Introduction
The manager of the PC repair company that I work for as an IT
Technician is interested in branching out into the IT support and
management market, providing outsourced IT support to local
businesses. The manager has asked me to examine what might be
involved.
Purpose and nature of safe working practices
The purpose of safe working practices is to ensure that your employees are safe while
working for your organisation. If you are the employer, you are legally responsible to ensure
the safety of your employees by putting in place safe working practices. Your employees
should have access and be up to date with training courses that teach them about health
and safety in a working environment. For example they should be taught about manual
handling and working at height. This will reduce the risk of any of your employees getting
seriously injured while working for your organisation.
However, the working practices will depend on the IT Support team of the organisation. An
example could be a learning organisation such as Gateshead College, where the IT
technicians will need to carry out risk assessments before trying to fix an issue that a user
has. For example, if the user is having a hardware issue with their school desktop, then the
IT technician might need to first try finding the issue with the computer, and if it is required
for the technician to open up the computer to fix it, he will need to run a risk assessment to
ensure his safety while fixing the computer. For example, he will need to make sure that
everything is unplugged and turned off before opening it since he is working with hardware
that emits electricity. It might be dangerous to touch stuff when there is still electricity running
through the components. Also, even after unplugging and turning off everything, there still
might be some electrical currents running through the components, so it’s sufficient to lay out
an anti static mat on their workstation before touching any components so that they don’t get
harmed. They will also be required to wear an anti-static wrist strap, which prevents static
electricity from building up in the body; if a wrist strap isn’t used, it could lead to the
components in the PC getting destroyed and the employee getting seriously hurt. There are
legislations that deal with ensuring employees' safety while working with electricity; the main
one is the Electricity at Work Regulations (1989). This legislation mainly ensures the safety
of employees from potential threats such as electrostatic discharge, which is a flow of
electric current between two electrical objects. The legislation covers this by ensuring that
employees should only work on or with electrical equipment if they have suitable training,
knowledge, and experience and are supervised whilst operating on the equipment. This will
reduce the risk of the employee making a mistake, and if he does, then he is supervised,
and the supervisor can act fast to ensure that the employee won’t get drastically hurt. Lastly,
when the issue that the user had is resolved, the IT technician should close the ticket to
, ensure that no other technician will wrongfully try to fix the issue when it has already been
resolved.
However, in a video game organisation the IT support team will have different working
practices and their technicians will need to carry out different risk assessments since their
customer needs will differ. One of the main health and safety risks for the employees while
working might be possible getting Repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) from typing and using a
mouse for long periods of time, eye strain from staring at a computer screen for long periods
of time, and more physical threats. These are covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is a piece of legislation that sets out the general
duties that employers have towards their employees, with regards to health and safety in the
workplace. The Act covers a wide range of topics, including the provision of safe systems of
work, the provision of information and training, and the carrying out of risk assessments. An
example of a risk assessment that an employee might have to carry out is to do a DSE
workstation assessment, this ensures that the work will get done without the employee being
uncomfortable while on their workstation, also employers are accountable for making sure
that their employees are comfortable and they also need to make sure that if an employee
has a disability or special requirement gets certain equipment to ensure their health while
working for the employers’ company. A good example of a video game organisation that
might have to heavily ensure that their employees have comfortable offices and are
comfortable while working for them is Ubisoft, since their IT support team mainly works from
emails and forms from their own website means that the employees will be sitting on their
offices fixing issues for hours which if they are in an uncomfortable position then that could
lead to them getting hurt and that's why a worker is entitled to an uninterrupted break of 20
minutes when daily working time is more than six hours.
Companies might also include some policies that ensure that their employees are qualified
enough, can perform tasks as needed, are good at problem solving for any needed
customers, have good communication skills, and have an overall knowledge of IT systems
and their importance. This is important because it ensures that the employees will do as
asked and will meet the client's requirements and the company's expectations.
One way of teaching the employees is by introducing them to handbooks, this can ensure
that they know what’s expected of them while in a workplace additionally, if an employee
chooses not to follow the health and safety handbook that you have given to them it then
provides a written point of reference for you meaning that there is a lower chance for you to
get fined if that employee gets harmed while in the workplace.
Another way of ensuring the safety of employees is by teaching them about risk
assessments, these make sure that any hazards associated with a task are identified before
the employee starts doing that task. The employer should provide his employees with a
template to complete these risk assessments for any task they are working on.
Overall, ensuring that your employees are safe while in the workplace is a legal necessity
and the employees should go through training to be taught about the essentials of health
and safety such as manual handling and how to carry out a risk assessment.
