Safety in the Workplace
Safety in the workplace is one of the foremost concerns of both the workers and the business owners. Safety in the workplace may include both the source of stress and its relation to critical incidents that normally happens everyday.
Critical incidents in the workforce perspective refers to the “sudden, unexpected events that often are significant enough to overwhelm normal coping responses and they normally vary in type and severity and can affect employees as well as management” (Regehr and Hill, 2000). Because critical incidents normally happen unexpectedly, there are special prevention and/or restoration techniques that companies usually follow.
Preventions techniques are focused on minimizing intense negative effects and making sure employees are safe from harm and trauma. In cases of accidents, natural or man-initiated disasters, there are safety gears and equipments available in the most accessible areas of the workplace building coupled with the safe exit points. Fire alarm systems and easy access with communication lines to contact the proper authorities (such as emergency hotlines, hospitals, ambulance, fire departments, etc) are also ensured. In cases wherein the unexpected incident has persisted, there are restoration strategies that management usually takes into consideration. This includes physical, psychological and/or emotional therapy for the workers who may have suffered from trauma and emotional imbalance. Treatment and care for those who suffered physical pains. Lastly, there are medical and/or financial assistance and even insurance coverage to those who are extremely affected. Needless to say, when critical incidents do happen, management of it must be based not only on what he company can do, but also on what the people need and what the situation calls.
Workplace Stress in Relation to Workplace Safety
In the minds of many business owners and managers, workplace stress is an everyday part of business. They think that stress does not become worrisome until it explodes into a screaming match or a violent act. However, by then, it may be too late to prevent an incident (Venkateshwara, 2006). By recognizing and dealing with early signs of stress, managers can help create a calmer, more productive atmosphere for all employees – and ward off potentially dangerous behavior.
Humans exhibit a physical response to stress, characterized by heightened senses, increased heart rate, muscular tension, and increased blood pressure. This evolutionary throwback is designed to help humans flee wild animals or physically protect loved ones from danger. However, left untreated, this repeated physical response to an emotionally stressful stimulus can cause real health problems, and it can reduce a valued employee’s productivity (Chiavenato, 2001).
In dealing with stress, managers must understand that the physical response to a conversation or event is not always dictated by the reality of the situation; what matters is how the event is interpreted by those involved. Thus, the same event or comment may send one employee through the roof while another may barely react or may not notice it at all (Festing, 1997).
To ease workplace stress, managers must be able to recognize the effects of stress on employees and to determine the cause. If the stress is related to work, managers can then take steps to try to reduce it.
The signs of stress are varied and can be manifested in many types of extreme behavior. Managers should watch out for changes in emotional state. For example, an employee who is suddenly anxious, angry frustrated, moody, or irritable may be suffering from stress. Mental perception, concentration, memory judgment, decisiveness, accuracy, and motivation may also be altered due to stress (Chiavenato , 2001).
Employees under too much stress may have trouble with relationships at work. They may alter their attendance – overworking, working odd hours, or becoming lax about work schedules. Recurring illnesses as well as poor performance and an increased number of accidents can also signal an overstressed employee (Venkateshwara, 2006).
Once a manager has recognized these warning signs, he or she must determine the source of the stress. This is not always easy, especially for managers who do not feel comfortable talking to employees about personal matters. However, these discussions are critical, because the stress of one employee could affect the health or safety of others. In general, stress can be categorized as external – caused by issues and events that occur outside of the office and relating to the employee’s personal life -or internal – caused by work and work-related issues (Venkateshwara, 2006).
Examples of external problems include financial concerns, family difficulties, health issues, and even psychological disturbances such as personality disorders. A manager’s obligation is not to solve these problems but to be aware of them and to see their potential effect on the workplace (Maharajj, 2000).
When problems are detected, managers can make employees aware of company resources that may be able to help them deal with their personal stress. For example, the employee could be advised to look into the company’s employee assistance program (Maharajj, 2000). By raising the issue, the manager is letting the employee know that the company will support his or her efforts to deal with a personal issue, which may be all that is needed to motivate the employee to seek assistance.
