Policies and Procedures are the written and worked processes and practices that inform, guide, and control how work is done. In an Occupational Health and Safety context, policies form a body of guiding knowledge and reference that reflect a business' or workplace's translation of how-to knowledge regarding job tasks, publicly accessible scholarship as well as internal research and development, tools for continuous improvement, and mission statements that can integrate performance data with management to provide teams and workers with resources and instruction to assist them in the doing of their work. Procedures provide detailed and granular step-by-step instructions describing how policies are carried out, as well as providing specific guidance for different situations and how to manage them.
In the control of workplace health and safety risks as is mandated by occupational health and safety law, policies describing safety strategy and procedures guiding safety actions and interventions work together to support the health, safety, and wellbeing of the workplace. Policies provide businesses with an opportunity to transform law and best practice into formats that can best address the needs of the organisation. In some cases, this knowledge must be engaged with mandatorily, such as food handling laws for hospitality businesses, the control of hazardous substances for businesses dealing with asbestos, lead paint, or poisons, and the control of zoonoses and pathogens for those businesses dealing with those hazards.
Further to this, policy provides businesses with a means of developing self-improvement and ongoing excellence initiatives. Most Occupational Health and Safety Management systems have continuous improvement frameworks, where the health and safety management system's own policies, documentation, and implementation must be reviewed and updated to ensure it meets the needs of the business. This is best done on a regular basis as well as in anticipation of future change or in reaction to an incident having arisen. Further to this, self-improvement initiatives at the policy level provide opportunities for top-down and bottom-up contribution to the writing of these policies - management and workers are all stakeholders in a safe business and so can necessarily be involved.
Procedures are guided by policy, and are the means by which elements of an organisation's mission statement are carried out and made real. While policies formalise concepts, procedures produce concrete outputs - they are the way in which things are done. For this reason, review of safety and operational policy and procedure should be undertaken together in an integrative framework to ensure that these elements of the safety system reconcile with each other and do not conflict. If Policies are the means by which safety knowledge, law, best practice, and organisational experience and research are organised, and procedures are how that body of knowledge is translated into real-world action, then the articulation of policy and procedure constitutes a dually transformative interface between best guidance and best health.
Each workplace is different, with different demands, methods of business, and is staffed by people whose capacities, needs, and risk profiles are different. Managing ergonomic, environmental, and occupational health and safety challenges requires a business to examine and engage with the ecosystem of factors that give rise to risk, and how that risk may affect people. Each workplace is different and so sometimes the same problem will require different solutions. This applies to workers as well - every person is different and so may require different support, supervision, or resources to perform comfortably and sustainably. Under Work Health and Safety law, consultation with the workforce, the control of risk as far as is reasonably practicable, and the provision of information, training, instruction and support to the worker by the workplace, is essential to meet obligations to provide workers with a workplace that is as free of risk as far is reasonably practicable.
In our capacity as consultants, Atlas Physio will explore and scope the business and its needs, examining how exposures, risks, and processes contribute to the hazard ecosystem, best inform the design and arrangement of procedural, policy-based, and practical risk controls. Our solutions are tailored to the needs of those with whom we work, implemented in a simple, sustainable, and supportive fashion, designed to be robust and resilient, and to support the ongoing life of the business as well as the sustainable wellbeing of the workers who undertake the day to day activities of work.
At Atlas Physio, we provide reporting, structured control, and ongoing management of risk onsite, on the road, and wherever work is done. We are open seven days a week, and are happy to offer a brief complimentary discussion to explore the needs of your business and your workers if you are an employer, and your needs if you are a worker. Reach out today to arrange a discussion and take the first step toward managing risk and working safely, supported by expertise that is practical, reliable, and designed to deliver lasting results.