The most valuable kind of information is that which keeps people safe.

One of the most effective tools available to companies looking to develop a safe, supportive, and compliant workplace, is information. The more informed management, staff, customers, and clients are about their rights and responsibilities, the better a business can serve its customers, meet its legal obligations, and reassure all staff that their health and safety requirements will be provided for whilst onsite. With many organisations across Victoria now having their staff return to the workplace, it is the perfect time for employers to both meet their legal obligations and promote a safe, supportive environment. This can be done by ensuring their workplace is adequately providing COVID-Safe logins, visible signage, and informative posters, to keep everyone onsite in the loop about what they must do to keep both themselves and others safe.

The Victorian Government has an informative website outlining both what business’ are legally obligated to do to ensure a COVID-Safe workplace, as well as additional, non-required, steps that companies are encouraged to take, to demonstrate their commitment to staff and visitor safety, and how they are taking an active role to ensure staff are informed about potential risk factors, and what they can do to mitigate the threat.

The website gives business’ a host of information, including an overview of The Victorian Government QR Code Service, a contact tracing service which sees everyone onsite for more than fifteen minutes using their mobile phone to sign in with the QR Code, to aid in contact tracing.

A clear sign regarding safety

The website also contains a collection of free-to-download health questionnaires, and a collection of free signage and posters, informing people of social distancing requirements, reminders about when are where people are required to wear a mask, as well as signs reassuring customers that your business has implemented COVID-Safe practices, and that they can safely frequent the premises.

It is advised that business’ visit this site, as it has dual benefits. Firstly, by downloading some of the free signage and posters, and then displaying them around their workplace, companies are actively helping to inform staff and visitors about ways they can stay safe, what steps the business is taking to ensure their health and safety is provided for whilst onsite and joining in the efforts to get workplaces back to normal. In addition, by visiting this site, business’ may learn something that they were previously unaware of in relation to how to stay safe, or be informed of innovative ways to curb the virus through the spread of knowledge.

An OH&S Management System can help business’ with Overall Heightened Sensibility

In addition to learning about how to stay safe through the spread of knowledge, companies wanting to ensure that their work health and safety practices are both second-to-none and meeting regulatory standards should consider migrating to the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 45001 OH&S Standards. These guidelines help business’ implement an effective Occupational Health and Safety Management System across all their work sites, catering to both the physical and mental wellbeing requirements of staff.

These standards adopt a forward-thinking, pro-active approach to developing effective OH&S practices, including working to identify and mitigate potential work health and safety risks before they have a chance to impact operations, developing a clear reporting process that all staff are trained on in the event of an incident, and working with companies to conduct a gap analysis, which compares their existing OH&S practices with what standards they need to achieve, thus giving business’ a clear direction on what they need to do to achieve their OH&S objectives.

The most valuable kind of knowledge

It is clear that there are many services available to business’ looking to develop a safe, supportive, workplace. By taking simple steps, such as requiring visitors to log in with a QR Code, having clear signage around the workplace which outlines what people should be doing to stay safe, and publicly promoting what steps your company is taking to be COVID-Safe via social media, your business is helping people stay safe, demonstrating to the public that it is meeting both its legal and ethical obligations, and working towards getting back to normal as quickly as possible.

If you would like to know more about how you can develop internationally certified, proven successful, COVID-Safe practices for your business, then please give Anitech’s safety consultants a call today on 1300 802 163. It is a quick and easy process, where you simply outline to them the scope of your operations and some of the potential OH&S issues staff may encounter, and they will be able to explain to you how the ISO 45001 Standards could be tailored to the specific requirements of your organisation, to keep staff safe, ensure legal obligations are met, and uphold your organisations reputation as a safe and caring business to work with. Doesn’t this sound like a great way to get a start on 2021?

Please click here to read more about how an OH&S Management System can keep your business COVID-Safe.