Employee health and safety is very important for organizations and it is the duty of the organization to keep employees safe and motivated. A healthy and safe environment increases the productivity of employees and further helps in employee retention. Occupational health and safety matter started gaining attention during the time of industrialization. During those days the availability of labor was more than enough, due to high migration from rural areas to urban areas and the working conditions were very bad. After World War II organizations started giving attention to employee’s requirements due to short supply of skilled manpower and increasing number of accidents at workplaces. To make working environment safe and hazard free, various steps were taken by government, organizations and employees.
Role of State - American Government launched Occupational Safety and Health Act in the year 1970 to regulate the working conditions of companies. In other countries also governments are having rules and regulations to manage working conditions in organizations. Government officers take surprise visit to the organizations to check the health and safety related rules and measurements. Government started imposing penalties if companies were found not adhering with their guidelines. Governments keep bringing amendments in the law, rules and regulations to meet the changing needs of industry and business. In some countries government brought some standards that are focused on constant development and improvement for example ILO-OSH 2001 standard.
Role of employers/ organization – the employer responsibility start from identifying health and safety related need of employees. The health of employees has divided in to three categories: physical health, mental health and social health. Employer should identify the needs of employees in all three categories. Employer protects physical health of employees by providing education, training and seminars on the potential health hazards, employees are exposed to. In some organizations, employees are required to attend programs on healthy diet and life style. Employer can also arrange a complete daily meal for all employees. Organizations protect mental health of employees by having strict working hours, equal work distribution, policies to maintain organizational values and beliefs, and discipline in the organizations. Employer organizes workshops for employees on time management, stress management, anger management and emergency planning. These training and workshops helps employees to deal with various situations. To protect social health of employee companies formed policies for discrimination. These policies help employer to deal with different type of discrimination like race, sex, religion, social status and culture etc.
The risk associated with employee’s health varies depending upon the type of industry like chemical industry, mining industry, infrastructure etc. in any industry, the main objective of employer should be to provide a safe environment for employees and should take all the precautionary steps in terms of latest technology, equipment, information dissemination to minimize health and safety risk.
Role of employees – employees play an important role in developing healthy and safe environment in the organization. Employers can only create policies but effective implementation of policies is in the hand of employees. Employees should attend all the training programs and workshops based on health and safety. They should also practice their learning in daily life. Employees should read all the circular, policies and related documents having information related to the health and safety.
State, employer and employee they all have equally important role in creating and managing healthy and safe environment in the organizations. State force organizations to form policies and procedures to provide healthy and safe environment to workers. Employer asks its employees to follow all the policies and employees follow these policies.
References
Alman, D. (2010, May 6). Knol. Retrieved January 19, 2012, from www.knol.google.com: http://knol.google.com/k/organizational-health#
Labor, U. S. (2000). All about OSHA. Washington, DC: OSHA Publications Office.
Viscusi, W. K. (1983). Risk by Choice: Regulating Health and Safety in the Workplace. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Williams, S. (1994). Ways of creating healthy work organizations. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.
