Find out more at wshc.sg/totalwsh

A GUIDE FOR EMPLOYERS

QUICK START TO

UnderstandingTotal WSH

Preventinginjuries or deathfrom accidents.

Managing and preventing both work-related andlifestyle diseases.

Improvingthe quality oflife through a

supportiveenvironment.

SAFETY

WELLBEINGH

EA

LTH

STRONG TOTAL WSH CULTURE

STRONG MANAGEMENT COMMITM

ENT

Str

uct

ure

& Sy

stem

Processes & P

rog

ramm

es

People & Tools

Through the Total WSH approach, you demonstrate care for your employees by improving their lives and ensuring their long-term employability. With healthier and happier employees, your company will benefit from increased productivity and lower healthcare cost.

OUTIN

A safe andhealthy workplace

Improved productivity

Happier and engaged

employees

Lowerhealthcare cost

More productiveworkforce Better job

satisfaction and employee retention

Why Total WSH

3

Section 1

Review WSH Team Compositionand ScopeEmployees’ health and wellbeing are usually the responsibility of the Human Resource (HR) Department. As safety and health issues are strongly interconnected, we recommend that HR representatives and representatives from other related functions (such as staff on wellbeing/ welfare committees) are included in the WSH Team. This is so that the goal of promoting employees’ health and wellbeing may be integrated into the company’s initiatives for WSH.

With HR on the WSH Team, medical leave records can be evaluated in tandem with WSH data (e.g., injury data, incident reports and near misses).

To do list1. Include HR in your WSH Team.2. Insert employees’ health and wellbeing into the WSH Team’s meeting agenda.

Section 2

Update WSH Policy Total WSH centres on creating a culture of care for your employees. The concern for employees’ safety, health and wellbeing should be clearly stated in your company’s WSH policy. Top management must follow up by communicating the policy update to all employees. This will demonstrate management’s firm commitment to their employees’ safety, health and wellbeing.

YES!If you’ve answered “Yes” to all4 questions, you are already on

the Total WSH journey!

If you’ve answered “No” to any question, you can proceed to the

relevant section(s) to get started on your Total WSH journey.

NO!

Other than safety, does your WSH Teamor Committee look into the healthand wellbeing of all employees?

Review WSH Team Composition and Scope

Does your company’s WSH policy incorporate employees’ safety, health and wellbeing?

Update WSH Policy

Do your WSH risk assessments and safework procedures address risks arising from the physical work environment, workorganisation and workers' personal health?

Review Risk Assessment &Safe Work Procedures

Have you identified suitable intervention programmes to reduce your employees' WSH risks through improvements in their personal health?

Develop Intervention Programme

YES! NO!

Go to sectio

n 1

YES! NO!

Go to sectio

n 2

YES! NO!

Go to sectio

n 3

YES! NO!

Go to sectio

n 4

For companies without a WSH Team or WSH policy, refer to WSH Council’s STARTYour Safety and Health @ Work – A Guide for Small and Medium Enterprises.

START YOUR TOTAL WSHJOURNEY NOW

4 5

Find out more at www.wshc.sg/sme

1. Involve employees when updating your WSH policy.2. Top management to communicate the change to all employees.

To do list

EXAMPLE:Safe Work Procedure

Section 3

Review RA and SWPToday, many companies conduct risk assessments (RA) with only safety compliance in mind, assuming that the employee is fully fit for work. In reality, employees have different capabilities and may not always be fit for the task at hand. Under the Total WSH approach, personal health should be factored into the RA for improved management of WSH risks. See Sample Risk Assessment Forms in WSH Council's Guide to Total Workplace Safety and Health for examples on holistic RA.

Existing RAs can be enhanced to manage the following three sources of risks:

Next, review your company’s safe work procedures (SWPs) to address any new risks identified and consider inserting health advisories where appropriate. This is in line with new risk controls resulting from the conduct of a holistic RA as it will remind your employees to do a self check of their health status before starting work. See the next page for a sample SWP with a health advisory for a specific work activity. Supervisors must follow through by communicating the changes in both RAs and SWPs to their employees.

1. Physical work environment: For example, exposure to work at heights, slippery surfaces, excessive noise levels, exposure to toxic substances, forceful exertions during manual handling, repetitive work.

2. Work organisation: For example, work overload, prolonged working hours, shift work, returning to work upon recovery from injury or illness, inadequate training, poor communication, remuneration system.

3. Personal health : For example, smoking, age, obesity, pregnancy, pre-existing health conditions (e.g., diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, asthma, colour blindness, allergies).

