I had cause to give some students an idea of how well OH&S is doing in Oz. The aim was to give these people some big picture numbers that might help them counter the general view that OH&S is over-done, crippled with nanny state perspectives etc etc. Initially I slipped into the mode we tend … Continue reading “Sticking to the big picture”
Since SafetyAtWorkBlog began in January 2008, the site has seen a steady increase in readership, particularly since January 2009. As can be seen from the blog over the last few months, there have been useful and fascinating contributions by Yossi Berger, Col Finnie and others. The increase in comments from readers is particularly gratifying. As well as … Continue reading “SafetyAtWorkBlog contributors wanted”
A very popular posting at SafetyAtWorkBlog has been Col Finnie’s piece on taking photographs for OHS purposes. An edited version of Col’s article was published, with authorisation, in the 19 November 2009 edition of Accident Prevention e-News which is now available online. Our thanks goes to editor Scott Williams, firstly, for reading SafetyAtWorkBlog and secondly for going through due process in seeking … Continue reading “Safety photo article reproduction”
“A picture is worth a thousand words” rings as true for OH&S material as anywhere else. But it’s also true that using images ineffectively or including bad quality ones can detract from the quality of what you’re trying to achieve. I ain’t no graphic designer or expert photographer, but I’ve spent a bit of time … Continue reading “Using OHS images”
A while ago I had a gig where one of the aspects of the job was researching how safety signs work, are read and responded to. Here’s a snapshot of some facts and fiction about safety signs. Fact: If people don’t know the reason for a safety sign, they will probably ignore it. A safety … Continue reading “Safety signs – fact and fiction”
[Expansion on recent SafetyAtWorkBlog article regarding Standards] It’s always going to present complications when a tech standard is magically converted into law by incorporating it into a regulation. And that happens whether it’s an AS/NZ tech standard or one produced in Europe. The fundamental problem is that tech standards are often not produced with enforcement … Continue reading “Standards are often developed without the aim of enforcement”
We’ve all done it: slipped into auto-mode when putting together OH&S documentation for a punter. Cut and paste, slam together a whole bunch of references, lots of assumptions that the reader will “get it’”. And we’ve all probably seen one of those sets of OH&S documents for a safety management system that impresses only by … Continue reading “OHS writing is awful too often”