Blog Post
Safety officers ensure the health and safety of every employee, employer, and visitor in the workplace. Safety officers will accurately assess and prevent all risks and hazards in a workplace to continuously ensure safety in the workplace. We have outlined the responsibilities of a safety officer to demonstrate why your workplace needs to have a safety officer for safety. As an employer, you can enrol an employee in the EMCARE Safety Officer course to enjoy the benefits of having an employee competently trained in workplace safety and your business operations.
We have highlighted the main responsibilities of a safety officer to demonstrate the importance of having an employee with safety officer training in your workplace.
1) Identify Risks and Hazards in the Workplace:
Businesses in the mining, construction, forestry, and medical industry face numerous workplace risks and hazards.
In mines, employees are constantly exposed to harsh environments that can cause lung diseases or hearing damage, among other serious risks and hazards. In construction, employees face the risks of falling off buildings, injuries, or collapsing buildings. In forestry, cut trees can fall in the wrong direction resulting in injury or death. These are but a few of the common hazards and risks employees face daily in these industry workplaces.
A common misconception is that if your workplace does not contain hazardous chemicals or is located within a mine, then your business cannot face workplace hazards or risks. Even businesses that are corporate and involve employees working on computers at their desks, there are certain risks and hazards that your employees face.
No matter what industry your business is in, there are always workplace risks and hazards. A safety officer in your workplace will be able to accurately identify every risk and hazard that you, your employees, and visitors will face in the workplace.
2) Develop, Implement, and Enforce Safety Policies:
The safety officer will analyse your workplace for any risks and hazards, and then use this information to develop, implement, and enforce safety procedures. The safety procedures will be specific to your workplace within your industry.
The safety officer will either develop a safety management policy or improve the existing one. You and all employees will then be fully informed of the implemented safety policies. The safety officer will then continuously inspect, monitor, and enforce these safety policies to reduce the risk of injuries, accidents, and damage in the workplace. Safety policies will also be continuously monitored, and any necessary alterations will be made to always ensure workplace safety.
3) Keep Workplaces OHS Act 85 Compliant:
Not only will the safety officer create policies and procedures that ensure the health and safety of everyone present in your workplace, but the safety officer will also ensure that these policies are compliant with South African legislation.
The health and safety of workplaces are governed by the South African Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 (OHS Act 85). The safety officer in your workplace will have a full understanding of all the regulations within the OHS Act 85 and know how to successfully implement them within your industry-specific workplace.
The South African Department of Labour is authorised to inspect the health and safety of any workplace. The inspectors are authorised to be able to request any business documents, take any samples, summon or question any employee or employer, and inspect any machinery, process, or business operation. This can all be done without any prior notice to the employer or workplace management.
If your workplace is found to be non-compliant, fines can be issued and operations can be stopped. Your business will therefore incur unnecessary expenses, and these can have long-lasting damage on your business. This further demonstrates the importance of having a safety officer in your workplace, as the safety officer will ensure that your workplace is always compliant.
4) Investigate Accidents and Incidents:
Workplace accidents and incidents can occur, even with a safety officer present at the workplace. The safety officer will be tasked with the role of investigating any accidents or incidents, correctly documenting them, reporting them, and filing for employee compensation if necessary. The safety officer will then analyse the cause of the accident or incident, and then make any necessary changes to the safety policies to ensure that no such event occurs again.
If the accident involved injury to an employee, the safety officer will also discuss the accident with other employees, hear if they have any concerns, and address these problems to make the employees feel safe in the workplace.
5) Safety Training:
The safety officer is in charge of providing safety training to all employees in the workplace. This can range from safety during business operations, to how to correctly use personal protective equipment, to the emergency plan that is in place for the event of an emergency in the workplace.
Ensuring that all employees adequately understand the importance of safety in the workplace will help ensure that the workplace remains a safe space for all employers, employees, and visitors.
6) Authority in Workplace Emergency:
In the event of a workplace emergency, there needs to be an authority figure. The authority figure will keep a level head, make sure that the emergency plan is followed, and that all employees are safely evacuated from the premises. The safety officer will perform this function in the workplace.
7) Management of Hazardous Materials:
If your workplace involves hazardous materials, there are various regulations and safety procedures that need to be instituted in your workplace to ensure there are no health or safety risks to any employees. We have listed a few of the various aspects the safety officer will be in charge of to make sure your workplace is safe if there are hazardous materials.
Businesses benefit from having not only a safety officer but a safety officer that is specialised within their industry and is competent in the unique qualities of their business. This is why businesses benefit from selecting an employee from within their business for safety officer training.
EMCARE offers a Safety Officer course that will provide your employee with high-standard training on being a safety officer in your business. EMCARE offers a highly practical Safety Officer course that will provide your employee with training that will sufficiently ensure safety in your workplace.
We have created a brief outline of what the EMCARE Safety Officer course will entail.
After two weeks of training in the EMCARE Safety Officer course, your employee will be equipped with all relevant knowledge and skills to transform your workplace into a safe working environment that is compliant with South Africa legislation. Pair the EMCARE Safety Officer training with your employee’s existing understanding of your industry and business, and you can rest assured that your workplace will be perfectly safe for your employees and visitors.
Enrolling your employee in a Safety Officer course is easy with EMCARE. There are EMCARE branches located all over South Africa. Alternatively, if you have a large business and need numerous safety officers to ensure the entire workplace is safe and compliant, EMCARE offers to come to your premises for groups of ten or more.
The EMCARE Safety Officer course is accessible for any of your employees. Your employees only need a Grade 10 level of education and proficiency in English, unless there is a group of ten in which EMCARE offers local language instructors, to be eligible for the course. By enrolling your employees, you benefit from increased workplace health and safety and your employees benefit from skill development and upliftment.
The EMCARE Safety Officer course is fully accredited by all regulatory bodies, and on completion, your employee will receive a certificate that is valid for two years. Every two years, your employee can complete a refresher course to ensure that they are always up-to-date with any legislative changes regarding workplace health and safety.
EMCARE is a health and safety training facility that is dedicated to equipping students with the skills and knowledge to ensure workplace safety, find employment within their selected industry, and perform in a compliant way within South African legislation.
EMCARE branches are located in Polokwane, Durban, Cape Town, Hoedspruit, Johannesburg, and Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha). Our branches are widely spread across South Africa so that all South Africans, and people from neighbouring countries, can find an EMCARE branch that is accessible from their location.
All EMCARE health and safety trainers are fully trained professionals. We ensure that we offer the best health and safety training, therefore we only select trainers that are qualified, experienced within their selected industry, and can provide an enriching course for our students.
If you are looking for a high-quality and fully accredited health and safety course, such as the Safety Officer course, then EMCARE is the training facility for you.
Emcare offers a safety officer course so that every workplace can have an employee with safety officer training.
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