What to do once you have identified a hazard in your office…
All health and safety hazards, once identified, need to be risk assessed and controlled. To do this you need to determine the likelihood of the risks causing serious injury and, based on the assessment, put control measures in place to reduce or eliminate the risks.
After implementing control measures, it’s essential that you monitor and review them to ensure they remain effective.
Remember, other hazards may also exist for office workers while they are outside the workplace, including people working from home and workers who attend work-related social functions. Although liability can be a grey area, you still have an obligation to manage the health and safety of workers in these scenarios. As long as the connection can be made between employment and an incident, you may be liable and you therefore need to manage the risks.
To find out exactly how to reduce the risks related to these 10 most common office hazards, refer to chapter O1 Office Safety in your Health & Safety Handbook. If you are not yet a subscriber, find out how it can help you here.