Management and Business

Note: Final Sign Off can only be done when the student has completed both theory and practical components of the unit. (Please attach evidence of theory and practical at the back of the coversheet)

Develop Workplace Policy and Procedures for Sustainability Assessment activity 1
1. What are your organisations core business activities and its core processes? Businesses core business activity is something it does especially well in comparison to its competitors. It has an advantage because the Company acquires expertise that competitors do not have. The processes may be such things as better research, better manufacturing processes, technology etc. 2. What environmental management issues must be taken into consideration when planning and managing the organisations operations? Environmental resource management is the management of the interaction and impact of human societies on the environment. It is not, as the phrase might suggest, the management of the environment itself. Environmental resources management aims to ensure that ecosystem services are protected and maintained for future human generations, and also maintain ecosystem integrity through considering ethical, economic, and scientific (ecological) variables.

Environmental resource management tries to identify factors affected by conflicts that rise between meeting needs and protecting resources. It is thus linked to environmental protection and sustainability. 3. What legislation impacts on your organisation? Its operations and its environmental interaction. List various acts that are required to know and comply with and explain the interaction between them and your organisation operations. An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a structured system or management tool designed to help an organisation to reduce its negative impacts on the environment and improve its environmental performance. The system can also provide a methodical approach to planning, implementing and reviewing an organisation’s environmental management.

Implementation of an EMS involves an organisation taking the following steps: devise a policy that articulates the organisations environmental commitments appoint an environmental manager or management team responsible for the ongoing coordination of the EMS identify the organisation’s significant environmental aspects identify legislative and regulative requirements relevant to the organisations environmental aspects establish environmental objectives and targets implement programs to achieve those objectives and targets monitor and measure progress towards achieving those objectives and targets take steps to continually improve the effectiveness and efficiency of environmental management and strategically review the continuing effectiveness of environmental management within the organisation.

Assessment Activity 2
1. Explain in your own words, your organisations vision.
When approaching Vision, Mission and Values (VMV), as a process to be undertaken in your organisation, it’s important that everyone involved understands the concept and its component parts. Descriptive definitions are provided below but here are the basic meanings as an introduction: • Vision: where we’re going in the long-term • Mission: our purpose and reason for existing

• Values: who we are, what we stand for
The diagram shows the relationship of these terms in the context of an organisation’s lifetime. We can see that they represent statements to direct and guide the organisation over a sustained period of time – it’s because of this that they’re so important. 2. How are the elements of sustainability and ethics represented in the vision or the mission statement? Criteria for Evaluating a Mission Statement

Is our mission statement focused on satisfying customer needs rather than being focused on the product? Does our mission statement tell who our customers are?
Does our mission statement explain what customer needs our company is trying to satisfy? Does our mission statement explain how our company will serve its customers? Does our mission statement fit the current market environment? Is our mission statement based on our core competencies? (A core competency is a company strength.) Is our mission statement motivating and does it inspire employee commitment? Is our mission statement realistic?

Is our mission statement specific, short, sharply focused and memorable. Is our mission statement clear and easily understood?
Does our mission statement say what we want to be remembered for?

3. Does your organisations structure leadership and work culture actively support the ideas and standards expressed in these documents? Explain. In difficult financial times, companies face various moral issues to try to keep up with their competitors. Although these issues have a direct impact on employee decision making, businesses rarely address how employees should assess the ethics of their actions and incorporate ethics into their decisions. Often this can be alleviated by creating and maintaining a corporate culture with a focus on ethics. Corporate culture is often considered to be both a source of various problems and the basis for solutions and is certainly a factor that determines how people behave in an organization. The role of management in the organizational culture is important as it both acts as a role model for the employees and can also directly influence the behaviour and culture to improve organizational performance. Of course there are better methods that management can use to incorporate ethics into the corporate culture or increase the likelihood that its employees will act ethically and these methods are explored.

