Introduction to Human Resource Management

Chapter 13 : Occupational Safety and Health

Causes of Safety and Health Problems at the Work Place, Lack of Education and Training, Human Errors, Technical Errors, Psychological Problems, Occupational Hazards and Risks, Provisions to Prevent Accidents at the Work Place, Prerequisites for an Effective Safety and Health Policy, Accident Prevention in the Work Place, Stress and its Consequences on Employee Performance, Causes for Employee Stress, Handling Employee Stress, Avoiding Burnout, Challenges in the Service Sector, Importance of Ergonomics

Chapter Summary

Every year, a number of workers get injured or even lose their lives because of accidents at the workplace caused by the carelessness of the employer or the employee. It is important to identify the causes of accidents to prevent them from occurring in future. The main causes of accidents are lack of education and training, human errors, technical errors, psychological problems, occupational hazards and risks.

After identifying the causes of accidents, organization should take steps to prevent them. Education and training of employees plays an important role in understanding the causes of accidents and preventing them. Further, frequent inspections by the top management will enable them to know the practical problems being faced by the employees so that they can be tackled effectively.

This will also enable employees to air their grievances to the management as and when a problem arises. Another important aspect of preventing accidents is analyzing and tabulating the causes for accidents. This analysis will give a clear idea as to the location or situation of a large number of accidents and the steps that an organization should take to reduce these accidents.

Other measures to reduce accidents include conducting employee wellness programs, designing and conducting a well organized health program. Stress at the workplace is a serious concern in most organizations. A decrease in productivity and increase in abseentism results in huge losses for organizations. It is the responsibility of the employees as well as the organization to reduce stress at the workplace.

When stress reaches an alarming level, it results in burnout where an individual experiences excessive physical or mental exhaustion. It is important to diagonise an individual for stress before it reaches this alarming stage of burnout. In the present day service sectors like ITES, there are new health problems cropping up like the musculo-skeletal disorders (MSDs).

These disorders arise because of repeated use of the keyboard and the mouse. In India, companies do not recognize the seriousness of these problems. Hence it is high time that a legislation is passed regarding occupational health in the service industries.

Next Chapter »