Are H&S regulations strangling you?

The government is being driven by the unions – who want more regulations and heavier enforcement. This means that company directors are getting more specific and actual duties, instead of implied duties as before. The increase in legislation is tying things down further.

What we should be looking at is having the least number of regulations possible. This is not a dream; if you examine the current mass of regulations you’ll find they are repeated with the same requirements presented in many different forms in relation to different aspects of the running of a safe and healthy business.

Increasing regulations means increasing the means to enforce them – this is a cost to both the government bodies responsible for doing so (indirectly the tax payer) and a cost to the businesses who frantically try to comply with the latest batch of regulations without realising that much of the required compliance is already in place. Many businesses waste a massive amount of time, money and manpower reinventing the wheel.

What the government should be doing instead of issuing yet more regs is to review what is there and reduce the number of regulations, simplify and streamline those in existence to allow businesses to get on with their core business. Health and safety is important, but should be used to drive the profit line, not to bleed it.

Does H&S put a brake on entrepreneurs?

Many entrepreneurs think that health and safety is contrary to entrepreneurial ideology and see the need to comply with a mass of legislation is a drag on their ability to run a dynamic business. If you spend your time slavishly following every piece of legislation that comes out, that might be true.

However, the secret is simplicity. All the regulations say the same thing, there’s nothing really new – it’s all about understanding the process that underpins the regulations and you have control!

In fact, used properly health and safety is very entrepreneurial and can make even small organisations profitable. There are a few steps to get you started:

1. Consult with your staff, get them involved – it gets buy in.
2. Keep things simple – be practical
3. Be pragmatic, everything you do should have some sort of payback – a benefit to the business

When you are practical and pragmatic the result will be profit!

Good health and safety is about assessing the risks and ensuring that you keep them to a minimum, something that entrepreneurs do every day.

Is it safe to be pregnant at work?

HR people often think that the reason it’s important to notify your employer when you become pregnant is in order to ensure you are eligible for all the maternity rights. However, the picture looks different when you look at it from the health and safety angle.

If you don’t notify your employer that you are pregnant, it makes it impossible to carry out a risk assessment that takes into account your condition. This might include workplace stress, manual handling, appropriate seating and working areas.

Organisations must specify (in the staff handbook or the equivalent) that women who are pregnant need to notify their employer as soon as they are aware of their situation. This enables employers to manage the health and safety of staff who are pregnant. In many countries this is not simply a moral requirement, but a statutory duty for employers.

It’s not to do with an invasion of your privacy, simply about safe working practices for your own health and the safety of your unborn child.