Does your company’s health and safety policy meet the standards established by NZ health and safety legislation? When it comes to ensuring your workplace meets all safety requirements as required by law, the best approach is often to hire an outside party to perform a health and safety gap analysis. If you haven’t brought everything up to code, you could be at risk of incurring steep fines.
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.
