Scenario One ‘Agency Merge’
You are the principal of Smith & Jones Real Estate. The Agency has grown over the last 10 years from a simple start up and now has 20 staff. This includes 3 Property managers, 4 sales staff, 8 Assistant Agents (Certificate of Registration holders), 1 sales manager, 1 office manager and 3 support staff. It is located in a busy suburb close to the coast.
You are about to merge with another Agency, the Green Grass Agency that has a smaller number of staff but deals with rural properties, farm and livestock sales in the region, located a few suburbs away.
The other Agency is made up of a principal (retiring shortly), 2 Agents who specialise in rural land and general farm sales and 2 Agents that specialise in livestock and agricultural equipment sales (business broking) plus 1 very busy support staff member.
You have an existing Risk Control Plan and have safety controls in place for staff operating alone in the main office and offsite in the local suburb, which is mainly a mix of residential properties and apartments.
This plan is available in the scenario resources for reference. [Appendix 1, See Ref S1a]
The other Agency you have discovered has no Risk Control Plan or safety controls in place for their operation. No one is currently responsible for coordinating or reporting on offsite and lone worker safety.
Most of the staff have been with the Agency for many years. You recognise that there are different risks and potential hazards that staff may encounter offsite, alone at their smaller rural office or while travelling, as their area of operations is far larger properties located up to 50kms from their main office. The office deals with different types of properties and sales therefore the staff working there encounter different risks.
Short Answer Questions S1
S1.1) What are the immediate concerns that you have upon appraising the scenario with respect to your obligations of duty for safety of staff working offsite or alone in the office.
S1.2) What new or changed roles and responsibilities do you see being required when the agencies merge under your management with respect to WHS [30-50 words]?
S1.3) In preparing for a Risk Assessment for the new Agency merge, what activities might you undertake to capture high level information and opinion about possible risks with the rural agency operation with respect to offsite and lone worker safety. List at least 2 activities under the two categories below ‘Priority’ and ‘Secondary’ [30-50 words]?
S1.4) Identify two risks that may require safety controls to be implemented for the new agency operation under each of the three categories of risk as follows, two risks for each category named below: Include the description of the risk, the likelihood of it occurring (rare, unlikely, moderate, likely and almost certain) and the impact if it occurs (insignificant, minor, significant, major, severe).
Focus on the risks associated with the Green Grass Agency operation. Sometimes you may wish to have a range of risks eg, Minor to Significant [30-50 words]. One example is provided:
Travelling
Travelling in hard to get to places on dirt roads – Likely / Minor to Major
S1.5) For two of the risks of your choice in the previous question, identify at least three safety controls that you might implement, and in each case confirm the hierarchy of control method of risk control associated with it. One example is provided for you [30-50 words].
Risk Description / Likelihood / Impact
Safety Control
Hierarchy of Control Method eg Eliminate
Example: Travelling in hard to get to places on dirt roads – Likely / Minor to Major
1. Allocate Agency 4×4 vehicle
Substitution
2. Implement a trip check in/out procedure
Administration
3. Double up on staff for certain categories of trip based on destination
Engineering
S1.6) Now that you have established some key safety controls for the new Agency operation then consider how you will implement them. List two actions that you would take to communicate the new controls
S1.7) Are there any likely risks that might require the supply and use of PPE in the rural operation? Think of at least two
S1.8) Given the organisation of the rural operation and considering your own existing operation then propose some options for establishing and strengthening the safety organisation in the new merged business. Provide three options for consideration and your reasoning for each one
S1.9) Three months after merging, there is a new member of staff that joins the rural team who will be working offsite.
List three actions that you will take in response to this team addition with respect to offsite worker safety
Scenario Two – ‘Safety Risks Galore’
You have just joined an Agency as operations manager and one of the roles that the principal has assigned you in your job description is Health and Safety Manager – Operations.
You have previously been a HSR at a different type of company (engineering sales operations), where you had experience as a HSR in that industry.
In your first week the principal has asked you to carry out risk assessment activities in the workplace, with a particular focus on the legislation regarding offsite and lone worker safety.
The Agency has 30 staff. This includes 6 Property managers, 8 sales staff, 12 Assistant Agents (Certificate of Registration holders), 1 sales manager, 1 office manager and 2 very busy support staff.
It is located in a very busy suburb close to the CBD therefore has residential and commercial and retail sales and rentals activities.
There is a very old risk control plan that was created over 3 years ago when the Agency was 50% of the size it is now.
This plan is available in the scenario resources for reference.
There quite a high turnover of new staff.
You make the following observations during the first few days that you are in the office.
Staff in the office at the end of the day seem to vary, some days sales staff come in later on in the day and are the last to leave, well after the office manager and support staff have left for the day and with no accurate records logged of who has been in the office, or times they leaveSome of the newer assistants seem to be attending events offsite on their own, such as rental open houseOffice areas including the mail room where the safe is are often left unlocked at the end of the dayCar parking for staff is unlitSome Agents have complained about attending a particular set of apartments in a high rise in the neighbouring suburb
S2.1) What approaches are you going to apply to obtain information about the Agency business operations with regard to offsite and lone worker safety in the first few days of your role? Describe three actions that you will take
S2.2) Note three ideas that you can use to categorise Safety controls for this Agency, based on their operations. Include any current controls that are contained in the existing risk plan
S2.3) Are there any risks that you can quickly determine with respect to onsite lone workers, based on the scenario description [20-40 words]?
S2.4) Review the existing Risk Control Plan. What is the extent of the training plan? Are there any gaps with respect to training and staff involvement that come to mind with respect to offsite and lone worker safety
S2.5) Did the scenario identify any particular risk groups? If so, what do you think they might be?
S2.6) What might a set of office ‘lockup’ procedures contain? Reference the scenario where possible on potential gaps and controls to address them
S2.7) With regard to the Agency scenario, are any maintenance activities required to address the safety of lone workers?
S2.8) What policies may be considered to be implemented with respect to personal safety offsite? In particular, include references to any scenario details in your answer.
S2.9) Given the organisation structure in the scenario, what new roles or responsibilities could be established for the Agency, list two suggestions
S2.10) How would you go about communicating newly proposed safety controls in this Agency and also obtaining feedback about them?