SAFECUTPTE LTD

OPERATINGPROCEDURE FOR

CUTTING MACHINE

Document No.: SWP-MFG-0902

MODEL: CM-10308

Page: 1 of 12

Revision No.: 1.3

Date: 8 Jul 2016

1. Purpose To specify the safe work procedure (SWP) for operating cutting machine CM-10308.

2. Risk Evaluation Likelihood = Occasional (3) or “Possible or known to occur.” Severity = Minor (2) or “Injury or ill-health requiring first aid.” Risk Level = Medium Risk (6)

3. Existing Risk Controls • Only trained operators are allowed to operate this cutting machine. • Operators must follow the SWP specified in this document. • Interlocking guard has been installed to automatically cut power supply to the machine when the guard has been moved out of position. • Operators must be dressed in coveralls, safety spectacles, cut-resistant gloves and safety boots when working with this cutting machine.

Based on the 5 × 5 Risk Matrix recommended in the Code of Practice on Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Risk Management.

4. Health Advisory • Do not operate the machine if you feel unwell. • Use hearing protection as the noise emitted by the cutting machine exceeds the Permissible Exposure Limit of 85 dBA for an 8-hour day. • Operators prone to bleeding (e.g., those taking blood-thinning medication such as aspirin or warfarin) should take additional precautions to protect against cuts and other minor injuries (e.g., by wearing cut-resistant sleeves). • Operators sensitive to respiratory irritants (e.g., those with asthma) to note that operating the machine would generate fumes and vapours that can irritate their respiratory tracts. They are advised to put on respiratory protection.

New in Total WSH!

Catastrophic (5)

Rare (1)

Remote (2)

Occasional (3)

Frequent (4)

Almost Certain(5)Severity

Likelihood

Major (4)

Moderate (3)

Minor (2)

Negligible (1)

5 10 15 20 25

4 8 12 16 20

3 6 9 12 15

2 4 6 8 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7

1. Review all RAs to address WSH risks contributed by physical work environment, work organisation and personal health.2. Update all SWPs to include health advisories.3. Supervisors to communicate changes to employees.

To do list

Step 1: CollectTo identify existing gaps in employees’ health and wellbeing, data collection is necessary to establish a baseline that would give you an insight to the current or a normal situation in your company.

Sources of company-wide data include:

Occupational safety-related data:

• Injury statistics; • Incident investigation reports;• Work injury compensation records; and• Information on near miss incidents (if available).

Occupational health-related data:

• Medical reports for occupational injuries and diseases; and• Work environment surveillance and monitoring data.

Employee-related data:

• Pre-employment medical examination; • Health screening records;• Medical leave records; and• Employees’ profiles and demographics.

To uphold the confidentiality of medical data, sensitive data (such as those arising from medical examinations or health screening) should only be analysed by a medical professional and the results presented in the aggregate form, segregated by teams or departments. Analysis of such data should not be tied to any particular individual.

It is important to communicate to your employees that every effort has been made to ensure that the collected data is non-identifiable at the individual level. This will reassure employees that the confidentiality of their medical data is respected. This will, in turn, build employees’ trust and encourage them to continue participating in company activities such as health screening.

Another important way of collecting relevant data is through surveys. These surveys can take the form of focus group discussions and / or questionnaires. For example, an employee’s health survey may be used to gather additional information (e.g., work-related complaints like backache, lifestyle choices like smoking and drinking) to supplement existing health screening data.

For more information on health surveys, see the Basic Health Survey Questionaire in WSH Council’s Guide to Total Workplace Safety and Health.

Step 2: AnalyseAnalysis involves carefully studying the collected data to identify patterns, trends and / or deviations from the baseline (typically the company or industry norm). The data may be sorted in various ways to facilitate in-depth analysis. For example, it can be sorted by department, incident location, work process, gender or age group.

Section 4

Develop Intervention Programme A “Total WSH Gap Analysis” is an in-depth analysis of company and employee data to identify workplace issues that can have an adverse impact on employees’ safety, health or wellbeing or affect work being carried out. If areas requiring interventions are not immediately obvious, a Total WSH Gap Analysis may be used to identify WSH performance gaps and opportunities for intervention. Total WSH Gap Analysis can, for example, tell you the number of workdays lost due to workers being absent from work for medical reasons, and prompt you to dive deeper to understand the underlying reasons and develop targeted solutions to resolve the issue.

As Total WSH Gap Analysis looks at workplace issues beyond a particular work activity, it ensures that all work aspects are covered. Total WSH Gap Analysis complements RA as it has the potential to identify areas of concern that a conventional RA may not be able to detect. Findings from a Total WSH Gap Analysis could highlight work activities that require closer scrutiny and subsequently lead to the enhancement of the RA.

Total WSH Gap Analysis

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

8 9

Collect and collate company-widedata relating tosafety, health

and wellbeing.

Identify areas of concern and

implement suitable interventions.

