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As old economic certainties start to fade away, health and safety is often the first thing to be compromised. SFS finds out how ensuring a business has a good HSE policy is one way to beat the banker.
At a time when the economy is starting to suffer from a degree of uncertainty, there is a danger that health and safety can be seen as one of the first things to be compromised in an effort to reduce overheads.
A good health and safety policy, however, allows a business to identify the particular hazards involved in its work and the level of risk. As a result, maintaining a comprehensive health and safety policy is one way for a business to protect its bottom line.
Experts warn that cutting back on HSE policies can in fact be disastrous for a business fighting to remain competitive. "When times are tough, we have to look at every way we can save money within an organisation."
If you have a good HSE programme, it reduces the risk of harm to people, loss to process, service interruption and damage to equipment," says Eldeen Pozniak, managing director of safety consultants Pozniak Associates DMCC.
Her views are echoed by Michael Nates EHS senior general manager of Nakheel. "Construction sites will never be free from hazards," he said at the Construction Week Conference held in October. "However, a good site plan helps prevent problems, and avoiding incidents means avoiding disruption."
This is because a good health and safety policy isn't just about protecting workers. It's also about defining how your business operates.
"If you don't plan, sooner or later something will happen that you just don't see coming. If you have a comprehensive plan in place, you have a way of working, something you can monitor, something you can learn from and it'll help you manage your business," says Ben Legg, IMS Director, Al Futtaim Carillion.
