Duty of Care

If you manage people, you've likely come across the term "duty of care" before, but what does it actually mean?

Put simply, duty of care means having a responsibility for your people's health, safety, and wellbeing. It can cover things like providing safe work environments, ensuring that people work a reasonable number of hours and have adequate breaks, conducting work-based risk assessments, and protecting people from discrimination, bullying, and harassment.

Often, organizations are legally required to provide an adequate duty of care to their employees. Failure to comply can have severe ethical and legislative consequences, so it's vital you follow your country's legal requirements.

With that in mind, how can you ensure your duty of care is robust?

First, define what duty of care means to your organization. There is no single universally-accepted interpretation. A company that requires employees to operate heavy machinery, for example, will have vastly different health and safety requirements than an office-based organization. Seek legal advice to ensure that your organization complies with relevant regulations.

Look at what you already provide too. What more could you do? Think in particular about people in your organization who might require specific care and support. For example, people with disabilities or who are neurodivergent. How can you ensure that they have equal access to the right support?

Explore what the concept "duty of care" means to your people. Ask them what they need to feel safe, supported, and able to do their jobs well. Use this feedback to brainstorm what enhanced care you could provide and establish three or four guiding principles you want your duty of care to cover.

Identify who will be responsible for fulfilling your care requirements, and in what situations. For example, who are your fire marshals or first aiders? These people will have a certain duty of care toward their coworkers to ensure their safety in certain circumstances. So, they'll need to understand what's expected of them and when.

Finally, list all the ideas and feedback you've gathered. Work out how you could fulfill these obligations. Will you need to provide training? What will the benefits be? And how much will it cost? Also, consider where you might meet resistance, for example, because of costs or timescales. Once you've done this, prioritize the key goals you want to achieve and put together an action plan to implement your new duty of care.

Providing a duty of care doesn't need to be a "tick-box exercise" that is led by legislation. Instead, view it as an opportunity to make a positive change in your organization. Not only will you be able to rest easy in the knowledge that your people are safe and healthy, but employees will appreciate working for an organization that genuinely wants to protect and care for them.

To learn more, read our article, What Is a Duty of Care?