Sounds Like Nirvana.
However, when you scratch below the surface, disturbingly these same companies believe that the “app” is their health and safety system.
The emperor is using an app. We need to talk.

Management Information Systems
Just like in maintenance management systems, the head over heels rush to view everything on our smart phones can distract us from the real task of managing our systems. It is all too easy for the inexperienced to get over-excited about their phone app while forgetting completely what we are trying to achieve. Under our health and safety statute and supporting regulations, we need a system to detail the hazards and risks in our operation, ensure our hazard controls are continuously managed, and capture our continuous learning to ensure mistakes are not repeated. These are the things that are measured and tested in Court if things go wrong.
When we get to the business end of those systems and processes, yes, connectivity, transparency and on the fly reporting are fantastic enhancements to a system. But they do not replace the system. Plugging into a blunt app (often supported outside of the country) for your documents and actions is not a substitute for your health and safety system. Having a health and safety system that your app taps into for transactional entries is an enhancement to your system.

Get It Right
So, if you get it right, you will already have a health and safety system. It will describe your health and safety policy, how you manage health and safety including hazards, workers, specific actions, and detailed policies. Your system should be transparent and transportable across the company. In the modern world we can achieve this with Cloud based applications. Like any process, your health and safety system needs
• A defined and agreed process
• A complete process (no bypasses)
• A published process (how you do things)
• Clear responsibilities
• Clear and timely performance measures
• Regular management reporting

True H&S Management
This is where the true management happens. From the system, supporting documents and forms become the transaction statements and the recorded results become the proof of your good management, vital in defending prosecutions.
Now you are ready to consider the distributed end of your process; safety inductions, training records, safety data sheets, safe work instructions, permits, hazard and incident reporting. If your workers are out in the field, yes, an app may be the answer. Not so good if they have no cell phone coverage, (particularly within sandwich panel factories), or if phones are banned in the working environment. Is the best solution a piece of paper, an app, or a tablet? Certainly, a digital solution should be superior to analogue methods. If you can find a solution to fit your situation, you should enjoy a more complete management solution. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking an app by itself is going to keep your workplace compliant and safe.

The importance of having a WHS system in place is to describe how a job, process, procedure, or other work is performed safely and ensure that this information is utilized for the safety and wellbeing of your employees.

Risk Analysis

All contractors and workers are required to identify risks, hazards, and assess risks while performing their job. There are four main processes needed in your WHS documentation. All of these documents apply the same risk assessment methodology and serve the same intent and purpose. Let’s go through them:

JSA: Job Safety Analysis. This assessment helps reduce risks and hazards to as low a level as possible. To do this, you analyze the step-by-step processes of a task or job and identify risks that can be mitigated by following the proper procedure.

JHA: Job Hazard Analysis. This analysis focuses on specific job tasks and identifies hazards before they happen. It focuses on the relationship between the worker, task, equipment, and work environment.

TRA: Task Risk Analysis. Here, you identify the risks and hazards of a task, assess the risks, and identify controls or precautions needed to avoid the risk.

JSEA: Job Safety & Environmental Assessment. The work environment is a part of your risk assessment. This assessment breaks down a process or task and identifies environmental risks. Once identified, procedures are put in place to mitigate the risk or hazard to employees and the work environment.

Work Statement

A Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) is a legal document detailing high-risk work activities on a site with known hazards. This document aims to document dangerous activity conducted regularly as part of a job or a task.

The document also details out safety measures to significantly reduce potential accidents on the job site. There are four components to an SWMS:
● The details of the construction work considered high risk.
● The health and safety hazards relating to the job.
● The control measures to be implemented to minimize or remove risk.
● How will the control measures be actioned?

Operations Planning

Once you’ve identified risks, hazards, and detailed ways to mitigate them, you need to develop procedures for employees to follow. Within the SWMS, there are additional items needing attention. Each part describes processes and situations that need attention. Again, these sections have their own set of acronyms. Let’s take a look at them.

HEMP: Hazard and Effect Management Process and created to identify the HSE hazards and assess them for proper management.

HSE-MS: Health and Safety Management System. It is a tool to achieve the firm’s commitment to carry out its business in a way that ensures its contractors, employees, and the public are safe.

