1.1

Hazard control may define an action but before that it is more about conscious and vigilant identification. Any hazard can only be prevented if identified. Thus identification constitutes the most important and first step to a safe workplace. Once identified, the next step is to arrange for the most suitable and trained person available to eliminate the source of hazard. Finally, an educated and aware staff is the best asset. Always vigilant and responsible staff will ensure minimization of hazards and their causes. Each employee and staff member is responsible for these three tools to make a workplace safe and productive.

Looking at hazard management as a whole process following is the representation of all factors and control points determining the management of hazard:

1. Identifying hazards2. Assess risks3. Remove hazards4. Safety and protection equipment provision5. Costs and related monetary factors6. Alternative planning7. Deterrence and precautions8. Accountabilities of management, employees, and others9. First aid10. Promotion of health and safety11. Health and Safety Committees and representatives

MinimizationEliminationIdentification

1.2

As the legislation clearly mentions, as soon as a hazard is identified, it must be attended to immediately and eliminated to the best possible level. The process of hazard identification and control is generally same across multitude of organization:

Identification of Hazards/Risk Points

This involves distinguishing things that may cause injury or harm to the health of a person.

Assessment of the Risk (Magnitude and Probability)

This involves risk assessment, examining and evaluating whether the hazard is significant and the likelihood and degree of injury or harm occurring to a person if they are exposed to a hazard.

Control Methods

This involves taking all practicable steps to eliminate or isolate or minimize significant hazards.

Monitoring

Ensuring that the hazard has been controlled and chances of reoccurring are minimal.

1.3

Regardless of the organization we work for, legislation in most cases imply the same meaning – “duty of care”. Whether one is the employer or employee, to ensure the safety and security of ourselves, each other and company, is a duty of all of us, as individuals and as a group. Primarily, the 'duty of care' means that employers must attempt to do everything that they can to remove or minimize risks in the workplace.

Below outlined are a few of the duties and responsibilities of both, employers and employees:

Employer:

1. Ensuring qualification of the health and safety staff and designated personnel

2. Facilitating training and information sessions regularly3. Educating the staff about health and safety and making it a culture of the

company to promote health and safety all the time4. Provision of an easy access to and from a workplace5. Informing employees about any identified hazard or danger. Educating

and updating them regularly on health and safety issues6. Providing with all the necessary safety equipment and tools 7. Building a safe workplace and designing safe work processes, especially

in manufacturing and construction industries8. Keeping record of any and every event or situation, regardless of the

impact or outcome

Employees:

1. Understanding and acknowledging the duty of care2. Cooperating with the employer and applicable procedures, processes and

policies to ensure a safe workplace3. Always adhering to the policy of safely doing the appointed task without

harming the safety of own self or any one else. 4. Not interfering or misusing any machinery or work related equipment

that might expose your own self or any one else to risks5. Using safety equipment/machinery wherever suggested or established in

the SOP6. Active participation in identification and reporting of hazards and

education on a regular basis

1.4

Law requires that each workplace has to be safe in every manner, and only when this condition is satisfied, an employer can offer a job to a person whom he wants as an employee. Beyond this, both, employer and the employee are mutually responsible for the safety of the workplace and hazard prevention process. The law also demands that incident report forms must be used at all times. Any incident, regardless of the magnitude or outcome, shall be reported immediately to the designated person and should be kept on record. If the frequency increases, an appropriate action should be under planning and execution. Failure to do so is unlawful, for an employee as well as the employer for putting employees or other co-workers at risk.

2.1

Bounce fitness strives to provide its employees and patrons a hazard-free workplace. For any of our clubs, it is of utmost importance to ensure a safe space to work and to enjoy. Thus bounce fitness relies on its employees at levels to actively participate and inform each other to isolate and eliminate any sources of danger to one self and others.

The promotion and maintenance of occupational health and safety is primarily the responsibility of management. Management at all levels is required to contribute to the health and safety of all persons in the workplace. To this end, it is the responsibility of management to develop, implement and keep under review, in consultation with its employees, the organization’s OHS Program in each Centre. Resources in accordance with the importance of occupational health and safety are made available to obey all relevant Acts and Regulations and to ensure that the workplace is safe and without risk to health.

2.2

Safe workplace is each employee’s right and responsibility as well. As an individual and as a team we are collectively responsible to make a workplace safe and free from the risk of injury, hazard or illness. Thus at each level within the organization, it is vital to accumulate active participation in this program and a sense of responsibility. It starts from the top and flows down to the frontline staff at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Club Manager

He is the single in-charge of the club and hence responsible for any and every situation that arises. He is thus responsible to resolve all the issues and take accountability for all the outcomes. With such responsibilities in his hands, he is the first person to promote OHS throughout the organization. He should scrutinize and monitor OHS policy and incidents, if any, at a regular basis and also ensure legal compliance of the system.

