President of the Institute of Directors, Ghana (IoD-Gh), Rockson Dogbegah, has asked organisational leaders to take the health and safety of their workers seriously.

He said placing the safety of health of workers first was the only way to achieving organizational objectives.

Mr Dogbegah said this at an E-Seminar on Directors’ responsibilities for health, safety and environment for workers.

He said it was unfortunate that most budget allocations for health and safety did not take that of health workers into consideration, as much as would have been expected.

Mr Dogbegah said one good thing the COVID-19 had done to the country was the awareness it raised on the relevance of promoting health and safety.

He said the Institute of Directors was, therefore, reviewing the Directors' Handbook to include a chapter on Health and Safety.

He said ensuring health and safety at the workplace required an integrated approach, which called for the merging of health needs with organisational culture and strategy.

Mr Ben Richard Aniagyei, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, and Managing Director and Principal Consultant of B.R.A. & Associates, said the nation’s health and safety laws were outdated and must be revised.

To build a healthy and safe working environment, it was critical for management to go beyond internal organisational needs to embrace the needs of external stakeholders.

Mr Aniagyei said heads of organisations had the responsibility to properly plan the health and safety needs of their employees and ensure that they were actively involved in the formulation and implementation process.

He stressed the importance of effective monitoring and evaluation in achieving a healthy and safe environment for workers.

“Visible leadership is key and management commitment must not only be stated but it must be demonstrated. In four areas — planning front, people front, process front, and the performance front,” Mr Aniagyei said.