Health and Safety Responsibilities of Supervisors in Ontario
- 5 min read
- June 24, 2024
Safety is our responsibility! Imagine a work site – all policies and procedures in place, all equipment functional and maintained and all protective gear ready and in place for use. Everyone comes, carries out their task and is done for the day. A perfect work scenario. However, this is not always the case. Worksites possess certain potential hazards and Occupational Health Safety Act makes it apparently clear that employers, supervisors, and workers need to make constant efforts to mitigate any hazards through proactive measures and reasonable caution.
Who is a supervisor?
In Ontario, Supervisors have legal responsibilities under the Occupational Health & Safety Act to provide a safe work environment and direct workers to perform work safely. It is therefore imperative that proper due diligence and compliance, implementation, and supervision is carried out at the workplace. (Find out more about what causes health and safety hazards) .
Supervisors are responsible for disseminating awareness of the hazards at the workplace, ensuring safety and compliance, responding to any of the hazards/incidents brought to their attention, and taking precautionary measures.
The powers and responsibilities of Supervisors can vary from organization to organization but are largely as listed below:
- Oversee hiring/firing, promotions and transfers for his team and the discipline.
- Decide the rate of pay for workers and bonuses.
- Grant leaves of absence and approve vacation times.
- Enforce the policies and procedures established to ensure the safety of the workers
- Determine the tasks to be carried out.
- Schedule staff and direct and monitor tasks.
- Manage resources and control and arrange the use of equipment on site.
- Deal with complaints received from workers and address them.
- Address health and safety concerns.
Learn more about the duties of a supervisor
Do you need training?
Supervisors or individuals in supervisory positions must gain the capability of carrying out their duties. When appointing a supervisor, the employer must ensure that the person is competent to carry out the responsibilities of the role.
However, the role of a supervisor is multi-faceted and demanding. To succeed in this crucial position, individuals must undergo comprehensive training to develop the necessary leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills. They must be aware of their responsibilities, rights, and responsibilities of all parties, carry out hazard assessment, exercise due diligence, understand and can read trends and patterns of risks, its mitigation and are able to effectively navigate the OHSA.
Any ladder to leadership is unclimbable without the proper tools. Individuals aspiring to move further in their roles also need the requisite skills, training, and tools to help them carry out the responsibilities of the role.
How does 4S help?
Our training is focused to help Supervisors integrate safety into their environment without compromising their performance goals. Employers are required to hire competent supervisors and provide them with the resources to create and maintain a safe working environment in addition to meeting their productivity and quality goals for their business. This training is to help the supervisors effectively integrate safety into the work environment, so productivity and quality goals are achieved without compromising safety.
What will you learn?
- Become familiarized with the Internal Responsibility System (IRS) and learn to use it to create a safe working environment.
- Know your responsibilities under the law and how to exercise due diligence.
- Be able to navigate the Occupational Health & Safety Act
- Know the rights and responsibilities of all workplace parties and apply them to resolve situations arising at work.
- Gain a basic understanding of different leadership styles and use the appropriate style under different circumstances.
- Being prepared to react in an emergency and successfully complete an incident investigation.
- Apply the principles and processes to promote a safety culture at work.
- Understanding accident trends, high risk groups to effectively mitigate the risk with these areas.
A supervisor plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between management and employees, ensuring the smooth functioning of operations, and fostering a productive and positive work environment. By equipping supervisors with the tools and knowledge they need, organizations can ensure a competent and motivated leader who positively influences employee performance and contributes to overall success and investing in supervisor training is an investment in the future prosperity and growth of the organization and the individual.
