Employee Participation regarding WHS

Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) refers to health and safety practices that are established and carried out in order to ultimately prevent or mitigate any injury, illness, or any kind of mishap in the workplace.

It is up to the organization to determine the best way of ensuring effective worker consultation & participation, and whether it needs to set up formal mechanisms such as health and safety committees. 

In Navitas Professional Services, work health and safety are given the utmost priority.

Employees should feel their questions and methods are well received.

Importance of WHS and Employee Participation

According to WHS laws, it is the employer’s sole responsibility to make provisions for a safe working environment.

Responsibilities include:

• Prompt and regular maintenance of equipment, tools, machinery, and plant
• Reduction and where possible complete elimination and prevention of hazards
• Provisions of adequate workers training, sensitization, and supervision
• Ensuring regular work breaks
• Design and implementation of safe processes for the handling, transport, use, and storage of substances, equipment, or working tools
• Incident investigation and conflict resolution

It’s easy to get caught up in day-to-day tasks and priorities and forget to make time for wellness. Your busy workers need frequent, gentle reminders of the wellness opportunities available and why it’s so important for their health. 

It might take a little time to get all the information to employees so we need to prepare it beforehand and deliver the message

Employee participation can be increased through awareness programs, mental health awareness campaigns, and eliminating any risk factor related to the workplace.

Personal invitations help a lot. For instance, one of the employees refers three different employees which then refers 3 others and the list continues to go on. 

In Navitas, students and teachers both communicate on a daily basis to increase participation in WHS. In the last few months due to COVID, WHS is also given utmost priority and is put into consideration