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No compromise on Health & Safety: BS OHSAS 18001 and Kitemark

18 May 2011
Topics: Occupational Health and safety, BS OHSAS 18001

Keeping pace with changing health and safety legislation shouldn't be viewed purely as an exercise in compliance. It can also improve your bottom line.

The recession may be over, but the fallout of the financial crisis continues to be felt. With deep cuts in government spending and so-called austerity measures being implemented worldwide, business face an uncertain economic future, and many will be making cost-savings of their own.

With everything from human resources to procurement coming under scrutiny, some organizations may try to squeeze more productivity from fewer employees or to replace ageing equipment with cheaper alternatives.

The economic situation is resulting in many organizations reducing headcount or not replacing staff, and merely re-distributing the extra workload onto their remaining staff. Many will be giving insufficient thought to the impact of this on work-related stress. And, while it may not have an immediate effect, it could become more of a problem as the months pass by.

Jane Willis, Director of Cross-cutting Interventions at the Health and Safety Executive adds that, "history has shown us that during a period of economic recovery injury rates increase. This can be due to employers hiring workers with less experience, or working longer hours; both of these are linked to higher risk of injury."

Scrimping on health and safety can have serious repercussions. All organizations in the UK have a legal responsibility to protect the health and safety of their staff and other people - such as customers and members of the public - who may be affected by their work. That means conducting regular and thorough risk assessments; drawing up a health and safety policy, and recording and reporting any injuries, illnesses or accidents that occur. Failure to do so not only carries serious legal implications, it can also have immediate and long-term costs to your business.

Mind the gap

Globally, 2.2 million workers died in 2009 as a result of work-related incidents or diseases each year and a further 160 million suffer from illnesses because of work.^[1] This cost the world economy around $1.25trn, equivalent to four per cent of GDP.

"The main costs to employers of workplace injuries and work-related ill health are on insurance premiums and sick pay," says Willis. "Other costs include production disturbance, investigations/prosecutions and administration."

When a large organization is a person down, it may be able to absorb the loss of output without too much of a ripple, but for a small business it can mean being unable to fulfil orders or provide the same level of service. However, attempting to avoid a drop in output can carry other costs, such as paying overtime to remaining staff or hiring temporary cover.

There are also longer-term effects of poor health and safety. If employees lack confidence in their employee to properly safeguard their welfare, are overly stressed or feel ill-equipped to do their jobs, they're likely to suffer low morale, be less productive and to leave prematurely.

"Unfortunately, poor OH&S provision is something that people are generally very tolerant of, unless they feel that their personal wellbeing is directly threatened," says Charles Corrie, Business Programme Manager at BSI. "There tends, therefore, to be a slow build up of resentment towards an organization with poor OH&S." For the employer, the ongoing cost of recruitment and training can be a considerable drain on resources.

If a major incident occurs and your organization is found culpable, you'll face not only fines but also legal costs. What's more, your insurance may not be sufficient to cover all the associated expenses and, depending on the nature of the incident, you could see a hike in your premiums after the event.

Word of mouth

One of the most enduring costs of poor health and safety is damage to your reputation, which for many firms is their greatest asset. A good reputation - one with a clear track record on workplace accidents and duty of care - can help to attract and retain talent, suppliers and loyal customers. A bad reputation may cause a drop in sales and make it harder to attract suppliers, partners and investor interest for some time to come.

Some businesses have built their success on a reputation for excellence in employee health and safety. With construction workers three to four times more likely to suffer a fatal accident at work than any other worker, Atkins (the UK's largest engineering and design consultancy) has led the way in health and safety best practice for many years.

"It's important to start from a high level of compliance, so that everything is organized and everyone understands what their responsibilities are and what the processes are," says Richard Hulland, Group Quality, Safety and Environment Director at Atkins. "For example, we have business management systems that are certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO18001 worldwide. Health and safety forms a major part of our decision-making process."

While its strong reputation in H&S is very attractive to potential investors and clients, Hulland says, "Atkins prioritizes H&S because we can make a difference, to the safety of our own staff, the safety of others through safer design and engineering, and to encourage industry to raise the standards as a whole.

"For example, Atkins is working with clients and other organizations in the UAE to raise legal standards on health and safety by developing and implementing a regulatory framework," says Hulland. "We want to go beyond the minimum legal requirements and are keen to have a voice in the industry and work with our competitors to help it raise standards. We see H&S as a moral responsibility to protect the people that work for us. If our clients find that attractive, then that's great because it means they value good H&S as well."

The Middle East has long been dogged by a reputation for high accident rates in some of its core industries, such as petrochemicals and construction. According to Theuns Kotze, Regional Director for the Middle East and Africa at BSI, this is largely down to the high volume and turnover of staff in the region and the constantly changing situations in which they work. Not only does it make H&S training and communication a challenge, but the risks and requirements themselves can change daily.

