Occupational Safety and Health Standards Performance of the Engineering Construction in PQ Company Ltd

1.0 Executive summary

The purpose of this study is to look into some of the best ways in ensuring that the workplaces are safe and conducive for the workers. The research looks into the merits and demerits of performing basic safety operations in the workplaces like the risk assessment, daily safety precautions, safety briefings, safety inspections, and regular toolbox training. After that, some recommendations for modification to improve the safety standards are outlined, and specific areas of focus for the implementation by the new safety manager are proposed.

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The report gives an outline of the merits and demerits of the used systems of the safety performance monitoring with the view of strengthening the loops that might have resulted in the summonses by the government authorities in charge of overseeing the safety of construction sites.

2.0 Introduction

Safety standards refer to the methods in which safety is addressed and communicated in the workplace. The measures entail the attitudes, values, beliefs, perceptions, norms, and practices of employees in an organisation concerning safety (Zhou et al., 2017, p.149). The continuous and committal implementation of the safety standards in an organisation results in the safety culture of the company. The primary indicators of safety culture in an organisation include the managers' commitment, the employees' involvement, and safety management systems. Besides, safety standards also involve the shared beliefs, practices, and mindsets that shape behaviours positively in an organisation. The safety standards set the standards for overall safety in an organisation.

Safety culture measurements have proven to illuminate organisational accident processes by linking safety culture scores and risk scores. Similarly, safety culture has been associated with accident-related variables. These linkages demonstrate that accidents are preventable if countermeasures are taken to address areas of safety culture. The process allows safety managers to expand safety program focus and to address behavioural and safety culture concerns through uncovering accident-related variables.

3.0 Analysis of the safety performance monitoring system used by PQ Company

The people in charge of Health and Safety Regulations in any given workplace must emphasise the need to track the performance of safety practices in the organisation. The monitoring can be conducted by establishing the organisational health and safety policies, risk assessment mechanisms, and the role of competent staff on safety (Zhou et al., 2017, p.151). Besides, the establishment of developmental techniques of planning, measurements and review can also assist in monitoring performance. The safety performance monitoring can be conducted in two levels of the organisation, which is at the management level and the job level.

3.1 Strengths and weaknesses of conducting risk assessments

Risk assessment in a workplace is a legal requirement under the labour legislation of construction sites and safety chapter 59I regulations 38B in the government of Hong Kong. The hazard identification and risk assessment is an enabling ordinance that helps in setting the requirements that cover all the workplaces in the organisations. Conducting risk assessments in an organisation before the workers are allowed into the workplace is very much beneficial in the sense that it creates awareness among the employees. Besides, the risk assessment enables the setting of the risk management standards following the legal requirements in paragraph 2 of CSSR chapter 59I regulation 38B and the acceptable safety practices that ensure recognition and control of hazards in a workplace. Besides, the assessments assist in minimising the chances of the occurrence of the hazardous incidents in the workplace and hence save the costs. As outlined by the Iceberg theory, the organisations incur a lot of the expenses regarding compensation and other indirect costs whenever an accident occurs in the workplace (Kjellen and Albrechtsen, 2017, p.76). Indeed, the risk assessment activities make the company more proactive instead of being reactive in the matters of safety management.

When risk assessment is conducted in a workplace without the involvement of workers, several challenges come because of such actions. For instance, the chances of risks occurrence because the employees may not be aware of the actual risks are very high. Similarly, the cost of inducing the workers before the start of the job is relatively higher than the cost of training them when they are within the confines of the workplace. It is because the workers within the workplace are somehow more informed about the risk chances within the workplace, unlike the workers who are inducted after conducted the risk assessment. Therefore, the cost of training a relatively knowledgeable worker is lower than the cost of training an utterly uninformed worker about the safety standards.

3.2 Strengths and weaknesses of implementing Safety precaution

In any given workplace, the safety precautions must be available and be fulfilled. The implementation rate of the safety precautions varies from one company to another depending on the goods and services that they deal with. The construction companies like the PQ Company are expected by the Hong Kong regulations to promptly implement the safety precaution given the nature of the jobs that they deal with regularly (Wong et al., 2016, p.263). The implementation of the safety precautions is to the benefit of the workers in the company and the overall supervisory for the implementation is bestowed on the management of the company according to paragraph one (1) of Construction Site and safety Regulations (CSSR) cap 59I regulation 38B. According to Domino theory, five factors must be present for the accident to occur. The factors include the fault of the person, ancestry, and social environment, physical or mechanical hazards, the accident, and the injury. Such factors must be prevented through the implementation of the safety precautions in a workplace.

Several merits accrue as a result of implementing the safety precautions. Such benefits include the formal guiding the future actions of the employees that enable the workers to be very cautious while in their workplaces. Therefore, it is a tool that is used in dictating the acceptable and unacceptable behaviours in a workplace and assists the management in handling the staff effectively. When the safety precautions are set, the handling of the health and safety matters through existing procedures is quick and time-saving unlike in the scenario where the employees have to tackle the problems as they occur. Furthermore, the implementation of the safety precautions ensures that the safe systems of work are communicated to the employees. Besides, they ensure that safety precautions are consistently implemented throughout the organisation as outlined in the James Reason's Swiss cheese theory (Kjellen and Albrechtsen, 2017, p.78). The implementation also shows that the company is willing and ready to operate within the confines of the health and safety principles thereby attracting competent and experienced staff from the competing companies.

The dangers of implementing safety precautions before assigning the job locations to the workers are that the employees may not readily understand the safety precautions set. Therefore, the workers will take a lot of time in reading and follow the precautions rather than spend the time in doing their daily chores that are directly beneficial to the company. Indeed, the workers will prolong the implementation process because of the low process of internalising the concepts.

3.3 Strengths and weaknesses of daily safety briefings

The daily briefings are reminders to the workers on the occupational safety expectations required of them while working on the organisational premises. The reminders act as an avenue for passing critical information about the legal requirements that all workers in construction sites must adhere to while working as recommended by the BS OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational health and safety management systems. While overseeing the safety briefings, utmost seriousness and professionalism must be upheld to sensitise the workers on the importance of such activity to both the employees and the managers of the company (Friend and Kohn, 2014, p.11). The daily safety meetings should be conducted with specific objectives emphasis on particular topics that are more likely to arise in the course of the work year.

The benefits of the daily safety briefings include the creation of awareness among the working staff. When safety briefings are held, the perception among workers on the potential risks associated with their jobs is raised. During the daily safety briefings, the management of the company can update the workers on the occupational safety status of the company such as accidents that might have occurred on the job the previous day. With such, the company managers will have clear and visible evidence to display to the employees about the actual dangers that are looming while at work. Indeed, the briefings will be constant reminders to the employees about the potential risks likely to be encountered while on the job hence maintaining safety as per the Hong Kong Housing Authority safety and health circular number 23 of 2014.

Another advantage of daily safety briefings is that it allows the creation of plans for improving the safety precautions (Zhou et al., 2017, p.157). Usually, during the daily briefings, there is perfect opportunity to assemble the employees and brief them on the plans and procedures to avoid future safety problems. Similarly, the employees also have a chance to raise their experiences concerning safety problems and failures that management may not be...