While managers have little influence over the personal stress employees bring to work, they may be able to affect the stress level at work. But they must begin by identifying the causes, which requires talking with the employee about the issue. In initiating this communication, managers must be truly open to feedback and foster a genuine atmosphere of trust. If managers can facilitate such communication, employees are more likely to let them know what is causing the problem in the office. However, if managers are not open to. suggestions or to providing positive change, employees will not offer input (Festing, 1997).
Management of Workplace Stress and/or Hazards
In response to the many threats and seemingly increasing stressors and critical incidents happening in and out of the corporate world nowadays, a lot of organizations have proven the scenario-based strategic planning can play a detrimental role to keeping the smooth flow of the company’s day-to-day operation. It has become apparent to most company managers and/or owners that while the pace of change in business environments continuously accelerates, predicting the business’ future conditions is also becoming more and more difficult to do. This is exactly where scenario-based planning’ comes in very handy.
Scenario-based planning allows organizations to explore multiple alternative future situations and reduces the need for accurate single forecasts (Shoemaker, 1995). Scenarios are developed by blending intuition and creativity with data and analysis into a description of possible future conditions. Strategies can then be tested against a range of these scenarios, and executives can analyze which strategies, among the widest number of scenarios, reduce risk or produce the greatest potential returns. The process can also be used to prepare the organization for possible changes in its industry and to develop contingency responses should these changes occur (Shoemaker, 1995).
While scenario-based planning has some obvious advantages in the dynamic environments faced by most organizations, it is sometimes difficult to implement, but once implanted properly, the end result always turned out to benefit the people and the company itself. The process requires generating broad range of ideas and integrating creative inputs across multiple individuals. Both the idea generation and integration processes are crucial to successful scenario planning, although they are complex and troublesome to manage. Moreover, effective scenario generation is dependent upon quality information resources; with more and better quality information, planners can develop scenarios with substantially richer contexts. Planning support systems offer the potential for using technology to streamline the scenario planning process and, more important, to improve the quality of both the scenarios to be evaluated and the strategic responses developed (Shoemaker, 1995).
Thus, using scenario-based planning, more comprehensive and creative plans can be solicited from the employees regarding stress and critical incidents. The employees are greatly involved in thinking about the possible ways on how they can help manage stress and critical incidents. Employees, themselves, can share various experiences, perceptions and knowledge about various stressors and critical incidents that they have faced in and out of the work areas. Their suggestions can play detrimental roles in planning and implementing strategies that will either prevent succession of anymore critical incidents or limit the negative aftermaths when critical incidents take place. More so, employees can also analyze beforehand if a plan will workout. This can be done by testing and reenacting different instances and evaluating the best possible course of action for specific incident.
Indeed, both the stress and critical incidents in the workplace can be managed properly if all the people concerned are involved even on the very planning stage and its execution. They will already know exactly what to do and they will not find it hard to adapt with any changes that will be applied with in the company because they are involved in conceptualizing such changes. All personnel will also easily adopt the new systems and approached when it comes to critical incident management because each idea and policy comes from the shared ideas of the employees themselves.
References
- Chiavenato , I. (2001). Advances and Challenges in Human Resource Management in the New Millennium. Public Personnel Management.
- Festing, M., (1997). International human resource management strategies in multinational corporations: theoretical assumptions and empirical evidence from German firms.(International Human Resource and Cross Cultural Management) Management International Review
- Kopelman, R., (1997). Executive coaching as a transfer of training tool: effects on productivity in a public agency. Public Personnel Management
- Maharajj, S., (2000) Human Resources Capacity-Building in Local Government : A Case Study of the Training and Development Scheme in Durban. Public Personnel Management.
- Slade, P., (2005). Formal human resource management practices in small growing firms. Journal of Small Business Management
- The Journal of Performance through People, ed.(2001) Competency & Emotional Intelligence Quarterly Volume 8 No. 4
- Venkateshwara , B., (2006). A comparative study of Human Resource Management practices and advanced technology adoption of SMEs with and without ISO certification. Singapore Management Review
- Regehr, C. and Hill, J. 2000. Evaluating the efficacy of crisis debriefing groups. Social Work with Groups 23 (2): 69-79.
- Shoemaker, Paul J. H. (1995). Scenario planning: A tool for strategic thinking, Sloan Management Review, 36(2): 25-40.