TLIF4014 - Developing & Maintaining a Safe Workplace: Woolworths Case

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of developing and maintaining a safe workplace, with a specific focus on Woolworths Group. It emphasizes the importance of physical and psychological safety, relevant legislation, compliance, and non-conformance. The report explores sources of hea...Read More

TLIF4014- Develop and
maintain a safe workplace
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INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
An emphasize upon workers health is an emphasise upon business health. It is essential for
an organisation to create and maintain a safe and positive workplace in order to improve
employee’s safety, well-being and health. It will empower organisation to overcome number of
issues. With the help of maintaining safe workplace business organisation can have a guide to
provide safe and secure workplace to workers (O’Rourke, 2021). Especially, in this modern
business environment it is essential for an organisation to prepare workplace structure with
occupational safety and health policies, as it significantly contributes in all aspects of business
performance. Business organisations in all industrial sector have responsibility towards people in
order to provide them a working environment which have approaches to maintain workers safety
and security.
Present report is conducted on Woolworths Group which is operating its business services in
retail industrial sector and headquartered in New South Wales, Australia. Organisation was
founded in the year 1924 and is the largest company in Australia by revenue which offers wide
range of products and services to consumers with more than 215,000 employees. In this report
formative discussion has been conducted on implementation of a systematic approach to
maintain and manage health and safety in organisational workplace of respective organisation.
For this report include health and safety action plan requirement for record keeping, consultative
arrangement sources of health and safety information and data relevant legislation and more.
MAIN BODY
Implementation of a systematic approach to managing health and safety
In order to conduct business operations in a safe and secure environment it is essential for
an organisation to emphasize upon physical as well as psychological safety of workers in
workplace structure. Woolworths Group is operating its business operations in retail industrial
sector and is largest company in Australia by revenue which is operating business functioning
with more than 215,000 employees. This makes implementation of systematic approach to
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manage health and safety utmost priority of organisation in order to create a safe and healthy
workplace environment that enables Woolworths Group to positively accountable for save work
environment. This will help company to stay committed towards safety and health and wellbeing
of employees significantly and aid organisation to prevent injuries as well as other risk in
organisational workplace structure in a well define an effective manner.
Relevant legislation
Woolworths Group human resource manager effectively assures that all the health and
safety legislation is being properly implemented within organisational workplace structure.
However, it is important for human resource manager of respective organisation to conduct in-
depth research of new health and safety policies and further make list of legislative change which
is essential for company to implement (Kulik, 2021). According to workplace health and safety
legislation in Australia it is essential for organisation in retail industrial sector to make sure that
employees perform roles and responsibilities in a physically and mentally safe environment.
Organisation are also required to ensure that workplace environment does not cause any harm to
mental health of an employee. According to Australian workplace health law it is essential for
organisation to ensure that health and safety of workers is effective. In this it is important for
Woolworths Group to implement a systematic approach in which human resource manager of
company is required to imprecise upon Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) and work
health and safety codes of practice as it defines obligation through which company can support
its compliance policy and prosecution guidelines in an effective manner.
Compliance and non-conformance
It is essential for Woolworths Group to make sure that all the appliances according to the
model WHS Regulations is being implemented in workplace structure in order to secure health
and safety of workers in workplace. It is essential for Woolworths Group to ensure that workers
are being provided with proper instruction of the use of personal protective equipment as to
comply with safety best practices (Jenke, Oosthuizen and Cattani, 2021). Furthermore,
Woolworths Group is also required to appoint safety officer who is responsible to implement risk
assessment and report incidents. Officer is also responsible to offer training and safety guidelines
to employees on both onboard and at regular interval. Health and safety at Work Act 2009
secures the health safety and welfare of employees at workplace and provide protection to them
from health and safety risk due to business activities. With help of this act Woolworths Group
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can eliminate workplace risk. Non-conformance is basically termed as an absence or complete
breakdown within organisation standards to take corrective actions in order to provide safe and
secure workplace environment. non-conformance can be caused by poor communication, lack of
documentation, poor motivation of personnel, limited training, poor quality material and tools
and equipment. With the help of model WHS Regulations and model code of practices
Woolworths Group can operate business operations under proper jurisdiction with a detailed
requirement which is essential for them to provide safe and secure environment to employees.
