EVALUATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTH, SAFETY, ENVIRONMENT AND FACILITY MANAGEMENT IN AUCHI POLYTECHNIC, AUCHI

INTRODUCTION

Health, safety and environment are core concerns in any establishment, but how much emphasis is needed will depend on the size of the organization, the hazards presented by its activities, the haptic characteristics of the organization, products, services, and the adequacy of its modus operandi. For a business to operate successfully there must be multiple processes in place that support the core business of an operation and this is where facility management comes in (Talk Business Magazine, 2015).

Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) is an umbrella term for the laws, rules, guidance and processes designed to help protect employees, the public and the environment from harm. In the workplace, the responsibilities for designing and implementing appropriate procedures is often assigned to a specific department, often called the “HSE” department which is responsible for environmental protection, occupational health and safety at work. HSE management has two general objectives: prevention of incidents or accidents that might result from abnormal operating conditions and reduction of adverse effects that result from normal operating conditions (Health and Safety Authority, 2006).

From a health and safety standpoint, it involves creating organized efforts and procedures for identifying workplace hazards and reducing accidents and exposure to harmful situations and substances. It also includes training of personnel in accident prevention, accident response, emergency preparedness, and use of protective clothing and equipment. From an environmental standpoint, it involves creating a systematic approach to complying with environmental regulations, such as managing waste or air emissions all the way to helping sites reduce the company’s carbon footprint (University of Liverpool, 2016).

Facility management on the other hand, encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology (International Facilities Management Association, 1992). Hence, it ought to feature the aspects of health, safety and environment in the adequacy of its phenomenon.

Health, safety, environment and facility management involves protecting human and material resources, developing a safety culture between employers and employees, securing the highest and best safety measures in sustaining organization’s equipments and advancing an enabling environment for work and process in order to navigate a successful course through the challenges posed by the evolution of human existence in the 21^st century (The Facilities Society, 2016).

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

In this present dispensation of the 21^st century, organizations are so conscious of losing revenue to compensation and reacquisition for the death of their employees and loss of organizations’ tactual assets. Having to indemnify both human and material resources of the organization in order to avoid capital litigations from either the stakeholders or the bereaved families or both, of which the bereaved families would stop at nothing until promptly and adequately compensated. As a result of the aforementioned scenario, more emphases are laid in the aspects of health, safety and environment in establishments whilst these establishments are also looking out for the best hands to deliver an effective and efficient job.

On the other hand, Facility management in its adequacy and phenomenon ought not to be unrelated to the umbrella term Health, Safety and Environment (HSE); hence, the problem identified here is whether or not there exist a substantial relationship between facility management and health, Safety and Environment (HSE) whilst using Auchi Polytechnic as a case study.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.      What is the nexus between Facility Management and Health, Safety and Environment?

2.      Does health, safety and environment relate significantly with facility management?

3.      What are the roles of facility management in the aspects of health, safety and environment?

AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between health, safety, environment and facility management. The aim will be achieved through the following specific objectives:

1.      To ascertain the nexus between Facility Management and Health, Safety and Environment.

2.      To ascertain if health, safety and environment relate significantly with facility management.

3.      And to ascertain the roles of facility management in the aspects of health, safety and environment.

STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS

Ho: There is no positive relationship between health, safety, environment and facility management.

Hi: There is a positive relationship between health, safety, environment and facility management.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

This study will help incumbent and prospective Estate Surveyors and Valuers. It will give them insight on their onus towards health, safety and environment in real estate practice. Also, it will aid any such health, safety and environment user. It will keep them abreast with the prevailing issues in these aspects. This research will act as a foundation for further research that will aid future researchers and dents of health, safety, environment and facility management.

The research will be relevant to employers of labour, managers of organizations and the government; it will aid them see the areas of deficiency in the management of human and material resources. This study will contribute to the existing body of knowledge in its adequacy.

SCOPE OF STUDY

Since no research can validly cover all areas of the topic the researchers tends that this research work be focused on upholding the existence of a relationship between health, safety, environment and facility management and nothing other than that. The theoretical scope emphasized above is strictly limited to Auchi Polytechnic as its geographical scope.

