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In Today’S World Of Business, The Role Of Human Resource

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In today’s world of business, the role of human resource managers is becoming increasingly important in the context of the strategic direction of organizations. The scope of their functions is expanding to cover multi-disciplinary areas including the field of law. As such, they are responsible for the occupational health and safety of the employees under their authority. This includes having adequate knowledge of the provincial and federal laws that govern the individuals working within the organization. While there is a broad focus on health and safety initiatives as part of a strategic approach to human resource management (Dessler & Chhinzer, 2016, p. 324), there seems to be little attention paid to the effects of breaches of these …show more content…

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In Canada each year, the 28th of April is dedicated to the remembrance of those who lost their lives, suffered injury or illness on the job or due to work-related tragedy (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, 2017). Beyond the scope of tragedy and injury, what are the effects of these occurrences? According to Legal Professional Brent D. George (2014), the impact of on-the-job accidents can be categorized into financial costs, physical effects, psychological effects and effect on the employer-employee relationship. Perhaps the most obvious would be the financial costs arising from salary expenditure, medical expenses, compensation benefits and productivity losses. One cannot deny the overall impact that this would have on the economy if organizations have to allocate substantial amounts of their financial resources towards the needs of employees arising from health and safety breaches. This affects business owners’ hiring practices as well as their ability to pay wages and provide benefits (Dessler & Chhinzer, 2016, p. 16) which are key elements that attract and retain talented employees. For those workplace accidents that are not fatal, there are also physical effects to be considered which normally include loss of mobility, retirement due to permanent injury and persistent headaches and pains. For the remaining coworkers, there are psychological effects

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