Why is Health and Safety important?
Because it affects you! We take significant risks in our jobs regularly, be it driving in connection with your work, being at a premises or on site.
Serious accidents at work destroy and disrupt family and personal lives. The loss of a parent, breadwinner, partner, friend is devastating and trying to rebuild a life after a serious accident can be equally traumatic, especially if it could have been avoided.
You have a critical role, whatever part you play in the industry. Decisions taken in the Boardroom can have as much influence on Health and Safety as working practices in the office, travelling on business or being at a property or on site. Adequate planning, innovation and best practice, good design, sufficient resources and effective training will provide a better product more safely and more economically.
This guide has been produced by the new RICS Health and Safety Forum to help you put health and safety first when carrying out your duties and responsibilities. It will also remind you of the many aspects of our industry that can be hazardous.
Using effective health and safety procedures will:
- Provide a safer environment for those involved in property and construction.
- Result in higher productivity, and
- Lessen the chance of having accidents or suffering illness.
If we are to make a difference, and make our industry a safer place to work, we have to take personal responsibility to make it happen by eliminating or reducing risks, and planning and controlling the risks that remain for ourselves, to our colleagues and the public at large.
You can make a difference by putting Health and Safety first:
