Thursday 8th August is Cycle to Work Day in the UK. What has this got to do with safety in the workplace? Quite a lot actually. A 2018 Decathlon survey of more than 7,600 UK adults found that only 7% currently cycle to work. For the reader musing that you’re more likely to get killed cycling to work than through … Read More
2018/19 Workplace Fatalities – Why Change is Imperative
The provisional Workplace fatal injuries in Great Britain, 2019 statistics have been published by the HSE. The resulting headlines thus far have been focused on the increase in workplace fatalities (147 in 2018/19p vs. 141 in 2017/18) with ‘workers falling from height’ being the major cause of fatal injuries at 40 and ‘being struck by a moving vehicle’ the next … Read More
The Business Benefits of Health and Safety
Why do we do it? Health and Safety, I mean. I’m sure every reader of this blog got involved, or at least remain involved, because they want to ensure that people work safely and are safe at work, or variation of that statement. That’s why we do it – we simply want people to go home safely at the end … Read More
The Current Use of RAMS in Health and Safety… And Should We Be Using Them More?
RAMS – Risk Assessment Method Statements – are a grey area in health and safety. Despite this, there are indications their use is increasing. While the rules on the use of risk assessments are clear, what are the exact requirements for preparing RAMS? What is the law, what is the current advice on best practice, and is that advice correct? … Read More
Need to Talk to the Board? Read these suggestions first…
In our eBook “Beyond Compliance: A Guide to Changing the Health and Safety Culture in Your Organisation” we devoted a chapter to getting C-suite/Board buy-in with 9 specific, practical and actionable tips on how to handle that communication. With the increased onus on senior management participation in health and safety mandated by ISO 45001, access to the Board should be … Read More
Health and Safety Culture – Own Your Communications
Do you think we have enough information? Just about, right? Whatever topic you’re interested in there are a plethora of sources, some more legitimate/less fake/with less of an agenda than others. So, why has health and safety got such a bad rap? The post linked to was driven by comments from Andrew Sharman about, “an undercurrent of negativity around the … Read More
How the 5 Megatrends Impact Health and Safety
We’re living in interesting times. As a society. As a working population. As a health and safety industry. If you follow global macroeconomics you’ll be aware of the five megatrends that are moulding the planet and how we’ll co-exist with it and each other over the next century. Let’s have a quick look at the five megatrends and review which … Read More
Skills, Gigs and Zero-Hours Contracts
We first covered skills shortages in the UK economy back in January. The challenges facing employers in finding the right skills was highlighted in the Employer Skills Survey 2017, itself based on interviews with over 87,000 employers. By far the largest survey responses (by number of companies responding and the employment levels in their represented sector) came from Wholesale & … Read More
Global Asbestos Awareness Week April 1-7, 2019
It’s Global Asbestos Awareness Week incorporating the 15th International Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference running in Washington DC from April 5-7. We’ve commented extensively in the past on the issues surrounding asbestos in our society and this dreadful material has even become the cause of legal action alleging that Johnson & Johnson “knew for decades that its iconic baby powder … Read More
Data Centre of the Universe
When Jeff Bezos wrote his first letter to Amazon shareholders in 1997 he said, “But this is Day 1 for the Internet…” He has signed off every subsequent letter with “It remains Day 1!” While this is mainly a statement of the philosophy of the leadership and strategy of Amazon, it’s also a literal take on where we are with … Read More
Driving – the Most Dangerous Work Activity
There were 144 workplace fatalities in the UK in 2017/18. This number has been relatively static over the past 5 years. Additionally, around 500 people are killed every year while ‘driving for work reasons’. This excludes people commuting to and from work (more of that later). The UK and Ireland are the only two EU countries who do not report … Read More
The Contractor Management Challenge for Power Utilities
As we’ve discussed before, the UK power utilities sector is entering a period of disruption brought on by a combination of forces including skills shortages and the availability of ‘free’ energy to the consumer afforded by renewables. Particularly for the asset-heavy side of the sector, requiring significant on-going investment, this disruption will create a tough investment environment, one which will … Read More