4. How do these aspects of your organisations intentions impact on your work? A workforce risk is any workforce issue that could pose risk to delivery of business outcomes and outputs. They arise where is a misalignment between the organisation’s existing workforce and the workforce required to deliver its objectives. Workforce risks can arise from issues such as critical skills shortages, an increasing number of staff exits, or significant workforce retirement intentions. However, such issues are only workforce risks in so far as they have a potential impact on the organisation’s business delivery. A key consideration of strategic workforce analysis and reporting is identifying and understanding workforce risks.

This involves a number of considerations, such as: Monitoring workforce data that is relevant to business delivery, Analysing workforce data to identify any workforce related issues that could pose risk to the delivery of business outcomes and outputs, Consulting the business to assess potential impact of workforce issues on business delivery, and Reporting to key business stakeholders on the workforce and any associated workforce risks, to inform organisational decision making towards mitigating these risks. If your organisation has mature workforce planning in place, workforce risks should have been identified as part of that process, and strategic workforce analysis and reporting should complement these. However, ongoing strategic workforce analysis will enable you to identify emerging issues as well as issues not previously identified. 5. How do you communicate these things to yours employees?

Before launching your employee survey, you should communicate the plans, goals, and intentions with senior leaders, managers, and employees. These communications are separate from the actual invitation to fill out the survey, and they should take place before the survey invitation is sent out.

Communication and trust are two key topics related to employee engagement. You have the opportunity to set a positive tone in these areas before the survey even begins. Moreover, communicating and establishing trust will also increase the survey response rate as well as the candour of the responses. 6. What codes of conduct apply to your business and your business interactions. Explain what they are, how they are applied and what your expectations with regards to employee compliance.

1.Examine your ethical climate and put safeguards in place.
2. Don’t just print, post and pray.
3. Build a robust ethics infrastructure that is self-sustaining.
4. Publicly commit to being an ethical organization.
5. Separate auditing from consulting functions.
6. Talk with employees at all levels often!
7. Build ethical conduct into corporate systems.
8. Establish an Ethics Committee to constantly keep the organization focused on the seven main provisions of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines of 1991 in mind.
9. Choose to live your corporate values.
10. Keep the lines of communications open.

Assessment Activity 3
1. What processes are used by your organisation to gather information and improvement suggestions from. Employees
Surveys
Customers
Surveys/ Feedbacks
The Local Community
Community Gathering
Suppliers
Suggestion
Other Stakeholders
Feedbacks

2. Why should each of these groups be consulted regarding improvement issues? Public services, in particular, have embraced the approach, seeking involvement of the public in the development and shaping of future services to particular communities; an acknowledgement of the need to involve service users in service development, review and policy making. Thus, consultation has become a requirement in the successful development of public policy and service. However, its use is not confined to the public and “not for profit” sector. Private business similarly recognises the need to be in tune with the perceptions and attitudes of those who will shape and influence its success (or failure!). A company’s reputation is critical to its success, and as reputation is all about the way a company operates, the way people see it operating and the future directions it plans and takes, understanding those who influence the future success of the business is critical.

This can involve employees, customers, suppliers, funders, partners, policy makers, etc., and can relate to anything from the development of new products and services to the strategic positioning of the company over the next 10 years. 3. What methods are used in your organisation to encourage innovative ideas and practices? Innovation is a hot topic for businesses. Everyone wants it, but how do you know if you have it? In Brandon Hall Group’s recent survey on Relationship Centered Learning, participants were asked to describe their company’s top two business priorities, and Improving Innovation was one of the top picks. How do you know if you are encouraging innovation in your organization? Here are some ways companies can foster innovation: 1. Encourage Experimentation. Companies that make experimentation a priority will see results from those experiments. It’s important to give people time to be innovative. One example of a company for which innovation time is part of its DNA is 3M.

