Health & Safety Headaches? Here’s our Top Tips for Office Managers

When I asked our Office Management Portal Members recently what their biggest pain points were, health & safety came up.

It’s something I see a lot in surveys and when I speak to clients – health & safety is the struggle-part of their role. The bit they don’t want to, but have to do. And I think I know why – it’s not just that it can be a little daunting to undertake, trying to get your head around the various pieces of legislation and legal requirements, but also (and probably more so), the manner in which employees and senior management take when health & safety is brought up.

It’s the “eurgh, what are you going to make me do now” mentality – “the red tape of health & safety”, “it’s dull”, “it’s pointless” – you know the ones.

As an aside, in case you didn’t already know it, health & safety is pretty important and if we’ve learnt anything from COVID it should be that we need this in our workplaces to protect everyone – this is the main purpose of it after all.

So back to the office manager and their lack of love for this part of their role. Personally, for me – I’ve always liked it. It’s an area that challenges me, that gets me learning, interacting with my staff through things like DSE assessments and training sessions and inductions as well as feeling fairly proud when I complete a risk assessment or policy that didn’t previously exist.

What is it for you that you do or don’t like about it? And how can you come to love it just a little bit? Let’s start with some tips:

1.      Everything with H&S is more or less commonsensical – if you overthink it, you’re overthinking – strip it back to basic measures and what makes the most sense and you’re half way there

2.      Start off with the simplest risk (hazard) and consider how you might reduce that risk or remove it altogether if you can. Let’s take manual handling as an example:

a.      Do they need to do it? Is there a safer way?

b.      If not, can you train them in how to do it safely (thus reducing the risk of injury)

c.       What other factors might impact how safe the work is to carry out e.g. lighting, height, weight, PPE issued and what factors may further reduce the risk?

Once you have all of this noted down, you’ve more or less conducted your risk assessment and can, if you wish to add rating in there for how risky the work is prior to any actions added to reduce the risk and potential harm

3.      Once you’ve collated your risk assessment, start to develop a policy which communicates briefly what your processes and procedures are. E.g. with the manual handling section you may say

“Anyone who is in a role which involves manual handling will be provided with training and PPE which will be refreshed annually.”

4.      Share it! Share away, pop it online, introduce training sessions and inductions and give it to your new joiners. Setting up a simple presentation pack outlining your policy and processes as well as provide some of the training for example, DSE assessments with new joiners will mean everyone has that training and information from the moment they start (and it’s a great way to meet everyone!)

5.      And finally, review and update periodically – every 6 months to a year as a minimum. If you ever get stuck, remember we have so much information and tonnes of Health & Safety templates online on The Office Management Portal for affordable fees ranging from £2 to £25 which can help you get ahead and stay on top – ridding you of the common health and safety headache.

Over the years, I’ve carried out loads of consultancy work for offices and training sessions for office management and admin pros, and have pulled together this handy leaflet with more tips and a checklist to get you started.

I am confident that if you invest a small amount of time learning and breaking through the seemingly painful parts of managing health & safety, and ignore the typical poo-pooers who don’t think it’s necessary, get it on the table at the top and take care of it – you will like (maybe love) it just like me!

And, if you ever find yourself in need of additional training or support, we can help you or can recommend some amazing partners to work with.