Safety Basics

The Importance of Leadership to Workplace Health and Safety

Strong leadership is essential for fostering a culture of workplace health and safety. When employers, managers, and executives model safety commitment, allocate resources, and engage employees, they set the foundation for a physically and psychologically safe work environment.

Your Five-Year Plan to a Healthier, Safer Workplace

What’s your five-year plan? Not for business development, but for your health and safety program.

Don’t worry if you can’t answer that question right now. That’s what this page is for! But it is important to start thinking about your business’s long-term health and safety goals. Ideally, you should have an annual plan along with a longer-term strategy spanning the next three to five years.

Your Health & Safety Policy reflects your commitment to a safe and healthy workplace—protecting workers and contractors from physical and psychological hazards.

Under the law, everyone in the workplace — from employers to front-line workers — has responsibilities for health and safety.

Many incidents are preventable, as long as you take a proactive approach to health and safety. By putting in place a system to identify hazards and manage risks, you can prevent workplace injuries and diseases.

Written safe work procedures provide your workers with instructions on how to carry out specific tasks and how to protect themselves against known hazards.

The success of your occupational health and safety (OHS) program depends on the effectiveness of your training efforts.

Inspect Your Workplace

Regular safety inspections are a cornerstone of a proactive approach to health and safety. Inspections will help you identify hazards so you can take preventive action before an incident occurs.

Investigate Incidents

If there is an incident in your workplace in which a worker is injured or could have been seriously injured (i.e., a near miss), both you and WorkSafeBC have specific responsibilities.

Regular health and safety meetings provide an excellent opportunity to get everyone in your workplace involved in the safety process. Maintaining communication between you, your supervisors, and your workers is crucial for the success of your occupational health and safety (OHS) program.

As an employer, you must provide the necessary equipment, supplies, facilities, first aid attendant(s) and services in order to treat injured workers and ensure they are transported to a medical centre. Part 3 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation sets out the first aid requirements for B.C. workplaces.

Worker representation and involvement in workplace health and safety is critical to the strength and effectiveness of your overall Health & Safety Program. Employers can accomplish this by creating and supporting a Joint health & safety committee (JHSC) in workplaces with 20 or more employees while also meeting the regulatory requirement. Explore below for more information on JHSC and other worker health and safety representation.

Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHIMIS)

The presence and use of hazardous materials pose significant risks to workers in the tourism and hospitality industry including janitors and housekeepers, maintenance staff, and specialized workers like ski technicians and others. Explore the information below to learn more about the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) Program and what aspects of it may be required for your business.

Violence Prevention

Workplace violence is a risk when working with the public and such incidents have become more frequent in the tourism and hospitality industry in recent years. Employers have specific responsibilities to provide a safe work environment and combat this growing trend.

Record Keeping

As an employer, you’re required to keep health and safety records and statistics on file, including inspections, incident investigations, first aid treatments, and training records.

New & Young Workers

Young and new workers need special attention because they are at more risk of injury than their older or more experienced counterparts. The injury rate for young workers, especially young male workers, is much higher than that of the overall population

Working Alone

Workers who work alone or in isolation may be injured or at risk of violence when help is not readily available to them. B.C.’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulation requires employers to take steps to protect all workers and reduce the risks associated with late-night and isolated shifts.