Health and Safety Review of Spa

1. Terms of Reference

The research project is requirement of Work Based Learning module of Foundation Degree course. It will be assessed by tutor – Joanne Mc Court.

2. Executive Summary

This report provides a review of health and safety at Galgorm Resort and Spa. Method of analysis includes review of different book, websites and interview with housekeeping manager and health and safety officer. Interview notes can be found in appendices. Findings form literature review and interview show that monitoring of health and safety in the workplace is crucial in health and safety programme and Galgorm Resort and Spa follow Health and Safety procedures in the same way as they are mentioned in literature and set by law. Organisation ensures all training is carried out for new and existing employees.

3. Contents Page

1. Terms of reference……………………………………………………………1
2. Executive Summary ………………………………………………………….2
3. Contents Page…………………………………………………………………3
4. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….4
5.  Methodology……………………………………………………………………5
6. Findings from literature …………………………………………………….6-8
7. Findings from interview…………………………………………………….9-10
8. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………11
9. References……………………………………………………………………12
10. Appendices……………………………………………………………………13

4. Introduction

This report is focusing on health and safety. Researcher decided to review health and safety at Galgorm Resort and Spa. Aims and objectives of this research paper were to review health and safety legislation, to find out if hotel follow health and safety procedures and to find out if proper training is carried out and how health and safety is communicated. There are many different potential risks in to a business when it comes to health and safety. Businesses have to make sure that they protect the employees and the general public from the health and safety risks. All employers are legally responsible for ensuring the Health & Safety of their employees and any visitors to their premises, including temporary and contract staff. Employers with five or more employees need to record the significant findings of a risk assessment – it is not necessary to record risk assessments for trivial or insignificant risks. It recommended that staff receive health and safety training to assist in achieving their aims. In every work place maintenance of a working environment for employees that is safe, without risks to health, adequate as regard facilities and arrangement.

5. Methodology

The purpose of this report is to review Health and Safety at Galgorm Reosrt&Spa. A descriptive research methodology was used for this report. A survey was administered to Housekeeping Manager and Health and Safety Officer of Galgorm Resort and Spa. The term ‘survey’ is commonly applied to a research methodology designed to collect data from a specific population, or a sample from that population, and typically utilizes a questionnaire or an interview as the survey instrument (Robson, 1993). For this report interview was used as a way of collecting data. Interviews usually involve researcher orally asking questions for individuals to answer orally. (..)Interviewing can be designed to yield either qualitative quantitative information and to provide information about knowledge or/and attitudes. (Murray,2003).

6. Findings/Analysis

Findings from literature review

Employers have responsibilities for the health and safety of their employees. They are also responsible for any visitors to their premises such as customers, suppliers and the general public. All workers have a right to work in places where risks to their health and safety are properly controlled. Health and safety is about stopping employees getting hurt at work or ill through work (Wallace,1996) In every organisation there is always the possibility of damage to someone’s health. Every day in all jobs people are exposed to risks and hazards such as falls from slippery floors, cuts from broken glass, breathing problems and burns from the use of hazardous chemicals and detergents.

“Hazard” is a term used to describe something that has the potential to cause harm. This is an existing situation that is likely to cause damage, e.g. electricity, chemicals and working from ladders. (Confer 1999)

“Risk” is a measure of possibility of a specific harmful effect in given circumstances and possibility that harm might occur when exposed to hazard. It is also potential danger in the future which could be avoided rather than present issue (Confer 1999).

It is really important for all organisations to have a system to manage health and safety. There is a need, therefore, for managers and supervisors to be more knowledgeable about the subject of health and safety from legal, operational and technical viewpoint.

For all organisations it is really important to have a system in place to manage health and safety. By law every organisation needs to have a Health & Safety policy, this policy obligates supervisors and managers to provide a safe working environment, induction training, accident prevention and proper training regarding regulations held within policy. It is important that employers appoint a competent person who will take the responsibility to evaluate all risks and hazards and then monitor all risk assessments. Manager and supervisors are taking big responsibility for the Health and Safety of all employees. The company’s health and safety officer is closely involved in assisting with reviewing and monitoring all safety within the company. Manager and supervisors are trying to make sure on a daily bases that all staff are fully aware about risks and hazards what they are facing every day in work. The housekeeping department is closely involved in making sure all procedures are carried out every day, e.g. wet floor signs, maintenance equipment or evacuation procedures.(Reese, 2003)

There are many other pieces of legislation that relate to health and safety.

