Legislation

Organisations need to comply with current Health and Safety legislation and be aware of the direction it will take in the future.

Employees have a right to work in safe conditions, it is therefore important that you offer them a safe working environment: failure to do so can result in personal injury, disease or general poor health.

Legal action can be taken against your business (or you personally) damaging the business financially and its reputation (including you - as an employer).

Implementing Health & Safety legislation will help build inter-working-relations with your employees as they take the responsibility of looking after each other, knowing what is safe and what is not. They will also acquire the knowledge to deal with situations should they occur, ranging from Risk Assessment, putting out a fire to timely first aid.

Stress Management in the workplace

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines stress as "the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them". Pressure is part of all work and helps to keep us motivated. But excessive pressure can lead to stress which undermines performance, can make employees ill and be costly to employers.

Why do we need to tackle stress?

HSE commissioned research has indicated that:

• about half a million people in the UK experience work-related stress at a level they believe is making them ill.
• up to 5 million people in the UK feel "very" or "extremely" stressed by their work.
• a total of 12.8 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety in 2003/4.

HSE's key messages on stress are:

• HSE is working with businesses to enable them to manage work related stress more effectively.
• Work-related stress is a serious problem. Tackling it effectively can result in significant benefits for organisations.
• there are practical things organisations can do to prevent and control work related stress.
• Stress is a management issue which you as a manager can help resolve.

By working with Prospects Business Training we can help you tackle the issue of Stress Management with two, one day courses:

CIEH Stress Awareness - 1 day course

ILM Development Award - 1 day course

Risk assessment in the workplace

“The HSE define a risk assessment as nothing more than a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm. The aim is to make sure that no one gets hurt or becomes ill. Accidents and ill health can ruin lives, and affect your business too if output is lost, machinery is damaged, insurance costs increase or you have to go to court.

You are legally required to assess the risks in your workplace.  The important things you need to decide are whether: a hazard is significant; and you have it covered by satisfactory precautions so that the risk is small.”

If you would like to learn more about risk assessment Prospects Business Training deliver two courses on the subject:

CIEH Risk Assessment - 2 day course

IOSH Managing Safely - 4 day course