Health and safety resolutions

Health and safety resolutions start with good intentions, but are often pushed to one side when rules are changed without considering the risks.

Do you make New Year Resolutions only for these to be forgotten a few days later? How many of us have tried to give up smoking, lose weight or become fit by joining a gym? Everything goes well for a few days until we get bored, tempted or depressed and give up. After which we revert to our old ways.

Health and Safety can be very similar - we start with good intentions only to find that it can be easier and more convenient to do it our way without considering the risks that we are exposed to - this applies to all sectors and work activities where we consider health and safety to be red tape and a barrier to success.

Too many employees suffer ill health and injury at work; problems from use of display screen equipment via repetitive work and poor posture, noise and vibration from work with hand tools, exposure to dust fibres such as silica and asbestos. In many of these cases, problems arise from a failure by persons to accept responsibility for their health until it is too late - 85% of all injuries and ill health are caused by human error which could be avoided.

Safetyboss is a local health and safety consultancy based in Woodbridge that provides services for a wide range of clients across Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, London and South East.

We have made the following New Year Resolutions which we will discuss in more detail each month during 2015 - by adopting and following these resolutions you can reduce the risk of a serious incident or health problem arising which could affect you or your company.

Although an employer should provide a safe place of work and a safe working environment, every employee also has a duty to look after themselves:

January: adopt the resolutions and work to them

February: undertake workplace risk assessments/not take unnecessary risks

March: report all accidents and incidents

April: prevent repetitive task injuries and bad posture affecting employees

May: wear personal protective equipment and follow training provided

June: take an active role in safety matters

We hope that 2015 proves to be both prosperous and accident/incident free for you and your company. For further advice on policies, H&S advice or guidance please contact us to see how we can help you.