It expects every employee to use 15 percent of their time to be creative and explore new ideas. If your employees spend all of their time in meetings or on phone calls, they don’t have time to actually work on projects and be creative. Encourage experimentation, and build time into the day to allow ideas to surface. 2. Recognize innovation. Sometimes this is as simple as acknowledging a contribution, while other organizations offer bonuses or prizes for innovative ideas. If your company prizes innovation, then make sure your employees know innovation is valued. 3. Reward Failure. One reason employees often don’t express their ideas is that they don’t want to rock the boat. They don’t want to be a failure if something doesn’t work out.

Tolerate mistakes and expect failure, and reward lessons learned. Ideas don’t always work the first time. Thomas Edison, one of American’s greatest inventors, once said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that it won’t work.” You’ll never find the ways things do work without finding the ways that won’t work first. 4. Create Connections. How many times have you heard someone say that they had a great idea and presented it to someone higher up in an organization and it went nowhere? Companies need outlets for employees to voice their ideas. Some companies have suggestion boxes, others have formal processes to submit ideas, but what’s important is to create pathways for ideas to become reality within organizations.

5. Work in Teams. Create innovation teams to source new ideas. Look for people who are passionate about creating something new and different and allow them to work together to source new ideas and processes. 4. What could be done to improve incentive and support for innovation? Innovations are a driving force in economics as well as societal growth. However, like a self-sustaining system, innovations aid the fuel for new ideas that blossom future technological and business innovation. Without an incentive system, help in the form of training, and a well-financed education system, a society will be hard pressed to see innovations pop up throughout a generation of thinkers and professionals.

Assessment Activity 4
1. Pick an organisational activity, situation or process that is subject to environmental monitoring. Describe the activity/ process or situation and the impact it has or is likely to have on people or entities. The purpose of the NEPA is to promote informed decision-making by federal agencies by making “detailed information concerning significant environmental impacts” available to both agency leaders and the public. The NEPA was the first piece of legislation that created a comprehensive method to assess potential and existing environmental risks at once. It also encourages communication and cooperation between all the actors involved in environmental decisions, including government officials, private businesses, and citizens.

In particular, an EIS acts as an enforcement mechanism to ensure that the federal government adheres to the goals and policies outlined in the NEPA. An EIS should be created in a timely manner as soon as the agency is planning development or is presented with a proposal for development. The statement should use an interdisciplinary approach so that it accurately assesses both the physical and social impacts of the proposed development. In many instances an action may be deemed subject to NEPA’s EIS requirement even though the action is not specifically sponsored by a federal agency. Celestin identifies instances that may ‘federalize’ such actions for the purposes of NEPA. These factors may include actions that receive federal funding, federal licensing or authorization, or that are subject to federal control.

Assessment Activity 5
1. What resources (financial and human) does your organisation allocate for the design, development and management of environmental monitoring and maintenance system? In organizational studies, resource management is the efficient and effective deployment of an organization’s resources when they are needed. Such resources may include financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology (IT). In the realm of project management, processes, techniques and philosophies as to the best approach for allocating resources have been developed. These include discussions on functional vs. cross-functional resource allocation as well as processes espoused by organizations like the Project Management Institute (PMI) through their Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) methodology of project management.

Resource management is a key element to activity resource estimating and project human resource management. Both are essential components of a comprehensive project management plan to execute and monitor a project successfully. As is the case with the larger discipline of project management, there are resource management software tools available that automate and assist the process of resource allocation to projects and portfolio resource transparency including supply and demand of resources. The goal of these tools typically is to ensure that: (i) there are employees within our organization with required specific skill set and desired profile required for a project, (ii) decide the number and skill sets of new employees to hire, and (iii) allocate the workforce to various projects. 2. Who is responsible for their design and development (people or department)? Department is responsible for designing and development of environmental monitoring and maintenance system and people are resources for this.

