It’s not every health and safety blog post that links Baader-Meinhof, Inspector Morse and has the express intent of helping you sleep, but this one does. The post’s genesis is in the seeming deluge of articles on driver safety over the past few weeks. Driver safety is an extremely important topic with the focus here being on driving for work … Read More
Megatrends, Wellness and Safety
Buried in our Halloween post were some wellness and safety ideas that came out of the latest Euromonitor International megatrends analysis and which deserve expansion here. Firstly, the megatrends analysis. What is it? It’s a lifestyle survey of 1,000+ people in each of 40 countries, conducted annually and aimed at identifying the megatrends shaping consumer markets. These megatrends are driven … Read More
What Can We Learn When We Include Member of Public Fatalities?
In our last post, which focused on the Transportation & Storage sector, we highlighted the number of workplace fatal injuries to members of the public and stated that “if you add in the member of public fatalities [to worker fatalities], Transportation & Storage accounts for by far the most fatalities with 66 in 2017/18, exactly double that of the next … Read More
The Rise of the Machines: The Good, The Bad and the Grey Goo
The IOSH Future Leader Conference is taking place on November 5th and includes a session titled ‘Robots: meet your new colleagues’, by health and safety consultant Bridget Leathley. This should be a really interesting examination of the benefits that robots and cobots (robot co-workers) can bring to occupational health and safety. The Future Leaders Conference is aimed at those new … Read More
Which Camp Are YOU In?
Have you chosen sides in the Heinrich/Dekker debate yet? Zero Harm vs. Safety Differently? Focussing on the incident/accident data of what’s gone wrong rather than working on what’s gone right? People are the problem vs. people are the solution? I do hope not because the chances are that they’re both right and that breaking through the statistical plateau (that is … Read More
Fatigue, Driving and Regulations
During my mother-in-law’s last few years of failing health, I had the pleasure of meeting one of her home care helpers. I watched her bubbly personality cook, tidy-up and put a smile on a frail old lady – all in her 15-20 minute allowed visit time. As she dashed for the door, I asked her where she was going next … Read More
Safety and Business Performance – Correlation and Causality
This post continues our examination of what it takes to make safety a keystone habit within a business, thereby, driving improved business performance while improving worker safety. Note that in this scenario ‘improved business performance’ means significantly outperforming competitors in a sustained manner over a period of several years. We’re not talking a few percentage points improvement in productivity from … Read More
Making Safety a Keystone Habit
The business benefits of good safety practices are clear and obvious. As the HSE lists them: Reduced absenteeism Staff retention Brand reputation protection Increased productivity and profits Reduced insurance and legal costs But, if I’m a Board member of a Forbes 2000 company, is that going to grab my attention? I don’t think so. They’re nice benefits and, of course, … Read More
H&S Statistics – Behind the Headlines
In our last post on breaking through the statistical plateau that is health and safety fatality rates in Great Britain, we reflected on the recent headlines that greeted the [provisional] increase in fatalities to 147 in 2018/19 from 141 in 2017/18 and the accompanying rise in fatalities caused by falls from height, 40 from 35. We took an action to … Read More
Breaking Through The Statistical Plateau
This is a difficult post with more questions than answers. Over time we’ll work to try to answer these questions. Some are just a matter of research, some are more philosophical and much more difficult to answer. The basic challenge is breaking through the statistical plateau that is the Great Britain worker fatality rate. For the past five or six … 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
