Is you business compliant for Safety?

QHSE Help valuable Safety Compliance Assessments will provide you with the confidence to proceed, or the information to implement the required improvements

Our consultants perform comprehensive regulatory inspections and Safety Compliance Assessments.  We conduct these against regulations and ISO 45001:2018, the International standard for safety.

Not all workplaces have the resources to have their own in-house HSE expert. QHSE-Help identify non-compliance areas and provide very practical compliance solutions. Our consultants will keep your system maintenance programme realistic and sensible.

See the value in a fresh set of professional eyes objectively assessing your processes and your risks. We believe in a simple, practical approach that you can easily understand and manage.

Let are HSE consultants coach your supervisors or perform your inspections and audits so you are able to demonstrate sufficient due diligence. 

Every employer is legally obliged to maintain a safe and healthy work environment. Depending on the kind of business, every organisation has its own unique health and safety system, contingent to the hazards involved. What is important is that your safety and health management system works for your organisation.

But how can organisations monitor, assess and improve their health and safety?

A safe and healthy workplace is only realisable when there is a planned and systematic approach to managing risks. You first need to understand the exposures and safety risks in your workplace and harmful consequences of each. You can then take the necessary steps to eliminate or minimise the health and safety risks following established controls.

Here are some simple strategies for improving your culture of safety.

1. Identify Hazards

You should begin by identifying hazards in the workplace by analysing situations that can be an immediate threat or cause harm over a period of time. You can pick these out from:

• Physical work environment
• Tasks and how they are performed
• Equipment, materials and substances
• Work design and management

Some hazards are a result of work processes, including mechanical hazards, toxic substances and noise. Others may result from mechanical and structural failures and chemical spills. A plant may present both mechanical and noise hazards and each of them has to be identified.

2. Assess Risks

Assessing risks is considering what would happen if someone is exposed to a hazard. a risk assessment helps you evaluate potential risks OHS compliance requirements in a workplace, and allow you to determine:

• The severity of a risk
• Whether existing control measures are effective
• How the risk should be controlled
• Urgency of action
• Risk assessment is conducted when it is uncertain how a hazard may cause injury or illness
• The work activity presents a number of different hazards
• There are workplace changes that may affect the effectiveness of control measures

Risk assessment

WHS Regulations stipulate that it is mandatory to conduct a risk assessment for high risk activities such as live electrical work, entry into confined spaces and diving work. There are varying degrees of risk assessment depending on the type of hazards, information, data and resources available. It may involve the use of specific risk analysis tools and techniques, or it may be as simple as a discussion with your workers.

3. Control Risks

Once you identify hazards and risks, put control measures in place. The WHS Act recommends eliminating the risk from the workplace as the best control measure. If this is impossible, risks should be minimised in a reasonably practicable manner.

When laying down controls, you can adopt a single control or a combination of controls that provide the highest level of protection. You should first focus on hazards that present the highest level of risk.

The hierarchy of risk control provides some direction as to suitable control measures:

Hierarchy of Risk Control

• Eliminate the hazard
• Substitute hazard with something safer
• Isolate hazard from people
• Reduce risks through engineering controls
• Minimise exposure to the hazard using administrative actions
• Utilise personal protective equipment

4. Monitor Control Measures

Regularly check that the implemented control measures are effective through:

• Meetings and worker feedback
• Inspections, observations and walkthroughs
• Checklists and audits
• Independent reviews
• Monitoring alarms
• Environmental monitoring such as, air quality and noise testing

5. Continuously Improve

• Use a Workplace Assessment Worksheet to review progress
• Review activities to identify new risks
• Investigate incidents as they occur
• Conduct frequent inspections on equipment and processes
• Ensure hazard correction systems are in place
• Evaluate effectiveness of training
• Document all safety efforts
• Engage staff to identify areas of improvement

In summary we:

• Perform Safety Risk Audits and Gap Analysis for compliance to ISO 45001 and WHS Act, Regulations, Standards and Codes of Practice
• Perform workplace inspections to identify hazard and measure your level of compliance
• This will also assist you to complete highly successful tender submissions
• Develop of Safety Management Plans against contract obligations
• Help you develop SWMS and JSAs 
• Facilitate your risk assessments

We believe in a simple, practical approach that you can understand and manage.

A QHSE help WHS Consultant performs HSE compliance audits for leading global certification bodies.  The International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA) have registered our auditors to demonstrate our ability and level of competence.

QHSE Help Pty Ltd is a highly accomplished, Quality, Health, Safety & Environmental consultancy company. We have a respected reputation for providing HSE, QA and Environmental support to SME’s.

Please contact us for more information via info@qhsehelp.com