A Helping Hand – Looking Back to 1987
ISO 9000… what began in 1987 has evolved over the years making it one of the most used management tools worldwide. The standard aims to help organisations satisfy their customers by meeting regulatory requirements and fostering continuous improvement. Although not a complete guarantee of quality, the standard can be of real benefit to an organisation by helping to manage business processes effectively and embed best practice methodology.
The reality is, you may assume that you are prepared for all eventualities and taken all the precautionary measures, however, things will always go wrong in business. Sometimes you might require expert help for something that is beyond your control or understanding.
We can’t be a ‘jack of all trades!’ and a jack of all trades is… you got it, a master of none!
You might think that you only need expert help when a crisis occurs, however, what about all that expert advice you are missing out on in all stages of formulating your business continuity plan? Prevention is better than cure after all.
Let’s see what you might need help with…
1. Health and Safety Legislation
There’s no doubt about it, regulations, legislation and company law is like a minefield. The HSE enforces health and safety laws in the workplace and local authorities have the right to enter business premises’ unannounced to ensure full regulatory compliance. Simple things like displaying health and safety law posters can sometimes be forgotten about and other more ‘pressing’ tasks can result in failing to report things such as injuries at work.
If organisations are found to not comply with health and safety laws they can incur penalties depending on the severity of the breach. Photographic evidence may be taken of faulty machinery or less that satisfactory workplace standards and the business may be forced to close until standards are improved. To prevent this from happening, it is better to get on the right side of health and safety law sooner rather than later. Get in an expert and tick it off the list!
2. Trading Standards Compliance
Local authorities inspect businesses to ensure that they are maintaining standards in the workplace and that the quality of products produced meet satisfactory standards. Obviously how regular these checks are depends on the industry in which you operate. For example, organisations that produce or handle food will be checked more regularly than a bookshop. Trading standards regulations give consumers the confidence that what they are buying has been previously checked by an independent third party.
3. Hazardous Substances
For example, arsenic pentoxide, chlorine, explosives and liquefied petroleum gas. As you can imagine, the more hazardous the substances your organisation uses, the more that is expected of you with regards to safety management. There are environmental authorities that regulate and manage the use and disposal of hazardous substances throughout Ireland and the UK. Even if your business doesn’t use hazardous substances, don’t disregard the usefulness of the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) regulations from a business continuity perspective. It’s worth knowing if your organisation is within the ‘danger area’ of another company that do use hazardous substances!
Adhering to legal requirements is a no-brainer, seek expert help and advice sooner rather than later. It’s a good feeling ticking things off the checklist as ‘taken care of!’