Unit ID1 Know - Workplace Health and Safety Principles

International Diploma for Occupational Health
and Safety Management Professionals
Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and

Safety Principles (International)
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GWG - NEBOSH IDIP Textbook - Version 1 (June 2021)
Specification Date: July 2020
NEBOSH Syllabus Publication Date: April 2021
Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

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Acknowledgements and Disclaimer
Green World Safety & Security Consultancies LLC is thankful to National Examination Board in
Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) for allowing us to reproduce extracts from their
documents including Syllabus guide, examiner reports and past exam papers available on their
website.
We also acknowledge the permission given by the following bodies to allow the use of their
publically available material:
• Health and Safety Executive HSE-UK

• International Labour Organization (ILO)
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-USA
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-USA
• Safe Work Australia
• Worksafe Victoria
• European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
• Worksafe New Zealand
We’d like to express a gratitude of thanks to the authors of this book.
- Mr. Shanker Srikumar – Dip. RSA, Grad IOSH, M.Sc, MBA (UK), SIIRSM
- Mr. Manikandan Gobinath - Dip. RSA, Grad IOSH, MBA (UK), MIIRSM
- Mr. Dilip Madurai – MET (General Emphasis - US), IDip NEBOSH, Grad IOSH, Lead Auditor
- Mr. Logananthan Ramachandran – Grad IOSH, B.Tech, MS (Sweden), MBA
- Mr. Varun Vignesh – M.Tech HSE, Grad IOSH

Version Control and Document History:
Issue Date Summary of Review and Modifications Version
1st June 2021 First Issue 00

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Contents
1.1 Socio-legal models .............................................................................................................................. 6

The role, function and limitations of legislation as a means of promoting positive health and safety
outcomes .............................................................................................................................................. 6
What are ‘goal-setting’ and ‘prescriptive’ legal models; the advantages and disadvantages of each . 7
Legal hierarchy of state and federal laws and their application to health and safety law ................... 8
Loss events in terms of failures in the duty of care to protect individuals and the compensatory
mechanisms that may be available to them ....................................................................................... 10
1.2 Enforcement ..................................................................................................................................... 13
The purpose of enforcement .............................................................................................................. 13
The principles of enforcement with reference to the British HSE’s Enforcement policy statement
(HSE41) ................................................................................................................................................ 13
1.3 The International Labour Organization and its conventions and recommendations ....................... 15
The role of the United Nations ........................................................................................................... 15
The roles and responsibilities of ‘International governments’, ‘enterprises’ and ‘workers’ .............. 18
How International conventions can be used as a basis for setting International systems of health
and safety legislation .......................................................................................................................... 20
1.4 Non-governmental bodies and health and safety standards ........................................................... 24
Influential parties and their role in influencing health and safety performance ............................... 24
The importance of print, broadcast and social media in a global economy and their role in changing
attitudes to health and safety............................................................................................................. 32
The benefits of schemes which promote co-operation on health and safety between different
companies ........................................................................................................................................... 36
The possible adverse effects on a business’s reputation due to stakeholder reaction to health or
safety concerns ................................................................................................................................... 37
An organisation’s moral obligations to raise standards of health and safety within their supply
chains .................................................................................................................................................. 38
The meaning of ‘self-regulation’ and the role and function of corporate governance in a system of
self-regulation ..................................................................................................................................... 39
How internal rules and procedures regulate health and safety performance ................................... 42

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1.5 Third parties ...................................................................................................................................... 43

Reasons for ensuring that third parties are covered by health and safety management systems .... 43
Basic duties owed to and by third parties .......................................................................................... 44
Responsibilities for control of risk associated with third parties........................................................ 47
Reasons for providing information relating to hazards/risks to third parties .................................... 47
1.6 Insurers ............................................................................................................................................. 48
How insurers can influence organisational health and safety ............................................................ 48
The role of loss adjusters and claims handlers ................................................................................... 50
2.1 Organisational structures.................................................................................................................. 52
The concept of the organisation as a system ..................................................................................... 52
Organisational structures and functions............................................................................................. 53
Potential conflict between organisational goals and the goals of the individual ............................... 59
The integration of the goals of the organisation with the needs of the individual ............................ 60
The internal influences on health and safety within an organisation ................................................ 64
The external influences on health and safety within an organisation................................................ 67
2.2 Leadership ......................................................................................................................................... 74
The meaning of safety leadership ....................................................................................................... 74
Types of safety leadership .................................................................................................................. 74
Behavioural attributes of an effective leader ..................................................................................... 84
2.3 Consultation ...................................................................................................................................... 85
The role of consultation within the workplace ................................................................................... 85
The four stages to consultation .......................................................................................................... 86
Behavioural aspects associated with consultation ............................................................................. 91
The role of the health and safety professional in the consultative process ....................................... 93
2.4 Health and safety culture, Behavioural change programmes .......................................................... 94
The meaning of ‘health and safety culture’ and ‘health and safety climate’ ..................................... 94
Indicators of health and safety culture and measuring health and safety climate ............................ 96
Factors that may promote a positive health and safety culture or climate ....................................... 99
Factors that may promote a negative health and safety culture or climate .................................... 101
Changing the culture ......................................................................................................................... 103
Problems and pitfalls ........................................................................................................................ 105
The elements and levels of the British HSE’s Safety culture maturity model................................... 112