LTI: Lost Time Injury. This term refers to the loss of productive work time due to an injury sustained by an employee.

FAT: FAT stands for Fatality, and it is the term used to refer to the death of a person caused by an accident.

SWL: Safe Working Load. In some job sites, they refer to this as NWL – Normal Working Load. This term refers to the maximum safe load that a lifting machine or device can lower, suspend, or lift safely.

RTA: Road Traffic Accident.

SSSP: Site Specific Safety Plan

SOP: Safe Operational Plan

HIRA: Risk/Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment

HSSP: Health and Safety Site Plan

CPR: Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation.

HAZOP: Hazard Operability

PEL: Permissible Exposure Limit. This details the exposure limit of a worker to chemical substances or physical agents like loud noise.

RIDDOR: Reporting of Injuries, Disease, and Dangerous Occurrences.

PPE: Personal Protective Equipment. These are the pieces of equipment you need to protect yourself against safety and health risks at work.

SSoW: Safe System of Work. A systematic approach to ensuring hazards or risks are minimized or eliminated.

NFPA: National Fire Protection Association

HSE: Health Safety Environment

OSHAS: Occupational Safety and Health Assessment Series

FEE: Fire Extinguisher Equipment

A reminder of some general health and safety jargon and acronyms:

WHS: Workplace Health and Safety

HSAW: Health and Safety at Work Act

SWMS: Safe Work Method Statement

PCBU: person conducting a business or undertaking

New Zealand’s health and safety rules and regulations are not simple. Even though the Health & Safety at Work Act aims to make these regulations straightforward, not every business owner has the time and expertise to make sure their workplace is 100% compliant with health and safety guidelines.

Too many businesses risk going bankrupt over fines following simple workplace accidents. These fines are easily avoided by knowing what you’re working with and having your paperwork up to date.

HasTrak has the experience and expertise to manage your SWMS and ensure that it meets Health & Safety at Work standards. We also provide training for you, your employees, and operators. Contact us today for a free consultation.

1. To regulate and control safety-related behaviour
2. To warn of potential hazards where necessary, and
3. To provide emergency information, including fire protection

Knowing exactly which signage is needed in your business and exactly what these signs should look like can be a confusing task to handle on your own. This article will detail the different requirements of safety signage in New Zealand and help you understand exactly what you need in your place of work to be legally compliant.

Types of Safety Signs

Danger Signs – Hazards that can kill

Any hazard that could potentially be fatal requires an appropriate safety sign. The word ‘DANGER’ and the red oval inside a black box must be displayed to the exact dimensions and colour outlined in the AS/NZS 1319:1994.

Examples of danger signs: keep out, asbestos removal, flammable, high voltage

Warning Signs – Hazards that can injure

Hazards that have the potential to cause non-life threatening physical harm require a warning sign. Warning signs should be yellow with a black triangle and include an image of the hazard.

Examples of warning signs: slippery surface, forklifts in use, risk of electric shock

Prohibition Signs – Things you must not do.

Use these signs when you want to tell employees/visitors what they aren’t allowed to do. A universally understood image with a red circle around and a red diagonal line through indicates what is generally not allowed. It should be displayed up front and large so there is no misunderstanding.

Examples of prohibition safety signs: do not drink, no entry, no smoking

Mandatory Signs – Things you must do to stay safe.

Mandatory signs should be used to tell employees and visitors what they should do to stay safe and ensure a safe working environment. These can be used to instruct people to stay out of dangerous areas, advise on wearing PPE or other simple tasks that must be performed before entering an area. Mandatory safety signage includes a large blue circle with easy to understand images and clear instructions underneath.

Examples of mandatory signs: wear protective clothing, wash hands, PPE for covid safety

Emergency & Fire Signs – Things that will SAVE you.

Emergency and fire safety signs help guide employees to an area that can provide safety equipment or a safe way to exit. The white text on a green background is a universal indication of emergency signage. A red background on a sign indicates the location of a fire extinguisher or other fire equipment.

Examples of emergency and fire signs: exit, fire extinguisher, first aid

Guidance on common safety signage your business needs

Exit Safety Signs

Easy-to-read exit signs are the most important installations in your business. These signs will assist your employees and customers to find a way out of your building or facility in case of an emergency.

