On Wednesday 3rd February we ran a webinar focused on managing the permit-to-work process from home. You can access it here. Of course, where building maintenance work needs to be carried out onsite then a competent person needs to be physically present but others in the request/approval/issue process don’t necessarily need to be. The webinar will show how e-permits supports the … Read More
Aligning for Greatness in this Transitional Year
Gazing out over the future, what do you see? Do you see mass unemployment and an opportunity to drive down standards, salaries and benefits on the back of the easy pickings that is a downtrodden pool of desperate people? Does 2021 also afford you the opportunity to depress the working conditions of current employees? Or, do you see a future … Read More
So this is Christmas…
…and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun. A year that began with such optimism, not least on these pages with our 2020 Vision – 3 Reasons to be Cheerful review of UK health and safety, ends with, well, what? Did we just have the worst year ever? It seems that way but, as … Read More
Working to Rules
“People are not risk averse enough for our liking.” So said Joe Smith, Group Health and Safety Manager at Thomas Armstrong (Holdings) Ltd. That’s an attention grabbing comment. Simon Dean responded in a comment that “We need to highlight all the reasons for following the safety rules rather than what will happen if you don’t”. More carrot, less stick? Joe … Read More
Benchmarking Contractor Management
Even before the events of 2020, the role of contractors in the UK economy was a source of debate and commentary. Are businesses becoming increasingly dependent on contractors and, if so, how is compliance with health and safety policies and procedures being delivered? Interestingly, one of the most challenging industry sectors from a lack of skills standpoint is utilities. Even … Read More
The Mental Health Challenges of Working from Home (part 2 of 2)
In the first part of this two-part post we looked at the evidence for mental wellness suffering among those working from home. We covered the results from two recent surveys which highlighted a ‘disparity’ between the 84% of those experiencing mental health issues and the 9% of managers who were spending the majority of their time supporting mental health issues. … Read More
The Mental Health Challenges of Working from Home (part 1 of 2)
I had dinner with a really good friend a couple of weeks ago. She sat there with tears in her eyes. I know her well enough to be able to ask what was wrong and to get an honest answer. Did she have family problems? Was it something else? No, nothing specific, just “the situation”. Which made me think about … Read More
Does Trust Correlate with Safety Performance for Workers? (part 2 of 2)
In the first part of this two-part post exploring the possible correlation between trust and worker safety, we highlighted how countries with the highest degree of trust (in their fellow citizens and public institutions) also showed the best safety performance among their workers. Equally, those countries with the lowest trust displayed the worst safety performance. Accepting that the normalised worker … Read More
Does Trust Correlate with Safety Performance for Workers? (part 1 of 2)
Can we meaningfully measure ‘trust’ in society and can we correlate that with worker safety? Would a more trusting society lead to better safety performance? One way to do that would be to compare trust metrics and safety performance across multiple countries. Before diving into that, it’s worth examining why we’re asking the question in the first place? In our … Read More
Dynamic Risk Assessments, Face Masks and Roundabouts
In a recent review of e-permits product features our Product Manager, Alan, said he didn’t believe dynamic risk assessments were a good thing (or words to that effect) because any unexpected events should be anticipated ahead of the work being carried out. For example, working at height. High winds are entirely predictable and, as such, should be included in the … Read More
Managing Increased Supply Chain Complexity
More than 1 in 7 (15%) of the UK workforce were self-employed in Q1 of 2020 (according to the latest ONS labour market data), which compares with less than 1 in 8 (12%) in Q1 of 2000. How do we expect the numbers of self-employed to change post-lockdown and what are the implications for worker safety? The ONS data shows … Read More
Using Predictive Analytics to Improve Safety Performance
In 2011 the New York Times reported that the Santa Cruz police department arrested two women in a downtown car park. One for possession of illegal drugs, the other had outstanding warrants, both were peering into car windows when the police arrived. What was unusual about the incident was the fact that the police were alerted by a computer program … Read More
Manufacturing Safety by the Numbers (part 2 of 2)
In the first part of this two-part post we looked at the raw numbers for safety performance in the manufacturing sector with specific focus on discrete manufacturing. We noted that discrete manufacturing in the UK has an average fatality rate over the past 5 years that is 50% higher than that for all industry sectors and a non-fatal injury rate … Read More
Manufacturing Safety by the Numbers (part 1 of 2)
It’s our contention that, along with the construction sector, manufacturing will be key to leading the UK out of recession after the coronavirus lockdown ends. It’s our hope that this return to work and growth will be achieved without compromising (non-coronavirus related) worker safety. So how has the manufacturing sector performed compared to other industry sectors over recent years? Before … Read More
Why Focusing on Safety Performance Can Enable Construction to Bounce Back
The UK construction sector is critical to the future of the economy. Despite the latest PMI figures and what was labelled a “total collapse” of the construction sector, its importance is beyond economic and is fundamental to addressing the social injustices created by decades of regional centralisation. Witness how “levelling-up” entered our discourse through the end of 2019 and into … Read More
Realigning Health and Safety in the Business
Over the last year or so we’ve posited ideas around having health and safety become a keystone habit in the business and aligning health and safety outcomes with business growth and why doing so was important. We highlighted three categorisations for how health and safety is viewed within the business: as a cost centre as delivering business benefits as a … Read More
