Serving over 2 Million visitors each year

Search
Comprehensive Online Business Insurance
Tailored PI, Office, Public & Employers' Liability Insurance
Are you covered? Read our Essential PI Guide
Get a Quote and buy online in minutes

The Health & Safety basics no business can ignore

print  e-mail 

Every business is legally obliged to make sure employees and customers are not harmed in any way by the actions of trading.

It’s vital to get this right. If someone falls ill or has an accident as a result of something your business has done, it will cause real heartache and stress for you, plus could cost your business a huge amount of cash.

These are the health and safety basics you should not ignore:

Assess the risks

Even if you are a one man band operating from your spare room, you must do regular risk assessments on your business. As with anything, the more you can look ahead and spot problems, the easier day-to-day business will be.

Look at your business and try to anticipate what potential hazards there are. Do you ask you staff to carry heavy items? Do they have to handle anything that could be dangerous? Do you have a lot of vehicle movements on site? Is there any chance that customers could trip or hurt themselves on your premises… if they can, they will at some point. Keep your assessment simple but don’t miss anything.

Once you have identified potential problems, deal with them immediately. Often the solutions are simple – an extra sign, or high visibility jackets.

Business Link has a comprehensive help section on risk assessments here.

Write a policy

Ensure that you keep a proper written record of your assessment and any steps you have taken to minimise risk. This is essential if you have employees and highly recommended for all businesses. Make your policies freely available to all employees, and indeed customers if they want to see them.

Register your premises

If you have employees you will normally be required to register with either the Health & Safety Executive, or your local authority. They will check your premises are suitable and you are staying within the law. Again, Business Link has a useful guide here.

Ensure comfort & cleanliness at work

It’s your responsibility to make sure your employees can do their job safely and with appropriate equipment. This means big things like making sure the premises meet fire safety standards and you have a first aid kit. But you also need to ensure they have access to a clean working toilet, and use computers properly. Saving a few pounds on proper desks and chairs now could come back to bite you in the future.

Record accidents and illness

The law insists you keep a record of all accidents or illnesses that happen to your employees during working hours. This means you even need to record a car accident they have while on a sales call. Your record can be a simple book, although you can keep information in a computer if you wish. Keep records for at least three years. Some incidents need to be reported to the Health & Safety Executive, including deaths, dangerous incidents in workplaces, any accident that stops someone doing their job for more than three days, and some work-related diseases.

Review regularly

Don’t forget to review your policies at least once a year; perhaps more often if you are growing fast. Policies like these quickly go out of date as your business changes. It’s your job to keep on top of it and ensure you stay within the law.

Further Information

You can download a 12-page guide - Leading health and safety at work - and a wealth of further health and safety information at the Health and Safety Executive website.

 

The HSE guidance is also relevant in cases of corporate manslaughter (in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or culpable homicide (in Scotland). To quote from the guidance, "In considering the liability of an organisation under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, a jury must consider any breaches of health and safety legislation and may have regard to any health and safety guidance. In addition to other health and safety guidance, this guidance could be a relevant consideration for a jury depending on the circumstances of the particular case."

Remember to get professional advice from a qualified health & safety expert before taking any action. Don’t rely purely on information contained in this article.

Posted August 9, 2007
Latest articles in Staff Guides
 
Bullying in the workplace - advice for employees
Reports of workplace bullying have doubled in the last ten years and the recession has put extra pressure on managers and bosses to get results meaning they may act in a way that is out of character. Some expert legal advice to employees who are being bullied in the workplace. [March 2, 2010]
 
Employers' guide to managing sick leave
As a small business owner, it is likely that you will have had at least a couple of employees call in sick this winter and with the cold weather expected to last a while longer, sick leave may become a HR issue that you deal with well into Spring. [February 3, 2010]
 
Employers and festive staff holidays - the basics
Businesses could be heading for trouble over the festive season if they haven’t organised employees’ holiday entitlement correctly. Here are the answers to the most frequently asked festive holiday queries. [December 22, 2009]
 
Top tips for managing staff holidays
As a small business owner, you should think about the ways in which you handle staff holiday. Outlined in this article are four top tips to help you manage this process yourself and save money. [December 1, 2009]
 
The new Equality Bill and what businesses should be aware of
The Equality Bill 2008-2009 is an attempt to consolidate the nation’s discrimination legislation into one enactment and in doing so simplify the law as it currently stands. [August 6, 2009]
 
Holiday planning tips for small business owners
As the peak holiday season arrives, small businesses need to prepare themselves to deal with the absence of key staff. Here is a checklist to help business owners prepare in advance for the summer break. [July 16, 2009]
 
How to manage flexible working - top tips
Flexible working has come into its own in the recession, with poll after poll suggesting that most companies have considered it as a way of reducing costs and saving jobs. But what happens after the recession? Includes some essential flexible working tips. [July 14, 2009]
 
Employee sickness absence - a complete guide for employers - Part 1
A comprehensive employers' guide to dealing with employee sickness absence. In this introductory piece, we look at sickness absence policies, and the most common situations that employers are faced with. [July 7, 2009]
 
Employee sickness absence - a complete guide for employers - Part 2
In the second part of our series on dealing with employee sickness absence, we look at Sick pay, Statutory sick pay (SSP), notification of absence, evidence of incapacity, contractual sick pay, discretionary sick pay, and holiday during sickness absence. [July 7, 2009]
 
Employee sickness absence - a complete guide for employers - Part 3
In this final part of our series on dealing with sickness absence, we look at how to handle an employee returning to work following sickness, disagreements, dismissal, and an important mention of the disability discrimination rules [July 7, 2009]
 
How to handle disciplinary issues in the workplace
Despite every effort, even the best-run business may encounter disciplinary problems with employees from time to time. Having clear and fair disciplinary procedures is both a legal requirement and the first step to avoiding difficult claims tribunals. [June 8, 2009]
 
Employers' guide to employee holiday and leave entitlement
Small business employers are urged to understand their their rights when it comes to employee leave entitlement. How to deal with requests for annual leave from employees. [June 2, 2009]
 
The redundancy process – how to manage your obligations as an employer
If you are forced to reduce the size of your workforce, there are a number of measures that you need to apply to ensure that you follow the fair dismissals procedure and also keep the affected employees informed. [April 29, 2009]
 
How to deal with mental health issues in the workplace
Most employers shy away from the subject of mental illness in the workplace. Given that 1 in 6 of the workforce is affected by some kind of mental health condition - more so in certain professions, we look at how business owners can properly approach the subject. [January 29, 2009]
 
Guide to Redundancy for small companies
A legal guide to ensure employers follow the correct redundancy procedures before dismissing an employee. [November 26, 2008]
 




Click Here
Our Partners
Key Services
Key Services
Legal Guides
Click Here

© Bytestart Limited 2005-2010 - All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use | Site List | Website Feeds | Rss Feed RSS Feed

Business Insurance, Business Bank Accounts, Public Liability Insurance, Professional Indemnity, Startups, Limited Company, Sole Trader