Years ago I was invited to speak at a safety conference and to conduct a workshop. I cocked up the workshop and realised that my conference presentation would need considerable reworking. This experience made me shy of speaking engagements for a while but has provided me with a lasting suspicion on conference workshops. At several … Continue reading “Do OHS workshops work?”
Last week, Honda quad bike dealers were supplied with the safety code provided by the Federated Chamber of Automotive Industries. This code outlines research that shows some roll over protection (ROPS) devices may increase the risk of injury. A major ROPS identified in recent reports is the QuadBar, a device that may be “set to … Continue reading “Industry action confuses quad bike sellers”
On 6 April 2011, at the Safety In Action conference in Melbourne, the Safety Institute of Australia and the Australian Institute of Management released the findings of their 2011 Business Survey. The 2010 survey was discussed in an earlier blog article. SafetyAtWorkBlog was allowed to see a version of the survey results prior to their public release next week but according … Continue reading “Beware OHS statistics quoted in media releases”
For several years now Mark Abkowitz’s book “Operational Risk Management” has been sitting on my “to-read” shelf. Given my recent wish for a case study approach to leadership and given the Fukushima nuclear issues, the book caught my attention. Books that analyse disasters are far superior to watching real-time disasters because the distress is minimised, … Continue reading “Operational Risk Management – a timeless book, sadly”
Several years ago I assisted the Safety Institute of Australia in providing introductory video profiles for many of their conference speakers. The intention was to provide a teaser for the content of conference presentations and to introduce more obscure speakers. The strategy is continuing with several pre-conference videos being made available on-line. Conference teasers in 2011 include Professor Niki Ellis and Australian lawyer, Andrew … Continue reading “Conference videos provide optimism and nerves”
A reader has pointed out an excellent guidance on managing situations after the sudden loss of a work colleague or family member, following on from a recent SafetyAtWorkBlog article. In 2004 Skylight and New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Commission published “Death Without Warning – After an Accidental Death”. This book (only available for purchase) is an … Continue reading “Grief guidance got right”
Recently the CEO of the Australian Football League (AFL), Andrew Demetriou addressed a breakfast gathering in Melbourne on the issue of “OHS in the AFL”. He spoke almost entirely about policy initiatives without specifically addressing occupational health and safety but after a while we came to understand he was speaking of OHS from his senior … Continue reading “Australian Football’s corporate approach to OHS”