Cutting costs without affecting employees

The retrenchment saga has unveiled the inventive side of the Indian firms with each of them designing innovative ways to cut cost without affecting the employees and clients.
To cut on electricity bills Kotak Mahindra Bank introduced the 'Kill Bill' campaign under which air-conditioners are set at a particular temperature and computer monitors are asked to be switched off when not in use. For the successful utilization of the campaign, posters elaborating the importance of it are displayed in conference rooms and at various entry and exit points of the company. SBI has begun using the e-mail instead of posts to reduce costs. The bank lures its customers to go for online transaction, by offering reward points to those who use the electronic system. Thus, through each customer, who agrees to follow the practice, the bank saves Rs.40. Taking a cue from SBI, HDFC Securities too is looking at pruning costs sending a welcome kit for every new broking account through mail, instead of courier. The brokerage firm can make a monthly saving of six lakh rupees by following this practice.
Other broking firms are e-mailing contract notes with the consent of their clients, instead of printing and couriering it, saving Rs.20 per contract. Typically, large brokerage houses dispatch a minimum of 5,000 such contracts on any trading day. Another instance is cutting on colored printouts by a foreign investment bank, which used to take 1,000 such everyday, but has now brought it down to 100. This allows it to save Rs.12 lakh annually.

- Condensed from Silicon India’s SI Dailydose [dailydose@sidailydose.com]

OHSAS 18001

Occupational Health and safety assessment Specifi­cation (OHSAS) is an international standard giving requirements related to health and safety management systems in order to enable an organization to control its risks and improve its performance.
Benefits of OHSAS:
Improves your safety culture
Improved efficiency and consequently reduce acci­dent and production time loss
Increased control of hazards and the reduction of risks through devolved responsibility
Demonstrates legal compliance
Increases your reputation for safety and occupational health
Reduces insurance premiums
Is an integral part of a sustainability strategy
Demonstrates your commitment to the protection of staff, property and plant
Encourages more effective internal and external communication
Is a “Business to business contract winner.”
Elements of the OHSAS 18001 standard are:
■ OH&S Policy ■ Planning for Hazard identifica­tion, Risk Assessment and Risk Control ■ Legal and Other Requirements ■ Objectives ■ OH&S Manage­ment Programs ■ Structure and Responsibilities ■ Training, Awareness and Competence ■ Consultation and Communication ■ Documentation ■ Document and Data Control ■ Operational control ■ Emergency Preparedness and Response ■ Performance Measure­ment and Monitoring ■ Accidents, Incidents, Nonconfor­mances and Corrective and Preventive Ac­tion ■ Records and Records Management ■ Audit ■ Management Review.
OHSAS is a systematic practice of identifying poten­tial for loss, assessing the risks, making decisions on appropriate controls, implementing and then monitor­ing the system to control the loss.
How to implement OHSAS
Identify all loss exposure
Evaluate the risk
Develop a plan
Implement the plan
Monitor the system
Identification of loss exposures is helped by
Review of past incidents, including accident investiga­tion work
Brain storming and Task Observation
Checklists
List of hazardous material and processes
Three variables used in the risk evaluation:
Severity - if the exposure were to result in a loss, how severe is the loss likely to be?
Frequency - how often are people, equipment, materi­als, or the environment exposed to the risk?
Probability - considering all pertinent factors, how likely is the loss to occur?
To develop a plan, we have four alternatives:
Termination - Termination of the risk is generally the preferred option
Treatment - Many hazards can be treated to reduce the inherent risk.
Toleration - Either we treat risk in order that it may be brought down to a tolerable level; or the risk does not warrant any treatment at all.
Transfer - Even with the best means of treatment, we may find that we are still liable for consider­able financial risk. Insurance is one way to transfer some risk, but in so doing we do not transfer all fi­nancial and legal liabilities and accountabilities. An­other option is to transfer risk through contracted agreements.
The implementation of the plan involves key aspects of performance management such as goals - objec­tives - responsibilities - accountability - follow-through. Implementation is facilitated by applying proven management principles and tech­niques for success.
Monitoring the plan needs us to measure, evaluate, commend and correct individual, group and organ­izational performance.
- From “An Introduction to OHSAS 18001” by Jentek and http://www.nimbuscertifications.com/services.html?gclid=CJCq27Oi1pgCFQLMbgodXV7odQ