainability commitments of an
organization which helps in attracting partnerships and investors. (Business)
• There is a resilience from society from those organizations that are putting
their employee’s health and safety at risk and accordingly, there would be a
business failure. (Business)

Key legislations in UK for Health, Safety and
Well – being in the workplace
• Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974
• Management of Health & safety at work
regulations 1999
• Health and safety offences Act 2008
• Health and Safety information for employees
Regulations, 1989

Employer and employee’s duties as per
HASAWA, 1974
Employer’s duties
• It is the duty of employer to make sure reasonably the health, safety and well
– being for all of his employees through providing systems and plants at work
that are safety and free from any risky element, making arrangements for
ensuring absence of risks and safety in relation to handling, usage, transport
and storage of substances and articles, etc.
• Preparation of general policy statement in relation to Health, Safety and well
- being for employees along with making arrangements to bring in practice
the same.
• Consulting with those representatives to assist in the maintenance and making
of arrangements to enable employees to effectively cooperate in developing
and promoting health and safety related measures at workplace.

CONT.
Employee’s duties
• It is the duty of employees to take care in a
responsible manner of their safety and health
and also for those who may get affected of
their omissions and acts at the workplace.
• To fulfil the requirements or duty that has
been imposed by their employer or any other
person or body with the relevant statutory
provisions.
• Also, it is necessary for employees to
cooperate with their employers or any other
representative who are taking steps for
ensuring their health and safety at work under
the applicable legislations.

Explanation of “As far as reasonably
practicable”
• This phrase is being mentioned and defined under the HASAWA 1974. It is
defined as a weighting of risk against money, time and trouble required in
order to control it.
• To explain this phrase, it can be stated that the employer must indicate that
they are complying with the regulations associated with Health, safety and
well – being of their employees along with taking measures to reduce risks
related to the same. The term reasonably applicable insists that a measure
being costly for preventing hazards and reducing the risks related to it does
not suggests that the employer can avoid doing so or is not expected to take
such measures.

Considerations and approaches to Health,
Safety and Well – being at work
Considerations: -
• Provision of training in relation to operating equipment to
ensure their safety and health.
• Provision of protective clothing and equipment to ensure
employee’s protection from hazardous and risky elements.
• Lockout and tag out is another way or procedure through
which safety could be ensured which involves making
sure for shutdowns of machinery in correct manner at the
day end as a part of appropriate maintenance at
workplace.
• Mental health of employees must be taken into
consideration while assigning them any of the tasks or
appointing them at workplace to ensure avoidance of
uncertainties.

CONT.
Approaches: -
• The relative approach: Here employers are not sure of what standards and
laws they are required to comply with and just resort to reacting and
responding towards health and safety once any incidence has occurred.
• The static approach: It is popularly adopted approach among businesses
across UK where employers view health and safety as a necessary
requirement but not an important part of their business plan and accordingly,
considered to be an informal safety approach.
• The active approach: Here employers or other representative body who are
experienced in terms of incidences, safety issues or inspection by OSHA
generally took active participation in taking measure for their employee’s
health and safety.

Recommendations to board
• There must be a provision and maintenance of
environment at workplace to ensure health and
safety of employees. For instance, the floor for
walking should be comfortable.
• There must be sufficient break provided to
employees to avoid their tiredness which
makes them fresh and stay alert all the time.
• There must be sufficient supervision for new
joiners to ensure their appropriate training.

CONT.
• To tackle the issue of presenteeism at workplace, it is necessary to determine
the worker’s personal and social well – being. The former is related to be free
from illness and injury while the latter is related to the ability of an employee
to participate and valued as a member of society to ensure their connectivity
with the social environment.
• Managers and supervisors must be contacted to determine the cause of illness
or injury associated with the business. This is necessary for determining the
likelihood of someone getting harmed and seriousness with which the
eliminating actions required to be taken. For instance, the risk associated with
fire broke out must be taken to determine the need for placing the number of
fire extinguishers.

CONCLUSION
• From this presentation, it has been concluded that health, safety and well –
being is necessary and mandatory concern of an organization to demonstrate
their CSR activities.
• Furthermore, by ensuring health, safety and well-being, higher productivity
can be obtained which leads to better performance and sustainability of an
organization and a society as a whole.

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