Some people have accused me of writing for the converted through the SafetyAtWorkBlog and the majority of followers to this blog are OHS professionals and safety regulators, but everything on the Internet is able to be found by anyone who wants to, so the broad audience exists. Sometimes, however, you need to push yourself in the media. Continue reading “Andrew Barrett’s OHS interview on community radio”
Category: business
OHS is not broken but does need attention
Recently an article was posted on SHPOnline called “Health and safety needs a re-brand“. The article by Anna Keen ties in with the Safety Differently or Safety 1-Safety 2 movements but needs to be considered carefully.
The street interviews were conducted in England where occupational health and safety (OHS) has undergone such a slagging off by the tabloid media that the Health and Safety Executive had to devote resources to countering the misrepresentation of OHS. This misrepresentation has been occurring since the mid-2000s. The video in the article is conformation of the success of the tabloid media outrage that even led to a pathetic attempt at comedy at OHS’s expense.
OHS, particularly in the United Kingdom but less so in Australia, has a perception problem which is clear from the video but will re-branding be enough?
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Suicide Prevention Forum and Mental Health First Aid for workers
In March 2016, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its latest figures into the causes of death. A lot of media attention was given to the figures showing an increase in the suicide rate. It found that
“Among those aged 15 to 44, the leading causes of death were Intentional self-harm (suicide)…”
On the day those figures were released, the
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Sedentary work risks – two new research reports
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Ernst Young’s latest safety discussion paper
Ernst Young (EY) Australia has released a discussion paper about its “Plus One” strategy for occupational health and safety (OHS) and safety culture change. Perhaps the curious and significant issue raised in the document is the way it considers that the “zero harm” era is over.
The document urges people to “build on the lessons of zero harm”. Some would say that the most important lesson is that “zero harm” is bullshit but EY is almost taking “zero harm” as a fixed point in time, or rather a point in thought, from which progress in a new direction is possible. Continue reading “Ernst Young’s latest safety discussion paper”
Safety is the first agenda item but the last consideration
It is a common business activity to include Safety as an agenda item in all meetings. This is intended to show that a company sees Safety as an integral component of all business decisions. But such an action can also be used to dismiss Safety by those who do not see it as related to production or the production program.
Some years ago I was an occupational health and safety (OHS) adviser for a client on a construction project. The project had Safety as the first item of business on the weekly progress meeting. I was invited to attend and contribute. The Project Manager opened the meeting, asked if anyone had a “Safety Share”, and then advised that the project had had no incidents in the previous week.
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A top Business Blog for 2016
SmartCompany includes SafetyAtWorkBlog in its 2016 list of Best Business Blogs, saying:
“Occupational health and safety consultant Kevin Jones brings two decades of experience to his editorship of the Safety At Work Blog, bringing together news and commentary on workplace safety and health. Regularly updated, this blog is a great resource for SMEs operating without a dedicated human resources team.”
It is well worth looking at the other entries on the list to gain an understanding of how safety is perceived, particularly in the small business sectors.