Creating safety and security in a higher education institution requires systematic long-term work and the management’s commitment to the management and development of safety and security. The guiding principle of safety and security work at Xamk is to identify the most important actual risks. This helps to allocate the limited resources and measures correctly.
This article discusses workplace safety and occupational health and safety at Xamk. Data protection and data security are discussed in another article.
The comprehensive security model of the organisation
The comprehensive security model of the organisation is a way of thinking that combines the hard (security) and soft (safety) components into one. The model helps the organisation to develop a more human-driven safety and security culture. Comprehensive security in the organisation improves when everyone in the higher education community recognises their responsibility as a member and developer of a secure and safe working environment.
Occupational health and safety activities promote health, safety, security and comfort
Occupational health and safety constitutes a particularly important part of activities and their development at Xamk. Occupational health and safety activities improve working conditions and ensure that they promote the employees’ health, safety, security and comfort at work.
Occupational health and safety work is collaboration that concerns the entire personnel. Each member of the workplace community can contribute to the workplace environment with their attitude, motivation and interaction. The efficiency and atmosphere of the workplace community are evaluated each year in the workplace community development survey.
The areas of development in occupational health and safety are described in Xamk’s occupational health and safety action programme. The results of occupational health and safety work and collaboration were evaluated by Xamk’s occupational health and safety committee in 2019. One of the most important issues highlighted was the need to increase awareness of occupational health and safety. It is important for the personnel to know what occupational health and safety activities Xamk engages in as well as the practices and methods of occupational health and safety. As a result of the evaluation, occupational health and safety representatives will start participating in unit meetings in 2020.
Security working groups promote security culture
Each Xamk campus has a security working group. The most important task of these groups is to maintain and promote campus security culture. The working groups meet at least twice a year.
Each campus also has an emergency plan, which includes instructions for various emergencies, such as fires and physically threatening situations. The plans are updated each year and they are included in the orientation training of new employees and students.
The updating of Xamk’s preparedness plan started under the lead of the new preparedness planning working group established in 2019.
We also encourage our personnel to make safety observations, so that we can promote a safe, secure and healthy working environment. Close calls are recorded in the incident reporting system. This helps to minimise the risk of occupational accidents.