Topic > Role of management in improving safety and health in the workplace...

The article "Role of management in improving safety and health in the workplace" (Admin, 2011) highlights the importance to maintain safety in the workplace and explains the role of Human Resources managers in matters of safety and health protection at work. HR managers should be more proactive regarding health and safety at work (Admin, 2011). Although employers' responsibilities for workplace safety and health are both ethically and legally undeniable, “Management's Role in Improving Workplace Safety and Health” makes a critical mistake by placing these responsibilities entirely in the hands of the Human Resources Department. Furthermore, it is not possible to be more proactive because the HR department does not specialize in workplace safety and has to perform other functions within the company. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is a government agency that defines and regulates an employer's responsibility for creating and maintaining a safe and healthy environment for employees. Instead of inspecting, evaluating and developing solutions on their own, HR managers are only responsible for following OSHA rules and regulations and keeping up with current trends proposed by OSHA. Training Program Development The article “The Role of Management in Improving Workplace Safety and Health” states that human resources managers should develop appropriate training programs to prevent workplace accidents and defines the purpose of the programs of safety training as methods to improve employees' performance capabilities when it comes to protecting themselves from work-related risks (Admin, 2011). The systematic method for developing training programs involves identifying needs after inspections, incident reports and discussions with the safety committee, followed by improvement planning, implementation and evaluation (Admin, 2011). While these are standard protocols in developing training programs, the article does not mention the people or institutions responsible for actually developing the program. The initial blame for the HR department's lack of proactivity and its impact on workers' safety and health is not mentioned since the introduction of the article, so it is natural to assume that the HR department is responsible for developing the training program after read that section. .The human resources department cannot develop training programs because OSHA and similar agencies that specialize in workplace safety are responsible for developing the training. Furthermore, the human resources department cannot even carry out the actual training because its employees are not authorized to train employees on workplace safety. The Human Resources department is only responsible for providing training to company employees so that they can perform work safely in accordance with OSHA requirements (Michaels, 2010) and cannot be involved in safety training or the development of safety training programs..