"If you spend £40,000 per annum on a key member of staff you hope to retain them – if you succeed in doing that over 10 years you might well spend, on aggregate, £500,000 on them – would you expect to invest that sort of money on equipment without budgeting a maintenance spend to keep it operating safely and at peak performance?"
"This might be an alien concept although it has been found to be the case across many farming businesses. Dealing with health and safety and getting it off your management agenda frees up time to concentrate on making your business more efficient and more profitable."
No, this is not about paper. There are many very effective ways of assessing risk without reaching for a clipboard. Often the process can be brought to life through discussing risks with staff, identifying priorities and chatting those through in an informal, but organised way. We try to do this wherever staff feel most comfortable – places such as tearooms, mess huts or in workshop areas – wherever staff usually congregate for a chat...
Published Farm Business Magazine February 19th, 2010
All employers should have various employment related policies and procedures they expect their employees to follow. While some employers put these policies and procedures in writing, others fear that putting them in writing will increase their exposure to employment-related claims. Some laws require certain employment policies to be in writing. However, there is no law that requires an employer to provide employees with a handbook. Nevertheless, there are many good reasons, both legal and non-legal, to produce and circulate a handbook...
