Role of Management in Improving Workplace Safety and Health :: Workplace Health and Safety

The article â€Å"Role of Management in Improving Workplace Safety and Health† (Admin, 2011) points out the importance of keeping the workplace safety and explains the role of Human Resources managers in workplace safety and health maintenance. The Human Resources managers should be more proactive regarding workplace health and safety (Admin, 2011). Although the employers' responsibilities regarding workplace safety and health are both ethically and legally undeniable, â€Å"Role of Management in Improving Workplace Safety and Health† makes a critical error by placing those responsibilities entirely on the HR Department. Furthermore, it is not possible to be more proactive because the HR department is not specialized in workplace safety and needs to fulfill other functions within the company. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a government agency that defines and regulates employer responsibility in creating and maintaining a safe and healthy en vironment for employees. Instead of inspecting, evaluating, and developing solutions by themselves, HR managers are responsible only for following OSHA rules and regulations and keep up with current trends proposed by OSHA. Training Program Development The article â€Å"Role of Management in Improving Workplace Safety and Health† claims HR managers should develop proper training programs to prevent injuries at work and defines the purpose of safety training programs as methods of improving the employees' performance abilities when it comes to preserving themselves from work-related risks (Admin, 2011). The systematical method of developing training programs is through identifying needs after inspections, accident reports, and discussions with the safety committee, followed by planning, implementation, and improvement evaluation (Admin, 2011). Although these are standard protocols in developing training programs, the article does not mention the people or institutions responsible for actual program development. The initial blame for low proactivity on the HR department and its impact on worker safety and health remains unmentioned from the introduction of the article, so it is only natural to assume that the HR department is responsible for carrying out training program development after reading that section. The HR department cannot develop training programs because OSHA and similar agencies specializing in workplace safety are responsible for developing trainings. Furthermore, the HR department cannot even perform the actual trainings because their employees are not authorized to train employees in workplace safety. The HR department is responsible only for providing training for the company's employees, so they can perform work in a safe manner in compliance with OSHA requirements (Michaels, 2010), and they cannot possibly be involved in safety training or safety training program development.