What are you doing to make your workplace safe?

There is no such thing as zero risk.

Doing what is reasonably practicable means you don’t have to do everything humanly possible to manage risk; you do what is suitable in the circumstances to first try to eliminate the risk, and if the risk can’t be eliminated, then you minimise it.

Just because something is possible to do doesn’t mean it’s reasonably practicable under the circumstances. Before weighing up if something is reasonably practicable, you should first consider common controls for common risks.

If you follow industry standards, or commonly accepted guidelines for carrying out a task (ie common controls for common risks), then the likelihood is that you are already taking suitable actions to ensure health and safety. Where these are available, WorkSafe expects people to follow them under most circumstances.

The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) is an opportunity for you to review your health and safety practices and behaviours, and revise how you manage the critical risks that could cause illness, injury or even death.

Your focus should be on managing your business’s most significant risks before managing less serious risks. Your work activities should be reviewed on an ongoing basis to identify any new risks that need to be managed.

WorkSafe NZ has created a series of animated videos to help you and your workers understand some of the key workplace health and safety concepts in a unique way. They’re fun ‘icebreakers’ to introduce and set the context for having a more detailed conversation about the topic they represent.

Check them out here and use them in your team talks.

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Source: WorkSafe NZ