Health and safety training: Workplace behaviour

When you begin health and safety training at Emcare, one of the top training academies in South Africa, you will learn a lot about the workplace, the different structures in place at work, how these structures influence and impact staff, and also, workplace behaviour. Workplace behaviour is a tricky topic to navigate amongst your employees, but without any guidelines on how staff should behave at work, it could lead to a negative and hostile working environment if some individuals do not behave appropriately. If you want to find out what is classified as inappropriate or appropriate behaviour, or signs that show your staff could be needing some workplace behaviour health and safety training, then read on!

Workplace behaviour

A massive part of health and safety training involves the workplace and specifically, workplace behaviour. Behaviour can essentially be described as any traits, characteristics or mannerisms that are outwardly expressed, and includes how someone conducts themselves. Workplace behaviour is not limited to employees, and includes managers as well as customers, and how these various groups interact. In health and safety training you will come to learn that each workplace has a different set of behaviours that are deemed acceptable or inappropriate, and while they differ from workplace to workplace, there are still a few behaviours that are recognised across the board as acceptable or not.

If you’re concerned that your company’s workplace behaviour is not up to par, and if you are looking to gain professional assistance in managing this workplace behaviour, then consider enrolling your employees in one of the various health and safety training courses that Emcare offers. The General Health and Safety Course (OHS7) is the perfect course for this, educating employees on the Occupational Health and Safety Act as well as all things workplace. This course can be done in 4-8 hours depending on the size of the group and can be completed at all Emcare branches, or your chosen location if the group has more than 10 individuals.

Acceptable Behaviour in health and safety training

Acceptable behaviour includes any actions and social skills that do not negatively impact others, the individual or the larger company. Acceptable behaviour is linked largely with professionalism and ensuring that all employees feel welcome, safe and part of the team. Here are a few examples that would constitute as appropriate or positive behaviour in the workplace, which you will learn about in health and safety training:

•  Having good and healthy working relationships with colleagues as well as management.
• Approach customers in a positive and helpful manner.
• Handle customer conflict in a calm and professional manner.
• Be punctual and mindful of time spent appropriately at work.
• Acknowledge the perspectives and opinions of others and be willing to compromise where necessary.
• Cooperate with fellow staff and respond to leadership.
• Ensure that one is meeting the needs of the company and fulfilling their duties.
• Be open to constructive feedback or criticism and be willing to offer constructive feedback when necessary.
• Be well presented and wear suitable attire when in the workplace.
• Respect the individual beliefs, opinions and voices of others in your workplace, even if you yourself do not entirely agree or uphold them.
• Work well in a team environment and contribute to team projects.

Unnaceptable behaviour in the workplace

Unacceptable behaviour in the workplace can be a serious issue and needs to be handled with care and intention by management. Unacceptable behaviour is any inappropriate behaviour that is uncalled for by a recipient of the behaviour, or if it negatively impacts any individuals in the workplace or the company itself. Unacceptable behaviour includes harassment and bullying and does only involve face-to-face behaviour, but can also occur on digital platforms.

Companies should have policies in place that outline digital communication between employees and should indicate what behaviour is inappropriate, such as email and social media usage guidelines. Each company should also have a code of conduct which goes into specific examples of workplace behaviour, what will be tolerated and what process follows if there is any inappropriate workplace behaviour, including repercussions. Although it is important to look at company specific behaviour, here are a few general examples of inappropriate workplace behaviour:

• Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, class, age or ethnicity. Some of these instances can be considered hate crimes and should be addressed immediately.
• Offensive remarks or comments against another person.
• Isolating and excluding a specific colleague because of personal bias.
• Consistently and unreasonably criticising an employee.
• Starting or spreading rumours or information that could be deemed as malicious and defamatory.
• Spreading or circulating any racist, sexist, pornographic or inappropriate content.
• Being aggressive towards another employee, including personal insults and raised voices.
• Unwanted physical contact, this includes physical altercations of an aggressive behaviour, and also includes unwanted or inappropriate sexual advances towards another employee, which can be in the form of looks, comments, suggestive movements or physical touch.

• Setting unreasonable or unattainable demands, ultimatums and duties from other employees or management.
• Stalking colleagues, a criminal offense that needs to be handled by relevant authorities.
• Any behaviour that discriminates against or negatively impacts disabled persons.
• Having an inappropriate relationship with a fellow colleague or employer.
• Using offensive language and swearing.
• Frequently not arriving to work on time or at all.
• Failing to cooperate with fellow employees.