Signs need to be clear, visible, and easy to understand. In addition, signs need to be illuminated. This can be done in the case of internally illuminated signs or by having a light illuminating the exit sign externally.

Exit signs also could be photoluminescent and be able to be charged on a lighting system specially controlled for signs.

All exit signs, regarding how they light up and draw attention to themselves, should be visible even during low-light conditions.

Similar to exit signs, it is beneficial for you to have signs indicating exit routes located by applicable exits. These signs exist as a way to ensure your employees and customers can locate a safe way outside of your building in case of an emergency.

Hazardous Substances Signs

If your employees handle or work around chemicals in your business, hazardous substance signs are required. Your signs must be durable and not able to fade easily and be in English. These signs should always contain information about what materials are and how to react in case of an emergency situation.

Are substances flammable? What about potential health risks? This sort of information should be included on posted signage. Hazardous substance signs must be easy to understand and information must be able to be read from 10 meters away in low light or in rain.

Where do you place these signs?

They should be near hazardous substances but should be visible to the extent that no one needs to be near the hazardous substances to be warned of their presence. People need to be warned before it’s potentially too late. Signs must be at all entrances, whether those be vehicle entrances or walk-in entrances, to let people know hazardous materials are stored on site.

Signs should also be updated whenever there is a change to the materials you are storing.

Safety Signs – What Not To Do

Now that you know two major types of signs your workplace may need, it’s important to know what not to do with your legally required signage.

First, ensure that regardless of opening doors or gates, your signs are always visible. If you were to put a sign on a wall that gets covered when a door is open, for example, you will actually not be in compliance even though your sign meets all other legal criteria.

Never allow your signs to fall into a state of disrepair. Signs should be clear and easy to read at all times and should always have accurate information displayed. All of your posted safety signage should be cleaned frequently as well to ensure you and your employees can read them should they ever be needed.

If there’s ever a change to anything, signs need to be updated. Say, for example, a door no longer leads to an exit due to new construction. That exit sign should be removed in order to prevent your employees or customers from attempting to use that door as an exit in the case of an emergency. The last thing you want is to be held liable for someone’s injury due to a misplaced sign.

What If I’m Stuck?

Although the new health and safety act has been in existence for a few years, many companies still have gaps in health and safety that they may be unaware of.

HasTrak can assist: We are experienced health and safety consultants and advisors who specialize in running detailed audits and risk assessments, building COVID-19 health and safety management systems and manuals, and on-and-off-site workplace safety training and consultancy tailored to your workplace and team.

Too many businesses risk going bankrupt over fines following simple workplace accidents; fines that can easily be avoided by knowing what you’re working with, and having your paperwork up to date. We’ll help you do exactly that! Contact us today to receive a personalized quote!

In addition to the core purpose of ensuring your employees are safe, you want to ensure your insurance premiums are as low as possible and prevent loss of productivity due to when an employee is inadvertently injured. Workplace health and safety training is crucial to ensuring this.

Making an effective workplace safety training program can be challenging, though. Making sure you not only hit all of the points you’re legally required to hit but also making sure your employee’s voices are being heard can be extremely hard to manage while you’re trying to run your business.

Despite difficulties, there are countless reasons why you want to have effective workplace safety training practices in your company, and this article will detail some of the most important reasons for you to keep in mind when planning your next safety training exercises.

Make A Focus on Communication

If your employees are unable to communicate upwards when they notice a problem, no amount of training will matter. You need to ensure you have training programs that include clear ways for your employees to reach out if they think something is wrong.

You also need to ensure management is prepared to respond to safety concerns brought to them. Rather than being punitive, your management should be trained on being proactive in addressing safety concerns and questions. Try having safety training manuals accessible to your management and employees to ensure they’re able to reference any common questions or concerns that pop up in your workplace.

Workplace Safety Training Makes Financial Sense

Not only are your employees less likely to get in an accident, investing in safety training programs can save your business’ bottom line. For every dollar you invest in safety communications like digital signage or posters, you’re estimated to save about six dollars in loss.

With over 238,100 work-related injury claims in New Zealand in 2019 alone, it’s more crucial than ever to focus on workplace health and safety training. Moreover, staff turnover is costly. Keeping your employees safe keeps them satisfied, and keeping them satisfied benefits employee retention.