STUDY AREA

Auchi polytechnic is one of the first generation polytechnics in Nigeria. It has its early origin as a technical college founded in 1964 as a gift of the British Government to the then Mid-West regional government. In 1973, the state government converted it to a fully fledged polytechnic with the mandate to provide training and certification in disciplines in engineering, business, sciences, environmental studies and art and design. Auchi polytechnic is located in Auchi town, a rapidly developing urban center and administrative headquarters of the Etsako West local government area of Edo state. It is a distance of only one hundred and thirty kilometers from Benin City, the state capital. The campus occupies about 224 hectares and is situated on a stretch of undulating land along the eastern edge of the town (Auchi Polytechnic, 2015).

LITERATURE REVIEW

FACILITY MANAGEMENT ROLES IN THE ASPECTS OF HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT

Facility management is of vital importance to a thriving business as it ensures all employees; visitors and members of the public are kept as safe as possible. Rules regarding health, safety are often implemented and followed up by the facility manager who is also regularly responsible for handling on-site emergencies (Talk Business Magazine, 2015). Also, other roles according to Health and Safety Authority (2006) may include:

·        implementing effective operational safety policies

·        ensuring management of assets and systems complies with health, safety and environment requirements

·        validating proposed changes to assets, operating practices or modifications to maintenance regimes

·        ensuring health, safety and environment requirements are met for all contracts and projects

·        planning safe ingress and egress

·        developing and directing safety, quality and loss prevention strategies and systems to support safety objectives and obligations.

Also, they may be required to set up, chair or attend meetings that corroborate health, safety and environment; draft, amend and publish the organization’s policies on health, safety and environment; determine  appropriate procedures and systems of work. As the manager, it is important that the facility manager understands the wide range of legislation that affects the workplace (Wiggins, 2010).

ELEMENTS OF HSE MANAGEMENT

Risk Management

Managing risk is a key element in HSE management. Risk management involves assessing, prioritizing and allocating resources to areas expected to yield the highest and best gains. Such work rests on a recognition that risk exists – and an understanding of what it comprises. Risk must be reduced as far as possible both at offshore and at the land-based plants. Also, the extent of the risk should be taken into account as well as the number of people exposed or vulnerable to the harm (Wikipedia, 2016).

Norway’s HSE regulations require that solutions must be chosen which reduce the uncertainty which arises when knowledge is lacking about the possible impact of technical, operational or organizational solutions on health, safety and the environment (Petroleum Safety Authority Norway, 2016).

A competent person uses the five-step approach when conducting a risk assessment. And they are to identify the hazards, identify those who may be harmed, implement control measures, record your findings and review and revise. Hazards have the potential to cause harm e.g. people, things or places, etc., while risk is a function of the probability (or likelihood) of that harm actually occurring and the severity of its consequences. Control measures to mitigate and reduce the risks need expert management, and many cases, this falls to the Facility manager. Control measures that may be adopted are elimination, substitution, avoidance, isolation, segregation, engineering controls, procedures and safe systems of work, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). A competent person here is someone with sufficient training, experience and knowledge to properly assist the employer to undertake measures to comply with health, safety and environmental legislation (Wiggins, 2010).

The companies must not only comply with the regulations but also reduce risk as far as possible. If inadequate knowledge is available about the effect of preventive action, the HSE regulations specify that additional measures must be adopted to avoid possible harmful impacts (Robertson Facilities management, 2016).

Maintenance Management

Installations, facilities and equipment wear out, corrode and get used up as a result of several effects and contracts. Inadequate maintenance increases the risk of major accidents, defects and mishaps.

Facilities management itself is responsible for managing maintenance, and for distinguishing safety-critical jobs which could have consequences on health, safety and environment from less important jobs.

Facilities must be maintained in such a manner that they are able to discharge their predetermined function in all phases of their operating life, effectively in cost and benefit.

The goals of maintenance management according to Health and Safety Authority (2006) include the following:

·                    identifying critical functions

·                    ensuring that safety-critical barriers function when they are needed

Errors in planning, execution or checking of maintenance could cause faults to occur in a system. Insufficient maintenance may mean that an existing fault or degradation is not detected and corrected. In other words, insufficient maintenance could be a contributory factor in production shutdowns, work mishaps or major accidents (Wikipedia, 2016).

