Welcome to my first blog post which has been developed with you and your health and safety needs in mind.
My goal is to simplify what has become for most a complicated health and safety process. In my role at Key to Safety and as a COR auditor I see a variety of health and safety programs that range from simple and easy to follow to complicated programs that make it impossible for workers to find important information.
Many of my first years working were spent in construction and the oilfield prior to transitioning into the world of health and safety. It was an easy transition as health and safety played a big part in my responsibilities. It is easy to understand how complicated maintaining health and systems appear, especially when they are new to you, or you are trying to juggle multiple responsibilities.
Health and Safety: What do those words mean to you? For some these words conjure up thoughts of extra work, resulting in stress and feeling overwhelmed.
The words themselves are simple and easily defined:
- Health – A person’s mental or physical condition
- Safety – The condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury
In the workplace, health and safety signify the systems we have in place to protect all persons affected by our work. It is important that we have strong health and safety practices developed to ensure the wellbeing of everyone involved.
We have a responsibility to protecting our workers, subcontractors, visitors, clients, the public, and the environment.
One of the realities many of us are facing is the number of young and new workers entering the job force. Do we have the proper procedures to make sure they are being trained and monitored to protect them?
This is just one question and gives an example of where the confusion may set in. There are so many questions:
- What do we need in our organization?
- Who is responsible?
- Where do I begin?
- Do I need training?
- Are there rules or legislation that apply?
- What do our clients expect of us?
- How do we do all of this and still get our jobs done?
For many of us, it is in our nature to complicate things and twist them into something we think they should be. Many believe that in order to have value, something needs to be complicated. However, one thing my many mentors over the years have tried to instill in me is the importance of keeping it simple, often referring to the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) method.
In this blog, we want to share simple solutions for everyday tasks in health and safety and offer insightful information to help you find straightforward solutions.
Stay tuned for my next post, where I’ll share simple strategies for protecting young and new workers.