A guide to use when working as a HSO.

1. Health and Safety Officer
GUIDE
2019
Vilho Royal Kanyiki
Namibia

2. HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE
VILHO ROYAL KANYIKI
NAMIBIA
HEALTH AND SAFETY
DEPARTMENT

3. HEALTH AND SAFETY
OFFICER
A WORKING GUIDE
HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE

4. HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE
THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OBJECTIVES
The Health and Safety office is responsible for reviewing and approving Health
and Safety policies and procedures, monitoring Health and Safety compliance
and performance and promoting with others, a positive Health and Safety culture
throughout the company environment. The office objectives includes,
• Ensure that management, at all levels, fulfils its obligations for health, safety and
welfare in areas under its control.
• Ensure compliance with relevant Health and Safety legislation and drive
performance towards levels of good practice.
• Provide training for staff in Health and Safety at induction and on an ongoing
basis in accordance with the mandatory and statutory training schedule.
• Carry out structured, regular and documented risk assessments (Workplace Risk
Assessments) of all environments in which staff work to ensure they are safe and
secure.
• Review the Security Strategy and develop local policies and procedures as necessary
to reduce risk to personal safety and damage / loss of Trust property.
• Training is provided to all Local Managers of Health and Safety to ensure that they
have the adequate knowledge and ability to manage Health and Safety within their
area of responsibility.
HSOGUIDE

5. THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OFFICER
A Health and Safety Officer (HSO) is an indispensable part of any professional
organisation, responsible for ensuring labour compliance and creating a safe working
environment for employees. For such standard to be achieved, the HSO run a daily
practice of investigations, monitoring and surveillance with the purpose to ensure
safety, health and productivity is achieved.
The primary responsibilities for a HSO includes
• Developing and implementing health and safety procedures in the workplace
• Ensuring an organisation meets the requirements of health and safety compliance
• Carrying out safety inspections and risk assessments.
• Responding to and investigating concerns/complaints from workers/employers
and assists in taking appropriate action.
• Investigating accidents or injuries that occur in the workplace
• Assists in carrying out industrial hygiene surveys.
• Assists in the preparation of various reports, documents and forms.
• Identify potential hazards which may be present while work is being done,
something is being produced, processed and used.
• Provide the necessary information, instructions, training and supervision while
keeping the extent of workers’ competence in mind.
HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE

6. The Health and Safety Officer must ensure that the Company EHS policy competence
is in compliance with the changes in the work environment. The HSO therefore
perform s review assessment to test if the EHS policy still protect the nature of the
working environement. THe company EHS policy is set to recognise high standards
of health, safety and welfare as integral element of efficient management of objectives
and contribution to the overall operational success of the Company. The purpose of
the policy is to provide a clear, positive and proactive approach to the management of
Health and Safety and provide a clear practical framework to assist all staff to reduce
and control Health and Safety risks to service users, staff and others.
HSO will run weekly or monthly review of the Policy to with the purpose of ensure the
continuous improvement in occupational safety, health and environmental matters
that may affect employees, service users, volunteers, contractors and members of the
public. HSO do this buy investigating the amount of accidents and hazard cases that
occured and reported. The HSO then document a review report to the management
for decision-making.
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE
1. Ensure compliance of legal framework
HSOGUIDE
DUTIES AND ROLES OF THE HSO

7. 2. Training and Emergency contigency plan
The Health and Safety Officer must design an emergency contigency plan for the
evacuation, assembling and action to be taken in case of possible hazards events.
It’s essential that a compan/organizations create an in-depth emergency contigency
plan for the continuity of operations, safety of workers and protection of goods. An
emergency contigency plan should relate directly to the level of risk associated with
the working activity and should be in place before the working operations begins.
The emergency contigency plan should include
• Emergency suppliers and health
• Asembling points and Hazard responce action
• Emergency contacts of Kins
The Health and Safety Officer (HSO) formulate the steps and action for emergency and
have them communicated to all workers through training programms and exercises.
The HSO will lead the evacuation plan by shouting instructions based on the nature
of the hazard and the time of event occurrence.
HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE

8. All incidents happening on the premise of work must be document and recorded for
decision making times. The HSO therefore must develop an incident report paper
that will be used to record the nature of the incident. This report must cover elements
like time of incident, place of incident, severity of incident, workers involved, damage
of properties and a description from evidence and investigations.
The HSO must also continue to carry out investigations at the place of incident, ask
information from witness and observe the operations covering the area of the event.
Having finished the investigation, the HSO then have to decide how likely it is that
the incident will occur and what will be done next time it strikes. Investigation will be
added together with the incident report during decision making.
During decision making meetings, these records are used to make the incident
preventing system that will prevent or reduce the severity of incidents in the future.
This includes alternatives, solutions, safety equipment needed, new pathways,
evacuation routes. It is also adviceable that the HSO have such incident preventing
system put in place by running risk assessment and performing staged incidents and
record the data.
HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE
3. Incident reporting & Investigations

9. HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE
Communication is an important part of each organisation, it intergrates the many
sectors of the organisation. Communication between different sectors or between a
sector and the management is crucial for performance reporting and decision-making
process. The Health and Safety Officer must ensure that there is a smooth information
flow between the management and the HSE office to keep both the sectors updated
on the safety of the company’s environment.
This also includes performance reporting to the management from the HS office.
Performance reporting means keeping the management office updated on the health
and safety practice around the company. This may includes reports on incidents
occured on the premise, Areas that pose potential hazards, pathways and route safety,
equipments needed, machines needing repairs, follow up investigations and Risk
assessment performed since last reporting.
Communication as partly duty of every HSO is a daily practice. The HSO has to
communicate to the management daily after working hours and give a detailed report
on the tasks and events recorded during the working session. Both the management
and the HSO office should have similar records because this help keep track on follow
ups incase needed for decision-making process.
4. Communication and Perfomance reporting

10. HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE
Risk assessment is about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in your
workplace. It is also about analyzing the workplace to spot out what might bring
harm and danger and setting reasonable actions to avoid such harm from occuring in
the first place. This procedure includes
• Identify Hazards - Observing the workplace and spotting all possible hazards
• Personel at risk - Workers, visitors, constructors that can be harmed in the way
• Degree & likeliness of risk - How severity is the harm or damage that can be made
• Evaluate and Present Risk Paper to the management to establish and eliminate
hazards by setting new equipments, renovations and routes.
The Risk Assessment must always be carried out two or three times a month to
ensure no hazard is underestimated. A single area risk assessment is crucial but a full
workplace risk coverage is more advantage because it cover all areas of the working
environment eliminating all trace of damage.
Hence is the duty of the HSO to provide a safety-secured company environment by
settinglong-termsolutionsandplacingpreventativemeasureinplacefor unforseeable
risks. Hazard risk is all about being one step ahead of danger, it ables the HSO to also
focus on other management issues. Risk assessment is a precautionary approach for
each company dedicated into protect its employees
5. Risk assessment and Reviews

11. HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACEHEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACEHSOGUIDE
Social, regulatory and operational
benefits of HSO
Social and Environmental Benefits
The Health and Safety office primary responsibilities is to make the working
environment safe and stress-free for all people accessing the company. Workers must
feel safer, cared for and healthier both physical and mental state-fare. This bring
eaze at work and hence increase perfomance therefore boosting production for the
company. A socially-safe working environment will also promotes a healthier natural
state around the company. This includes,
• Cleaner air, water, and soil through cleaning, sanitations and improved working
conducts.
• Longer resource life through reduced usage by utilizations and right proportional
use of resources
• Reduced damage and loss of properties through excellent conducts and incident
preventations tactics.
• Improved responce to incidents through communication, awareness and fast put-
up evacuation routes.

12. HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE
Operational Benefits
Good operational conducts will reduce resources loss and this will optimize the
cost of production. Operational cost like electrical cost, gas and fuels cost plus
other associated cost like maintainace, overtime fees and worker’s meals. A proper
operational conducts will will benefit the company through,
• Reduction of Risk as all potential impacts are identified, the Risk level is assessed
& Hazard controls is implemented.
• Reduced Operating Cost as risks that could be expensive to resolve and damaging
to the environment are identified early.
• Improved occupational and community health and safety
• Improved natural resource conservation and utilization hence improving business
cost efficiency
• Improved progress towards sustainable development, employee productivity levels
and decreasing sick days.
Regulatory Benefits
Having an informed safety policies and regulations put up for all company access
people will reduce the unneccessary conducts and inappropriate acting hence earning
a company reputation and protecting its operations.
• Improves ability to meet compliance requirements.
• Better relationships are developed with regulators.
• Eliminates regulatory orders & fines.
• Positive moral obligation to protect the environment from all company personel.

13. SAFETY
Safety is paramount and part of our living culture. Each of us returns home safely. We provide a safe environment for all.
Every one of us understands and follows the highest standards of safety.
EXCELLENCE
We strive for excellence in everything we do. We are committed to creating a high-performance culture. We operate assets
in an environmentally sustainable, and profitable manner. We promote innovative technologies
RESPECT
We respect our people and care about their future. We create opportunities for our people to grow. We value the diverse
talent of our people. We develop responsible leaders who create a respectful environment for all.
HSOGUIDE
HEALTH AND SAFETY SOUTH OIL AND GAS ENGINEERING
Vilho Kanyiki @ 2019