4. Supervise your workers
You must provide an adequate and appropriate level of supervision for your workers.
Supervisors need to:
- know what you expect from them in terms of health and safety
- understand your health and safety policy, where they fit in, and how you want health and safety managed
- ensure that workers they are responsible for understand risks associated with the work environment and measures to control them
- ensure the control measures to protect against risk are up to date and are being properly used, maintained and monitored
They may need training in the specific hazards of your processes and how you expect to control the risks.
You should also have arrangements in place so supervisors can check the work of contractors is being done as agreed.
Workers who may need more supervision
Some workers may need more supervision than others. These include:
- young people
- workers who are new to the job or inexperienced
- those whose first language is not English
Make sure workers know how to raise concerns and supervisors are familiar with the possible problems due to unfamiliarity, inexperience and communication difficulties.
How supervision can help you monitor your work
Good supervision can help you monitor:
- the effectiveness of the training people have received
- whether employees have the necessary capacity and competence to do the job