Lawrence Kinlin School of Business: Health & Safety Critical Aspect - Essay Sample

Introduction

The concept of health and safety is significant and critical aspect to every organisation, and Lawrence Kinlin School of Business is not an exemption. Notably, safety is a state in which related conditions and hazards that may cause psychological, physical, or material harm may be mitigated with the primary objective of protecting the health and overall well being of the individual in the associated setting (Anderson, 2005).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Organization Summary

The Laurence Kiln school of the business department is a constituent school of Fanshawe College located in London, Ontario. The department provides the most recent integrated and flexible business programs that enable learners not only to succeed in the job market in London but across the globe. Fanshawe Kiln school of business offers such business courses, including graduate and undergraduate programs, certificates, diplomas, and master's degree. Notably, the department has a workforce due to multiple activities. The workforce comprises accounting and finance chairman and tutors, departmental secretaries, human resource personnel and lecturers, data entry clerks among other middle and high-level managers. Therefore, due to increased levels of activities, the department can be exposed to multiple hazards that can pose a big threat to human life, including chairs in walkways, boxes stacked too high, loose cords, among many other hazards (https://www.fanshawec.ca/programs-and-courses/academic-schools/lawrence-kinlin-school-business)

Hazard Recognition

Concerning health and safety, Hazard is a potential source of harm to an individual, which may translate to adverse health consequences if not managed (Perlman et al., 2014). The health and safety audit aims to manage the risk of potential harm in the Kiln Business school department. The department can be associated with the following potential hazards; staking boxes to high, cleaning the offices during work hours, pilling books and other documents on top of the cabinet, cluttered workspaces, loose cords, dusty lockers, hanging power cables, chairs in walkaways, workplace violence, and unwell fitted fire extinguisher. Multiple injuries might occur if the hazards are not controlled or mitigated. For instance, an electric shock may occur due to open cables, cleaning the floor during working hours may cause individuals to fall and lead to injury. High staked cabinets may fall and cause damage to the individual. Moreover, dusty lockers may cause an allergic reaction and lead to other respiratory diseases, while unfitted fire extinguishers may lead to fire injuries in case of a disaster outbreak.

Risk Assessment of Hazards

Risk assessment is a general term used to describe the overall method of the processes used in the identification, evaluation, and prioritising of the hazards and other risk factors that have the potential of causing harm (Paustenbach, 2012). Therefore, a risk assessment would entail a detailed consideration of the Kiln Business department's overall workplace, processes, and related situation. Notably, according to the risk matrix developed in Appendix A, the top three hazards would far in the following order (More details see Appendix A). Hanging power cables, Violent workplace, and cleaning of departmental offices during working hours. Notably, risk prioritization involves the overall identification of risky hazards and their impacts assessed with the probability of occurrence ascertained to determine the most critical hazard (Paustenbach, 2012). The most significant reason for prioritizing risk is to allocate resources. Therefore, Kiln school of business should allocate adequate resources to solve or mitigate the above three prioritized risks to avoid injuries and illness.

Hazard Control

Hazard controls are essential programs designed to protect workers or individuals from exposures from injury. They are implemented to mitigate and reduce adverse health consequences, and these programs are taught to the management personnel in the organisation (Namian et al., 2016). Kiln School of business is not an exemption in developing and implementing hazard control procedures to its major risk factors. The department has put in place, effective programs to reduce and eliminate the effects of critical hazards in order of their priority illustrated. The first hazard is hanging power cables. The hazard can be eliminated through the use of engineering controls. Engineering controls would entail redesigning the process and arrangement of the departmental offices to create a barrier between the hazard and the people's exposure.

For instance, there would be proximity guarding of the lose power cables to avoid close contact with the people in the offices or people visiting the office. The second hazard is the violent workplace. Kiln School of business would effectively solve the hazard through the use of administrative controls and isolation of the hazard. The controls involve the adoption new or effective standard operating procedures (SOPs) for safe working practices (Namian et al., 2016). Moreover, the controls can also encompass various trainings, issue of instructions and effective code of conduct in the working places. Therefore, through the human resource department, the Kiln school of business can eliminate the Hazard through the implementation of a good code of conduct in the department that would create harmonious working relationships and, hence reducing potential injury.

Notably, more than one combination of control measures can be applied to a particular hazard. For instance, the organisation can implement good working code of conduct, which can be later followed by work isolation and permit incase of increased workplace violence. The last hazard is the cleaning of the offices during operating hours. Elimination controls would prove effective. The department should use to organise the cleaning of the office during off-hours. Elimination of the hazard controls are not often achieved since they totally do eliminate the hazard, and thus substitution to a lesser riskier hazard can also be implemented (Namian et al., 2016).

References

Anderson, M. (2005). Behavioral safety and major accident hazards: A magic bullet or shot in the dark?. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 83(2), 109-116. https://www.fanshawec.ca/programs-and-courses/academic-schools/lawrence-kinlin-school-business

Namian, M., Albert, A., Zuluaga, C. M., & Jaselskis, E. J. (2016). Improving hazard-recognition performance and safety training outcomes: Integrating strategies for training transfer. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 142(10), 04016048.

Paustenbach, D. J. (2012). The risk assessment of environmental and human hazards.

Perlman, A., Sacks, R., & Barak, R. (2014). Hazard recognition and risk perception in construction. Safety science, 64, 22-31.