As a business owner, you have several key responsibilities and if you employ workers then your biggest responsibility is their health and safety. Whether you employ one person or thousands, you still need to make sure you have the right health and safety measures in place to protect them.
Naturally, there will be more H&S regulations to comply with when working in a high-risk environment like a construction site, so it is important that you know the laws and how to be compliant. This checklist should help you to understand whether you are doing enough for health and safety:
Do you have a proper H&S policy?
If you have 5 employees or more, you must have a health and safety policy to provide your staff with information regarding your health and safety measures and it should also include who is responsible for health and safety management.
Do you have someone responsible for managing health and safety?
Delegating the responsibility to a specific person will help to ensure your health and safety is managed properly. Choosing the right person is important, as this is a role with a lot of responsibility and is usually best sitting with someone working in an operational role.
Have you completed risk assessments?
There should be a thorough risk assessment completed for the workplace, which highlights any possible hazards and sets out action plans to reduce or remove the risks entirely.
Do you communicate actions taken to mitigate risks?
Once the risk assessment is completed, your business should also be communicating the actions with employees to keep them informed and make them aware of any changes or requirements on their behalf.
Do you deliver health and safety training?
For certain jobs, health and safety training is mandatory but there are also additional training opportunities that you can provide to employees. These can be online training courses or classroom-based.
Do you report all qualifying incidents to RIDDOR?
Any qualifying incidents must be reported to RIDDOR if required, and this will help to ensure that health and safety improvements are made.
Do you have the right PPE?
Safety equipment and PPE is essential for protecting employees from hazards, so as well as making sure your staff have all the right equipment, it is important to ensure that PPE is still in good condition and working as it should. For example, hi-vis clothing that has faded does not do the job, or ill-fitting masks can put staff at risk. The person responsible for managing your health and safety should perform regular inspections of PPE to see what requires replacing.
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