You also want to save money on your insurance premiums, and should an accident occur, expect to see heavy increases in the amount you pay.

Having proper safety training programs helps your brand look good in the public eye as well. If you have a clean workplace, visible fire extinguishers and visible safety rules posted, members of the public interacting with your business are likely going to see you as a trustworthy business.

Workplace accidents are costly enough, but the bad PR that comes along with them can be far more costly for your business and your brand. Health and safety training is a necessary cost that actively prevents workplace accidents and bolsters your reputation as a champion of your workers and their wellbeing.

Go Beyond Workplace Safety Training Requirements

Many workplaces are required to have training programs by law, but simply abiding by the admittedly basic legal requirements isn’t enough to show your employees and customers you care about how safe your workplace is.

Of course, you want your employees to know the requirements of WorkSafe, but there may be specific things that apply to your workplace that are crucial for your employees to understand.

You should also strive to ensure all of your employees, regardless of their position within your company, are included in training and tested on the training you’ve implemented. This makes sure your workers retain information and are prepared to respond to safety situations that pop up, but they also serve to judge how well you as an employer have done in training your employees.

Health and Safety Training Consultants Can Help

The importance of health and safety management in the workplace is about knowing what is required of your business and what is in your team and customers’ best interest.

Having access to the right information and training materials for your team is as simple as contacting your local health and safety department or a consulting firm.

HasTrak can assist: We are experienced health and safety consultants and advisors who specialize in running detailed audits and risk assessments, building COVID-19 health and safety management systems and manuals, and on-and-off-site workplace safety training and consultancy tailored to your workplace and team.

Too many businesses risk going bankrupt over fines following simple workplace accidents; fines that can easily be avoided by knowing what you’re working with, and having your paperwork up to date. We’ll help you do exactly that! Contact us today to receive a personalized quote!

Why should you address small problems, even those not required by health and safety legislation? Safety in all of its forms should always be a priority. But if that’s not enough, consider this: your employees are the most valuable asset you have, and their health directly reflects that of your business. When you’re ready to update your health and safety policy, keep an eye out for not-so-obvious hazards like these.

Overloading Power Supplies

Offices, especially those that utilize many computers, are prone to using power strips and surge protectors to get more use out of their electrical outlets. Both devices serve different purposes but increase the number of available outlets, allowing you to plug in more equipment in one space.

Surge protectors help protect your equipment in the case of a sudden electrical surge, but they don’t make it safer to plug in as many items as you want. Each power strip and surge protector has a recommended output (that is, the power being drawn through it by plugged-in equipment). Exceeding this could lead to an electrical fire. Be sure to read the included safety instructions to reduce the risk.

Workplace Bullying

Your health and safety training/courses probably cover workplace social conduct, but NZ health and safety legislation says little about it. Instances of hostile work environments often go unreported, lulling managers into a false sense of security. By that same token, if bullying goes unreported, how can you take action to stop it?

To establish a healthy social environment in your workplace, you must make open communication available between the staff and management at all times. Your health and safety training for all staff should stress the importance of honesty, trust, and confidentiality. Victims of workplace bullying often choose to remain silent because they’re embarrassed or fear retaliation. You must do your part to dispel these fears and address such concerns.

Workplace hostilities are a significant source of stress for victims. If left unchecked, they could lead to further emotional, physical, or mental harm.

Personal Hygiene

There isn’t a universal practice to ensure good hygiene in the workplace. This is especially true with NZ workplace safety. The frequency with which your employees should clean their hands and other exposed areas depends on what substances they come into contact with and how often.

Ensure your health and safety manual outlines any potentially dangerous substances employees may interact with as part of their work. On top of handling instructions and emergency information, include instructions on how to best clean exposed skin, with what cleaning agents, and for how long they should wash.

These instructions have likely been affected by COVID-19 and social distancing has likely shifted the way in which employees are situated, scheduled, and otherwise coordinated in the workplace. While there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it is more crucial now than ever to remain vigilant and communicate these standards with your employees.

Poor Workplace Lighting

Managers of indoor office spaces understand the importance of utilising the right level of artificial light in the workplace. Often their focus almost falls on ensuring the lights aren’t too bright to prevent eye-strain. However, low levels of light can be just as dangerous to long-term vision health.

