How Long Does An Occupational Health Assessment Take

If you have a company that is growing, with great sustainability, then it is important to focus on the health and safety of your employees.  

It is a co-responsibility of both the employer and employees to take care of employees’ health and wellbeing by examining whether they are suitable for the job and if they need any workplace adjustments to work effectively.   

Health and safety risks are not limited to the risks that are associated with the workplace and the task at hand.   

What Is Occupational Health?

Occupational health is employees health at their workplace. 

The promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social wellbeing of workers in all occupations by preventing departures of health, controlling risk and the adaptation of work to people, and people to their jobs. 

One of the most common questions that are asked is, how long a work health assessment takes, and the answer is it is difficult to say, but generally, it takes around an hour, and it may take a little longer if there are complex health problems. 

In the workplace, there are various hazards that have the potential to cause harm to employees, like injury and ill health.  

The health and safety risks a person is exposed to depend on the occupation, tasks and environment in which they work. 

It is the legal duty of employers to protect their employees from health and safety risks while they are at work, yet there are millions of workers who suffer from ill-health as a result of their occupations. 

According to the data of HSE statistics (2019/2020), there are 1.6 million work-related ill health cases, 32.5 million working days lost due to work-related ill health, and £10.6 billion annual costs of new cases of work-related ill-health. Moreover, musculoskeletal disorders and stress, depression, or anxiety were the main causes of ill health and working days lost. 

Based on these statistics, we can see that work-related ill health has many associated costs and not just financial ones. If an employee becomes ill due to their work, it can impact them, their employer, and society as a whole. 

To put it in another way, or say it in more detail, if an employee gets ill or may not be able to continue work which affects their finances, their family, and their physical and mental health too.

Additionally, the employer loses a skilled worker resulting in low productivity and morale. As society contributes to the NHS and benefits through taxes, if an individual can’t work because of their ill health, it becomes a cost to the taxpayer. 

Ensuring employees’ good health is beneficial to all. 

Occupational Health Assessment is the best way to achieve health and safety of workers. In simple terms, an occupational health assessment is a medical service that looks at the effects of work on employees’ health and vice versa. 

Occupational health assessment aims to prevent work-related ill health while promoting physical and mental wellbeing. It identifies actions that need to be taken to prevent existing health issues of employees. If prevention is not possible, it tries to control the harmful effects. 

You should not take occupational health as a way to cure illness but a holistic approach that covers many aspects of health.  

The Objectives of Occupational Health Are As Follow –

➢ The maintenance and promotion of workers’ health and working capacities. 

➢ The improvement of the working environment and work to become helpful to health and safety. 

➢ The development of the work organization and working cultures are directed in such a way that promotes health and safety at work along with positive social culture and smooth operations resulting in better productivity. 

Occupational health is a two-way relationship that looks at how a person’s work affects their health and how their health affects their work. 

Now As We Know The Objectives Of Occupational Health, It’s Time To Know What An Occupational Health Assessment Is All About? 

In simple technical terms, an occupational health assessment is a medical examination carried out for employees by authorized occupational health professionals. An occupational healthcare professional could be a doctor, nurse, adviser, technician, or any other physician who has additional occupational health qualifications.  

The size of an organization and its complexity becomes a deciding factor for the type of occupational health provision. A larger organization with higher levels of risks will have an in-house team of occupational health professionals, while smaller organizations with lower levels of risks access external providers as and when required for occupational health arises. 

The primary purpose of occupational health is to assess an employee’s health in relation to their work. 

Based on the assessments and findings, the occupational health professional can guide and advise whilst giving recommendations to the employer. Advising on adjustments that may be needed to make sure a healthy work environment is available to all employees. 

Whether you run a large or smaller business we can help and advise, we have bespoke solutions for your health and safety. We work with you and the employee and can also help with toolbox talks and risk assessment too. This could help the employee identify symptoms of potential illness before they become less manageable.  Also, this could help with claims defensibility for you as an employer. 

At Orbis Environmental, we make sure that you have an appropriate assessment for your business and premises. 

To get a noise survey and noise assessment for your business premises, you can simply fill in a contact us form, and one of our experts will be in touch with you soon.