There are very basic requirements that every business must keep abreast of to make sure there are acceptable levels of comfort and security in the workplace, and most businesses, having been put through some degree of health and safety training, will be aware of this.

The Basic Workplace Risk Assessment

The most rudimentary requirements are to follow through on workplace risk assessments, which includes looking out for hazards, e.g. slips, trips and falls, working high up, exposure to hazardous substances, high noise levels, moving vehicles, fire and explosions. You must decide who might be harmed and how, and then evaluate the risks and see if more precautions must be taken. These findings must be recorded, implemented and updated as necessary.

If you employ five or more people they must be written down. You must allow for certain basic comforts and put about signs and signifiers of any potential hazards in the working environment as prescribed by common law. This means displaying the poster for Health and Safety law, ‘What You Should Know”, or giving each member of staff the leaflet ‘Your Health and safety – a guide for workers’ – which contains the same information.

It also means displaying a no smoking sign on the entrance to your premises, and ensuring employees know the penalties for failing to comply. It means displaying your certificate of employers’ liability insurance. And finally, putting up notices or signs warning of specific threats or hazards such as moving vehicles or pipe work containing dangerous substances.

In a lot of work places, health and safety training is given to individual employees who operate specific machinery, are at risk of fire hazards, or indeed at risk of any of the common dangers that stalk places of work, all over the globe. Whoever you are, and whatever your business, healthy and safety training is required by the law. But health and safety training is not neccessarily enough because it is not a static issue, that is to say it concerns that which is constantly changing and evolving. Changes take place to what is required by law of a companies health and safety procedures, and companies are expected to stay in step.

On the other side of the coin, it’s a must that companies evolve their health and safety advisers as changes take place as a result of their own practices, independently of the rudimentary laws. This means changes that occur in a specific workplace. This could be anything from construction work on an existing building, moving to a new building, updating and replacing equipment, to the acquisition of new staff who lack the requisite health and safety training, or come with their own specific healthy and safety concerns, such as a mobility issue, or sight or hearing problems. Keeping up to date means giving attention to the minimum standards for all disabled workers, making reasonable adjustments to show you do not discriminate against them.

So be sure you are up to date with health and safety and health and safety training for the work place. It will save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

Britannia Safety and Training offer health and safety training in Norwich, Norfolk