Human Factors in Organizational Design - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Human Factors in Organizational Design. Answer: Introduction Health and safety regulations are necessary to make sure that every worker works in hazard-free environment. Workplace Health and Safety (WHS), which is often referred to as Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), is the set of regulations and assessment of the risks that may have impact on the health, safety and welfare of the people who work at different workplaces, effectively meaning every employee of the country (Australia, 2014). However, this act encompasses every stakeholder of any organisation and seeks to protect everyones health safety. Business owners and even government organisations are obligated to comply to some legal rules and regulations that are designed towards protecting the health and safety of the people who are involved with the organisation in any way. The following report would be looking into the current WHS conditions of BizOps and give comprehensive and realistic ideas relating to how can the current conditions be made to be better and the policies more integrated into the operations of the company. BizOps Enterprises is dedicated to ensure all of its employees with a safe and secured working environment. Every employee has to feel secured while working here and it is the duty of the organisation to do that. These policies are formed in accordance to the legislative obligations that the company has to the laws and WHS regulations of the state. As a demonstration to this commitment of the organisation, BizOps take prompt action against any and every unhealthy and unsafe working situations. All workers are trained about and communicated to regarding the health and safety practices and procedures of the company. The health and safety representatives of the organisation are selected and appointed according to the state and territorial legislations. These representatives have the authority that are vested by the state legislations. To ensure the workplace health and safety are of the highest standards, BizOps regularly consults on WHS with its staff and employee representatives and a lso, if deemed necessary, with the contractors and suppliers of the company as well. First aid attendant: The company has an attendant who is always on alert and any issue regarding any sort of injury or safety is immediately given attention by the attendant. The attendant is trained by the organisation themselves to equip the personnel with the knowledge and skills to tackle any unpredicted situation that may arise. Emergency evacuation procedure: The company has clear escape plans and routes all over the building and clear directions about the escape routes are put up on the walls of BizOps. This make it easier for the staff to evacuate quicker and calm manner without causing panic. WHS audit: BizOps conducts regular internal audits of its WHS policies to ensure that the procedure and policies are up to the mark and can face adversities in any case. The audits help the organisation to understand if any upgradations are needed or any modifications are required to the existing policies. The organisation also has strict policies regarding reporting of any hazards or incidents that pose to be a threat to or compromise the WHS of BizOps. The entire building is smoke free and fire and smoke detectors are installed everywhere that ensure no fire related hazards happen. BizOps has a WHS policy that adheres to the state legislations and conforms with the laws of the country. However, the existing policies can still be enhanced and a better policy can be adopted. To achieve this, the company has to analyse all aspects and have proper ideas relating to the scope and framework of the issues that may arise. It should be clearly defined what are the responsibilities of the company and how can those be achieved and which strategies may facilitate in this process. The organisation also has tables and charts that segregate and classify every possible type of hazard that may happen in the workplace and also how can they be prevented or tackled. While investigating the past WHS incidents of BizOps, it has been noticed that the staff and employees are almost never consulted about hazard identification or assessment. Their suggestions about forming and developing risk controls are also not taken into account. Moreover, some information is given only to the employees, making it difficult for the work students and interns to know about them and take precautions. BizOps has to come up with a system that would be helpful in making more decisions, where the staff and every employee would be consulted to form the risk assessment and risk control structures. The staff should be consulted and their suggestions and inputs have to considered while forming the new policies of the company. In recent times, BizOps had to grant two employees work offs because they had sustained injuries at the wotrkplace. One was due to prolonged sitting at the computer because the employee was tasked with data entry into the computer, and the other was suffered by a work experience student who had injured her lower back while lifting goods in the warehouse. The two incidents that were recorded in the last months are the two key points that would serve as the basis of the formation of the new policies. These employees are going to be consulted as they would be the best to depict the scenario that happened and can also help to understand what could have been done to prevent them. The suggestions that would be given by these employees would serve as the key components for the new policy outlines. Summary of the key points The specific conditions and situations of the incidents have been recorded and the suggestions and perspectives of these staff have also have been noted down. The WHS policy of BizOps are being overviewed and the occurred instances and the prevailing policies are being compared to understand the discrepancies and gaps that led these to happen in the first place. The new policies should be made and formed after the staff of the organisation are consulted, because they are the persons who face the situations that have potentials for safety hazards. Hence, they would be the most knowledgeable about what are the causes or which things lead to the safety issues. Involving them and consulting the employees would be the best way to create the new WHS policy for BizOps. Hazard report number 1 Area of work Data Entry Date Specific hazard location Data entry desk Reported by Contact phone number