3. How are monitoring activities/ responsibilities allocated and do you and the employees you manage or supervise clearly understand your responsibilities with regards to environmental monitoring and support? In today’s workplace, performance improvement and the role of performance management is an increasingly popular topic. Why the intense focus on performance management now? Business pressures are ever-increasing and organizations are now required to become even more effective and efficient, execute better on business strategy, and do more with less in order to remain competitive. While human resources professionals clearly understand the importance of optimal performance management, they often face significant internal obstacles. When someone mentions performance management or reviews at your organization, what is the typical response? Do employees and managers alike cringe? Do they avoid performance management related tasks? Do visions of tracking down incomplete appraisal forms come to mind?

This can be changed. Forward thinking companies are taking steps to successfully address this negative view of performance management. They are implementing innovative solutions that ensure processes deliver real results and improve performance. The purpose of this guide is to provide concrete guidelines and practical steps that can be used to improve the performance management processes at your organization. In addition, a new class of automated performance management solutions has emerged to specifically address small- and medium-sized businesses. We conclude this guide with a few tips for selecting an automated performance management system to implement best practices across your company.

Assessment activities 6
1. What do you consider your personal responsibilities are, with regards to sustainability and ethical business practice? explain what both of these thing mean to you and what you would do if you felt that the organisations plans and actions did not meet with your expectations. How will sustainability be achieved? To sum up responses to this month’s column, the question is not whether global sustainability will be achieved but how. One school of thought could perhaps be characterized as enlightened self-interest, a realization on the part of managers and investors alike that, as Gaurav Goel put it, “Sustainable businesses have lesser risks associated with their future earnings … triple bottom line (economic, social, and environmental sustainability) reduces uncertainty.”

Or as P. Nanjunda Pratap said, “Sustainability defines the life line of any organization.” Carol Holding associated brand value with sustainability: “As brand value will soon be included in a company’s valuation … we can more than ever monetize sustainable behavior.” Others see the market working its effects on behavior to lead us to a sustainable future. Gerald Nanninga, for example, commented that “If we deplete resources too quickly, the shortage of supply … will make conservation issues more financially viable.”

2. Explain the procedures you use to ensure that employees both understand and comply with environmental management requriements- both legislation and organisational. 1. What strategies can PCBUs use to consult with workers on health and safety issues? The PCBUs can use a number of different strategies to consult with workers on health and safety issues. One of the most common way is though the health and safety committees (HSC), holding regular meetings. During this meeting documentation of the exchanged information is recorded under the form of an agenda and a minutes. These allow the recording of the meeting outcomes and can then be passed on to the working team. 2. Health and safety issues raised through consultation should be dealt with promptly. Why is this? Upload your answer for assessment. Health and safety issues come under the heading of industrial issues. Issues raised through consultation should be dealt with promptly in order to avoid having to resolve a grievance or dispute under the jurisdiction of quasi-judicial bodies and tribunals which’s function is to conciliate or arbitrate the given matters. Assessment Activity 7

1. What processes are used by your organisation to gather information and improvement suggestions from. Employees
Surveys
Customers
Surveys/ Feedbacks
The Local Community
Community Gathering
Suppliers
Suggestion
Other Stakeholders
Feedbacks

2. Why should each of these groups be consulted regarding improvement issues? Public services, in particular, have embraced the approach, seeking involvement of the public in the development and shaping of future services to particular communities; an acknowledgement of the need to involve service users in service development, review and policy making. Thus, consultation has become a requirement in the successful development of public policy and service. However, its use is not confined to the public and “not for profit” sector. Private business similarly recognises the need to be in tune with the perceptions and attitudes of those who will shape and influence its success (or failure!).

A company’s reputation is critical to its success, and as reputation is all about the way a company operates, the way people see it operating and the future directions it plans and takes, understanding those who influence the future success of the business is critical. This can involve employees, customers, suppliers, funders, partners, policy makers, etc., and can relate to anything from the development of new products and services to the strategic positioning of the company over the next 10 years. 3. Why is it important to resolve any disagreements amongst stakeholders? It is important for a business to balance the interest of its various stakeholders.

