You’ll be aware by now that the legislative environment is changing with the introduction of the Health & Safety at Work Act on 4th April this year.

Are you prepared?  Do you know what is required to meet your obligations?

As a duty holder, you must have a clear understanding of what is required to give you visibility over the processes and procedures that connect across the entire value chain. You may have to construct the policies, systems and procedures and also engage all your workers so they use them.

Do you have the right knowledge and the time to do what is required to verify your organisation is keeping everyone safe?

Reviewing your organisation’s health and safety processes is time consuming. It involves a lot of effort to confirm all the elements required to comply with the new legislation are included.

There is a danger of missing essential steps. The resulting systems and processes may not be effective in achieving a change in the behaviour of your workers, continuing to expose you all to risk.

Be realistic and clear about how long the reporting processes will take, factoring in the other challenges your workers face, such as literacy issues. Don’t be afraid to do things differently so your processes truly meet the needs of those in your organisation. There is nothing more frustrating than working long hours on a procedure only to discover no one considers reading it a priority.

If you would like some help, talk to Major Consulting Group Ltd on 0800 44 00 70 to find out how we can help to embed health and safety into your business.

This article was first published on LinkedIn in February 2016.