Summary

Managers have the responsibility to provide leadership and to promote responsible attitudes towards health and safety.

Their responsibilities include:

•  Having knowledge of risks and controls;

•  Keeping documentation up to date;

•  Measuring performance and acting on employee concerns.

It’s essential that the people you appoint to help you meet your health and safety duties are ‘competent’ and have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage health and safety effectively. These people can be managers, leaders, other team members or external consultants.

External, specialist help is particularly valuable if your business has hazardous or complex processes. however, a specialist can only contribute towards your health and safety management system, they cannot oversee it.

It’s also essential to ensure that employees are competent to carry out their duties safely. This means providing them with training to improve their skills, knowledge and experience. Training can be provided online, on the job, in writing or through verbal instructions but it must be easy to understand and relevant to the workplace.