Planning is a common part of our life, but do we plan enough for workplace safety?

Before starting anything, there should be safety plans for everyone involved.

Planning for safety can be through allocation of resources, the selection and appointment of well-performing contractors, coordination between work execution and safety provisions, contingency planning, and training needs analysis planning.

A culture of safety in the workplace is embedded through years of nurturing and commitment by top management. It may not be measurable in monetary terms, but it is a social responsibility.

Trends of unsafe acts and conditions should be monitored closely, and action taken promptly to address them. Such trends are warnings.

The Manpower Ministry and the Workplace Safety and Health Council are promoting programmes such as Design for Safety.

Under the scheme, projects with contract values of $10 million or more have to be designed in a way where safety is taken care of during construction and maintenance processes ("Design for Safety rules for bigger building projects"; July 8, 2015).

It is a commendable effort which benefits all stakeholders and develops capabilities in planning.

However, no matter what programmes are put in place, it is up to the parties on the ground to implement the planned robust and safe system.

Han Wenqi