5 FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW

5 Harsh Truths that will Improve Your Life

Life is what we make of it. By the end of this post, I hope to have helped you decide whether that statement is true or not.

There is no doubt that life has its ups and downs. However, how we deal with them can sometimes make all the difference. Today I want to share eight harsh truths that I've come to learn from life. There's also a message in each that I think we can all learn from, and when applied, will improve our lives infinitely

Nobody Can Transform Your Life Like You Can

Wouldn't it be lovely if we didn't have to go behind the wheels, but we could just read a paragraph of a book and become a professional driver? Or, wouldn't it be nice if our friends could do daring things, and we would benefit from them as well?

The support and help of others can only take you so far, you're going to have to do your own thing to make big changes in your life situation.

 Do things for yourself and learn to stand on your own two feet. People you rely on won't be around forever, and you don't want to have to use others as a crutch to get anywhere in life.

Rain Will Sometimes Cancel Play

On some occasions when you have your shoes on and you're ready for the party, it's going to rain. Things aren't always going to go how you would like them to. Don't stress about the things that you can't control. Learn to live with things that happen. You can't change the past, but you can change how you react to things.

Someone Else Will Always Have More

Whether it is money, partners, friends or even blog subscribers, there will always be areas where other people have more than you. That isn't to say you can't become abundant in whatever you want.

Just because someone has 'more', that doesn't mean they are happy. Read the biography of any celebrity and they will tell you they enjoy their process of earning money, rather than what money can do to make them happy. In other words, focus on what you love, not what the thing you love can get you.

You Won't Always Get What You Want

I remember one Christmas when the only thing I had asked for was a toy helicopter. I didn't ask for anything else so I was pretty sure I would get them. However, I didn't get it because my parents couldn't afford it and I ended up crying.

You won't always get what you want in life: people are going to be late, people will let you down, items you want won't always be available.

 Don't look for happiness in material possessions and if things don't go your way, learn to accept them. Life's too short to stay miserable.

There May Be No Tomorrow

At least, not for you anyway. We never know what is around the corner, a car crash, a heart attack; heck...even the end of the world is possible. Let's face it, although we would all like to live till we are 80 years old, that's certainly not always the case. There will be one day that is our last.

Make the most of each day. Make sure the people you care about actually know it, don't worry about little matters, just make sure you spend time doing the things you love.

Live life for the moment, accept what is, even if things don't go your way. Happiness is here, right now if you stop resisting and start accepting. 

GOOD HOUSE KEEPING

INTRODUCTORY DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•          When an office is untidy, how do you feel?

•          Can you relate untidiness to poor performance and accident?

•          What do you know about housekeeping?

•          Housekeeping is the routine care and cleaning that needs to be acted on daily in order for production facility to function safely and properly. Injuries and illnesses in a workplace often come about because the housekeeping  has become slack, common injuries due to poor housekeeping include slips, trips, and falls etc.

GOOD HOUSE KEEPING is general cleanliness and tidiness around the work site.

WHY IS GOOD HOUSEKEEPING NECESSARY AT WORKPLACE?

•          Effective housekeeping can eliminate some workplace hazards and help get a job done safely and properly.

•          Poor housekeeping can frequently contribute to accidents by hiding hazards that cause injuries.

•          House is not just cleanliness. It includes keeping work areas neat and orderly; maintaining halls and floors free from slip and trip hazards, and removing of waste materials (e.g papers cardboards etc) and other hazards from work areas. It also requires paying attention to important details such as the layout of the whole workplace, aisle markings

BENEFITS OF HOUSEKEEPING

•          It makes the flow of materials easier

•          It reduces tripping and slipping accidents in the workplace

•          It reduces fire accidents it lowers workers exposure to hazardous substances such as dust and vapour.

•          It makes for better control of material and tools, including inventory and supplies.

•          Better hygienic conditions leading to improved health.

•          Better space management         

•          Reduces property damage.

ELEMENTS OF GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

•          Dust and dirt removal

•          Employee facilities

•          Surfaces.

•          Maintenance of light fixtures

•          Aisles and stair ways

•          Spill control

•          Tools and equipment

•          Maintenance

•          Waste disposal storage

SAFETY IS THE WATCH WORD, WE CAN ALL MAKE IT.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

A quality management system for managing risks within the company to assure the protection of its people, assets, reputation and the environment the company operates within.

OH & S-MS has the same elements, and two additional elements that are considered vital to the system, since they ensure the integration of safety into business, as follows:

•          Leadership and commitment

•          Policy and strategic objectives

•          Organization, responsibilities, resources, standards documentation

•          Hazards and effects management

•          Planning and procedures

•          Implementation

•          Audit

•          Management Review

MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP

•          State the vision and long term direction - High level policies

•            Establish the organization - select the right persons

•            Roles and responsibilities  –  assign each person to defined roles & responsibilities

•            Visible Commitment - Empower via budgetary considerations/authority

•            Leadership by example – no compromise, no distinctions

POLICY AND STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

    OHS POLICY

•          Companies shall each have a written OHS policy.

     STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

•          OHS objectives shall be challenging, understood by all and consistently incorporated in policies

Goals and Objectives shall include;

•          Safer and cheaper operations-less incidents, less stoppages, etc.