Different stakeholder groups have different priorities, for example: Shareholders expect the business to make a profit and receive a return on their investment. Employees require good working conditions if they are to be retained. Investors may want to see evidence of how a company responds to environmental issues before committing money to the business. Stakeholder conflict arises when the needs of some stakeholder groups compromise the expectations of others. A business has to make choices which some stakeholders might not like. For example, the cheapest supplier goods, which can help keep prices down for customers, must not come at the expense of ethical practice by suppliers.

Assessment Activity 8
1. What are your environmental data collection and reporting requirements (process and performance including OHS)? Safety culture is described as the attitudes, values, norms and beliefs which a particular group of people share with respect to risk and safety1 . Senior managers are the key to a successful safety culture. Management attitude, behaviour and style have a powerful effect on workplace safety, and help separate good from excellent organisational Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) performance2 . Taking responsibility for workplace health and safety and for safely returning injured or ill employees to work, is part of cultivating productive working relationships and building organisational capacity. An effective way to create and maintain a healthy and safe work environment is for organisations to integrate OHS risk management into their daily business operations. As a result, the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission (SRCC) has developed the OHS Risk Management Model, which contains the following six elements: Senior Management leadership and commitment

Active Involvement of each individual in the workplace
OHS Risk Management Model Principles
Effective communication through consultation
Provision of appropriate information, education and training Hazard Identification risk assessment and risk control
OHS management Information System
2. What data do you need to collect in order to comply with environmental and/or ethical legislative procedures? A high-performing compliance and ethics program is best organized as an integrated capability assigned to business functions/units while managed and overseen by individuals with overall responsibility and accountability. Compliance can be a daunting challenge, but it is also an opportunity to establish and promote operational excellence throughout the entire organization and significantly improve the overall operational performance. Broadly understood, compliance is an important mechanism that supports effective governance. Compliance with regulatory requirements and the organization’s own policies are a critical component of effective risk management.

Monitoring and maintaining compliance is not just to keep the regulators happy, it is one of the most important ways for an organization to maintain its ethical health, support its long-term prosperity, and preserve and promote its values. On a more practical level, a compliance and ethics program supports the organization’s business objectives, identifies the boundaries of legal and ethical behavior, and establishes a system to alert management when the organization is getting close to (or crossing) a boundary or approaching an obstacle that prevents the achievement of a business objective. 3. Explain how your organisation’s system work with regards to collecting, collating and managing environmental data. What environmental performance records are kept and how are these records used? How and how often are they updated? When preparing for data gathering, do not forget to:

Consider carefully how to select interviewers and facilitators. Consider how to distribute the tasks of collection and analysis among different people and what is needed to limit errors. Ensure that those using the methods are comfortable with them. Ensure clarity of language.

Prepare the practicalities of each method, such as materials needed. Avoid error by considering possible causes of sampling errors and non-sampling errors. Non-sampling errors are particularly critical. These can occur due to interviewer bias, inadequacy of methods, processing errors and non-response bias . Check your data from time to time. Spot checks are important at the beginning of any project – if you are using existing data sets – by looking at where data come from, who has collected information and the methods and standards they used. Also check data collection when using a new method or when working with new fieldworkers, new implementing partners, new staff, etc.. Data can be suspicious if you notice overly precise data (like perfect matches between targets and actual realised activities), sudden large changes in data, and data gaps. Assessment Activity 9

1. The design and development of environmental reports is dependent on accurate, complete and current records. Explain the procedures followed in your organisation to ensure that records are current, valid, reliable, accurate and held in formats that make them both useful and usable. Organising and Controlling Current Records addresses a range of issues relating to records and records management. It looks at the essential role of records in underpinning business efficiency, accountability and the rule of law. It examines the characteristics of records as reliable and accurate ‘evidence’ of the decisions and actions they document. It considers the principles of ‘records control’ and the fundamental requirements of a records management system. It then looks in detail at the mechanisms and practices governing the control of current records from the point of their creation.