Health and Safety Officer

He is the person who is appointed to handle situations on a daily basis. He can be the already existing assistant manager or senior floor supervisor etc. Since OHS officer is not a full time job and requires attention once in a few weeks or days, he could be serving regularly in his usual position. This is most commonly a voluntary job often provided to a mid-level manager or supervisor. The Occupational Health and Safety Officer is an individual within an organization who will assist in the management of health and safety matters within an organization. The Health and Safety Officer must have a strong knowledge of Health and Safety Legislation, be thoroughly familiar with the regulations, codes of practice and requirements of an organization in relation to health and safety. His common duties include:

1. Informing staff members about safety issues2. Advising management on OHS issues and concerns3. Organizing and conducting safety drills4. Ensuring regular checkup and QC testing of equipment and machinery5. Organizing and conducting OHS training6. Assisting with hazard identification, isolation and elimination7. Supervising audits on safety systems in place and modifying them as

and when required8. Investigation and reporting of incidents and accidents9. Preparing and authoring safety and instruction manuals

Employees

Each employee is as responsible for hazard identification and OHS as is any other person in the workplace. Each employee must work in the best interest of ensuring safety in and around the work area. At Bounce Fitness, some of the obligations of the staff as a part of hazard and risk management system include:

Cooperating with the Centre Manager to foster OHS Ensuring that their work practices do not jeopardize anyone Using the safety equipment provided each and every time they operate or

conduct a task Be involved in the process of identifying hazards and controlling risks Reporting any incident or accident to the duty/OHS officer

2.3

The implementation of a policy requires mind and money. OHS is not a costly policy to exercise. In fact, it could save a lot of money, which might otherwise be dispensed in case of an injury or accident. For the whole year, the budget is forecasted at the very beginning. This budget will have an allocated amount kept aside for the running of OHS policy and related matters. This amount is mainly regarding the training costs of employees, OHS officers and if required, hiring contractors or external bodies for auditing and assessment purposes.

Using OHS officer of one center to audit OHS Policy of another center can diminish even this contracting cost. National OHS manager can accompany all of them to ensure quality and efficacy. Most of the finance required is for equipment, insurance, training and when auditing, airfares and accommodation.

3.1

Each center will have a volunteer OHS officer. He will be trained and developed by the national OHS manager. Once at his own center, this person will be the one stop contact for OHS related issues for all other employees. Although the center manager himself will also be able to head OHS operations, this person acts as the operationally responsible employee for OHS related issues, on a daily basis.

Each employee will know whom to contact if they have any ideas, suggestions, questions or any form of incident or accident reporting to be done. He will look after safety drills, training sessions and policy review and modifications.

Apart from him, every other employee is inevitably responsible for OHS. It is important to see and hear through the eyes of all the employees when it comes to safe workplace. More and more objects, locations and possible risks can be identified in less time and appropriate actions can be takes quickly.

These safety representatives from all the centers will form our national OHS community and they will be required to teleconference each month apart from their regular communication. This conference will be a place where they bring together important incidents, issues, policy amendments, budget problems and employee training plans.

3.2

The health and safety officer or OHS Representative is the person appointed as the bridge between the staff and the management. If staff has issues, complains or any ideas and suggestions, it will be directed to him and he will present it to the management in an appropriate manner.

Similar is the path from the other side. He, informing them about all the changes or modifications, will communicate management’s answers, solutions or changes to the staff and when will they come into effect. The representative will discuss the issues raised with senior management or the committee, depending on the nature of issue and will endeavor to resolve it as quickly as possible. It is very important that all associates of the organization have an

opinion in the hazard management system and therefore, everyone should be provided an opportunity to raise their concerns.

3.3

When a staff member raises an issue or a concern, he expects feedback or response in return. Once an employee has communicated any issue or incident to OHS officer, it is his first duty to resolve it at his level or forward it to the senior management. Also, it is his responsibility to keep the concerned employee informed about the progress and whether an action is being planned or not. If the employee is not satisfied, he should be provided with a valid and logical reason or explanation rather than placing the blame on the senior management. Employee should be kept informed either via e-mail or newsletter if the issue concerns a group not just an individual.

4.1

To ensure organizational health and safety, it is important to manage hazards and their elimination. As mentioned earlier, identification is the key to manage a safe workplace. Bounce fitness promoted educated and informed staff and an active OHS committee to handle OHS related issues and situations. Besides the manpower involved in the process, Bounce fitness lays down an effective hazard identification and isolation procedure to ensure quality results each time.