What are the benefits of workplace behaviour training?

If you as an employer or manager are noticing that your employees are not behaving in an appropriate manner, or even if you just want to give your team a refresher on how to behave in the workplace, then you should seriously consider consulting professionals to assist with health and safety training and workplace behaviour. Emcare, one such professional training provider, will be able to educate your team on inappropriate vs acceptable behaviour and will be able to explain to them the relevance and positionality of correct workplace behaviour. Professional workplace behaviour health and safety training will also assist you, the manager, in attaining new skills and techniques for managing behaviour and implementing behavioural boundaries in the workplace.

• The first significant benefit of this type of health and safety training would be the obvious, it would rectify and address any and all problematic workplace behaviour. Sometimes employees may not recognise that they are behaving in a problematic manner, so correct training will teach them how their actions may be impacting those around them, and how to correct this.
• The next benefit would be that you and your team will have a professional outline of what exact behaviours are appropriate and what are inappropriate. Formalising this and compiling it in a policy that can be openly displayed at work is a great idea to keep your colleagues aware and updated on how they should conduct themselves.

• There are many reasons why people leave jobs and why people stay, feeling safe and comfortable in the place of work is a massive factor. If employees are experiencing any unwanted behaviour from either management or other employees, they are more likely to resign, whereas if your colleagues all have healthy working relationships, they are likely to thrive in the workplace and have an increased level of productivity.
• Speaking of healthy working relationships, if your colleagues are all behaving appropriately and are all aware of the role that they play within the company, it fosters team collaboration in the workplace and projects have a higher chance of being completed in a timely manner.
• A cohesive team environment whereby there is no tension amongst employees will lead to increased morale in the workplace, which also increases efficiency and productivity. On the contrast, if it is a hostile or overly competitive working environment, morale will be low.
• Assisting your employees with thorough and professional workplace behaviour training will also increase personal responsibility in the workplace and employees will be acutely aware of what is appropriate or not, and will be less likely to offend these rules if they are openly aware of them. Furthermore, if you have provided this training for your staff and someone still knowingly digresses, you will have a guideline on how to move forward and the process that follows. Awareness of the consequences of negative behaviour is also proven to decrease said behaviour.
• The final reason why workplace behaviour health and safety training could be beneficial for your workplace is public relations. If your business is in the public eye you are especially prone to bad press, and even if you are not in the public eye but a disgruntled employee reports any negative behaviour to a media outlet, you are still at risk for a PR nightmare. When you have the correct training and structures in place that prevent inappropriate workplace behaviour your place of work is less likely to have any behavioural scandals or incidents that could reflect negatively on the business. You are also even less likely to have negative PR issues if you include workplace behaviour training into the initial training that employees receive.

Signs that your staff may need workplace behaviour health and safety training

If you are the manager or owner of a company, you may want to believe that everything is functioning seamlessly within your staff structure, but that is not always the case. Workplace behaviour offences are serious and can cause havoc for your business, so you need to be consistently ensuring that your employees are holding themselves to a high standard. Here are a few things to look out for if you’re an employer and are concerned that your employees may need some additional health and safety training.

Gossiping:

One of the first signs to look out for when it comes to workplace behaviour is gossiping. While venting simple workplace frustrations with your colleagues is not uncommon, it can often escalate into a hostile working environment whereby cliques form and one or more colleagues gets excluded or made to feel isolated in their place of work. This may be an indication that it’s time to lay down some ground rules with health and safety training for all employees.

Inconsistent management:

Managers that are inconsistent or that don’t uphold the values and rules of the company are a sign of an unhealthy workplace and could be a sign that they have the potential to misuse or abuse their power. As such, they should immediately attend behavioural training.

High employee turnover:

If employees are consistently quitting or being fired and new ones are constantly being hires, this signals and unhealthy and unstable working environment that would greatly benefit from behavioural training.

Lack of responsibility:

This includes employees showing up late to work or taking little to no responsibility for their actions at work. This is a serious sign that something needs to change and some ground rules need to be laid down and enforced.

Unhealthy competition:

Some competition amongst colleagues is expected and can even be healthy, but when it becomes overbearing or unhealthy and aggressive, this is cause for concern.