Safety and Health Issues - HRM Essay Sample

Safety and health policies are described as statements that contain information on how organizations adopt on the commitment and management in the health safety of their employees as outlined by OSHA standards. It is a document that outline who does what, when, and how this helps to curb health and safety in the organization. Therefore, below are top three comprehensive health and safety issues and their policies in the banking industry. They include the following:

Poor maintenance of the office in the bank industry

Poor office maintenance limits proper air circulations and also reduces suitable space for the conducive working environment. For instance, it is known that bank industry uses a lot of paper works in their daily business. Thus, poor maintenance of the office results to mix up of documents and eventually displaced in their required places. However, overstocking of many files in the same cabinet can also make hard to retrieve documents when needed. It can also make confidential and important information concerning the banks being distorted by water. Additionally, employers should ensure storage is made available and organized for quick retrieval of documents. They should also ensure storage areas are sensitive and protected to avoid damages to the document. To improve proper maintenance hazard, the bank should set sufficient time between the shifts by allowing proper arrangements and cleaning to take place.

Poor maintenance of the office might also have health implications for the employees in the banking industry. Contagious and other pathogenic diseases such as shortness of breath, common cold, TB among others may spread to other staff if the offices are poorly ventilated. It is essential employees should be trained to improve their sanitation in their place of work. They should also be at center stage improve their areas of work. According to Dankert (2016), he suggested that just because it is a dirty process, it does not mean you should not clean up your spills. The employer should perform the required test in the office such as air sampling as required by OSHA standards. Likewise, workers should work in conditions that do not pose serious harm to them. Thus they should maintain proper cleanliness in their offices. Therefore, safety and health act also support this demands that employers and employees should take complete responsibility for ensuring safety in their activities and resources.

Another unavoidable safety and health issue is the forklift hazard.

In today world of business, it is commonly connected with applying the shortcuts rather than following the laydown procedures. This is build up due to pressure on the employees that make them not complete the assigned tasks at the required time. For example, in the banking industry, you are likely to find employees approving many credit requests without reading the full details to ascertain their validity of the requested credit due to time constraints.

The control for this hazard is that employees involved should step aside and take compulsory leave to allow a proper investigation. This can be achieved by avoiding any other engagement with other employees and keep working with designated responsibilities to prevent further disruptions while performing required duties. Taking a rest or job leave is also essential because it allows affected employee to rejuvenate himself and also to release stress piled up thus making him productive.

Forklifting is important on the firm's operations; employers should affirm positive measures when they might experience such issues in their businesses. The affected employee should be disciplined by re-tested, re-trained, or brought back to their normal operations under tight supervision. However, employers should be fully involved and committed to their business this should include regular oversight and constant confirmation of what is expected of the employees at different interval of time. This motivates employees through supervision by encouraging them to perform better in their respective duties and responsibilities.

The positive impact of implementation of OSHA standards in the organization is that it leads to fewer losses to workers and employer because it reduces the wage losses and other costs. It also aims adaptation of working environment to all employees for the maintenance and promotion of the high degree of the social, physical, and mental well-being of all workers.

Lockout Tagout is another way of the safety hazard.

This is one of safety procedure and strategy used by organizations to ensure dangerous machines are correctly switched-off and they are not able to start again before servicing work or during maintenance. When proper lockout tag-out procedures are followed, injuries and data loss is minimized. Reasonably, the banking industry is expected to have various advanced or complex computers and other back up power system that ensures a continuous run of activities in case of power hitches.The bank should adopt proper procedures and practices that will safeguard their employees from any danger that could be resulted from these systems. The management should ensure all their workers are well trained to ensure they can follow all the provision necessary in the energy control to prevent the losses. These losses can be physical injuries, the breakdown of machines, or even loss of data among others. The staff designated in energy control areas should be instructed the purpose and the use of control procedures. They should also warn against reenergizing or be restating machines that are locked. They should also perform their duties in full compliance with the OSHA standards for control of the energy policy in the organization.

However, some employees may fail to follow the relevant procedures to finish their task fast or sometime work with unfamiliar equipment. It is essential for the organization to train all staff before they commence to perform their duties. Apart from training the staff, the management needs a regular upgrade of their system to avoid further breakdown of the systems. The firms should also make available all equipment required by their staffs throughout their operations. They should also restrict areas that deals with power supply and only specialized employee should have access during emergency under the authority of management. The management should at least once in a year to inspect all lockout tagout devices.

In conclusion, safety policies are important to all organizations. It is a gateway to a peaceful working relationship with employees. Thus, all staffs should have a copy of these policies and expected to adhere to them besides their skills and knowledge.

References

Dankert, J. (2016). Health and Safety: Common Workplace Safety Hazards. The Official Magazine of the NSC Congress and Expt.

Lundgren, R.E., & Mc. Makin, A.H. (2013). Risk Communication: A Handbook for Communicating Environmental, Health, and Safety Risks.

Stewart, G.L., and Brown, K. G. (2015). Human Resource Management: Linking Strategy to Practice. 3rd Edition