The Strategic Importance Of

Workplace Safety And Health

Fatemeh Hashemi

Benefits Of A Safe

And Healthy Workplace

Organizations can become more effective if they have

safer and healthy workplaces. Because:

• They can have fewer day losts. Therefore they have

higher productivity

• They can increase efficiency and quality. Because

they have healthier workforce.

• They can reduce medical and insurance costs.

• They can improve a good prestige. Everybody

wants to work with them.

Results Of An Unsafe And

Unhealthy Workplace

There are lots of results of an unsafe and unhealthy workplace .The

important results are

• Injury and Disease: For example every year a lot of employees have

back pain that reduce their job performance. And billions of Turkish

Lira is spent each year to treat back pain.

• Mental Health: Mental health is just as important as physical health.

Depressive disorders represent one of the most common health problems of

adult workforce.

• Death and Violence: Sometimes, workplace injuries result in

death.The most common workplace deaths are transportation accidents and

contact with objects and equipment.

• Economic Costs: Although deaths have reduced, the economic cost to

businesses of workplace deaths and injuries remains high.

Promoting Safety And Health

Within An Integrated HRM System

There are lots of things that can be used for workplace safety

and health.

• Job Analysis and Competency Model

Job analysis and competency modeling have shown that some

personality characteri analyses predict workplace accidents

and psychological symptoms.

• Training: training is the most important activity that can be

used to improve workplace safety and health. If you teach

employees how to behave when an accident happens, they can

be calm. The training of managers may include detailed

explanations of the relevant laws and regulations that govern

workplace safety and health.

The Organizational Environment

• Internal environment factors: are important for workplace safety and

health, include the organization’s culture and its leadership.

• Leadership: Effective leaders do more than just talk about the importance

of workplace safety.

• External forces that are important to workplace safety and health include

technologies, industry conditions, and the laws and regulations that govern

this aspect of work.

• Technology: The introduction of new technologies improves workplace

safety and health.

• Industry: Employees in some industries are more likely to be injured at

work than others. In Turkey’s shipbuilding accident rate is extremely high.

In fact, it is nearly 20 times higher than the developed countries

• Laws and regulations: Every country has laws and regulations about

workplace safety and health. I think in developed countries these laws are

strict .On the other hand in developing countries they are passive.

Global Considerations

With globalization, there has been an increasing awareness of

differences in national standards for workplace safety and

health.

• Country differences: There are differences in national

standards about workplace safety and health.

• Global organizations: Two global organizations that

strive to improve workplace safety and health in the world

are the International Labour Organization and The World

Health Organization.They strive to improve workplace

safety and health around the world by educating employers

and employees, developing knowledge about how to improve

the health of workers, and establishing a shared view of the

rights and responsibilities of employees and employers.

Safety And Health Hazards

In The Workplace

1-Organizational qualities

1. The working conditions and time

2. The tools and technology available to do the job

3. The availability of guns brought to work

The size of the organization has also been shown to be related to incidence rates.

Small organizations(those with fewer than 50 employees) and large organizations (those

with more than 250 employees) have lower incidence rates than medium-sized

organizations. Because supervisors in small organizations are better able to detect safety

hazards and prevent accidents than medium size ones, while larger organizations have

more resources to hire staff specialists who can devote their efforts to safety and accident

prevention.

Safety And Health Hazards

In The Workplace

2-Individual qualities

Accidents result from the behaviors of people, the hazards in the work

environment and pure chance. Certain psychological and physical

characteristics seem to make some people susceptible to accidents. Employees

who have fewer accidents are more optimistic, trusting, and concerned for

others than those have more accidents.

Employees under great stress are likely to have more accidents than those

under low stress.

Older workers are less likely to have accidents. However, when older people do

have accidents, they are more likely to suffer facilities and they recover more

slowly.

Safety And Health Hazards

In The Workplace

3-Violent employees

Workplace homicides are primarily robbery related, and they often

occur in grocery or convenience stores, drinking establishment, and

gasoline service stations.

Although it may be difficult to identify the violent employee before the

fact, employers are urged to be on the lookout for some common signs,

such as;

Verbal threats; individuals often talk about what they may do

Physical actions; troubled employees may try to intimidate others, flash

a concealed weapon in the workplace to test reactions.

Obsession: An employee may hold a grudge against a coworker or

supervisor.

Workplace Stressors

1-Organizational change : Often when changes are made, there is too little

communication about the necessity for change

and the nature of changes to come. People become concerned about whether the

change will affect them.

2-Physical environment:Office technologies can improve productivity, they

may also be reasons of stress, crowd,noise, lack of privacy, and lack of control.

3-Stress-prone employees: People differ from in how they respond to

organizational stressors. A classic difference is referred to as type a people versus

type b behaviors.

4-The manager: Employees working for a bad boss experienced more

exhausting, job tension, nervousness, depressed moods, and mistrust.

Strategies For Improving

Workplace Safety And Health

Accident Prevention: Designing the work environment to make accidents

unlikely is perhaps the best way to prevent accidents and increase safety.

Ergonomics: Ergonomics considers changes in the job environment in

conjunction with the physical and physiological capabilities and limitations of

the employees.

Vary their tasks during the day

Take small breaks every 30 minutes

Take longer breaks every two hours

Minimize the number of keystrokes whenever possible

Have opportunities to learn about their job performance

Reduce sources of environmental stress, such as heat, glare,or noise

Health and Safety Committees: Such committees can be effective in

reducing the frequency and severity of workplace injuries.