IMPORTANCE OF HAVING AN EFFECTIVE HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

With much legislation impacting on the work of the Facility Manager, a qualification in Health, Safety and Environment is becoming important to demonstrate competence (Wiggins, 2010). There are a number of good reasons for reducing work-related accidents and ill-health, as well as ethical and regulatory reasons. Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (2016) emphasizes the following:

·        ECONOMIC REASONS: Besides cutting costs without compromising standard, effective safety and health management promotes business efficiency thereby maximizing profit margin and further enhancing patronage. Thousands of work-related accidents, resulting in more than three days off work are often reported. Work-related diseases and ill-health are more difficult to measure due to their long latency period but result in excess of one million days lost at work each year. These accident and ill-health cases are due to failures and deficiencies in the occupational safety, health and environment management in establishments.

·        LEGAL REASONS: Rectitude requires organizations to ensure; so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and environment of employees are properly managed and conducted with the work activities. This requires pro-activity in managing the health, safety and environmental responsibilities and dealing with them in a systematic way to comply with legal requirements.

·        MORAL AND ETHICAL REASONS: The proactive management of health, safety and environment in the workplace helps organizations prevent injuries, personal loss caused as a result of accidents and ill-health at work. Also, increases the facilities life-span.

METHODOLOGY

Methodology answers the important question of how the objectives of the research will be achieved. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted for this research of which correlation analysis was used to analyze the data we educed in defining the direction, strength and degree of relationship (relatedness). The study participants were drawn from four (4) units of the institution namely; the Cottage hospital, Security department (FAZAL), the School of Environmental Studies and the Works and Maintenance department operating within Auchi Polytechnic.

A Closed-ended questionnaire was used to elicit the required data from the study participants while neighborhood surveys and interviews was also periodically carried out. The questionnaire comprises of Section A which was used to amass the respondents’ bio-data which serves as the basis for justifying the reliability of the data in the study and Section B which was used to amass the respondents’ opinions bordering on Health, Safety, Environment and Facility Management. These data help to establish a relationship between health, safety, environment and facility management within the neighborhood under study.

The study participants amount to approximately two hundred and fifty (100) members. Where the Cottage hospital contain sixteen (16) members, the Security department (FAZAL) contain thirty-two (32) members, the School of Environment Studies contain twenty-eight (28) members and the Works and Maintenance department contain twenty-four (24) members.

Thereafter, the simple percentage, frequency counts and correlation analysis was used for the analysis of the data in the completed questionnaire in order to know the relative strength of responses. They were tabulated to aid explicit understanding.

Simple percentage formula is presented below as:

P=   f     x  100

   ^∑f

Where:

P= Percentage, f = Frequency, ^∑f = Summation of frequency

The several responses, frequency of responses, test instruments and their percentages were comprehensively compiled so that at the first glance, the information being conveyed will be easily understood.

RESULTS

The research was based on the analysis of questionnaires, field survey and interviews. One hundred (100) questionnaires were administered to the Cottage hospital, Security department (FAZAL), School of Environmental Studies and Works and Maintenance department operating within the study area. Not all the questionnaires were retrieved, eighty-six (86) questionnaires were retrieved and the retrieved copies were used for data presentation and analysis.

TABLE INDICATING THE NUMBER OF QUESTIONNAIRES ADMINISTERED INTO THE VARIOUS UNITS UNDER THE STUDY AREA AND THE NUMBER RETRIEVED

Source: Field Survey, 2016.

The above table shows the total number of questionnaires administered and the number retrieved.11 questionnaires were retrieved out of the 16 questionnaires that was administered in Cottage hospital, 28 out of 32 administered in security dept. were retrieved, the whole questionnaires (28) administered in School of Environmental Studies were retrieved while 19 were retrieved from Works and Maintenance dept. out of the 24 questionnaires administered to them. Therefore, the researchers worked on the questionnaires retrieved from respondents, the data were analyzed and interpreted.

SECTION A (QUESTION 1)

Source: Field Survey, 2016.

The table above shows that out of the total number of 86 respondents, 59(66.6%) are males while 27(33.4%) are females. This implies that the male respondents make the majority of the population.

SECTION A (QUESTION 2)

Table indicating Age Distribution of Respondents

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