One Hundred Steps: A Practical Guide to the 100 Steps That Can Make Your Workplace Safer. Darren Inc. Kay
http://tinyurl.com/3ape8md
National Codes of practice: http://tinyurl.com/3w9k78g
Australian Standards: http://tinyurl.com/yyr5ak
Note that the links for these texts are correct at the time of writing – but be aware that these web links change on a regular basis, so you may need to do some hunting yourself!
9. Buy a couple of reference books
The essence of this is to begin stocking your dedicated OHS area with books that staff might want to read. Each workplace is different, but some generally useful books to start with might be a good First Aid reference book, and a Workplace Ergonomics book. From this point staff may begin requesting other texts to perhaps purchase.
Remember, this is more about getting people thinking about what books they might find useful, and opening a dialogue with staff about safety, rather than necessarily getting the best book for the money!
Possible first titles you may want to consider are:
First Aid Manual: The Step by Step Guide for Everyone 9th Ed. (2009). Penguin. ISBN-13: 978-1405335379
Workplace Ergonomics: A Practical Guide 2nd Ed. (2004). IOSH Services Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-0901357359
Ergonomics for Beginners: A Quick Reference Guide 3rd Ed. (2008). CRC Press. ISBN-13: 978-1420077513
General OHS. OH&S a management guide. (2009). Cengage Learning. ISBN: 9780170178358
What to do right now: Order some OHS books suitable to your workplace, and place them on the OHS bookshelves for all your staff to access.
10. Subscribe to your State’s WorkSafe safety alerts
Having up-to-date resources from your State health and safety organisation demonstrates an ongoing commitment to keeping abreast of the issues. It costs nothing other than a quick glance at the email content list to check for relevancy to your workplace.
What to do right now: Subscribe for updates, and print off any relevant information that arrives and place it on your OHS pin board.
WA: http://tinyurl.com/5srjyzt
SA: http://tinyurl.com/3ksx3w9
VIC: http://tinyurl.com/3sxbsdc
VIC: http://tinyurl.com/5u4dcyu
VIC: http://tinyurl.com/686ttf2
VIC: http://tinyurl.com/68qqd88
TAS: http://tinyurl.com/67zfakj
QLD: http://tinyurl.com/42ul67p
NT: (RSS Feeds) http://tinyurl.com/3c94rog
NSW: http://tinyurl.com/4ttzw2e
ACT: http://tinyurl.com/6azq8gb
11. Select a range of staff to complete Senior First Aid training
The Senior First Aid (also known as Workplace Level 2) courses take two days to complete. Identify members of staff that are enthusiastic to do the course and be clear with them that attendance means that they will be named workplace first aiders.
The course is quite broad, and seeks to ensure that those who attend can effectively manage an emergency situation, providing care for injured people until medical aid is available. The qualification needs refreshing every three years and should cost about $200 per person.
See the St Johns web site for more information: http://tinyurl.com/3p34dc3
What to do right now: contact your local St Johns service for available course dates, then identify and book selected staff onto the course.
12. Create a general staff/key emergency contacts list
Having access to a comprehensive list of staff names, their personal mobile and home phone numbers is one of those things that may never be needed, however, there are lots of scenarios where short notice access to this information could be of benefit (think office flood, IR dispute, staff member not arriving back from a field trip etc.). The process is pretty simple, create a simple template then go round and ask everyone for these details. Explain that it would only be used in emergencies, and will be kept in a safe; to ensure this personal information is not unintentionally shared.
What to do right now:
Create a table in word with columns for Name, Mobile Number, Home Number, Next of Kin. Now see each member of staff and get it filled in. Then type it up and place it in the safe. Next, create an emergency contacts master list. Knowing who to contact, and what phone number they are on is a great asset to have next to each and every telephone in the office. You may be able to fit everything on a trimmed A5 piece of card, which could be laminated, or replaced each year. Include the following contacts:
- Name - Fire warden1 - Mobile / Ext
- Name - Fire warden2 - Mobile / Ext
- Name - First Aider1 - Mobile / Ext
- Name - First Aider2 - Mobile / Ext
- Name - First Aider3 - Mobile / Ext
- Name - Safety Rep - Mobile / Ext
- Name - Union Rep - Mobile / Ext
- Name - General Manager - Mobile / Ext
- Fire - 000
- Police - 000
- Ambulance - 000
- Hospital – Phone #
- Poisons - 131126
- Health Direct - 1800 022 222
- WorkSafe – Phone #
Once created, place with every telephone. Also place a note in your diary to review the names and numbers in 6 to 12 months time.
Having identified all the crucial contacts and placed them next to the phones, a good extension of this is to add the numbers to speed dial on desk-phones and mobile phones. You may only save a few seconds, but sometimes that can count. Asking your staff to do this, also forces them to become a little more aware of, and familiar to the emergency contact numbers.
13. Create a list of qualified first aiders
Ensuring you have a good spread of first aid coverage in your work place is important for obvious reasons. To ensure you continue to do so, create a sheet of work areas or teams. Identify how many staff in that area/team should be first aid qualified. Then, put a qualified First Aider name there. If you don’t have sufficient names then you will need to get some staff trained.
On this sheet, also make a note of the first aid course expiry/refresher date, so you can manage this training need into the future. At this point, I would put a forward note in your OHS diary, to remind you when the time comes!
This is also a good time to audit the copies of first aid certificates that you keep on file, and be sure to capture them now and in the future!
The sheet should have the following columns on it:
- Team/Area (e.g. reception)
- First Aider Name (e.g. Mary Smith)
- Working Arrangements (e.g. M-Th 9-3.30)
- Date first qualified (e.g. 1/2/2009)
- Next refresher training deadline (e.g. 1/2/2012)
- Copy of FA Cert on file (e.g. Yes)
What to do right now: Create the template, update with your staff and their qualification expiry dates. As most will not know their expiry date, ask them to bring in the certificate, when they find