1. Task analysis: Breaking down each task to be performed into indivisible steps with safest way to carry out each and equipment to be used.

2. Behavior analysis: This is about monitoring the behavior of the employees. Analyzing the way employees do the job and not the job. Their usage of safety or protective equipment and clothing, their attitude towards safety, their attitude towards other workers’ safety is all monitored and recorded.

3. Environment analysis: The physical workplace is under scrutiny here. Air, temperature, ventilation, cleanliness, hygiene, construction, and all other minor aspects that contribute to an appealing workplace and distinguish it from a non-compliant workplace, are considered and reported.

4. 'What if' analysis: This is about crisis management. Predicting possible hazards and planning solutions in advance is the key function. This is done by estimating the magnitude and probability of each risk. Those with high possible impact and high probability are handled first and so on.

5. Fault tree analysis: A fault tree analysis (FTA) is a deductive, top-down method of analyzing system design and performance. It involves specifying a top event to analyze (such as a fire), followed by identifying all of the associated elements in the system that could cause that top event to occur. Fault trees provide a convenient symbolic representation of the combination of events resulting in the occurrence of the top event.

6. Accident and Incident Investigations: As and when reported, OHS officer is responsible to conduct a thorough investigation and establish clearly the reason, the origin, the cause, the outcome, the possibilities and the person involved and responsible parties.

4.2

OHS Officer

1. Design, implementation and Enforcement of OHS Policy2. Hazard identification, isolation, elimination3. Authoring print media, instruction manuals and other informative

material4. Conducting training and information sessions5. Supervision of safety and fire drills/bomb threats etc.6. Conducting health and safety audits7. Informing and educating employees and customers regularly about

existing policies and those that have now changed or are about to be changed

8. Investigating incidents, accidents and reporting and recording them

Employees

1. Following the company OHS policy at all times without exceptions2. Taking care of own self and the safety of those around3. Participating in fire/safety drills4. Participating in training sessions, information classes etc.5. Reporting all incidents/accidents to OHS officer or duty manager6. Participation in identifying and isolating potential hazards7. Always adhering to SOPs and using safety or protective equipment as

required

Identifying the hazard

Assessing the hazard

Controlling the

hazard

Monitoring action

Above shows the hazard management procedure and the steps taken. Once identified, the authorized person based on its magnitude and its possibility will then assess hazard. A chart is prepared with both these values for every possible risk. Magnitude of a risk multiplied by its possibility gives the overall impact value of that risk. Then the risks are taken into consideration based upon their impact value. Higher this value, higher is the rank given to it for being resolved or planned.

The process of assimilation is as we discussed earlier:

4.3

External contractor or a third party involvement can be beneficial sometimes. Although the OHS officer of a particular center will be looking after all OHS related issues but at certain instances, it is much more useful to have an external agent.

External person will be able to look at the situation or issue from a whole new light. He might be able to opinionate us in areas invisible to us as employees. He can be very useful for an unbiased auditing of our OHS system. Staff will be more honest to him since his actions do not harm their employment in any manner.

Although these are not always the cases and it might not be necessary at all to get an external party involved but there definitely are situations where your own case officer will not be of sufficient assistance and to have an external contractor might prove fruitful.

Elimination Isolation Minimization

5.1

Training for OHS is vital for both – already existing employees as well as the new hires. Training provides important information to the staff regarding what OHS is about, how to identify and report hazards and how to keep themselves safe and also, how to educate themselves. Training also serves the following four purposes:

1. Employees don’t injure themselves or do things in a manner, which can out others’ safety at risk.

2. Develop a positive health and safety culture and promote it to each other.

3. Employees can discover various ways to foster OHS in the workplace and manage their health and safety in a better way.

4. Meet their legal duty to protect health and safety of themselves and each other at the workplace.

Training serves following purposes in regards to the employer/company:

1. Assists in reducing workplace injury and illnesses.2. Reduces the damage caused by the major accidents.3. Avoids the stress and de-motivation caused by workplace incidents

amongst staff members.

All of us as employees need to be fully aware of what health and safety in the workplace are about and that is the exact purpose of training. Employees at each level or band within the company are responsible for OHS and should be trained and informed regarding the same. Managers also need to know what to expect from their staff with regards to delivering a healthy and safe workplace for all their staff members. They need to understand our policies and procedures and know the ways in which we are to deal with things like accidents, incidents and new hazards being identified. Employees represent the largest fraction of workforce and this indicates that a lot of any training budget will need to be devoted to ensuring they are fully aware of their rights and responsibilities as an employee of your organization. Like any other manager or owner, they will need to be made aware of the policies and procedures covering healthy and safe work including the information about their own roles and responsibilities.

