Editorial
Well-being at work
November 2006
Sheila Pantry OBE
Are your employees happy, healthy and safe at work? How can you tell? And, what difference, if any, does it make to your bottom line?
According to government figures, stress-related sick leave is costing UK industry £370m a year. And, while safety at work has long been recognised as a priority by employers, increasing numbers are also taking seriously the physical and mental well-being of their workforce. In today's working environment, relatively few people are affected by accidents compared with the large number affected by broader issues of mental and physical well-being.
According to the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE), over 35 million working days were lost through ill-health and injury in 2004/5, whilst 2 million people were suffering from an illness that they believed was caused or made worse by current or past work. Multiply these figures in countries around the world and the results are awesomely staggering.
The UK Institute of Directors have just produced Well-being at work guide (ISBN 19045 2048 0) that gives clear advice on how directors and other senior business decision-makers should manage health, safety and well-being at work. Written by experts in the field, it contains authoritative guidance on:
- What a healthy looks like
- The benefits of flexible attitudes and working practices
- Managing sickness absence effectively
- Developing and implementing an employee well-being programme, including alcohol, drugs and smoking at work
- The importance of health risk management
This guide is part of the Director's Guide series, published by the Institute of Directors (IOD), which gives directors clear, practical advice on key business issues, with real life case studies. Available from IOD, 116 Pall mall, London SW1Y 5ED, UK.
Remember .....
that The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work 2006 campaign slogan is 'Safe Start' is not just for one week and is dedicated to the occupational safety and health (OSH) of young people to ensure a safe and healthy start to their working lives. The Agency's web pages contain helpful information for young people, employers, parents and supervisors of young people. The Safe Start campaign is backed by all Member States, candidate and EFTA countries, the Austria and Finland European Union (EU) Presidencies, the European Parliament and the European Commission, and by the European Social Partners.
For more information, details of the campaign see https://www.healthy-workplaces.eu/en/european-week-safety-and-health-work
OSH UPDATE - are you using it? If not, why not?
In October 2006 an additional database from the US National Institute for Occupational Safety Health the original NIOSHTICS was added to OSH UPDATE - which is a NEW service with a difference - a collection databases, updated monthly, covering critical international occupational health and safety information with 800,000 citations from over 5000 journals and 100,000 monographs and technical reports with many thousands of items linked direct to full text.
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Now in its second year OSH UPDATE is gathering users from around the world - if you would like to have a free 30 day trial of OSH UPDATE or any of the following products send your request to www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html
Fire, Emergency and Preparedness Worldwide - latest edition just published
We need to make sure that people are trained appropriately and kept up-to-date in all aspects of occupational health, safety, emergency procedures and understand how devastating fire, especially in the workplace can be. How to be prepared for any incidents and how to deal with fires is very important.
Fire, Emergency and Preparedness Worldwide, arguably the world's premier collection of related validated, authoritative information aims to help all those wherever they are located seek such information. Emphasis is on all aspects of fire, emergency and preparedness management principles, fire risk assessment, practices, research and statistics.
One way to quickly gain access to thousands of pages of guidance and advice that is up-to-date and relevant is to take a 30-day free trial of Fire, Emergency and Preparedness Worldwide that is focused, affordable and easy to use.
Used by organisations and fire and rescue services around the world, Fire, Emergency and Preparedness Worldwide is set to expand still further!
Published since 1997 by Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd., using the powerful SilverPlatter software it is accessible via the Internet Service.
Fire, Emergency and Preparedness Worldwide is the premier collection of validated, authoritative information and contains two major collections - the Full Text Collection - containing thousands of pages of easily searchable full text documents, which are continually being added to, thus updating the existing wide-ranging source of critical fire information. The Bibliographic Collection contains over 250,000 records to journal articles, guidance and advice, circulars, reports, conference proceedings, research reports, statistics and codes of practice from worldwide sources, all of which may be easily accessed.
For those organisations that do not subscribe to a range of journals/magazines this is one way of ensuring that the latest news, developments and trends are available. One of the databases - from the British Standards Institution - contains references to over 3500 fire and fire related standards.
The publishers - Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd are committed to maintaining and expanding Fire, Emergency and Preparedness Worldwide, which is arguably the world's best collection of fire and fire related information.
For full details of this product, please check out the list of contents of Fire, Emergency and Preparedness Worldwide on www.sheilapantry.com or why not take a FREE 30-DAY TRIAL OF Fire, Emergency and Preparedness Worldwide now? www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html
This month's OSHWORLD FOCUS Save our young people at work draws attention to the problems that young people face as they start work for the first time.
The Diary of Events show how many courses, conferences and seminars are being held around the world to enable people to keep up to date with the developments. Any new items carry the tag NEW! It essential that training needs are constantly updated. It is essential that everyone is trained to do their job correctly. Keep up-to-date by clicking regularly on www.oshworld.com/diary.html.
The following products will certainly ensure that you are kept up-to-date with the latest information sources in a wide range of health, safety, hygiene, chemical, environment and waste information sources.
OSH-IRELAND
OSH-IRELAND has become The essential OSH source for organisations and practitioners seeking up-to-date full text information on all aspects of health and safety in Ireland. OSH-IRELAND is published with the co-operation of the Health and Safety Authority, Dublin, Ireland and other organisations.
For a 30 DAY FREE - NO OBLIGATION TRIAL contact: Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd | Tel: +44 (0) 1909 771024 | Fax: +44 (0) 1909 772829 | email: sp@sheilapantry.com | www.sheilapantry.com
Your OSHWorld Portal
We hope that you find the information in OSHWORLD useful in your daily work. Globally there are continually new titles, news items, new products so remember to look at the News to find the latest information from a number of worldwide sources.
Use OSHWORLD as your portal to many hundreds of validated and authoritative web sites which you can find in the Country and Subject links we offer. New subject topics are constantly brought together on web sites, e.g. avian flu and the workplace.
Most information services have a reference shelf where you can quickly check the reference sources - so OSHWORLD brings you a collection of Reference sources and also teaches you how to Search the Internet.
Click onto the various Bookshops to order any new document as they are being published. Many of these Bookshops have a constant stream of new titles available.
Please send any suggestions or comments about OSHWORLD -your portal to validated and authoritative information. Remember also to look at our other really useful sites - www.sheilapantry.com and why not make a free entry about your company's products in www.shebuyersguide.com
Most of all why not try out a 30-day free trial to www.oshupdate.com.
Don't work harder - work smarter! Be ahead of the game.
Wishing you a zero accident, incident-free and healthy year in 2006 in your workplace!