Learn about CEOs & Boards’ Health & Safety Responsibilities

Effective safety and health performance come from the top. CEOs and members of the board have both collective and individual responsibility for health and safety, and hence need to act. They need to examine their behaviours, both individually and collectively, against the guidance given in this course to become more effective leaders in health and safety.

The author does not doubt that several companies have made considerable improvements in occupational safety and health (OSH) over the past decades. Such management acknowledged that an active leadership role in health and safety is not only important for legal or ethical reasons but also sound business ones.

This course is part of the campaign for health and safety leadership excellence. It is aimed at CEOs, directors, and board members who wish to show leadership in safety and health. The overall campaign focusses on how companies, CEOs, directors, board members, workers, representatives, and stakeholders can work together to improve health and safety. The course highlights the ongoing need to improve safety and health, and the role managers should play if they want to be in the vanguard.

Proper management of health and safety in the workplace is an essential element for the quality production of goods and provision of services which leads to a thriving business community which is key to creating wealth and jobs. Calculated risks are mitigated through prevention. Through risk evaluation and the taking of appropriate prevention measures, it allows a company to limit uncertainties. By so doing, companies can improve their productivity and, therefore, also their profit margins.

This course provides information for chief executives, directors, board members, etc under health and safety legislation. Protecting the safety and health of employees or stakeholders who may be affected by a company’s activities is an important part of risk management that must be board led. Failure to include safety and health as a critical business risk in board decisions can have catastrophic results as evidenced by several high-profile safety cases over the years that had been rooted in leadership failures. CEOs, directors, board members and employees can be personally liable when duties placed on organizations by the health and safety law are breached. This course covers the following topics:

Lesson 1: Why health and safety is important

Lesson 2: Benefits of good safety and health

Lesson 3: Legal environment

Lesson 4: Penalties

Lesson 5: Civil liabilities

Lesson 6: Safety responsibilities

Lesson 7: A management approach to occupational safety and health (OSH)

Lesson 8: OSH leadership self-assessment

Lesson 9: Monitoring

Lesson 10: Safety culture

Lesson 11: Management system thinking

Lesson 12: Decision making

Lesson 13: Different leadership styles

A list of activities is provided when all lessons have been completed to help reinforce learning and understanding.

This course contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence (OGL) v3.0. The author wishes to thank the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE)  for approving the use of videos under OGL.