This control ensures that records may be maintained and retrieved efficiently for the use of the current administration and guarantees the effective management of records at all later phases of the life cycle. The main focus of this module is the file and the documents that make up the file. The file remains the primary record type used by most organisations to support the conduct of day-to-day administration. 2. Who is responsible for pulling together the necessary information to report on environmental management processes? In 1975 a specific legal base for environmental matters started to be pulled together, in the form of two decrees pertaining to the control of industrial pollution. Decree-Law1413/75 dealt with the control of pollution caused by industrial activities and mandated industries to promote the methods required to prevent or correct inconveniences and losses caused by environmental pollution and contamination.

Decree 76389/75 dealt with preservation and industrial pollution control, among other things, and ordered agencies that handled fiscal incentives to take into account, in project evaluation, the prevention of industrial pollution, creating serious penalties for violators. This led to Law 6938/81, creating the country’s National Environmental Policy, its National Environmental System (SISNAMA), integrated among other institutions by the CONAMA – National Environmental Council. 3. To Whom Would the reports be disseminated? why?

Dissemination is the targeted distribution of information and intervention materials to a specific public health or clinical practice audience. The intent is to spread knowledge and the associated evidence-based interventions. Dissemination occurs through a variety of channels, social contexts, and settings. Evidence dissemination has several very broad goals: (1) to increase the reach of evidence; (2) to increase people’s motivation to use and apply evidence; and (3) to increase people’s ability to use and apply evidence. Dissemination strategies aim to spread knowledge and the associated evidence-based interventions on a wide scale within or across geographic locations, practice settings, or social or other networks of end-users such as patients and health care providers. In examining influences that help spread innovations along the continuum between passive diffusion of information and active dissemination, Greenhalgh et al. created an inventory of strategies aimed at influencing individual, social, and other networks of adopters. 4. How are your environmental reports used?

Before you can reduce your impact on the environment, you need to know which areas of your business are causing the most impact. Regularly monitoring and reporting your impacts on the environment, including greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, can help you: identify areas of your business that are producing the most waste and emissions create an environmental management plan focused on reducing the specific environmental impacts of your business comply with mandatory reporting requirements

present your environmental performance to the public in a transparent and accountable way. Some common environmental reports used by businesses include greenhouse and energy reporting, corporate sustainability or triple bottom line reporting, and natural resource management monitoring. For most businesses, environmental reporting is voluntary, but there are some mandatory industry reporting requirements that may apply to your business. Introducing best practice reporting frameworks and successfully managing your impacts on the environment can also give you the opportunity to apply for an accredited licence with many of the state and territory Environment Protection Agencies. Assessment activity 10

1. What information does your organisation provide regarding worlds best practice as it affects environmental monitoring in your industry sector? Best practice means finding – and using – the best ways of working to achieve your business objectives. It involves keeping up to date with the ways that successful businesses operate – in your sector and others – and measuring your ways of working against those used by the market leaders. Best practice through benchmarking

Applying best practice means learning from and through the experience of others. One way of doing this is through benchmarking, which allows you to compare your business with other successful businesses to highlight areas where your business could improve. Best practice through standards

Standards are fixed specifications or benchmarks, which are established by independent bodies such as the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB). The CGSB develops both technical and management standards. Technical standards are precise specifications against which a business can measure the quality of its product, service or processes. Management standards are models for achieving best business and organisational practice. Applying the appropriate standards to your business will enable you to apply best practice across the organisation, and to work against objective criteria to achieve manufacturing or service quality. What are the benefits to my business?