Contact email Hazard description: Risk likelihood legend Grade Level of likelihood A Expected (will occur regularly) B Probable (will occur at some stage) C Possible (could occur) D Improbable (could occur but unlikely) E Rare (may occur but in limited situations) Risk impact/ consequence legend Grade Level of impact 1 Insignificant 2 Minor 3 Moderate 4 Major 5 Catastrophic Risk categorisation matrix Level of likelihood Level of impact 1 (Insignificant) 2 (Minor) 3 (Moderate) 4 (Major) 5 (Catastrophic) A (Expected) Medium Medium High Extreme Extreme B (Probable) Medium Medium Medium High Extreme C (Possible) Low Medium Medium High High D (Improbable) Low Low Medium Medium High E (Rare) Low Low Low High Medium Suggested controls: The employee was immediately taken to a doctor, for which the organisation paid. The company also sanctioned for a long leave for the employee to help him recover from the injury sustained Recommended control(s): The employee must first be allowed to treat himself to recover from the injury. That is the foremost priority. The employee should be given the time to regain his strength. The employee should be consulted about what he thinks happened and why did he injure himself The employee must be asked about his ideas and suggestions regarding what could have been done to prevent this situation The new policies can use his suggestions and inputs to form the strategies that can aid in situations like this in the future as well as plans to reduce the possibilities for the occurrence of these situations Person responsible Controls to be completed by: Approved by organisational unit head/officer Completion verified by health and safety representative (HSR) Appropriate training program Based on the risks that relate to computer data operators, BizOps has decided to train all the other operators regarding how to work in a manner that would not cause any such incidents in the future. The operators would be given proper ideas regarding how should they sit and even operate in the office. What should be the right thing to do when an employee feels uncomfortable after working for a long period of time. The computer data entry operators would be given ideas about how can they reduce their own physical pain by using certain techniques. Despite a lot attention being given to the employee safety in BizOps, the focus on the safety of the work experience students is still very low. This needs to be given attention and policies need to be made that would also make the organisation a safe place for the students who come here to gain knowledge. A work experience student injured her lower back from having to shift goods in the warehouse. This cannot be tolerated if the company looks to make it a good and safe working place. The company wishes to change its current condition and make it a point to ensure safety and health security to all of the people involved, including the students who work here for experience. In order to achieve this, BizOps has to train the work experience students and let them know how to use the handbook and the guidelines, so that they can better avoid the situations that can lead to hazardous situations. They also have to trained regarding equipment handling and other potentially hazardous work they execute. Accident at the warehouse Details of incident (e.g. to a worker or visitor) and treatment Date of incident Time of incident Nature of incident Near miss First aid Medical treatment/doctor Name of injured person Mary Smith Activity in which person was engaged at the time of the incident/injury Mary was checking her phone and tripped over a box of documents Exact site location where incident/injury occurred Warehouse Nature of injury, e.g. burn, fracture, sprain Ankle sprain, bumped her head Specific location of injury on body, e.g. upper left arm Ankle, head Treatment given on site First aid, bandage Name of treating person Witnesses to incident Name Phone contact Name Phone contact Description of incident Mary Smith was walking while checking her phone and did not notice the box of documents next to the filling cabinet. She tripped over and sprained her ankle and bumped her head. Immediate response actions (e.g. barricades, isolation of power) to stabilise the situation She was given first aid in the warehouse itself by the first aid attendant. Then she was taken to a local hospital and was given two days off from work. Person reporting Signature Reported to Name Position Name Position Conclusion From the above recommendations and hazard analysis of BizOps, it is evident that the company is on the right way to resolve the issues it has been facing regarding the health and safety issue, in the recent times. BizOps will be changing a lot of its operational policies to make sure that the new WHS policy of the company is more inclusive and gives the employees even more health security, making the company a much safer and secure place to work at. References and bibliography Australia, S. W. (2014). Model Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011.Division 2High Risk Construction WorkSafe Work Method Statements. Australia, S. W. (2014). Work-related traumatic injury fatalities, Australia 2013.ACT: Canberra. Australia, S. W. (2015). Exposure to Multiple Hazards Among Australian Workers.Safe Work Australia, Canberra. Baicker, K., Cutler, D., Song, Z. (2017). Workplace wellness programs can generate savings.Health affairs. Blewett, V., Rainbird, S., Clarkson, L., Etherton, H., Paterson, J. (2014). Strategic engagement: including youth in the development of the Youth Work Health and Safety Strategy for South Australia. InHuman Factors in Organizational Design and Management XI: Nordic Ergonomics Society Annual Conference Proceedings(pp. 711-716). Chan-Mok, J. O., Caponecchia, C., Winder, C. (2014). The concept of workplace bullying: Implications from Australian workplace health and safety law.Psychiatry, Psychology and Law,21(3), 442-456. Chmiel, N., Fraccaroli, F., Sverke, M. (Eds.). (2017).An Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology: An International Perspective. John Wiley Sons. Dawkins, S., Sanderson, K. (2017). Workplace mental health: An international review of guidelines. Dollard, M. F., Bailey, T. S. (Eds.). (2014).The Australian Workplace Barometer: Psychosocial safety climate and working conditions in Australia. Australian Academic Press. Lay, A. M., Saunders, R., Lifshen, M., Breslin, F. C., LaMontagne, A. D., Tompa, E., Smith, P. M. (2017). The relationship between occupational health and safety vulnerability and workplace injury.Safety science,94, 85-93.