Most workers rely on their employers to facilitate a safe and healthy work environment. Business owners go to great lengths to create health and safety frameworks that adhere to international and local regulations, invest in health and safety training and supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to keep workers safe. Businesses with over 20 employees will also create a joint health and safety team, and certain industries will employ health and safety supervisors, and superintendents.
All of these provisions are designed to minimize the risk to employees, equipment and property, and they do!
However, these provisions also run the risk of creating dependency, leading to complacency. The missing ingredient in this case is personal responsibility.
Yes, you too are a health and safety professional.
This message is repeated and reinforced throughout every health and safety training program, but it’s far too easy to remove yourself from the equation once you are back on site. Risk management software like sofvie brings the power of personal responsibility back to the individual.
Benefits of Investing in Your Personal Safety
In an organization, safety managers are responsible for designing and enforcing policies and mechanisms to minimize workplace accidents and ensure the health and safety of workers. They also train supervisors and employees to spot hazards and maximize employee productivity.
1. Activating internal responsibility systems
While it might seem like a good idea to entrust work safety to someone else, it’s not a sustainable practice. For instance, investing in a simple tool such as risk management software will enable each worker to recognize any potential hazards firsthand, and to proactively involve themselves in creating controls.
This involvement prompts frontline workers to be more vigilant in detecting risks and hazards, and to be more aware of protocols as they work through their day. A real time, proactive approach to health and safety prevents injuries, downtime, recovery time, and the need to hire and train replacement workers. In short, taking personal responsibility for your health and safety also protects those around you as well as corporate liabilities.
2. More participation in organizational safety culture
Organizations play a major role in promoting an individual’s commitment to health and safety. This is accomplished by building a culture around health and safety. Far too often, health and safety professionals are regarded as hurdles to productivity. Filling out reports and running through pre-ops is viewed as an unnecessary obstacle to the task at hand rather than an integral part of hitting production targets and deadlines.
Hazard management software engages workers, helping them understand the nature of health and safety policies. Beyond that, sofvie provides a Positive Recognition component, allowing each member of the organization to acknowledge a job well done or ‘above and beyond’ behaviour. Feeling good about the work you do as well as how safely you do it goes a long way to engraining safe behaviour in the workplace.
3. Improved safety rating
Ontario had one of the highest occupational disease and injury-related mortality rates at 4.4 deaths per 100,000, according to a University of Regina research study. This only proves that too many employees take their safety for granted. Arguably, much of this can be avoided with better communication.
When individuals actively participate in learning and sharing health and safety information, they will invariably operate in a safe manner. Access to these details is critical, especially in highly dynamic environments such as mining and construction, where hazards and risks can change rapidly.
Operating in this manner may save your life or someone around you. Furthermore, it increases the safety statistics of the organization you work for as well as the Province in which you work. Even the smallest effort can have a cascading impact on your entire community.
4. Bringing self-awareness home
Once you develop a mindset to always be conscious about your health and safety, you have no choice but to bring this attitude home with you. As a result, you also expand the blanket of protection to your loved ones. You will likely find yourself conducting pre-ops on your car or truck, clearing the floor of tripping hazards, regularly conducting household PPE inspections, and following more common sense safety regiments.
You must take ownership of yourself, and Sofvie’s risk management software gives you the means to become more accountable.
Investing in an EHS tool will drastically boost a company’s reputation as a conscientious organization that looks after its employees’ welfare. The software also enables employers to improve compliance with industry and government standards.
Your Health, Your Responsibility
The government mandates employers to comply with occupational standards to guarantee the health and safety of their employees.
The government and organizations only provide the framework. It is you, the employee, who should always be in control. Sofvie’s hazard management software places you in the driver’s seat when it comes to safety and well-being.
Sofvie’s risk management software comes with intuitive tools and features for easy worker adoption. You can run through a checklist of measures until self-diagnosis becomes second nature. In the end, everyone in the organizational hierarchy becomes more involved in building a safer environment, particularly for the front liners.