5.2

Gathering information, recording it in a mathematical manner and organizing it appropriately is important not only to monitor regular performance but also to assist future managers to make decisions based on the historic figures. Record keeping is also necessary for the legal purposes.

The volunteers, OHS Officer and other team members for the organization will collect required data. OHS Officer will then be able to record and represent it in a desired manner to make numerical structures for further analysis. The most important pieces of information to be recorded would be as follows:

1. Incident Reports/ Accident Reports

These are required by law and must be retained all the time. For legal requirements or for our own investigation, they are very crucial. A repetitive incident marks a certain issue and indicates that action must be taken quickly.

2. Training in OHS and First Aid

As it is a legal requirement to train staff in OHS and first aid, this is an official document for legal authorities to show them that we are working in line with the legal guidelines. This also provides information to new managers/employees as to who is capable of first aid and whether employees are aware of the company OHS policy.

3. OHS Committee Activities and Decisions

This is to orderly record all the proceedings, meetings, activities, and decision-making process of the OHS committee. This will ensure that we hold a record of what problems were introduced to us and what actions were taken to resolve those issues.

4. Hazard Identification and Management Report

These are usually required for investigation purposes. This is basically for a future reference where we know what exact issue was identified and what were our initial steps in order to eliminate, isolate or minimize the risk involved with the identified hazard.

5.3

Evaluating a plan is as important as designing it. Evaluating it shows how efficient the plan is, how satisfying are the results it produces and where are the opportunities to improve further. What to monitor and to what extent is an important issue in this case. Those risks that have a high impact will require continuous and detailed monitoring; those with less impact and less probability will require limited monitoring.

Evaluation is more of a mathematical or numerical approach to theoretical plans. We set performance standards in form of numerical output and when the plan is implemented, we record actual performance in numbers as well. When we compare the actual with the expected, we are able to clearly see where we perform well and where we fall back. These figures then assist us to rethink our policies and modify our operations to do better next time. It is a process of constant puzzle solving. That is why performance standards are vital to any organization as they are to bounce fitness. They solve the following purpose:

a. They clearly specify the acceptable margin for errorb. They forecast expected resultsc. They provide precise conditions under which the performance or result

is expected to be accomplished

To ensure top performance, performance standards should be precise and accurate. They should adhere to the following guidelines:

1. They should be realistic and achievable2. They should be specific and should describe exactly what is to be

achieved and how3. They should be measurable so that there is always a room for

improvement4. They should be congruent to our core philosophies and our other

organizational goals5. They should be challenging. Undervalued forecasting the hope to exceed

expectations in the end will always devalue the organization.6. They should be clear, understandable and comprehensive enough for all

levels of employees in the organization so that each team member can associate himself with them.

7. They should be ever evolving. There should always be flexibility to modify and alter them as per the current needs.

It will not serve the organization well to have performance standards in place if they are not being continuously monitored to ensure compliance. If such a monitoring system is not in place and working effectively, the organization may not be able to pick up on significant variances that will have a negative impact on the organization. The outcome of a monitoring system is data that can be used to evaluate the current performance levels of the organization’s hazard management processes. Once data has been recorded and analyzed a detailed report with findings and appropriate measures addressing the key issues, should be submitted by each center’s manager to the national head during the half-yearly or annual meeting. The reasons of the variances should be analyzed and addressed. There could be numerous factors that can possibly cause variances. The following should be the problem solving method once the variances have been identified:

1. Specify the problems identified, their possible impact and the cause behind their origin.

2. Collection of more facts and figures if required through proper investigation and questioning related subjects.

3. Crafting an alternative solution or the one that poses least harm to the already existing system and does not adversely affect thee productivity.

4. Analyze and monitor the solutions described and test them thoroughly.

5.4

Being in accordance with the OHS legislation is the first priority of any OHS plan as it is required by law and will interfere with our operations everyday. Law requires a few criterions to be met by each organization in their OHS plans:

1. Responsible OHS Representative2. Data collection3. Process Monitoring4. Staff training and development5. Employer’s responsibility6. Employees’ cooperation7. “Duty of care” for everyone

We have designed our OHS plan according to these requirements and have in place, systems to adhere to all the legislative requirements. As the legal bodies will constantly monitor and audit our systems we intend to make sure that we exceed their benchmarks and not fall short. We will get an external contractor twice a year to audit our systems in place and all the contained policies and procedures as well. This will ensure our quality and adherence sincerity. However, our intention to be in line with OHS legislation is not to save ourselves from legal troubles but to maintain high standard safe workplace for all our employees and our guests.