W Martin Meats utilises Health & Safety Smart to ensure its compliance with current UK legislation

HEALTH AND SAFETY AUDIT ONLINE FREE TRIAL

Food Wholesaler finds new online risk assessment solution ‘cost effective and simple to use’

RiskSmart, a leading provider of online risk assessment solutions, today announces that food wholesaler W Martin Meats has selected Health&SafetySmart its online risk assessment system that enables companies to comply with Health and Safety legislation, quickly, easily and at a very low cost.

W Martin Meats based in North Kent has been trading for 20 years and is primarily focused on food wholesale to the catering and retail trade. Previously it met necessary health and safety requirements by following the general guidelines issued by the Health Safety Executive (HSE).

“It recently became apparent during a meeting with our insurance advisors that we needed to implement a more detailed health and safety company audit in order to be legally compliant with current health and safety legislation,” said Paul Martin, Director, W Martin Meats. “To look at the literature issued by the HSE on health and safety was confusing and time consuming, as most of the documents were at least 100 pages long and really didn't explain very clearly ‘how, what, and why,’ we have to have a health and safety policy in place.”

W Martin Meats made the choice to use Health&SafetySmart after considering a number of other options, which included hiring a company to visit its premises and carry out an onsite assessment.

“There were two main factors in our choice to use Health&SafeySmart, namely simplicity and cost,” continues Martin. “For a small family owned and run business such as ours, cost is obviously a key issue. Compared to non-Internet organisations offering a similar service we have saved over £2000.”

RiskSmart is the company behind Health&SafetySmart (www.healthandsafetysmart.co.uk), an online system that enables companies to comply with Health and Safety legislation, quickly, easily and at a very low cost. This online tool does not require any previous knowledge of health and safety or risk assessment; business owners or managers simply need a PC and an initial 15 minutes to complete the profile section. This introductory stage is used to determine exactly what legal requirements the company needs to meet.

The system has been built using a unique engine that requires the user to respond with either a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a series of questions. The system then analyses the answers and produces a comprehensive, easy to understand report, which can be printed at the end of the process. The entire process is supported by extensive online help and ‘jargon busters’, as well as ‘real live’ consultants who can be contacted by email if extra help is required to complete the assessment, or for any additional questions, that they may have.

W Martin Meats was able to complete a comprehensive online health and safety assessment of its business in record time, enabling the company to concentrate on its key areas of business, safe in the knowledge that it is now fully compliant with current legislation.

“Health&SafetySmart was very easy to use. The online menus and help options were excellent,” concludes Martin, “You don’t have to be computer literate to use this service, and it only took us two hours to complete. We are now in the process of implementing its recommendations and have already recommended the system to a number of our business associates.”

Health and Safety