PHAN organizes OHS workshop in Sydney

The Professional Housekeeping Association of NSW (PHAN) organised an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) seminar for its members and other interested parties. This workshop, held at the Menzies Hotel in Sydney is one of the many events that the PHAN organising committee puts together every year. Lycette & Associates was there to participate. Konekt, a publicly listed Australian company and the largest private sector provider of organisational health and risk management solutions ran this particular session. The company focus is on helping organizations minimise the impact of workplace injury and related workplace costs, resulting in reduced workers’ compensation premiums.

The seminar provided the attendees with an overview on safety and compliance issues in hospitality and in particular in housekeeping.

The statistics of the most common injuries in this industry group helped the participants identify potential accidents and help employers rectify these situations. The employer responsibilities, the role of the employee, and the role of the nominated health provider were explained. Housekeeping requires physically fit and able personnel; therefore it may be prudent to organise a pre-employment screen to identify potential problems before commencement of employment. A pre-employment screen will test the functional ability and fitness capacity of the potential employee.

The role of the insurer was another area described, especially some of the jargon used.

Some practical measures like how to perform a task analysis, or how to compile a Job dictionary and a suitable duties plan were all part of this workshop.

The key of course is, to prevent accidents from happening and all agreed that this would increase productivity, employee satisfaction and morale. Additionally many hotels already have specified warm ups/stretches for their housekeeping employees but for those who have not yet put this in place it comes highly recommended.

These days there is an additional challenge for the housekeeping department, an ageing work force. The physical nature of some tasks in housekeeping may require management to make adjustments to accommodate these workers.

For more information on Housekeeping training contact Liz Lycette by email liz@lycetteandassociates.com

About PHAN
PHAN is the Professional Housekeepers Association of NSW. PHAN President is Chona Ogilvie. For more information visit: www.phan.org.au To contact PHAN email info@phan.org.au

About Konekt
Konekt is the largest private sector provider of organisational health and risk management solutions in Australia. The focus is on helping organisations to keep their workforce safe, minimise the impact of workplace injury, rehabilitate or redeploy injured workers, while meeting regulatory and compliance obligations. Konekt solutions are delivered by a national team of allied health professionals, servicing all Australian capital cities and major regional centres. For more information visit: www.konekt.com.au