WH&S Risks – If you think you don’t have any you’re not doing it right!

Some years ago now, I mentioned to a colleague that I had taken up an OH&S management role in the retail industry.   The colleague giggled a little and questioned whether I considered this some sort of early retirement.  An awkward moment to say the least.

By way of background I am nowhere retirement age and the position proved to be challenging and interesting and probably not what I hope to do when I retire!

The inference made by my colleague was that retail (presumably consisting of well-groomed, middle aged women) is a low risk industry with little to be done in terms of workplace health and safety.

The truth as I knew then, and am even more conscious of now, is that retail is over represented in terms of injuries and workers compensation claims, and whether a job or industry is considered low or high risk by regulators, business operators, employees or the even the general public is not helpful at all in terms of meeting the primary legal obligation of all employers –ensuring the health and safety of workers.

What I have come to find is that ‘higher risk’ industries (think mining, manufacturing, and construction) face higher degrees of regulation and fairly specific guidance in terms of managing their unique risks.  I do not dispute that this is appropriate or necessary at all. What can occur as a consequence of this however, is that we end up with a disparity between the high risk industry employers managing their risks well, with good levels of resourcing, comprehensive and often state of the art management systems, whilst many of the low risk employers (think retail & services)-assuming that low means no risk, do nothing whatsoever in terms of safety management systems and wondering why people and money are exiting the business at a rapid rate.

Very often I hear from employers and business owners that they are ‘low risk’ or ‘don’t really have any safety issues’.  This almost always sparks my interest.  The employer or business owner who rattles off a dozen safety risks in their business is potentially doing a decent job of managing them.  The employer or business owner who says they have no safety risks will realize eventually and probably expensively that this was not the case.

At HR Business Direction we are able to assist with identifying and managing risks in the workplace.  Contact us here.

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