Analyse personal health data intandem withWSH data.

Find out more at wshc.sg/totalwsh

Step 3: Intervene

Once the Total WSH gaps are identified, you are now ready to propose customised intervention programmes to address the gaps.

Intervention to prevent life threatening accidents should be managed first followed by intervention to prevent occupational ill health and improvement of personal wellbeing.

Resource materials on intervention programmes and initiatives you can implement to manage occupational ill health (e.g., management of fatigue and heat stress) are available at WSH Council’s website (www.wshc.sg).

You can also find information on the following intervention programmes in WSH Council’s Guide to Total Workplace Safety and Health. They include:

• Managing older workers;• Ergonomics and the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders;• Managing work-related stress;• Absence management;• Preventing chronic diseases; and• Return to work.

Proposed interventions (e.g., prevention of musculoskeletal disorders) various departments. One approach is to focus on key “at-risk” groups with similar lifestyle profiles (e.g., smokers), or employees facing similar workplace situations (e.g., those who are exposed to a particular chemical).

To improve personal wellbeing, you may introduce healthy lifestyle programmes such as smoking cessation, physical exercise and healthy eating. These programmes can take place in-between work shifts, during lunch breaks and / or after office hours.

For more information on targeted intervention programmes for specific workplace health issues, please visit the WSH Council (www.wshc.sg) and Health Promotion Board (www.hpb.gov.sg) websites.

The following page provides an example of how Total WSH is applied in a manufacturing factory.

Any pattern, trend or deviation observed is checked against the employees’ personal health data and / or department aggregate data to ascertain if a Total WSH gap exists. The 5M Model (Mission, Man, Management, Machine and Medium) may be used to identify and further analyse the contributing factors to the Total WSH gap. See Annex for more information on the 5M Model.

Data analysis should be supplemented by a walkthrough survey to affirm or verify the pattern, trend or deviation observed. This may be done one-on-one or in groups in a non-threatening format. The walkthrough also provides you the opportunity to verify that the risk control measures implemented (as indicated in the holistic RA) are sufficient and effective.

TOTAL WSH EXAMPLE Problem: Increase in MCs taken Where: Maintenance Workshop

Outcome AchievedSignificantreduction

in MCs taken

Increasedproductivity

Happier &healthierworkers

1110

HR

MEDICAL

WSHO

MGT

Respiratoryillness

Man

Workerswith asthma

Man

Med

ium

Second-handsmoke

Frequentbreaks

Man

agement

Chronicbackache

Man

Fumes& vapours

Med

ium

Poorventilation

Med

ium

TWSH COMMITTEE

MEDICAL

HR

WSHO

EMPLOYEES

Scheduledrest breaks

Ceiling &wall fans

Localexhaust

ventilation

Respiratoryprotection

Ergonomicsprogramme

Separaterest areafor non-smokers

Smokingcessation

programme

RA & SWPenhance-

ment

LINE MGTC

OL

LE

CT

AN

AL

YS

EIN

TE

RV

EN

E

Doctor’sdiagnosis

Healthscreeningrecords

RiskAssessment

records

Walk-throughsurvey

Injurydata

MC records

AGGREGATED DATA

TO

IDE

NT

IFY

PR

IOR

ITY

AR

EA

S

Find out more at wshc.sg/totalwsh

12

ANNEX: 5M Model

MissionMissionrelates to the work being carried out, including the objective(s) of the work and other aspects like work planning, preparation, operations and contingency.

Manrefers to the specific worker directly involved in

executing the work, taking into account his or her reliability (attitude, discipline, physical health

condition and psychological factors) and proficiency (knowledge, judgement and hands-on skills).

MachineMachinerefers to the equipment and / or tools used for the work activity

and their reliability (failure rate, accuracy and dependability) and capability (suitability for the task, degree of automation, and

ability to cater to the needs of the human operator).

ManagementFind out more at wshc.sg/totalwsh

ManagementFind out more at wshc.sg/totalwsh

ManagementManagementrefers to all who can influence the work being carried out. Management includes the supervision, control and scheduling of day-to-day operations. It also concerns the provision of training and the management of workplace risk.

MediumMediumrefers to the physical environment at the location of work. It includes weather conditions, visibility, nature of the terrain, indoor ambient conditions (e.g., temperature and noise level) as well as the extent of real-time on-site supervision.

Published in March 2016 by the Workplace Safety and Health Council in collaboration with the Workplace Safety and Health Institute and the Ministry of Manpower.

All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. The information provided in this publication is accurate as at time of printing. The Workplace Safety and Health Council does not accept any liability or responsibility to any party for losses or damage arising from following this publication.

This publication is available on the Workplace Safety and Health CouncilWebsite: www.wshc.sg Email: contact@wshc.sg