Are you working towards ensuring the safety of employees in the business? Well, if so, you may have done enough research to realise that good environmental, health and safety management all boils down to organisation. In fact, organisation is the backbone upon which all precautionary measures are based, which is why you need to put it front and centre of your mind if you’re working in an EHS role.

Organisation is only possible when staff are well-trained and capable

The first thing you’ll need to be very organised about if you’re going to ensure the safety of employees is their training and capability. In order to comply with the law, workers need to have the necessary skills and experience to carry out the tasks they’re required to perform. This means that your business will need to have organisational procedures in place to keep tabs on who has completed certain training modules, who needs a refresher course, who has the right certificates and who, for example, absolutely should not be working at height or in a confined space.

One of the easiest ways to stay organised is to use permit to work software. Permit to work software will enable you to refer to a centralised database when checking that employees are adequately trained for the tasks they’re doing. You can use it to track employee’s training, right the way through from induction to completion, and you can also attach relevant documents to the database including risk assessments and method statements. Ultimately, software will help you to be more organised than you otherwise would be, going a long way to ensuring the wellbeing of the workforce.

If you need to find training providers, check out this list from the Health and Safety Executive.

Organisation requires cooperation

Of course, it won’t matter how organised you or your colleagues are if you don’t cooperate with one another. In order to facilitate and encourage a culture of cooperation, you’ll need to begin by getting your workers involved. Rather than ‘preaching’ to workers about health and safety, or issuing rules that feel cumbersome or cursory, get them involved to the point where they can take an active role in identifying hazards. Encourage workers to suggest solutions, contributing feedback about the measures in place.

You’ll also need to go the extra mile to encourage cooperation with contractors. For example, organise a box where contractors and permanent staff alike can write their concerns anonymously, add notices to boards and consider organising one to one or small-group meetings so that workers can discuss health and safety openly.

Organisation happens when there’s strong communication

The best way to facilitate cooperation, as we’ve touched upon in the section above, is strong communication across various channels. In order to take an organised approach to facilitating communication in the business, you’ll need to assess the size and structure of the business rather than approaching it in a haphazard way. Organise a list of key contacts if your business is spread across multiple locations, establish a formal health and safety committee to feed into the corporate health and safety committee (organising regular meetings for members), and ensure that there are open channels of communication with employees of all levels of seniority on a day to day basis.