Digitisation. Digitalisation. Digital transformation. Three terms. Often used interchangeably. Yet very different. Let’s clarify the terms first before moving on to the benefits and then the barriers that need to be overcome for success. Digitisation simply means the conversion of analog to digital. A piece of paper to a Word document. A paper permit-to-work to an electronic copy. Digitalisation, however, is … Read More
Working at Height – Greater Urgency Needed
For anyone working in health and safety or with an interest in accidents caused by falls from height, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) annual report on workplace fatalities makes for depressing reading. Depressing in terms of the results and the fact they are so predictable given the category “falls from height” consistently tops the table in fatal accident causes. … Read More
ISO 45001 – Where Are We in 2021?
The benefits of high-quality and effective operational health and safety management are clear. At the top of that list of benefits is the protection of workers, but there are important commercial benefits too. They include preventing the business interruption that can occur as a result of health and safety incidents, as well as protecting the reputation of your business. Maintaining … Read More
What’s New in Health & Safety Technology?
Technology advances at a rapid pace, changing the way businesses operate. The field of health and safety is no different. So, what are the new technologies and technological trends that are impacting health and safety? The most obvious one is the increasing digitalisation of health and safety processes and systems, where those processes and systems move from being manual to … Read More
Has the Last 12-Months Changed Our Perception of Risk?
There has arguably never been a time where there has been such a widespread focus on risk than over the past 12 months. We have been in a global health pandemic, of course, and a lot of the discussions are rightly about health issues. However, risk plays a big role too. What risk do I have of catching Covid-19? What … Read More
Mental Health Awareness Days – A Force for Good or Box-ticking?
There is no shortage of mental health awareness days and campaigns, with companies across the UK recognising or getting involved with them. They include Stress Awareness Month in April, the Mental Health Foundation’s Mental Health Awareness Week in May, World Suicide Prevention Day in September, World Mental Health Day in October, and Anti-Bullying Week in November. Do these initiatives work, … Read More
Do Existing Health and Safety Regulations Support Changing Work Practices?
Businesses in most industries have dramatically transformed their operations over the past 12 months to adapt to the realities of Covid-19 and the restrictions that have been introduced to help deal with the pandemic. Many of these transformations have had significant health and safety implications. As the progress of the vaccination programme continues at pace, many of us are now … Read More
Managing Permit-to-Work Remotely
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
