Employee Health & Safety

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Employee Health & Safety

The areas of health, safety and security are intimately attached to each other. Health is the common state of well being. It not only admits the physical well being of an individual, also his emotional and mental well being. In present competitive environment, for smooth execution of an organization, it has to ensure safety and protection of his employees. Health and safety constitute an essential part of work environment. A work environment should heighten the well being of employees and it reflects an accident free environment.

Understanding of Employee Health & Safety Issues
Safety pertains to the act of defending the physical well being of an employee. In addition to this it also includes the risk of accidents induced because of machinery, fire or diseases. Security concerns to defending facilities and equipments from unauthorized approach and guarding employees at the time when they are on work (Armstrong, 2000). The supervisors or HR managers of an organization are ultimate responsible for the employee health and safety. All these laws and plans in regard to employees' health and safety had been made by the government. These rules and regulations made by the government depicts that an HR manager of an organization can assist in aligning safety programs, making employees cognizant about the health and safety plans and policies of the company and carry out formal safety training, etc. In addition to this, supervisors and departmental chiefs are accountable for exerting safe working conditions. Subsequently some peculiar responsibilities have been decided by the government and organizations on the part of managers and supervisors.

Currently, organizations frame various approaches to assure the health and safety of their employees, but all of the approaches do not concentrate on the input of work design and employee conduct towards safety. Concentration on both of these approaches is essential for making an organizational approach toward safety, effective. Most of organizational and individual issues are originated at the management of employee health and safety, which are as follows and need to be managed ethically otherwise it can direct an organization towards various legal issues:

Physical Work Settings
The physical settings of a severally affect the performance of employees as some of the factors include temperature, noise levels, lighting, size of work area and kinds of materials used that make an effect on employees working with these factors. It is believed that each organization should take care of physical work settings, in which its employees work as otherwise it, can lead to number of ethical and legal issues.

Sick Building Syndrome
It is a position in which employees go through acute health troubles and uneasiness due to the time spent in its workplace. Some factors that can guide to sick buildings admit poor air quality, inadequate ventilation, inappropriate cleanliness, stench of stuffs and glues, etc.

Ergonomics
The term falls from the Greek word ergo, this intends work, and omits stands for management of (Merriam-Webster, 2010). Ergonomics is the analyses of physiological, psychological and engineering design prospects of a job, letting in factors like weariness, lighting, tools, equipment layout and placement of checks. It is the line between men and machines. In this situation, problems like back ache, eye strain and headache comes up due to long working hours expended.

Engineering of Work Equipments and Materials
Accidents used to occur in organizations can be precluded in a way by right placements of unsafe machines. In addition, design of such machines and equipments also acts a crucial role in employees' safety as by offering safety guards and concealments on equipments, emergency stop pushes and other supplies can assist in cutting down the accidents substantially (Byars & Rue, n.d.). ...