{"id":5012,"date":"2023-12-03T22:30:24","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T22:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tegrisk.com\/?p=5012"},"modified":"2024-01-08T22:54:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T22:54:54","slug":"understanding-competence-in-health-and-safety-a-comprehensive-overview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tegrisk.com\/understanding-competence-in-health-and-safety-a-comprehensive-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Competence in Health and Safety: A Comprehensive Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Understanding Competence in Health and Safety<\/h1>\n

In New Zealand and Australia competence in health and safety is more than best practice; it’s a legal requirement. Whether you’re a director, manager, worker, or an advisor, competence plays a pivotal role in ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone in the workplace. In this article, we’ll delve into what competence means in the context of health and safety, emphasising its significance, complexity, and the specific areas where it’s most crucial.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Is Competency And What Are The Legal Requirements?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Competence is an amalgamation of training, skills, experience, and knowledge that an individual possesses, along with their capacity to apply these attributes safely in the execution of tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an employer in Australia and New Zealand workplaces, it is essential to factor in the competence of your relevant employees during the process of conducting risk assessments. This consideration plays a pivotal role in determining the necessary levels of information, instruction, training, and supervision required to ensure all persons exposed to machinery risks can stay safe.<\/span><\/p>\n

The level of competence required varies based on the specific role and the work environment. For instance workplace health and safety standards are context specific, the level of health and safety competence needed for an office setting differs from that required on a construction site. In a machine safety context \u2013 those that design of maintain machinery will need different levels or competency to those that operate it. Tailoring competence requirements to specific job roles and work settings ensures that safety measures remain both appropriate and effective.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In both Australia and New Zealand, as an employer, it is your obligation to designate a ‘competent person’ to assist you in fulfilling your health and safety responsibilities. In broader terms, a competent person is an individual who possesses the requisite skills, experience, and knowledge to effectively manage health and safety. \u00a0An organisations competent person may need to supplement matters with a competent external adviser where the organisations resources are not adequate.<\/p>\n

According to Health and safety legislation an individual must have the training, skills, and experience necessary to be considered competent to perform specific tasks within particular industries or work environments. In the New Zealand context the Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016<\/a> outline the responsibilities of employers in regards to ensuring those assigned to certain tasks or areas of responsibility are competent or supported to become so through training. Competency is outlined in this legislation as:<\/p>\n

(i) having adequate knowledge and experience of similar places, and work, plant, or substances of that kind, to ensure that the worker carrying out the work, using the plant, or dealing with the substance is not likely to adversely affect the health and safety or cause harm to the worker or any other person; or<\/p>\n

(ii) is adequately supervised by a person who has that knowledge and experience; and<\/p>\n

If the person is not competent as outlined above safety training programmes<\/a> play a crucial role in raising the level of competency.<\/p>\n

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People And Competency<\/h2>\n

Competence Across The Board <\/strong><\/p>\n

Competence is not a one-size-fits-all concept. It applies to everyone involved in a workplace, from top-level directors and officers to front-line workers, however the specific requirements for each of these personnel differ depending on task and environment.<\/p>\n

Directors\/Officers, Managers And Workers All Need To Be Competent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Competence is not confined to any particular role or level within a company. Directors\/officers, managers, and workers must all possess the necessary competence to navigate safety protocols effectively. Directors and officers set the tone for a culture of safety within the organisation, leading by example, as well as being required to implement health and safety legal regulations. In turn ensuring they support workers to become competent people in machine safety.<\/p>\n

Managers play a pivotal role in implementing safety policies and ensuring their teams adhere to best practices. Frontline workers and machine operators are the ultimate beneficiaries of a competent leadership team, relying on their own competence to perform their tasks safely and carry out hazard identification. Together, the team creates a robust safety ecosystem, with competence serving as the foundation upon which they build a safer and healthier workplace.<\/p>\n

The Continuous Learning Journey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Creating a culture of continuous improvement in safety, particularly in specialised fields like machine safety requires ongoing assessment and training<\/a>, the acquisition of new skills, and accumulating valuable experience. Competence isn’t just about reaching a certain level; it’s about staying there and operating safety protocols for incident prevention – despite evolving standards and technologies, and changing workspaces and team dynamics. \u00a0Consultants in this space should be committed to Continuous Professional Development \u2013 membership to bodies like Engineering New Zealand and their ethical commitments may be one way this could be demonstrated.<\/p>\n

The Role Of Advisors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes a key competency may be to know what you don\u2019t know and acting on that by engaging an external adviser.<\/p>\n

Management also needs to know how to select competent advisors to support their machine safety risk management activities. There are a range of considerations that must be taken into account when selecting or partnering with a competent advisor, you must carry out due diligence and vet consultants. In some instances it may be appropriate to request that their competency is demonstrated to complete the machine safety work.<\/p>\n

For example \u2013 qualifications, work experience, sectors\/industry that the consultant and representative organisation have worked in, or tools that they have experience in using.\u00a0 While it may be slightly outside the scope of competency your due diligence activities should also include what\/how the adviser will support you, so you get the most value.\u00a0 The format of a report may make a substantial difference to your ongoing work.<\/p>\n

The advisor must be able to fill gaps in your organisation, where the level of competency demonstrated internally may not be of an appropriate standard.\u00a0 These might be areas of technical and specialist knowledge (such as machine guarding), know how, or tools, so your organisation can implement the required risk management activities. These gaps should be identified early when seeking a competent advisor, as it is critical that gaps are found and addressed, by the appropriate advisor.<\/p>\n

Our team is skilled in all aspects of machine safety and reliability and can carry out a workplace safety assessment at your worksite. Each of our consultants holds safety certifications such as the internationally-recognised TUV qualification along with extensive and specialist experience as it relates to industry and machinery.<\/p>\n

Our consultants are members of Engineering New Zealand<\/a>, The NZ Society for Safety Engineering<\/a>, New Zealand Institute of Safety Management<\/a> \u2013 so we are committed to Continuous Professional Development (CPD) these organisations require. As well as winners of the Gold Award Gold Award at the 2021 ACE New Zealand Awards<\/a>, in recognition of our technological innovation, know-how and data to manage critical risk in the meat industry. A Gold Award demonstrates exceptional service above and beyond expectations.<\/p>\n

TEG Risk can also provide safety machine safety training<\/a> to support your internal competency building programmes.<\/p>\n

Specific Competencies Required in Certain Areas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some areas within safety engineering have highly specific competency and registration requirements. For example,<\/p>\n