If your employees work with electronic screens or monitors, encouraging them to take breaks at regular intervals can reduce eyestrain. However, you can take other steps to regulate your lighting. You can install adaptive lighting, which will adjust itself based on light from other sources. During the day, you should allow more natural light to fill the room, where possible. Rely more on electric light fixtures in the evening or during cloudy weather.

Stairways

It’s unavoidable for any building with more than one floor to utilise stairs, and you and your workers likely use stairs every day without much concern. It’s simple enough to ensure stair safety by keeping them unobstructed and securing railings, but stair safety and usage doesn’t end there.

Do your employees know when they should take the elevator over the stairs? Does your lighting make each step easy to see? You can eliminate many stair-related accidents and injuries if you train your employees to take their time when climbing or descending steps, watch where they are going, and avoid the stairs entirely when carrying heavy loads.

Poor Workplace Ventilation

Workplaces that deal with biohazards already make proper ventilation a chief concern, but they shouldn’t be the only ones. Maintaining good air quality is key to maintaining the good health of your employees.

Besides having air ventilation systems in place, you’ll want them professionally serviced regularly to keep them clean. If you don’t, mould and dust can build up and cause illness, especially so in overly humid or excessively dry environments.

Avoid Workplace Hazards – Stay Current with Workplace Health and Safety in NZ

NZ safety requirements are the best place to start improving your company’s health and safety courses/training. HasTrak is here to help you navigate these laws and implement them into your workplace.

Our consultants are experts at developing health and safety policies that meet and exceed NZ safety standards. Contact our management and consultancy team today to learn more about how we can reshape your company’s future for the better.

What should you do to bring your sports club or organization up to code? Here’s a brief overview of what should be done to stay current with the law and ensure sports health and safety standards are maintained.

Ensure Safety Applies To Everyone

Every health and safety policy your club adheres to needs to cover everyone who engages with your organization, not just those who work in it. For sports clubs, this means anyone who joins your club to exercise and/or play.

Educate Your Staff on Sports Health and Safety

Be they paid employees or volunteers, everyone in your staff should be involved in your club’s health and safety training. They will be your best assets when it comes to recognising and addressing workplace hazards. Ensure everyone is familiar with your policy, has access to your health and safety manual, and has undergone all necessary training.

Prepare Your Coordinator

People will go to your club’s coordinator whenever there’s an issue. This should apply to workplace hazards, injuries, and emergencies as well. Your coordinator should have specific and regular training to handle these situations. Likewise, your policy should stress the importance of communication between staff and the coordinator to ensure any issue’s fast resolution.

Maintain All Equipment

A cornerstone of good health and safety training is regularly checking the state of the equipment you use. For sports clubs, this could mean pads, rackets, balls, and even the area you use to play. Regular recurring checks can prevent accidents and injuries in the future.

Record All Hazards and Accidents

Reporting incidents is only part of proper procedure. Establish a method for reporting any and every incident for future reference. This includes seemingly small, quickly resolved things and incidents that didn’t result in harm or injury.

You can use records like these to shape your club’s health and safety training. In the unfortunate circumstance in which someone takes legal action against the club, well-maintained records will provide evidence of what your staff has been doing.

Learn to Recognise Unsafe Behaviors

Suppose you hire an experienced health and safety consultant to help you shape your club’s safety policies. In that case, you’ll end up with a comprehensive plan that precisely follows NZ health and safety legislation.

However, simply having a plan won’t prevent accidents caused by human error. Someone participating in your club’s activities may unknowingly act in a way that goes against your policy and puts themselves or someone else at risk. Your staff should be proactive in recognizing such dangerous behaviors and learn how to intervene and prevent them. Comprehensive health and safety training for your employees is a must.

At Hastrak, our health and safety consultants perform on-site audits, as well as remote training and consultation for you and your employees to ensure you have all the tools you need to run your business safely and follow current NZ health and safety guidelines.

Get the Right Insurance for Your Club

Give your insurance advisor a copy of your health and safety policies, as well as a complete overview of the club’s activities. You may require additional coverage to protect yourself and the club as much as possible.

Hastrak knows Sports Health and Safety

Don’t second guess your club’s standing with NZ health and safety laws. Let HasTrak’s team of expert health and safety consultants give you a comprehensive analysis of your current workplace hazards and safety issues.

