Welcome to my latest blog. This one has a focus on Clause 7.1 Resources, Clause 7.2 Competence, Clause 7.3 Awareness.
Sorry for the break of a week, however, one has to seize the opportunity and have a break when Easter and Anzac Day align. I hope you enjoyed your Easter and your Anzac remembrance day.
Let’s get into this:
7.1 Resources
Your organization needs to determine and provide the resources needed for the establishment, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of its OH&S management system.
So does that mean you get the Office Manager who is very experienced in Office and Administration to manage the OH&S system without giving them any training? Of course not, but how many organisations do exactly that.
7.2 Competence
The organization shall:
Determine the necessary competence of workers that affects or can affect its OH&S performance; how do you determine this?
Ensure that workers are competent (including the ability to identify hazards) on the basis of appropriate education, training or experience; so does that mean you get staff to just sign off on SWMS or do you train them in identifying hazards and evaluate their competencies.
Where applicable, take actions to acquire and maintain the necessary competence, and evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken;
Retain appropriate documented information as evidence of competence. What documentation do you retain, quals, evidence of inhouse training.
NOTE: Applicable actions can include; the provision of training to, the mentoring of, or the reassignment of currently employed persons, or the hiring or contracting of competent persons.
7.3 Awareness
Workers must be made aware of:
The OH&S policy and OH&S objectives; training and listed in their position description and discussed at performance reviews.
Their contribution to the effectiveness of the OH&S management system, including the benefits of improved OH&S performance; detailed in a position description and discussed at the performance review.
The implications and potential consequences of not conforming to the OH&S management system requirements; detailed in a position description and discussed at their performance review.
Incidents and the outcomes of investigations that are relevant to them; discussed at the time and recorded on their employee file and discussed at their performance review
Hazards, OH&S risks and actions determined that are relevant to them; discussed in training, at the time and discussed as part of their performance review.
The ability to remove themselves from work situations that they consider present an imminent and serious danger to their life or health, as well as the arrangements for protecting them from undue consequences for doing so. This should be detailed in their position description, be part of ongoing training and discussed as part of their performance review.
I consider the position description/duty statement and the performance review are ideal for meeting this requirement but more so are most effective in ensuring staff are aware of the above requirements and have this requirements re-iterated regularly, yearly as a minimum. When you commence work, who never had a 3 month or 6 month review?
As part of this blog I have provided an example of a Position Description and a Performance Review Process guide and Form.
Any questions, just contact us through the site.
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