What is the role of company organisation?

Whether work systems are designed to be safe and healthy depends on the company organisation – on management. Often the causes of health risks are not to be found in the specific working conditions encountered on the spot, but in the company organisation and in-house communications. These deficiencies often have a far more serious effect than those in the specific work system.

Weak points in company management which may lead to accidents include:

• lack of supervision,
• lack of instruction,
• no delegation of duties,
• no personal protective equipment and
• unco-ordinated work.

The inclusion of safety and health in company organisation (company philosophy) is a major prerequisite for the success of your company

Inclusion means

• that occupational safety and health is known and accepted at all levels and is rooted in the management's area of responsibility,
• that the areas of competence, responsibilities and powers are regulated and are known in the company (e.g. who identifies and evaluates hazards, who plans and implements necessary measures, who supervises their implementation),
• that the workers and, where present, their representative bodies are involved and
• that preventive programmes of health promotion are put into practice.

Inclusion also mans that occupational safety and health should be firmly rooted in company management in a practical fashion. Bureaucracy and formalism do not help achieve the desired goals.

Every member of management staff, every worker must think about safety and health at every workplace and act accordingly.

In small companies the inclusion of safety and health will depend directly on the employer's commitment. If he goes along with it and considers his own safety (or that of his family, who are also actively involved, and his workers), occupational safety and health will play an important role in the company.

The following checklist^*) serves as a useful instrument for checking necessary regulations concerning the inclusion of safety and health in management.

^*) Source: Leitfaden für die Gefährdungsbeurteilung, Gruber, Kittelmann, Mierdel, Verlag Technik & Information, 9th reprint