Importance of managing employees personal safety and security in a modern work enviornment

The workplace landscape is changing. Flexibility in working arrangements combined with readily available technology mean that 9-5 desk jobs are only one of a range of work scenarios. Increasingly I speak to people who travel from location to location so often their most common work environment is their car or those who work from home or FIFO or any combination of working from home, on site or in a traditional office.

When employees work together in designated physical locations, issues of personal security and safety can be managed on a large scale.  With the increasing variety in work arrangements however, ensuring an employee’s personal safety and security whist at work becomes a little more complex and almost needs to be assessed on an individual basis.

An example of this is the increasing number of home offices. If those working from home permit clients, or customers to attend their home residence, it not only poses privacy, safety and security concerns for the person working from home, but also for those attending the residence who may feel embarrassed to raise the issue of their discomfort.

An employer’s obligations for the health and safety of workers can (depending on the situation) extend to work related travel and events, as well as off-site meetings and out of hours work.  Removing or minimising personal safety and security risks in this context requires employers to use a risk management approach to identify assess and control the relevant risks on both a general basis and also event by event and employee by employee.

A potential error in identifying and assessing personal safety and security risks is focusing too heavily on the likelihood or frequency of such risks occurring, to the extent that they are all assessed as being so low risk no precautions or control measures are identified.  This approach fails to acknowledge the potential for severe and unacceptable consequences which result from such incidents.

At HR Business Direction we work with clients in a range of industries, from small employers to large.  Like some of our clients, we attend other workplaces, sometimes work outside of ordinary hours, attend work related events and have the benefit of flexible work arrangements. In order to practice what we preach we have used a risk assessment approach to identify, assess and control identified personal safety and security risks and have implemented policies and procedures around these issues with the aim of ensuring that employees are safe and know that their personal security is the highest priority.

At HR Business Direction we can assist with managing the personal risks for your employees.  Contact us here.

Christina Willcox MHSc; PostGradDip OHS; BBus(HRM)
Workplace Health & Safety Specialist
christina.willcox@hrbd.com.au
07 3890 2066
www.hrbd.com.au