IOSH SAFETY COURSE CLASS 1

Module 1:

Introducing managing safely

Key learning points

1.  Why is it important to manage safely?
2.  What are your responsibilities as a manager?

Why is it important to manage safely?

Just for a moment, think about a serious accident happening in your organisation. What would it mean to you and your organisation?

Think about the injured workers, their personal costs, pain and suffering and the effect on their families. Workers may have long hospital stays and may never work again.

If it’s shown that the accident happened because of a failure to manage health and safety risks in the organisation, the regulator may take action, which in turn may lead to prosecutions, fines and imprisonment.

There may also be a personal injury claim from the injured person. Maybe that doesn’t alarm you too much – you’re a reasonably comfortable outfit in financial terms, and the costs aren’t going to hit you too hard.






But what about the replacement labor, accident investigation, downtime and increased insurance premiums? These are much greater than the costs of fines and compensation. Remember also that insurance won’t pay the costs of criminal fines.

And what happens when the local or even the national press and television get hold of the story about the accident? What’s the large multinational company that’s recently placed an order with your organisation going to think?
What will other potential customers, clients, employees, contractors and the local and national community think about your organisation?

You’ll probably find your loss of reputation will cost a lot more than those fines.