The Australian 2020-21 Federal Budget was released yesterday, and it distinguishes itself from previous years Federal Budget’s through a much stronger focus on community values. Protecting the vulnerable, including the youth sector, jobseekers, people with mental illnesses, and aged care residents, are all areas that received significant support this year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic changing the way in which workplaces operate, there is significant concern amongst the Australian population about how to effectively care for the vulnerable, how to ensure the wellbeing of aged care residents, and so on. That is, community values, and providing support for those in need, is something that a lot of Australian’s are currently mindful about, particularly regarding workplaces, including aged care facilities.

Things have been stressful for those working in the aged care sector over the past few months. There have been concerns over COVID-19 outbreaks amongst residents, that several aged care facilities lack a cohesive management system to help them adequately deal with health and safety issues, and that the safety of aged care residents is at risk. To allay these concerns, it is worthwhile for business’ to implement a strategic, systematic approach to dealing with health and safety matters, in a manner which least disrupts operations. An effective strategy for dealing with safety issues in aged care homes, thus ensuring both the safety of employees and residents, is to treat it like you would any other occupational health and safety issue at an organisation: systematically, methodically, with clear safety guidelines helping you work towards a clear end goal.

Business’ can increase their chances of realising these goals through the implementation of an internationally certified Occupational Health and Safety management system, which will allow them to perform a strategic gap analysis of their existing OH&S practices, which is then compared to their projected OH&S goals, and then a clear, systematic OH&S management system is implemented across their organisation, to help them achieve these goals.

An OH&S Management system provides reassurance through structure, coherence, and consistency

The International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety standards help protect the wellbeing of staff, residents, guests, and anyone else who visits your business’ premises, by providing the organisation with internationally certified, demonstrably successful, Occupational Health and Safety solutions, which can be implemented across all sites, to ensure that your business’ health and safety practices are industry compliant. These internationally certified OH&S standards are able to help business’ protect the vulnerable, by working with them to achieve the following goals:

• Helping business’ to adopt a forward-thinking approach, in which they systematically identify and mitigate potential OH&S risks at their premises, before they become an issue. This proactive approach ensures the safety of aged care residents, as by taking active steps to eliminate potential risks before they become an issue, business’ are ensuring that their residents’ health and safety is a top priority for them.
• Working with business’ to assist them in making both organisational and physical modifications to their work environment to ensure it is ISO 45001 compliant. By providing business’ with a clear, structured approach on how to achieve their OH&S compliant goals, organisations’ will be able to work towards them in a logical, step-by-step manner, which both ensures the continuity of business operations and minimises downtime.
• Maintaining a happier, more productive, work environment. By demonstrating to staff, residents, and guests of the aged care facility that your organisation takes its occupational health and safety commitments seriously, and is taking active steps to ensure the health and wellbeing of everyone onsite, you increase the chances of people feeling safe and valued. An increase in onsite morale actively works towards higher OH&S standards, as people feel like they are in a supportive environment, and thus do not feel hesitation in raising potential OH&S concerns with management.

Anitech Group is an organisation founded on strong community values of high health and safety standards, mutual respect, and supportive work environments. The business management systems we can provide for business’ are designed to help them streamline their services, identify weak points in their existing management systems and provide solutions to address them, and to help business’ provide a better service for their staff, clients, customers, and the wider community.

How the ISO 45001 Standards can help your organisation stay safe

When it comes to maintaining the occupational health and safety standards of your organisation nothing should be overlooked. Without the guidance of a structured, systematic, OH&S management system, the chances of your organisation overlooking a possible issue, not fully grasping the potential ramifications of other issues, and so on, are increased. For organisation’s working in the aged care sector, this can have serious consequences. Through the implementation of the ISO 45001 standards, you are giving your organisation the best chance of obtaining industry compliance, and through its periodic systems audit of existing systems, you are ensuring that your organisation maintains compliance. This kind of reassurance goes a long way towards improving employee morale, maintaining the confidence of customers and clients, and upholding the overall reputation of the organisation.

If you would like to know how these standards could be tailored to the specific requirements of your organisation, and the ways in which it could benefit from them, then please give Anitech Group’s consultants a call today on 1300 802 163. By talking them through the particulars of your organisation, and what it needs from an OH&S management system, they will be able to discuss with you the ways in which your organisation stands to benefit from the implementation of these standards. With a lot of insecurity in the marketplace right now, isn’t this the kind of security you would like to provide to your staff, residents, and guests?

Please click here to read about a customer success story, in which Anitech Group successfully worked with an organisation to help them streamline their management systems, and thus provide better service to its customers.