We’ll work with you to identify trouble areas and develop a personalized company policy to fit your unique needs. Check out our free health and safety guide today, and get in touch with us to see all that our team can do to bring your club up to NZ safety standards.

How a Healthy and Safety Gap Analysis Works

A health and safety gap analysis takes all your current practices alongside your health and safety training/courses into account and compares them to what is required by New Zealand laws.

The Health and Safety in Employment Act requires employers in the country to provide adequate safety training and measures to each employee so they can perform their job with minimal risk of harm. Gap analysis goes beyond identifying each workplace hazard that still exists and takes a closer look at every aspect of your company to assess current and future risks.

A thorough safety audit will ask the following questions:

• Do employees and management have proper safety training concerning the work environment?
• Are the accident report procedures currently in place the most efficient they could be?
• Are hazardous materials properly identified, and are they being disposed of properly?
• Does the company’s health and safety manual provide current information?
• Are outside contractors following your company’s health and safety training?
• Do supervisors know what to look out for in regards to employee health?
• How frequently do you have workplace safety inspections?
• Does management reinforce the commitment to workplace safety?

You should note that gap analysis doesn’t seek to punish shortcomings or violations of health and safety legislation. Instead, it provides an opportunity for management to make improvements before a serious injury occurs and draws greater scrutiny to company policies.

Can I Perform My Own Health and Safety Gap Analysis?

Managers often take it upon themselves to maintain the safety standards for their workplace and employees, so why should you hire a health and safety consultant like HasTrak to perform gap analysis for you?

Simply put, NZ risk assessment is a specialised field. Someone who hasn’t studied the relevant legislation could unknowingly overlook major issues. For example, many workplaces overload their power outlets. However, they fail to recognise it because everything is working properly.

They fail to recognise that it poses a future risk. Practised NZ health and safety consultants will look at your health and safety management system with a new perspective and inspect it from every angle.

What Safety Gap Analysis Looks Like

Your audit will start with an on-site inspection. This step should take a full day but could require more time depending on your facilities’ size. Findings will be presented to you as a report (as both an in-person presentation and a physical written copy).

Here the consultants will provide suggestions to bring your workplace up to code and, if need be, they will provide help in making the necessary changes. Finally, your consultant may offer an ongoing analysis in the future if you wish.

Let HasTrak get You Back on Track

With twenty years of experience working in New Zealand health and safety consultancy, HasTrak brings your workplace inline with current legislation and keeps you abreast of any changes as they come.

Let our team help you navigate the Health & Safety at Work Act’s intricacies and avoid costly fines that could irreparably harm your business. Contact us today and let’s ensure your company’s future together.

A proper focus on health and safety ensures that your workers will know how to perform their jobs with minimal risk of harm while recognising unsafe work conditions. It can also prevent a slew of legal problems for the company as a whole.

These simple tips can help you stay current with the latest health and safety legislation.

Tip #1. Workplace Health and Safety Courses

Any plan to address workplace hazards should start with a well-rounded employee education and training program. The Health and Safety At Work Act establishes a requirement for employers to give their employees adequate protection and safety measures for their jobs.

On top of safety equipment, this should include a thorough safety education program that teaches workers how to recognise dangers before they become a threat to safety. This includes reporting potential hazards, like spills, to the right department in a timely way.

Tip #2. Promote Regular Shift Breaks

Fatigue is the root cause of many workplace accidents. No matter how tidy the workplace may be or how extensive your training program becomes, exhaustion can still take its toll on individuals and lead to injuries.

Your health and safety manual should outline the importance of taking regular short breaks to stretch, walk around, and recuperate in general. This may seem counterintuitive to a productive workplace at first. Still, these brief pauses throughout the day go a long way to refreshing employees and keeping their senses heightened in actuality.

Tip #3. Promote Good Workplace Health and Safety Habits

Every job requires repetitive motion or long-term posturing that can cause harm to the body if not managed correctly. While taking frequent breaks can help reduce this stress, knowing the proper ways to execute physical tasks is paramount to good employee health.

Be sure to consult with a health and safety advisor to learn how to combat muscle fatigue and stress. Sometimes it’s as simple as performing a specific motion differently. For some problems, your employees may need to learn unique stretches.

