Course Title

1. Introduction to Working Safely

• IOSH Working Safely® is developed by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health — IOSH.

• IOSH is the world's largest professional body for occupational safety and health.

• The qualification is globally recognized and verified through the IOSH online certificate system.

• Working safely is every worker's right and personal responsibility — not only the manager's obligation.

• The moral case — no worker should be harmed as a result of their work.

• The legal case — workers have both rights and legal duties under occupational safety legislation.

• The personal case — workplace injuries affect the individual's health, income, and quality of life.

• Assessment overview — multi-format paper and hazard-spotting exercise with a combined pass mark of 30 out of 49.

2. Health and Safety Responsibilities

• The employer has a legal duty to provide a safe workplace, safe equipment, and adequate training.

• The worker has a legal duty to take reasonable care of themselves and others affected by their work.

• Workers must cooperate with employer safety arrangements and not misuse safety equipment.

• Safety representatives have the right to represent workers in safety consultations with the employer.

• Contractors working on site must comply with the host organization's safety requirements.

• Enforcement authorities have the power to inspect, issue notices, and prosecute for non-compliance.

• ISO 45001:2018 Clause 5.4 requires organizations to actively consult and involve workers in safety decisions.

• Reporting hazards and unsafe conditions is a worker's safety responsibility — not optional.

3. Defining Hazard and Risk

• A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm to people, property, or the environment.

• A risk is the likelihood that a hazard will cause harm and how severe that harm would be.

• Likelihood — the probability that the hazardous event will occur in the work context.

• Severity — the seriousness of the potential harm from minor injury to fatality.

• Risk assessment — the process of evaluating the risk created by a hazard and deciding on controls.

• Workers carry out informal risk assessments instinctively every day.

• Formal risk assessments are required for all significant workplace hazards.

• "Reasonably practicable" — the legal standard requiring risk to be reduced as far as reasonably possible.

4. The Six Hazard Groups

• Safety hazards cause immediate physical harm — machinery, slips, trips, and falling objects.

• Health hazards cause longer-term harm — noise, vibration, chemicals, and biological agents.

• Ergonomic hazards arise from poor workstation design, repetitive tasks, and manual handling.

• Psychosocial hazards include workplace stress, bullying, and mental health pressures.

• Environmental hazards arise from extreme temperatures, poor lighting, and outdoor conditions.

• Some hazards are not immediately visible — noise-induced hearing loss, chemical exposure, and stress develop gradually.

• Heat stress is a critical hazard in Middle East outdoor and industrial work environments.

5. Common Workplace Hazards

• Slips, trips, and falls are the most common cause of workplace injury and are almost entirely preventable.

• Working at height creates risk for the worker and for anyone below the work area.

• Manual handling injuries result from lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling without adequate controls.

• Hazardous substances can cause chemical burns, respiratory damage, and long-term health conditions.

• Electricity hazards arise from faulty equipment, damaged cables, and working near live conductors.

• Fire hazards exist wherever ignition sources, fuel, and oxygen are all present simultaneously.

• Noise above action levels causes permanent, irreversible hearing damage over time.

• Vehicles and moving plant create struck-by and run-over hazards in shared work areas.

• Aggression and violence — including verbal threats — are a recognized occupational hazard in some environments.

6. Workplace Controls and Safe Systems of Work

• Controls reduce the risk from a hazard to an acceptable level.

• Elimination removes the hazard entirely — the most effective control available.

• Engineering controls physically separate the worker from the hazard through guarding, enclosure, or ventilation.

• Administrative controls include safe procedures, training, supervision, safety signs, and job rotation.

• Safe System of Work — SSW — documents the safe method for completing a specific task step by step.

• Permit-to-Work — PTW — provides formal written authorization before high-risk work begins.

• Personal Protective Equipment — PPE — is the last resort and must be correctly selected, fitted, and worn.