"In recent years, we've seen a real drive by governments in the Middle East to raise safety standards and employ more forceful enforcement," says Kotze. "In Abu Dhabi, for example, teams of inspectors are now being deployed to inspect companies, which hasn't been the case in the past." The Abu Dhabi government also launched an Integrated Environment Health and Safety Management System three years ago, which has been made compulsory in key sectors such as construction, energy, food and transport.

How do standards help?

While most organizations take health and safety seriously, regular changes in the legislation mean it can be difficult to keep track and ensure they're doing everything by the book.

Taking a standards-based approach can help. BS OHSAS 18001 provides a clear framework to follow, helping organizations to identify and control the risks within their businesses, reduce the potential for accidents and establish the systems and culture required to meet legal requirements.

"The development of BS OHSAS 18001 helped to bring together knowledge of best practice in the field of OH&S from around the world, and to distil this down to an absolute core set of requirements that are needed for good OH&S performance," explains Corrie. "The standard (along with the sister standards BS OHSAS 18002 and BS 18004) gives an organization immediate access to that best practice knowledge, and can help it to build a first class system that meets its own business purposes, as well as meeting many international requirements for OH&S."

And, by using software such as Entropy, organizations not only have the certification and standards, but the tools to manage them as well. Entropy® Software provides a full management system suite for a standards-based approach to Health and Safety Management such as for OHSAS 18001 and other standards.

In November 2010, Tim Sparey, Tutor Development Manager for BSI, released the results of a study into the effectiveness of BS OHSAS 18001 in delivering its intended benefits to the user^[2]. Sparey sought to identify the benefits of implementing the standard itself rather than those gained through certification.

He reports a range of benefits among users of the standard, with specific areas of improvement in, "accident reduction, performance monitoring and the reporting of accidents and non-injury incidents."

81.3 per cent of organizations surveyed in the study found that use of the standard improved their health and safety culture, while 75.5 per cent saw an improvement in their monitoring, measurement and auditing. The same percentage also saw an increase in the involvement and commitment of senior management.

Because each organization is unique, with its own staff structure, physical characteristics, working practices and culture, BS OHSAS 18001 doesn't specify the details of how to implement and design a health and safety system. Instead, it sets out a defined framework of requirements for an effective system and provides clear direction on how to achieve it. Certification is the end goal of the independent assessment of an organization's implementation of a management standard such as BS OHSAS 18001.

Kitemark Product Certification

Part of BS OHSAS 18001 is ensuring that you have the tools for the job - I.e. that you don't scrimp on personal protective equipment. As Claire Lynam, Head of Communications & Alliances at BSI EMEA, points out, "How would your business continuity plan operate if your facilities burned down due to a faulty smoke alarm, your stock damaged due to poor quality flood protection products or, worst of all, an employee is injured or killed through non-compliant safety wear?

"Even with a robust management system in place to cover health and safety such as BS OHSAS 18001, accidents and incidents can still happen," she says. "If they do, you need to ensure that your staff are wearing good enough quality safety equipment to help save or reduce injury or even death."

By choosing Kitemark certification (or at least independently certified) products, businesses can demonstrate due diligence in taking the best precautions possible. If a product or service carries a Kitemark, you have reassurance that it's been independently tested, audited on a regular basis and that it will perform to that consistent quality every time.

To protect their own liabilities further down the line, potential investors are now likely to demand more transparency in how your organization operates, including your health and safety provision. Showing that your company, product or service meets a specific standard can help you demonstrate that your are fulfilling your responsibilities. It can also help you to compete for business from larger businesses or government departments, which may require suppliers to comply with strict standards or criteria.

Kotze says that many of the companies active in the Middle East are from Europe and other Western nations, for whom transparency and proof of good H&S practices have become a must-have when securing investment or new clientele. "At BSI, we're seeing high demand for certification," he adds. "Many organizations come to us because they require proof of their certification for a tender or proof of a potential supplier's claims to certification."

The HSE's Willis concludes by emphasizing the ongoing nature of good H&S in the workplace, through regular risk assessment reviews. "The key to good health and safety practice is that it becomes part of the culture and not a bolt-on to how a company operates," she says. "Few workplaces stay the same, with new equipment, substances and workers brought in over time, potentially presenting new hazards. It makes sense, therefore, for businesses to review what they are doing on an ongoing basis."

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^[1] http://www.britsafe.org/News-Article/09-04-28/Four_workers_die_every_minute_from_work-related_accidents_or_ill_health_across_the_globe_says_British_Safety_Council.aspx?ID=881c1a42-cd2c-4235-969a-4c785ccd6360

^[2] Sparey,T. (2010). Does BS OHSAS 18001 work?

Business Standards © 2010. Editorial produced by Caspian Publishing in association with The British Standards Institution. Editorial opinions expressed on are not necessarily those of BSI Group or Caspian Publishing. Neither Caspian Publishing nor BSI Group accept responsibility for advertising or editorial content, nor for that appearing on linked third-party websites. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without written permission from BSI Group or Caspian Publishing.

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