Sources of health and safety information and data, Consultative arrangements
Sources of information on health and safety basically include national legislation for
example regulation safety data sheets, code of practices, guidance, manuals etc. It is essential for
human resource manager and safety officer of Woolworths Group to make sure that internal and
external sources of information on health and safety is collected on appropriate basis from
newspaper articles, educational videos, books, government websites etc for in order to explain
regulations set out by WHS act. There are different forms of sources of work health and safety
information which is valuable on Model WHS act, code of practices. Along with this there are
different templates available about work health and safety such as Australian OH&S Risk
Management Services, workers compensation boards that will help company to comply with all
the rules and regulations effectively. Along it is it is essential for company to emphasize upon
law enforcement agencies in order to make sure that work health safety guidelines are being
properly put into practice to provide proper health and safety to employees. While in terms with
consultative arrangements it is a measure to improve communication information sharing and
understanding. It is essential for management of Woolworths Group to have specific
arrangement with a two-way process between management and employees through which they
can talk to each other about health and safety matters (Høgh, 2021). This will help executives to
listen to employee’s concern and raise their concern by sharing views and information. In this
Woolworths Group can take use of consultative meetings, consultative committee that will help
company to build strong relationship with employees by offering them secure and safe
environment.
Stakeholders, Health and safety specialists (internal and external) and technical advisors and
Hazard identification, risk assessment and risk management/controls
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It is essential for organisation to ensure that all the stakeholders are engage in necessary
decision-making process and they are aware with all the health and safety legislation which is
implemented in organisational workplace structure. In this Woolworths Group with the help of
consecutive meetings with stakeholders can make them aware about the systematic
implementation of laws and legislation to manage health and safety. Furthermore, in order to
implement a systematic approach to manage health and safety Woolworths Group can undertake
use of health and safety advisors who can monitor workplace health and safety hazards. With the
help of these advisers Woolworths Group can train employees on health and safety procedures
who can investigate and accidents in effective manner. With the help of this Woolworths Group
can ensure that all the safety legislation and standards are being maintained and upheld in an
effective manner (Zerguine, 2022). Workplace safety specialist can be hired from external
sources or company can recruit them internally. They can inspect workplace in order to make
sure that adherence of all the regulation on safety health is being implemented. Furthermore,
Woolworths Group with the assistance of technical advisors can conduct test and measure hazard
which will help company to prevent any form of harm to worker or property. It is essential for
organisation like Woolworths Group who is performing its operations at large scale to conduct
risk assessment with the help of identifying hazards and controlling risk with the help of review
on effective manner. With the help of risk assessment Woolworths Group can identify risk
factors that can have potential to cause harm. This will help company to eliminate hazard or
control the risk with the help of effective tools and techniques. In this with the help of Hazard
Identification and Risk assessment Process (HIRA) Woolworths Group can define and describe
hazards by characterizing the frequency probability and evaluate adverse consequences. This will
help Woolworths Group to maintain an effective systematic approach through which they can
manage health and safety of workplace in a well-define and effective manner.
Monitoring
Accident and incident investigation and training
Proper monitoring is essential for Woolworths Group as it allows them to identify
potential issues in an effective manner. Active monitoring is a planned process with the help of
which Woolworths Group can check and inspect workplace equipment’s in order to make sure
that proper workplace and equipment inspection is being effectively done to have a safe and
secure workplace environment (Ritzman, 2021). In this with the help of implementing system of
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safe management measures and conducting proactive monitoring Woolworths Group can
conduct safety inspection and audit in order to obtain performance feedback in order to identify
any form of failure in system in time effective manner. Woolworths Group with the help of
health and safety compliance checklist which is a tool can reinforce best practices to comply
with safety regulation can protect workers from any issues or accidents. Furthermore, it is
essential for Woolworths Group to conduct accident and incident reporting with a systematic
procedure in order to ensure that all the accidents and incidents are being reported recorded and
investigated in a systematic manner. Furthermore, Safe Work Australia has drafted a model
workplace health and safety act which will allow organisation to evaluate workplace health and
safety in effective manner. According to the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, it is essential for
Woolworths Group to reduce the chances of accidents with the help of proper monitoring and
accident and incident investigation. It is essential for Woolworths Group as per the Model WHS
to include training for workers such as first aid training, health and safety representative training,
construction induction training etc in order to provide them a safe and secure environment.