Finally, make sure your employees know they can come to management with any safety concerns they have. Maintaining a hazard-free work environment should be a collaborative effort.

Tip #4. Prepare for Emergencies

Do your employees know the correct emergency response procedures? Even if they do, are you doing everything you can to ensure those plans will be easy to follow when disaster strikes?

No one is immune to panic when things take an unexpected turn. Use posters in critical locations like break rooms to remind your employees where the emergency exits are and the safest path to reach them. Use signs to identify safety equipment like fire extinguishers so that they’re easily spotted.

Tip #5. Reward Your Employees for Practicing Good Safety

A little incentive goes a long way. One of the most important things that can be done to reinforce preferred safety practices is rewarding your employees for following the measures you’ve put in place.

This has the effect of making safety protocol seem more active than passive. Employees who are continually working to uphold safety will be more safety-conscious than those who don’t.

Stay Current with Workplace Health and Safety in NZ

NZ safety requirements are the best place to start improving your company’s health and safety courses/training. HasTrak is here to help you navigate these laws and implement them into your workplace.

Our consultants are experts at developing health and safety policies that meet and exceed NZ safety standards. Contact our management and consultancy team today to learn more about how we can reshape your company’s future for the better.

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<p><strong>Simple Steps to Workplace Safety by HasTrak.</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><br /> <p><a href=https://hastrak.co.nz/promote-workplace-health-and-safety><img src=https://hastrak.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Simple-Steps-to-Workplace-Safety-980IMG.jpg alt=Simple Steps to Workplace Safety infographic width=980 border=0 /></a></p><br />

HasTrak specializes in providing health and safety training and consulting to bring farm safety inline with NZ health and safety requirements.

Document Official Farm Safety Practices

New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work Act establishes an employer’s responsibility to take all reasonable steps to ensure each employee’s safety and the safety of those who engage with the business’s activities.

While your first inclination may be to identify workplace hazards, don’t overlook the importance of good education. Your health and safety manual should clearly describe how each employee should perform every farm activity to avoid injury. Implement training programs to educate your staff on these practices and make it a point for supervisors to ensure your team follows them correctly.

Particular attention should be given to proper machinery training, too. In doing so, you can minimize accidents that are caused by human error, reduce the amount of time that employees are out of work due to injury, and save yourself from falling afoul of workplace health and safety regulations.

Identify Farm Health and Safety Hazards

NZ health and safety legislation requires employers to do the following:

● Identify every workplace safety hazard
● Eliminate said hazards, if possible
● If not possible, isolate those hazards
● Minimize the harm isolated hazards can do

Identifying dangers on your farm should be a collaborative effort between management and staff. Because employees tend to work alone or in small groups in the agricultural industry, they are likely to have different job experiences and diverse perspectives. It’s only through working together and ensuring proper health and safety training for your employees that you’ll be able to define the rules and regulations and confirm that your employees understand.

Likewise, hiring an experienced farm health and safety consultant will bring an additional perspective to the process. At Hastrak, we use our years of experience with past clients to identify potential issues you may have missed.

It’s not enough to ensure that your staff has protective equipment and adequate training. Many agricultural workplaces make use of hazardous materials that need to be labeled appropriately, and a procedure needs to be in place to both handle and dispose of them.

Document Everything

Maintain written and easily accessible training materials for your entire staff. Require each employee to familiarize themselves with the material and to demonstrate that knowledge. While your safety practices should always be outlined in your health and safety manual, you should organize each procedure so that they can be located quickly in case of emergency.

If you don’t already, you need to implement a system for documenting incidents on the job. Rather than worry about what you should specifically note, record everything that has the potential to cause harm, even if injury never occurred.

For example, if an employee finds that a piece of machinery is malfunctioning and reports it without incident, create a record that documents the discovery and how it was addressed. Doing so may seem excessive, but the more comprehensive your documentation is, the more protected you’ll be from liabilities.

HasTrak Knows Farm Health and Safety

Not abiding by NZ safety standards puts your business at risk of hefty fines. Keep your farm and your employees safe with a thorough audit and report from HasTrak’s expert team of health and safety experts.