These include: Safe Systems of Work, Risk Assessment, C.O.S.H.H and more.

Safe systems of work are probably the most common form of control measure used in industry today and this is practical way of managing a particular risk. A safe system of work has been defined as: “The integration of personnel, articles and substances in a laid out and considered method of working which takes proper account of the risks to employees and other who may be affected such visitors and contractors and provides a formal framework to ensure that all of the steps necessary for safe working have been anticipated and implemented. The safe system of work is a defined method for doing a job in a safe way. It takes account of all foreseeable hazards to health and safety and seeks to eliminate and minimize these. Safe system of work is normally formal and documented, for example in written operating procedures. The development of safe operating procedures should address the hazards that have been identified in the risk assessment. The system of work describes the safe methods of performing the job. (Hughes & Ferrett, 2011).

Another piece of legislation that relate to health and safety is Risk Assessment. The risk analysis protects workers and the business, as well as complying with the law. It is a vital element for health and safety management and its main objective is to determine the measures required to comply with statutory duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and associated regulations by reducing the level of accidents. In all organisations risk assessments should be conducted before any employers conduct work which presents a risk or injury to their health. Organisations need a competent person who is familiar with the workplace and is properly trained to be able to identify the risks and hazards. There are a few rules on how a risk assessment should be carried out and a few steps which should be followed to ensure that the risk assessment is carried out correctly. These steps include:

• Identify the hazards – this can be done by observing, walking around the workplace or asking employees.
• Decide who may be harmed and how – this is all employees and persons who use your premises and they are at harm if hazards that were identified are not eliminated.
• Evaluate the risks and decide on control measures – This requires protecting the people from harm, the hazards can either be removed completely or the risks controlled so that injury is unlikely.
• Record the findings and implement them – The findings should be written down and by recording them it shows that the hazards have been identified, decided who could be harmed and how and also show the plan to eliminate the risks and hazards.
• Review assessment and update if necessary – No organisation stays the same, changes are always being made and as a result risk assessments should be reviewed and updated regularly.

In workplace risk assessments are taken very seriously, all procedures are explained and signed individually by all employees. The health and safety officer reviews these assessments regularly and even near/miss accidents need to be reported and recorded to ensure that company provide a safe and healthy working environment (Health and Safety Executive, 2014).

The housekeeping department is closely involved in making sure all procedures are carried out every day, e.g. wet floor signs, maintenance equipment or evacuation procedures. For managers and supervisors one of the most important regulations regarding the Health and Safety of team would be: C.O.S.H.H. (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health), this is the law that requires employers to control substances that are hazardous to health. In my workplace we use substances and products that are mixtures of substances and often they are easily recognised as harmful such as bleach, paint or even dust. When working with chemicals the correct  training and rules need to be applied, if these are followed and carried out correctly it can be contained to a risk, but if proper training and handling of such products is not applied it would become a hazard to the users health but also the could be hazardous to other people around them. It is very important to ensure that all employees are fully aware of risks that can become a hazard if all the policies and procedures are not followed correctly.

Findings from interview

As mentioned in methodology, researcher used interview as way of collecting primary research. Few questions were asked to housekeeping manager and health and safety officer. These questions were: Do you have health and safety policy?, How is this communicated to the staff?, How do you ensure health and safety of guests and staff ?, What procedures are currently being followed by housekeeping and How do you ensure that staff is trained and what training was carried out ? Both housekeeping manager and health and officer unanimously responded that Galgorm Resort&Spa has a very good health and safety.

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Health and safety policy is a part of a new employee’s induction process. Housekeeping department also make sure that someone is appointed to go over all policies and procedures again to ensure new employees have a full understanding of it. Constant improving of well-being, health and safety is crucial to provide really safe work environments. It is very important to create and develop a strong safety culture through leadership, training and education. In Galgorm Resort and Spa managers and supervisors focus on delivering proper training to be sure of full awareness of all employees about why and how people can prevent themselves and others from any accidents or injuries. It is important to make sure staff fully understands all risk assessments, hazards and what action needs to be taken to prevent any injuries. In this organisation employer is providing in – house training of health and safety, this is carried out by our Health and Safety Officer and then followed by Head of Departments were all risk assessments are explained one by one. It is important that this is being done regularly so all employees are fully aware and trained. Required by law to help protect and aware the teams is also the usage of safety signs. According to Karen Murdock – housekeeping manager- Housekeeping department use a lot of signs e.g. data sheets for dangerous chemicals or wet floor signs. She said: “I feel this is a good form of communication and awareness about all the risks they face every day, not only in work but also in everyday life. Signs are also good communicators they act as visual aids as in my department there are various nationalities where English is not there first language and this helps me to make sure everyone is able to understand the message e.g. warning signs or emergency when is danger”.