Along with is it is essential for company management to include code of conduct and provide all
the mandatory training and certificate of competencies to employees in order to train them to
deal with situation in effective manner.
Improvements and proposed changes to the workplace and requirements for record keeping
It is essential for Woolworths Group to improve effectiveness and propose certain
changes to reduce risk of issues and accident at workplace. It has been evaluated that work health
safety is changing over time with changing business conditions (Okpala and Korzeniowska,
2021). In this it is essential for organisation to report incidence to the health and safety authority
for those incidents those who can pose a serious risk. It is essential for company to report
accidents and keep record of them according to work health and safety guidelines for minimum
of 5 years from the notification date. This will effectively help Woolworths Group to conduct
business operations with a systematic approach in order to manage health and safety of
workplace in a well-defined and effective manner
Health and safety action plans
With the help of a safety action plan Woolworths Group can identify and can eliminate
ergonomic, physical, biological and chemical exposures in order to eliminate work related as
well as occupational injuries. Woolworths Group by taking assistance of health and safety
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actions plan can identify all hazards, evaluate responsible elements for eliminating each hazard,
conduct course of action to remove identified hazards, undertake necessary actions and establish
a system to prevent them (Parmenter and Barnes, 2021). With the help of proper guidelines,
training measures and policies Woolworths Group can implement systematic approach to
manage health and safety in effective manner.
CONCLUSION
According to the above-mentioned report, it has been concluded that it is essential for an
organisation to have comprehensive and systematic method to access and make improvement in
performance in the prevention of workplace accidents, incidence and other risk. With the help of
review of system on continuous manner business can reduce occupational risk in order to prevent
occupational injuries as well as other risk that can affect workers health and safety. Safe
workplace is an integral part of occupational health and safety in which with the help of taking
advantage of proper relevant legislation and compliance with all the health and safety standards
with systematic risk assessment and management business organisation can develop proper
health and safety action plan. This will facilitate organisation to offer safe and secure workplace
environment to workers which will automatically contributes in higher performance and
productivity of organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
O’Rourke, G.A., 2021. Workplace strategy: a new workplace model. Asia Pacific Journal of
Human Resources.
Kulik, C.T., 2021. We need a hero: HR and the ‘next normal’workplace. Human Resource
Management Journal.
Jenke, T., Oosthuizen, J. and Cattani, M., 2021. An investigation of the influence of economic
cycles on safety performance in Western Australia. Safety science, 138, p.105230.
Høgh, A and et. al., 2021. Consequences of workplace bullying for individuals, organizations
and society. Pathways of job-related negative behaviour, pp.177-200.
Ritzman, M., 2021. Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment in
Corrections. Special Topics and Particular Occupations, Professions and Sectors,
pp.415-434.
Parmenter, J. and Barnes, R., 2021. Factors supporting indigenous employee retention in the
Australian mining industry: A case study of the Pilbara region. The Extractive
Industries and Society, 8(1), pp.423-433.
Okpala, C.O.R. and Korzeniowska, M., 2021. Understanding the relevance of quality
management in agro-food product industry: From ethical considerations to assuring
food hygiene quality safety standards and its associated processes. Food Reviews
International, pp.1-74.
Zerguine, H and et. al., 2022. Factors impacting workplace investment in sit-stand workstations
from the perspective of purchasing decision-makers. Applied Ergonomics, 98, p.103558.
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