In May this year I attended a large safety conference in Sydney which was organized by the National Safety Council of Australia. Like most of these conferences, the program was tailored to the big end of town but it did provide reinforcement of the precarious nature of operating small businesses, particular those that manufacture products.

It is an established point that one of the first operational elements that a business cuts when struggling is the safety budget, or at least the commitment to one. Staff work longer hours that increase the likelihood of illnesses and reduce their attentiveness to safety procedures. Longer hours can mean spraining things and chopping off fingers.

It is also common that workplace safety is rarely an integral part of business planning. Usually the purchase of safety equipment is as far as small businesses go. It is an expense and not an essential business element. This is bad, but unfortunately it is common to all industries. Only recently have buildings been constructed with kitchen safety features, smoke detectors and with pool fencing.

Probably the first professional you consulted about your business was an accountant. Is the accountant going to talk safety? No, you'll get tax and banking advice. Very few people consult a safety professional in the development stage. of their business. Recently at one of my public speaking engagements with the Certified Practising Accountants I was pleasantly surprised to find someone who attended to determine 0HS obligations as he was establishing a video store in Melbourne. He didn't know how to go about contacting a suitable safety professional so he relied on his Association to help him out.

The major push in contemporary safety legislation is on a "safe system of work". Some businesses, like labour hire firms, have recently been refusing to undertake work that places their staff at risk of injury. The construction industry has operated in this fashion for years. The sale system of work is an attempt to encourage business owners to plan, to integrate safety into the current and Future operations of their businesses. It is not as difficult or as complex as it seems.

There are 3 basic planning phases, once you have determined what business you will operate.

Identify Hazards

For small businesses this often involves no more than brainstorming and determining the worst possible safety scenario, It is difficult for everyone to step back from their business and analyse objectively, but it must be attempted, It is worth writing down all the hazards that you can see will occur when you operate your business. Are you using chemicals? Will your children be able to access your workplace? Can the dog get at your products? Will the neighbours accept an increased noise level? I-low will you dispose of the waste your manufacturing process creates? First you must know the hazard.

Assess the risk

When you have identified as many hazards as possible, it is important to allocate a risk level to each of them. This level will be the likelihood of a hazard actually occurring. This will depend on how frequently you undertake the task. If you are operating a band saw for several hours each day, you are at risk of cutting your fingers. If you use the band saw for long periods of time, or late at night, you are at a higher risk of cutting yourself.

If you are delivering your products from the back of the family car all day, you are at risk of spraining your back or other parts of your body. Assessing the risk allows you to prioritise your business activities and allocate a dollar value to the risk.

Risk Control

Once the "high risks" have been identified you will need to control them. This may involve considerable expense. Some tasks may be so expensive to control that they are not worth undertaking in the first place. However, changing work practices or re- designing equipment can control most risks.

For instance, if you do need to deliver a lot of product, use a trolley as much as possible to ease the strain on your body. This may mean that you have to develop a particular packaging that can be stacked. But this is part of the initial planning process. It may also be useful to make sure that the car you purchase for your deliveries doesn't cause you to lift parcels out of the boot. Most modern station wagons have a flat tray for a boot so that you can slide the parcels out. People rarely consider safe designs of cars outside of the issues of seatbelts and airbags.

These 3 phases are the framework for a basic safety management system. These safe systems are becoming more common in legislation and are a minimum requirement for operating your business within the law. The system can be as complex or as simple as you wish, but must importantly, it needs to be sound and documented.

There are many resources available on this topic from your local Workcover or OHS department, or you can contact Workplace Safety Services for more information about your obligations.

© Work From Home magazine July/August 2000 (reproduced with permission)

Kevin Jones is a consultant with Workplace Safety Services P/L, and Editor of Safety At Work publications.