A best practice strategy can help your business to:
become more competitive
increase sales and develop new markets
reduce costs and become more efficient
improve the skills of your workforce
use technology more effectively
reduce waste and improve quality
respond more quickly to innovations in your sector
2. How does your organisation communicated this to the employees? If they do not currently do so, how should they communicate this information in the future? A frustrated CEO recently shared with me that her employees had lost their edge. They were internally focused, their speed-to-market was down, and they couldn’t find a good balance between serving customers well while making healthy margins. The result was slow progress against the company strategy and an inability to profitably deliver on the value proposition.

She had attempted to motivate employees and be clear about the strategy, but she was falling short and was looking for answers on what to do next. The solution in many cases is to overhaul internal communications strategies in order to convince employees of the authenticity, importance, and relevance of their company’s purpose and strategic goals. Here are just a few communications approaches that will help you effectively reach your employees and encourage behaviors that advance your strategy and improve your results.

1. Keep the message simple, but deep in meaning.
2. Build behaviour based on market and customer insights
3. Use the discipline of a framework.
4. Think broader than the typical CEO-delivered message. And don’t disappear.
5. Put on your “real person” hat.
6. Tell a story.
7. Use 21st-century media and be unexpected.
8. Make the necessary investment.

Assessment tool
1. Why is it important that you and the employees you manage or supervise should know what the World’s best practice methodologies are, with regards to environmental monitoring in your industry sector? In today’s workplace, performance improvement and the role of performance management is an increasingly popular topic. Why the intense focus on performance management now? Business pressures are ever-increasing and organizations are now required to become even more effective and efficient, execute better on business strategy, and do more with less in order to remain competitive.

While human resources professionals clearly understand the importance of optimal performance management, they often face significant internal obstacles. When someone mentions performance management or reviews at your organization, what is the typical response? Do employees and managers alike cringe? Do they avoid performance management related tasks? Do visions of tracking down incomplete appraisal forms come to mind? This can be changed. 2. Why is it important to have a good understanding of environmental legislation that affects your business or the industry within which you work? What are codes of practice and what are the aims of these codes? Workplace policies are statements of principles and practices dealing with the ongoing management and administration of the organisation.

Policies act as a guiding frame of reference for how the organisation deals with everything from its day-to-day operational problems or how to respond to requirements to comply with legislation, regulation and codes of practice. It is important that policies are reasonable, that employees are aware and clearly understand what the policy is trying to achieve. Policies are a statement of purpose, which highlight broad guidelines on action to be taken to achieve that purpose. The statement of purpose should not be more than one page in length, but this will vary depending on the policy. Procedures explain how to perform tasks and duties. A procedure may specify who in the organisation is responsible for particular tasks and activities, or how they should carry out their duties. Benefits of workplace policies

Well-written workplace policies:
• are consistent with the values of the organisation and employment legislation • demonstrate that the organisation is being operated in an efficient and businesslike manner • ensure uniformity and consistency in decision making and operational procedures • save time when a new problem can be handled quickly and effectively through an existing policy • foster stability and continuity

• maintain the direction of the organisation even during periods of change • provide the framework for business planning
• assist in assessing performance and establishing accountability • clarify functions and responsibilities
2. What is an industry code of practice and what are the aims of such codes? A set of codes of practice will vary depending on the type of industry they have been written for. The aim of these codes is to ensure that all sectors of the industry abide to a set of rules to ensure that they run a fair and equal company. As well as setting strict rules that must be followed, these codes can also offer guidelines for the industry and its employees to adhere to. The codes may be based on real life experiences or to reflect the industry’s regulations. Any one industry can have a long list of codes of practice that every employee will need to read through and sign to acknowledge. Each individual code of practise can contain hundreds of pages of information and have a number of rules and regulations within them that must be followed.

