Employers MUST provide their employees with a workplace that does not have serious hazards and must follow all Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety and health standards. Employers must find and correct safety and health problems. OSHA further requires that employers must try to eliminate or reduce hazards first by making feasible changes in working conditions, switching to safer chemicals, enclosing processes to trap harmful fumes, or using ventilation systems to clean the air are examples of effective ways to get rid of or minimize risks rather than just relying on personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, or earplugs. The objectives of benchmarking are to determine what and where improvements are called for, to analyze how other organizations achieve their high-performance levels, and to use such information to improve performance. Problems with benchmarking may occur due to an organizations failure to implement the process properly. One example of a potential pitfall of benchmarking is the lack of actively involving employees during the process. These employees will be the ones ultimately using the information and improving the process. In 2014 General Motors began the recall of the Chevrolet Cobalt which would ultimately affect nearly 30 million cars worldwide. The problem was with the ignition switch which could shut off the car while it was being driven, disabling power steering, power brakes and, crucially, the airbag. The issue had been known to GM employees for a decade. A sixteen-year-old girl had died in a frontal crash in 2005, the first death attributed to the defective switches. A redesign of the ignition switch went into vehicles a year later, but a simple mistake the engineers failed to alter the serial number made the change difficult to track later. Reference: Fennelly, L. J. (2017). Effective physical security. Cambridge, MA: Elsevier. Plumer, B. (2015, May 11). The GM recall scandal of 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from https://www.vox.com/2014/10/3/18073458/gm-car-recall 2) Michael Stated that, as stated in Chapter 17, “mandatory practices are essential to meet legislative, regulatory, licensing, registration, or similar compliance requirements. These may be applicable to the activities in which the enterprise is engaged and/or be specific to risk management programs (Fennelly, 2017, p. 301).” One way that a business can prevent mitigated risks, or threats is by establishing a zero-tolerance policy. Zero-tolerance is a way to “eliminate undesirable behavior among employees and provide an automatic punishment for violating company rules (Whiting, 2018).” This provides safety for employees in their field of work. If an employee sexually harasses, commits an act of violence towards another employee, etc, the person will be terminated from their position immediately. Benchmark practices “are those approaches that in legal terms could “reasonably” be expected to be followed, given the specific circumstances that apply (Fennelly, 2017, p. 302).” One example that led to a critical incident was a robbery that occurred at a hotel. This was taken to the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia. The hotel staff failed to implement reasonable security measures. Since the hotel failed to create a “structured and defensible approach to security risk management (Fennelly, 2017, p.302)”, the victim was awarded $825,000 in damages. Businesses always have to identify, assess, treat, monitor and review their possible risks. This will always have a business prepared for the absolute worst. All staff members have to be aware of their risk-management plans. This plan should also be constantly updated. References: Fennelly, L. J. (2017). Effective physical security(5th ed.). Cambridge, MA: Elsevier. Whiting, B. (n.d.). Zero-Tolerance Policy in the Workplace: Definition & Examples. Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/zero-tolerance-policy-in-the-workplace-definition-examples-quiz.html#/lesson ***MUST USE as 1 References**** Fennelly, L. (2016). Effective physical security. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.
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