•            Improved hazard and effect management

•            Improved corporate image and morale

•            Improved bottom line for the business

•            Improved interface management

•          In setting objectives, management shall consider the overall risk levels of its activities and shall identify those critical operations and installations which require a fully documented demonstration that risks have been reduced to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP).

•          Adequate standards and procedures shall be in place and understood at the appropriate organizational levels.

Preparation, review and distribution of all key reference documentation shall be adequately controlled.

•           List of OHS Standards

•           Procedures and Work Instructions

•           Permit To Work

•           Concurrent Operations

•           Contractor OHS

•           Business Cycle and OHS Planning

•           Controlled Documentation.

•           Emergency response procedures (including medical emergencies) shall be regularly tested.

               

   AUDIT

•          Scheduled audit programme to review and verify the effectiveness of the management system. It should include

•          Audits by auditors independent of the process or facility  studies.

•           Audit Programme

     -   Internal and External audits

     -   External Certification

•           Audit  follow up shall be timely, thorough and auditable

IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING

OHS performance targets shall be set to ensure progression towards:

•           The long term goals of no harm to people and no damage to the environment

•            Performance indicators shall be established, monitored and results reported in a way that can be externally verified.

•           All OHS incidents and near misses with significant actual or potential consequences shall be thoroughly investigated and reported.

Management Review

•          Programme (on business plan schedule) of Management.

•          Review of OHS-MS Cases as well as general  OHS issues:

      Objective: Assess suitability and effectiveness of the system.

          -    Yearly review of implementation

          -    3 -Yearly review of Management System

HOW TO WRITE A HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY STATEMENT

ABC NIGERIA Plc is committed to have a systematic approach to Occupational Health and Safety management designed to

- Ensure compliance with the law

-  Achieve continuous performance improvement and

-  Ensure employees work in the healthiest and safest conditions that are reasonably practicable to provide.

The Board of Directors is ultimately responsible for seeing that this policy is carried out.

To this end, the Board has delegated specific responsibilities to ensure that appropriate arrangements and procedures are in place.

 Prime responsibility for the day to day activities lies with every individual employee and contractor who should do everything possible to prevent injury to one or others.

-Management ranks Health & Safety equally with other responsibility such as quality, cost control, production, etc. This means that everything reasonably practicable is done to improve conditions in the design, construction and operation of all working areas, buildings and equipment, so as to provide a safe and healthy workplace and environment not only for our employees, but also for the community and members of the public who may visit our premises.

-  To achieve this, management will

-  Set targets for improvement

-  Measure, appraise and report performance

-  Require contractors to manage Health and Safety in line with this policy.

-  Include Health and Safety performance in the appraisal of all employees.

  Specific details out lining the means whereby the aims of this policy will be achieved are contained in our :

-  Safety Manual, ABC  Nigeria Plc, Organization and Arrangement

-  This safety manual also defines the specific responsibilities of managers, and staff, working practices and procedures. It is issued to every employee and is updated and revised by the company as and when circumstances require.

-  The Board of Directors approved this policy in December 2002, and has revised it in November 2011. The Board will monitor performance at least annually by means of a review by the Company’s Safety Committee.

-  The policy applies to departments and agencies, contractors, visitors, e.t.c

A commitment to set up a viable safety and health management system

 Departments must implement the requirement of the Factories Act, 1990 and comply with this policy, establish and maintain effective health and safety programme consistent with company policies, standards and procedures.

Commitment to provide facilities, employ appropriately skilled personnel and maintain continued training programme for them.

- Commitment of reasonable budget to finance safety and health services

-  Commitment to share all relevant information that will help to enhance the safety and health of all workers.

-  Commitment to comply with national standards as a minimum base

-  National Policy on Occupational Safety and Health

-  Key features of a national policy on occupational safety and health

-  The policy reflects tripartite participation, ie. There were input from employers’ and workers’ organization as well as from government and others involved in the area of occupational health and safety.

-  The policy is consistent with national developmental objectives and policies as a whole.

-  The policy promotes the right of workers to decent, safe and healthy working conditions and environment.

-  The policy includes ways of promoting adequate public awareness and eliciting political endorsement at the highest level of Government.

-  The policy should promote the development of a national preventive safety and health culture that include information, consultation and training

- The policy should include a plan for mobilizing the necessary institutional and financial resources

-  Coordination among all concerned institution should be fostered as an inherent element of the policy.

-  All available means of action should be used consistently.

-  The policy should encourage voluntary compliance at enterprise level.

- The policy should be reviewed regularly.

National Strategy

-  Increasing the commitment of employers and workers in the field of OSH

-  Enhancing the roles and functions of all sectors in the implementation of OSH

-  Enhancing employers’ and workers’ ability, understanding, attitude, and behavior in relation to OSH culture

-  Implementing OSH through risk management and the management of risky behavior  conclusion

A good H & S Management as required by legislations

- Ensures H & S compliance & conformance with standards, legislations

-  Ensures staff is trained to manage in-house H & S programme on daily bases.

-  Makes provisions for accident investigation services & root course analysis should an accident occur.

-  Controls workplace hazards via “elimination, isolation and minimization” to reduce workplace risks to employees