An example of an industry’s codes of practice can be taken from the Human Tissue Authority. Their most recently revised guidelines are divided into nine categories that, in turn, are made up of an extent of rules and regulations. These categories are:

• Code of Practice 1 – Consent
• Code of Practice 2 – Donation of solid organs for transplantation
• Code of Practice 3 – Post-mortem examination
• Code of Practice 4 – Anatomical examination
• Code of Practice 5 – Disposal of human tissue
• Code of Practice 6 – Donation of allogeneic bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells for transplantation
• Code of Practice 7 – Public display
• Code of Practice 8 – Import and export of human bodies, body parts and tissue
• Code of Practice 9 – Research

Codes of practice will be revised by any industry on a reasonably regular basis to ensure that they are kept up to date. The changes that are made are typically carried out because of experiences within the company or the industry as a whole. 3. What is the aim of OHS legislation and what responsibilities does it place on employers? In Australia, it’s the States that develop and enforce most of the occupational health and safety legislation. Each State has passed its own Occupational Health and Safety Act (or equivalent – see Table 1), but keep in mind that there are variations between States with regard to workplace requirements. Some common threads amongst State legislation are worth noting. Firstly, all States have opted for a broad based so called ‘enabling’ legislation, which is designed to: establish general standards for safety;

provide rights for all those in the workplace; and give guidance as to responsibility for health and safety in the workplace. This form of legislation has been enacted as it was not possible to cover every potential and existing hazard in the workplace (as would have been required by previous regulatory types of legislation). The approach of new occupational health and safety laws is to establish an employer’s ‘duty of care’ to maintain acceptable levels of health, safety and welfare for all employees in the workplace by controlling workplace risk. 5. What is a formal organisational environmental policy? What might be covered by or included in an organisation environmental policies and procedures? An environmental policy is a written statement, usually signed by senior management, which outlines a business’ aims and principles in relation to managing the environmental effects and aspects of its operations.

Although putting one in place is voluntary, an increasing number of businesses are choosing to do so. Having an environmental policy is essential if you want to implement an environmental management standard such as ISO 14001. It’s also vital if you currently work or intend to work with large organisations, or if you need to demonstrate to customers and other stakeholders that you are committed to managing your environmental impacts in a responsible way. This guide sets out the benefits of having an environmental policy. It makes suggestions for selecting the right format and content. It also gives useful tips on how to keep the policy up to date and how to extend its scope to include corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. The benefits of an environmental policy

Selecting the right format for your environmental policy
Creating content for an environmental policy
Checklist: good practice for drafting an environmental policy Keep your environmental policy up to date
Extend the scope of your policy
6. What are the benefits of using procedures? How can staff find information about procedures and how should procedures be taught? Benefits of having workplace policies
Well-written workplace policies:
are consistent with the values of the organisation
comply with employment and other associated legislation
demonstrate that the organisation is being operated in an efficient and businesslike manner ensure uniformity and consistency in decision-making and operational procedures add strength to the position of staff when possible legal actions arise save time when a new problem can be handled quickly and effectively through an existing policy foster stability and continuity maintain the direction of the organisation even during periods of change provide the framework for business planning assist in assessing performance and establishing accountability clarify functions and responsibilities.

7. What is an Environment Management System (EMS)?
An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a framework that helps a company achieve its environmental goals through consistent control of its operations. The assumption is that this increased control will improve the environmental performance of the company. The EMS itself does not dictate a level of environmental performance that must be achieved; each company’s EMS is tailored to the company’s business and goals. An EMS helps a company address its regulatory demands in a systematic and cost-effective manner. This proactive approach can help reduce the risk of non-compliance and improve health and safety practices for employees and the public. An EMS can also help address non-regulated issues, such as energy conservation, and can promote stronger operational control and employee stewardship. Basic Elements of an EMS:

Reviewing the company’s environmental goals
Analysing its environmental impacts and legal requirements
Setting environmental objectives and targets to reduce environmental impacts and comply with legal requirements Establishing programs to meet these objectives and targets
Monitoring and measuring progress in achieving the objectives Ensuring employees’ environmental awareness and competence
Reviewing progress of the EMS and making improvements.