When do Irish Businesses need Health and Safety Consultants?
When running a business, health and safety are a primary concern to protect your workers, your business and your premises. If you are in Ireland, your business will be required to comply with all relevant legal requirements under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. A health and safety consultant can help you bring your business in line with the mandatory standards, assess your current health and safety provision, and make recommendations for improvements throughout your organisation.
If you are just in the process of setting up your business or if you are worried that your existing business is not consistently meeting the highest standards of health and safety at work, you should seek advice from a Health and Safety Consultant as a priority to avoid potentially costly errors. All employers are required to meet the standards set out by law, and this is an essential way to ensure that your practice is watertight.
What will a Health and Safety Consultant do?
Health and Safety Consultants are experts in the health and safety industry and can help you to streamline your operations to ensure that the processes and daily tasks carried out in the workplace are set up to minimise risk. A Health and Safety Consultant can take responsibility for many different tasks, including:
- Safety policies. All businesses in Ireland are required to have Health and Safety policies to formalise health and safety procedures throughout the organisation and to identify and minimise risk. This includes a Safety Statement, which every business must have under Section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. Specialist businesses or those in high-risk industries will require specific policies to address the potential additional risks, and a Health and Safety Consultant who specialises in this area will be able to handle this for you.
- Risk Assessments. A Health and Safety Consultant can handle your risk assessment process comprehensively, ensuring that every procedure or task undertaken in the workplace or during working hours is carried out as safely as possible. A risk assessment identifies the inherent risk in an activity and lays out the steps required to minimise this. Risk assessments will be used to identify training needs and any changes to policy that are required to improve practice.
- Health and Safety Training. Health and safety training is a vital way to protect your employees and your business, and you have a responsibility to your staff and members of the public to ensure that your training programme is up to date and fully comprehensive. A Health and Safety Consultant will work to identify your training needs for employees at every level of your business, and may be able to deliver this training in-house to save you a great deal of money and time. Your training needs may encompass specialist training, such as working at height or confined spaces training, and may need updating regularly, such as first aid training and Safe Pass, which is essential in the construction industry.
- Gap analysis and Safety Audits. All business premises should be audited for safety and compliance with legal regulations on a regular basis, in order to drive up health and safety standards and improve the safety culture in the workplace. Audits should be carried out at least annually, and more often in larger organisations or if changes are introduced. Health and Safety Consultants will carry out safety audits and can also carry out a Gap Analysis, which will identify areas where improvements are necessary.
- Managing Investigations. There will need to be an investigation if an incident or accident occurs in your workplace, and this should always be handled by an experienced Health and Safety Consultant. The purpose of such an investigation is to identify any causes of the incident and to put measures in place to prevent further incidents of this nature. An investigation after an incident will usually be required by your insurer and by the HSA if they have been notified of the incident.
A Health and Safety Consultant will be able to handle all of the above so that you can concentrate on your workload, and our experienced Consultants and Safety Officers can work on a part-time or full-time basis, in the long- or short-term, to enable you to outsource this role to an expert and give yourself complete peace of mind. It is vital to ensure that your health and safety standards are exemplary to satisfy the conditions of your insurance as well as to protect your reputation and your personnel.
Health and Safety Compliance in Ireland
At ASM, we are an experienced team of Health and Safety experts who know the industry inside out. We have many years of expertise across several industries, and we work with organisations of all sizes to drive up health and safety standards both within businesses and across Ireland. We can provide the specialists you need to improve your health and safety provision, including Health and Safety Consultants who can advise you on the steps you need to take to protect your business. We also offer an extensive range of high-quality training courses, including specialist training for those in high-risk situations, and we can help to ensure that your training needs are met.
Our professional team at ASM will advise, consult and work with your team to ensure that your business, your employees and your premises are protected. We can also provide full and part-time Safety Officers and services such as Risk Assessments and Audits to maintain compliance with all relevant legislation and ensure that you are meeting all of your statutory responsibilities as an employer. Talk to our Health and Safety Consultants in Ireland for more information and to discuss the strategies that will benefit your business.