Another important impact in awareness of health and safety in workplace would be staff notice boards were all lot of information is provided e.g. helplines, websites and also who are the first aiders on shift for that day and where first aid kits are stored etc. Raising awareness among staff is crucial not only for them but for all other persons who use the organisations premises.

Health and Safety is everybody responsibility. Every employee of Galgorm Resort and Spa have the same responsibility as every other worker inworkplace for following all safety rules and all procedures involved in health and safety plans like taking care of equipment and facilities, training and education and others and become familiar with hazards and risk of the job role. In this organization the responsibilities for health and safety are shared among managers or the person who is competent to deal with this because constant improving health and well-being is crucial in making a safe workplace.

Another practice is making and reviewing risk assessments along with staff feedback were different hazards could be brought to attention.

In workplace there are lots of different responsibilities regarding Health and Safety. Fire evacuation is one of them. Housekeeping manager explained:  I received training in emergency evacuation of the building in case of fire as I am a fire warden and I’m responsible for evacuation of accommodation block in building area without any delay. I am also obligated to make sure every day that all accommodation fire exits are clear, corridors are free and not blocked for any reasons, I’m doing regular checks for any maintenance issues, making sure all my staff are using all safety signs e.g. wet floor sign or right chemical in right labelled bottles. It is worth to mention that I am closely involved in reporting any incidents and any injuries. I have been trained how to follow all the forms and accident book reports to make sure all the information’s are detailed and recorded in proper way and I am obligated to be sure that on my department rota every day the shift is covered by someone who has been trained as a First Aid person and all my staff know who is on the shift and what area this person is working in. I feel that my responsibilities go a long way to ensure all aspects of Health and Safety are followed to the law.

Monitoring of accidents to create a safe workplace where operatives are safe as well as productive is another crucial point in improving health and safety. In Galgorm Resort&Spa different departments’ manager and health and safety officer closely monitor the accident book were all injuries and accidents are recorded with all details and this helps to build awareness about risks that have been noticed with an accident. The Health and Safety Officer can create a risk assessment to prevent any accident reoccurring in the future. Sickness and absences are also an important practise in monitoring in my workplace; the Human Resources department are closely involved in this process by obtaining all information about weekly sickness from all different departments. There is a five minute meeting every week to discuss any issues relating to sickness/absences.

Monitoring has a really big impact in creating Health and Safety and Welfare in the workplace and is crucial in the success of any organisation.

To ensure the health and safety of staff and guests housekeeping manager with health and safety officer would hold regular health and safety committee daily meetings. Health and safety is also part of the daily morning meeting. Fire evacuations also take place quite often and fire evacuation sirens are test every week.

7. Conclusions

Monitoring of health and safety in the workplace is crucial in health and safety programme. This is helping to control and prevent any injuries, illness and also to provide a safe work environment. Effective monitoring is taking a big part of management’s job in all workplaces.

In conclusion Galgorm Resort and Spa follow Health and Safety procedures in the same way as they are mentioned in literature review and set by law. Organisation ensures all training is carried out for new and existing employees by monitoring and recording all training. C.O.S.H.H training is one that hotel would repeat on a regular basis to ensure employees have full understanding of all chemicals. Other training carried out, would be fire training, risk assessment and accident reporting training. Although hotel follows all procedures and practices in excellent way, more regular training would be advantage for them.

8. References

• Anonym. (2014). Risk Assessment. A brief guide to controlling risks in the workplace. Available: www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.htm. Last accessed 8/12/14.
• Confer R. (1999). Occupational Health and Safety: Terms, Definitions, Abb. 2nd ed. Florida: CRS Press
• Hughes P., Ferrett E.(2011) Introduction to Health and Safety at work. Canada: Routledge
• Murray T. (2003) Blending Qualitative and Quantitative Research. Birmingham: Crowin Press
• Reese C. (2003). Occupational Health and Safety Management. 2nd ed. Florida: Lewis.
• Robson, C. (1993). Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Inc.
• Stranks J. (2010). Health and safety at work. An essential guide for managers. 9th ed. London: British Library Cataloguing.
• Wallace I. (1996). Developing Effective Safe Systems. Warwickshire: Institution of Chemical Engineers.

9. Appendices

1. Notes from interview
2. COSHH data sheet