• Safety signs communicate hazard information, mandatory actions, and emergency routes.

• Workers must use all controls provided and must not remove or bypass them.

7. Incident Reporting and Emergency Procedures

• An accident is an unplanned event resulting in injury, ill health, or damage.

• A near miss is an unplanned event with the potential to cause harm that did not result in injury.

• Reporting near misses is as important as reporting accidents — they reveal hazards before injury occurs.

• Workers must report all accidents, near misses, and hazardous conditions to their supervisor promptly.

• First aid arrangements must be known by every worker before the work begins.

• Emergency procedures — evacuation routes, assembly points, and alarm signals — must be understood and practiced.

• Failure to report incidents prevents the organization from identifying and eliminating recurring hazards.

8. Human Factors and Safe Behavior

• Individual attitudes toward safety directly influence the likelihood of unsafe behavior.

• Risk perception — some workers underestimate familiar hazards because nothing has gone wrong before.

• Fatigue reduces concentration, reaction time, and the ability to recognize hazards reliably.

• Distraction — physical and mental — is a leading contributor to workplace slips, trips, and errors.

• Peer pressure can encourage violations when unsafe behavior has been normalized within a team.

• A worker who raises a safety concern should be supported — not discouraged — by supervisors and colleagues.

• Stop-the-job authority — every worker has the right to stop work they believe is unsafe.

9. Improving Safety Performance

• Safety performance improves when workers actively participate in identifying and reporting hazards.

• Proactive indicators measure safety activities before incidents occur — near-miss reports and inspection completions.

• Reactive indicators measure safety outcomes after events — injury rates and lost-time incidents.

• Workers contribute to proactive performance by reporting hazards, completing training, and following procedures.

• Safety culture — the shared attitudes toward safety — is shaped by the behavior of every person in the team.

• A positive safety culture treats near misses as improvement opportunities rather than blame events.

• ISO 45001:2018 Clause 7.2 requires workers to be competent for the safety aspects of their role.

10. Environmental Awareness in the Workplace

• Workers have a responsibility to protect the environment as well as their own health and safety.

• Environmental hazards from work activities include chemical spills, noise pollution, and waste discharge.

• Correct waste disposal prevents environmental contamination and legal liability.

• Energy and water conservation reduce the environmental impact of workplace operations.

• Spill response — workers must know the correct procedure for containing a chemical or fuel spill immediately.

• Environmental incidents must be reported to the supervisor in the same way as safety incidents.

11. HSE and Quality Management Integration

• Worker safety competency is a legal and management system requirement per ISO 45001:2018 Clause 7.2.

• Worker participation in safety is mandatory per ISO 45001:2018 Clause 5.4.

• Training records documenting IOSH Working Safely completion are competency records per ISO 9001:2015 Clause 7.2.

• Applying HIRARC at the worker level — recognizing the hazard, assessing the risk, and applying the control.

• Near-miss reporting by workers feeds the corrective action system required by ISO 45001:2018 Clause 10.2.

• Continual improvement of workplace safety requires active worker contribution — not passive compliance alone.

12. Case Studies, Group Discussions, and Assessment Preparation

• Case studies from worker safety failures in Middle East construction, manufacturing, and industrial environments including incidents caused by workers who bypassed controls under time pressure, did not report near misses that preceded a serious injury, and were unaware of the long-term health effects of routine chemical exposure — and the importance of IOSH Working Safely training in building the hazard awareness every worker needs to protect themselves and their colleagues.

• Group discussion on safe working challenges in regional environments including recognizing heat stress as a personal health risk during outdoor work in GCC climates, applying stop-the-job authority in hierarchical workplace cultures where workers fear raising safety concerns, and maintaining safe behavior when production pressure encourages shortcutting established controls.

• Hazard-spotting exercise — participants identify all hazards in a presented workplace image or scenario, classify each by hazard group, and propose the appropriate control — reviewed against IOSH assessment marking criteria.