Why businesses need to take duty of care seriously.

Transcription

1 Why businesses need to take duty of care seriously. Driving is considered to be one of the most dangerous activities for employees to undertake for work purposes. Out of the high number of fatal road casualties occurring in Great Britain every year, between incidents are people or vehicles in work-related crashes. Kevin Paul, Occupational Road Risk Consultant in conjunction with Selenity.

2 What is duty of care? Under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, an organisation has a legal duty of care. This means that under this duty of care an employer must take reasonable care to protect employees from the risk of foreseeable injury, disease or death whilst they are at work. An employer s responsibility extends to ensuring that private vehicles used by employees for work purpose are used in a lawful manner. An employer must take reasonable care to protect employees from the risk of foreseeable injury, disease or death whilst they are at work. Most employees will drive at some point, either regularly or once in a while, to meetings, training courses and for other business related reasons. Checking an employee has a valid driving licence, along with vehicle insurance that includes business use and ensuring the vehicle is roadworthy and well maintained are all crucial tasks. Failure to check licences, or reimbursing expenses payments without adequate licence checks could be interpreted as causing or permitting illegal behaviour. If there is an incident during a work-related journey, the Police and Health & Safety Executive (HSE) may check whether the correct policies and procedures are in place for duty of care. e: hello@selenity.com 1.

3 Why should you care? Most line managers within an organisation believe the responsibility of insurance and upkeep of a vehicle owned by their team member lies with the driver. It doesn t. In the unfortunate event of an employee being involved in an incident during a work-related journey, both the driver and their line manager will be at risk of a DVLA conviction and a fine. There has to be clear evidence that the manager who authorised the journey checked the person s driver s licence, the road worthiness of their vehicle and their vehicle insurance ahead of the driver s journey. So why run the risk if it is so easy to get it right? In most organisations, the responsibility relating to duty of care can so easily fall through the cracks and unless specifically assigned, it is often hard to identify where the responsibility lies for ensuring correct duty of care measures are in place. It is recommended that every line manager is made aware of the risks associated with failing to check their teams driver documentation before work related travel. It is up to senior management to ensure that the culture of an organisation takes duty of care seriously and encourages best practice. e: hello@selenity.com 2.

4 What can you do about it? Duty of care can often be perceived as an enormous administrative burden, but it doesn t have to be that way. Here are five steps to developing and implementing a good duty of care process into your organisation, including developing new policies and finding the right technology to automate key tasks. 1. Update and communicate the policy Promoting safe driving at work will create a safer workforce. Any policies you develop should address common issues and risks associated with driving such as speed, tiredness whilst driving and distances covered. Around 10 per cent of accidents on main roads, and 20 per cent on motorways are caused by fatigue. Your duty of care policy would need to encourage employees to take regular breaks on long journeys, and might even go so far as to advising overnight breaks if the distance travelled exceeds 300 miles. 1 Out of the 1,732 fatal road casualties occurring in Great 2 Britain in 2015, 541 incidents were people or vehicles in work-related crashes. 1. Department of Transport reported road casualties GB 2015 e: hello@selenity.com 2. ORSA crash and casualty data

5 2. Conduct road safety training Training and communication of the policy needs to be widespread and frequent, even for those that rarely travel for work purposes. The training shouldn t just cover the company s driving policy but also good and safe driving techniques. It should also cover frequently asked questions such as the safe use of hands free devices. This is a good example of why you need to develop a policy, whilst hands-free kits are allowed legally, a driver may still be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention, which in turn could be interpreted as a failing on the part of your company s senior managers. These first two steps around developing a duty of care policy and the implementation of it are for the benefit of your employees, as well as you and your organisation. Every driver will have a different level of skill, so communicating and promoting safe driving techniques can be hugely beneficial. As you begin to implement duty of care policies you ll soon start to find that administrative tasks take up far more time than is necessary, which is why we d advise looking for a technology solution that can automate many of these tasks. It s recommended that line managers are made aware of the risks associated with failing to check duty of care with their team before sending anyone on a work related journey. e: hello@selenity.com 4.

6 documented evidence There really is nothing more powerful you can do than to keep records to demonstrate you ve taken every step necessary in 3.Keep ensuring a duty of care to your employees. Copies of driving licences, MOT certificates, and vehicle service histories not only show you ve taken the time to check that your employees are safe to drive, but you can then begin to develop risk profiles of employees that may have any driving endorsements or convictions. Ahead of the driver s journey there has to be clear evidence that the employees driver s licence, the road worthiness of the vehicle, and their vehicle insurance have all been checked. e: hello@selenity.com 5.

7 4. Evaluate different systems Once you have all the relevant documentation from your employees, it would be worth considering how you plan on storing it. Digital copies will not only save time and space, but with the right technology solution, you can automate many of the lookup tasks such as driving licence and MOT checks. The DVLA allows organisations to look-up information on drivers, with employee authorisation, so a system that can do this for you means you don t have to worry about missing whether your employee has any endorsements or even driving convictions. Management reporting, such as in Selenity s Expenses cloud solution, can help review employees who have a high risk profile or who incur high business miles and can deliver dashboards as reminders for document checks. With an estimated 1.6 million people carrying an out of date photo card driving licence, a minimum yearly check should be implemented. In the unfortunate event of an employee being involved in an incident during a work-related journey, both the driver and their line manager will be at risk of a DVLA conviction and a fine. e: hello@selenity.com 6.

8 5. Monitor and audit Having considered the risks, implemented a policy, and started using a system to help manage your obligations, this whole process should be revisited and audited periodically. An audit ensures that the process is considered systematically and is relevant and continues to develop, helping you identify where further improvements can be made to policy or training as an example. By taking steps to develop and maintain a good duty of care policy around driving you re not only ensuring that you re adhering to your legal obligations, you re likely helping to improve the safety of your employees as well. Developing and maintaining a good duty of care policy, ensures you re adhering to your legal obligations and creating a safer environment for your employees. e: hello@selenity.com 7.

9 About us. The most configurable employee expenses solution Selenity Expenses intuitive duty of care functionality allows you to manage all your employees vehicle and driving licence documents, with a full audit history. Removing the burden on managers, claimants upload their own documents; the system then sends an notification to administrators that documents are ready for approval, streamlining the entire process. Selenity Expenses is the most configurable employee expenses solution designed to reduce time and costs and increase productivity amongst payroll and finance teams. Configured to fit around your expenses policy and designed to maximise expense compliance through intuitive policy and HMRC validation features. Submit claims anytime anywhere with Expenses Mobile for iphone, Android and Windows Phone. The app enables you to manage the entire claim process in the palm of your hand, from submitting your full claim with digital receipts, to one click approval. Transforming businesses through cloud technology We provide fast, innovative and configurable cloud technologies that reduce costs, increase efficiency and ensure compliance to HR and finance departments. Contact us Registered Office: Nibley House Low Moor Road Lincoln LN6 3JY Registered in England. Company Number t: +44 (0) e: hello@selenity.com e: hello@selenity.com 8.