The importance of health and safety in hotels

Today, health and safety remains an extremely important area for every business operating in the United Kingdom and around the world. Although health and safety at work has steadily improved over the years, HSE statistics report that in the 2015/16 year, over 100 workers were killed at work. Additionally, the statistics state that around 30.4 million working days were lost in total due to work-related ill-health and injury. Moral importance One of the most important reasons for meeting and exceeding health and safety responsibilities are the moral considerations. There is a duty of care on individuals and organisations to not put others in danger with their actions, policies and procedures. On top of this, it is especially important that business owners don’t put their workers’ health and safety at risk by cutting corners to increase profit. As time passes, moral obligations are changing. When an employee goes to work, they should not expect to be injured or potentially worse. Legal reasons Of course, all businesses need to operate within the law. Legally, all workers have a right to work in places where health and safety risks are properly controlled. Whilst employers are responsible for health and safety, it is the job of employees to help and embrace this important area. What employers must do Create a written health and safety policy Conduct risk assessments Effectively communicate with employees and explain how risks will be controlled Pay for the health and safety training employees may need to do their job (e.g. IOSH courses) Provide all of the equipment and protective clothing employees need Report all incidents and accidents To support with legal compliance, a formal framework known as a health and safety management system provides a structured and logical approach to ensure and maintain effective health and safety provision and legal compliance. The business case Not the most important case for health and safety excellence, but a definite positive outcome for businesses and in turn, potentially employees. A business can lose money through poor health and safety management. For example, huge fines for breaking Health and Safety rules and losing time and money due to poor efficiency. But, there are also potential gains that businesses can make through properly managing health and safety in the workplace. These include: Productivity improvements Efficiency enhancements Improved team spirit and motivation Improved brand image and perceptions Where to begin It’s clear that preventing accidents should be a priority for everyone in a workplace. From senior executives to workers on the “shop floor”, training is key to ensuring safety and improving safety culture. Key ways that training helps improve health and safety Providing health and safety information and training helps you to: Ensure you or your employees are not injured or made ill by the work they do. Develop a positive health and safety culture, where safe and healthy working becomes second nature to everyone. Find out how you could manage health and safety better. Meet your legal duty to protect the health and safety of your employees. By Ella Hendrix, freelance writer