Avoid crippling fines that could cost you your business. New Zealand health and safety rules and regulations are not simple; even though the “Health & Safety at Work Act” aims to make it straightforward, not every business owner, manager or machine operator has the time and expertise to dive into it and make sure their workplace is 200% compliant with health and safety guidelines.

Too many businesses risk going bankrupt over fines following simple workplace accidents; fines that can easily be avoided by knowing what you’re working with, and having your paperwork up to date.

We’ll help you do exactly that. Get in touch!

You know some of the health and safety legislation and protocols to follow but maybe weren’t completely sure about a few steps you had to take. Were you simply ill-informed, or was there a change in the policies for health and safety in the workplace? Did you feel like you were being taken care of or that you were safe in the situation at hand?

Safety isn’t expensive. It’s priceless.

The expenses saved by implementing health and safety standards in the workplace are immense. Companies don’t just put these standards in place for the sake of avoiding lawsuits – they do it to provide a safe workplace environment free of unnecessary health and safety hazards. In turn, they cultivate an atmosphere of productivity, comfort, and presence.

New Zealand workplace health and safety has always been top of mind — and the changes brought about with the 2015 Health and Safety Work Act show that there is always something new to learn.

Keeping up with the recent trends and changes in health and safety legislation will keep your evolving workplace healthy, safe, and functional.

Health and Safety Legislation Trends

New Zealand passed the first Health and Safety Work Act in 1992. Decades have passed, and the need for reform was apparent across the board. Take a look at how the trends have changed:

Health & Safety Monitoring

The Health and Safety Work Act of 2015 (enacted in April 2016) brought about new codes, regulations, and standards for multiple industries. This act led to a required analysis of where companies stood with the health and safety regulations.

Are the systems in place fit for keeping people safe?

Constant monitoring is about being active in workplace health and safety, not passive. Companies must evaluate and re-evaluate their systems to meet industry standards and court guidelines.

Health & Safety Collaborating

Collaborating is a key factor in how any health and safety plan comes to fruition.

With the Health and Safety Work Act, the collaboration between employees and those with influence or control over the workplace or industry is a big component. These changes mean active worker involvement and feedback from leadership figures in creating a meaningful health and safety plan.

Preparing for change and keeping up to date

Are there changes you need to make to existing health and safety systems in the workplace? Are there gaps where industry requirements and your systems meet?

Preparing for any potential health and safety changes in the workplace is crucial. Informed and critical thinking and efficiency in planning will help eliminate these gaps and set steps in place to implement new standards in the workplace.

Staying up to date with current health and safety legislation in NZ is imperative. Make sure you are following us on social media to find out the latest in changes to the health and safety at work act.

Changes to Health and Safety Legislation NZ

On average, between 50 and 60 people die each year from work-related injuries, and 600-900 people die from work-related illnesses, according to Stats NZ. With a poor history of workplace incidents, New Zealand reviewed health and safety policies in the workplace and we can expect further updates to the health and safety legislation in NZ in the years to come.

Taking an active approach in implementing health and safety regulations (versus simply monitoring and recording) is helping to prevent incidents from occurring. We are sure to see this trend continue whenever health and safety laws are updated.

Key Points in Health and Safety Law

• New laws target any person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU).
• PCBUs are the primary care point for all workers and can be held personally liable.
• PCBUs are responsible for providing a safe work environment without risk to health, mental health, and safety.
• PCBUs are responsible for monitoring conditions in the workplace for any potential health and safety hazards.
• PCBUs are responsible for providing training and critical information to employees regarding health and safety.
• Workers have the right to refuse work if they believe it will present a health or safety hazard.
• PCBUs must ensure that employee views on health and safety in the workplace are heard. There must be an existing way for employees to share improvements or concerns.

Need Help Filling in the Gaps?

Although the new health and safety act has been in existence for a few years, many companies still have gaps in health and safety that they may be unaware of.

HasTrak can assist: We are experienced health and safety consultants and advisors who specialise in running detailed audits and risk assessments, building COVID-19 health and safety management systems and manuals, and on-and-off-site workplace safety training and consultancy tailored to your workplace and team.

Too many businesses risk going bankrupt over fines following simple workplace accidents; fines that can easily be avoided by knowing what you’re working with, and having your paperwork up to date. We’ll help you do exactly that! Contact us today to receive a personalised quote!