LoginPage 0: Setting the scene
Health and Safety lies at the heart of an organisation's commitment to the people that work for it and to its customers. This case study examines MFI's commitment to Health and Safety and shows how, in recent years, the company has successfully developed new approaches to auditing and measuring Health & Safety performance standards in individual stores. MFI staff have been trained and given the...
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Page 1: The importance of Health & Safety
High standards of Health and Safety bring positive business benefits on three fronts:Economic - the costs of accidents to a business can be crippling and can destroy the good reputation of the organisation.Statutory - with 186 MFI stores and over 75 Howden Joinery Depots, the MFI organisation is regularly visited by Enforcement Officers working for local authorities to maintain Health and Safety...
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Page 2: Organisation of the MFI supply chain
Distribution of MFI furniture involves a network of links starting from Hygena, MFI's manufacturer. While Hygena is responsible for its own Health and Safety arrangements, MFI has a responsibility for any activity involving its own employees, e.g. transporting furniture from the Hygena factories to MFI Home Delivery Centres. MFI even has to monitor the Health and Safety performance of...
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Page 3: Health and Safety in MFI
The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) established a responsibility for both employers and employees to provide safe conditions at work. The employer's duty is to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the "health, safety and welfare at work of all employees" The employee's duty is to take reasonable care to ensure both his or her own safety and the safety of others who may be affected...
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Page 4: Statutory requirements
In addition to the Health and Safety at Work Act, MFI must abide by many law and safety regulations. Following UK membership of the EU, several sets of Safety Regulations have arisen from directives agreed by member states to ensure common standards of Health and Safety throughout Europe. Member states must introduce laws and regulations which comply with EU directives.Important examples...
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Page 5: Safety advisors
Each business must have the services of a competent safety professional - this has been made a legal requirement by the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations, 1992. The named person can be directly employed as a Safety Advisor or Safety Manager. In a smaller business, a Safety Consultant may be employed.MFI uses a team of four Safety Advisors under the direction of one Safety Manager...
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Page 6: Risk assessments
Each MFI store is provided with a file of safety information including risk assessments, guidance documents, training overheads etc. which is known as the Risk Assessment Folder. In addition, a Health and Safety Documentation File is also supplied which is used to keep all records of staff safety training, safety bulletins, equipment checks by contractors and visiting service engineers.To ensure...
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Page 7: Health and Safety policy
Policies provide working guidelines for employees to follow. MFI's safety policy has been continually updated and developed over time in response to changes in store layouts, distribution arrangements, changes in management structures and changes in legislation.The most recent major changes occurred in 1992 when some of the responsibilities for Health and Safety were moved from a centralised...
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Page 8: Policy management
MFI's Health and Safety performance is monitored by the Safety Department. A monthly report is sent to the director responsible for Health and Safety and includes a tabulation of all customer accidents and 'most time' staff accidents, the number of hours lost through occupational sickness and the number of visits by Environmental Health Officers and Fire Officers. These statistics are compared...
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Page 9: Improving performance
The essence of MFI's success in Health and Safety improvements is in having changed Health and Safety performance into something that could be quantified and measured.MFI's safety standards follow the acronym SMART:Simple - by the creation of simple audit questions that are easy to followMeasurable - a scoring system which allows direct comparisonsAccountable - managers are made directly...
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