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The concepts of blame, no-blame and just culture (Dekker) ........................................................... 113
Behavioural change programmes ..................................................................................................... 115
The organisational conditions needed for success in behavioural change programmes ................. 115
Content of typical behavioural change programmes ....................................................................... 117
2.5 Traditional and proactive safety management ............................................................................... 119
Traditional safety (sometimes called ‘Safety I’) ................................................................................ 120
Proactive safety management (sometimes called ‘Safety II’ and ‘Safety Differently’) ..................... 120
Limitations of traditional and proactive safety management .......................................................... 121
The effects of proactive safety management on health and safety culture ..................................... 121
2.6 Risk perception ............................................................................................................................... 123
Human sensory receptors and their reaction to stimuli, sensory defects and basic screening
techniques......................................................................................................................................... 123
The process of perception of danger, perceptual set and perceptual distortion ............................. 124
Errors in perception caused by physical stressors ............................................................................ 126
Perception and the assessment of risk ............................................................................................. 129
2.7 Human failures and factors Improving human reliability ............................................................... 131
Human failure ................................................................................................................................... 131
Human factors................................................................................................................................... 132
Contribution of human failure and human factors to incidents ....................................................... 136
Improving human reliability .............................................................................................................. 138
3.1 Competence, training, information and supervision ...................................................................... 148
The meaning of competence ............................................................................................................ 148
The difference between training and competence .......................................................................... 149
The circumstances when training is likely to be required ................................................................ 149
The groups of people having specific training needs........................................................................ 150
The circumstances where there are specific training needs for certain hazardous types of work
equipment ......................................................................................................................................... 150
The requirements for training lift truck operators ........................................................................... 151
3.2 High Reliability Organisations ......................................................................................................... 152
What is an HRO? ............................................................................................................................... 152
Characteristics of an HRO ................................................................................................................. 152
The lessons that other organisations can learn from HROs ............................................................. 154

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4.1 Hazard identification techniques .................................................................................................... 157

Types of hazard identification techniques ........................................................................................ 157
The importance of worker input ....................................................................................................... 162
4.2 Managing health and safety risks ................................................................................................... 163
The meaning of the term sensible risk management ....................................................................... 163
Principles of and differences between qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative assessments
.......................................................................................................................................................... 163
How to engage workers at all levels in the risk assessment process................................................ 164
When dynamic risk assessments/situational awareness should be used ........................................ 165
The link between the outcomes of risk assessments and the development of risk controls ........... 168
Factors affecting the choice of sensible and proportionate control measures ................................ 168
Organisational arrangements for implementing and maintaining an effective risk assessment
programme ....................................................................................................................................... 170
Acceptability/tolerability of risk........................................................................................................ 171
4.3 Risk management............................................................................................................................ 176
Organisational risk profiling .............................................................................................................. 176
Why health and safety risks must be integrated into main business risk ........................................ 177
The concepts of avoidance, reduction, transfer and retention with/without knowledge ............... 178
Circumstances when each of the above strategies would be appropriate ...................................... 180
Factors to be considered in the selection of an optimum solution based on relevant risk data ..... 181
The principles and benefits of risk management in a global context ............................................... 182
5.1 Loss causation Quantitative analysis of data .................................................................................. 183
Understand the theories/models, tools and techniques .................................................................. 183
The quantitative analysis of accident and ill-health data ................................................................. 194
5.2 Measuring and monitoring ............................................................................................................. 196
The purpose and use of health and safety performance measurement .......................................... 196
Health and safety monitoring ........................................................................................................... 201
Health and safety monitoring and measurement techniques .......................................................... 204
Reviewing health and safety performance ....................................................................................... 213
6.1 Professional skills ............................................................................................................................ 217
The role of the health and safety professional ................................................................................. 217
Effective communication and negotiation skills ............................................................................... 246

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The health and safety professional’s use of financial justification to aid decision making .............. 264
7.1 Societal factors ................................................................................................................................ 270
Economic climate, government policy and initiatives ...................................................................... 270
Industry/business risk profile............................................................................................................ 270
Globalisation of business .................................................................................................................. 271
Migrant workers................................................................................................................................ 271
National level of sickness absence .................................................................................................... 272
Societal expectations of equality ...................................................................................................... 272
7.2 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ............................................................................................. 273
What is CSR ....................................................................................................................................... 273
The four types of CSR ........................................................................................................................ 273
The benefits for organisations from CSR .......................................................................................... 274
7.3 Organisation change ....................................................................................................................... 274
Why organisational change needs to be effectively managed ......................................................... 274
Use of the Kubler-Ross Change Curve to manage the change process ............................................ 275
Key principles of managing organisational change........................................................................... 278
8.1 Contractors Supply chains............................................................................................................... 279
Selection of contractors .................................................................................................................... 279
Managing health and safety within supply chains ............................................................................ 280
Why modern slavery must be managed within supply chains ......................................................... 282

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1.1 Socio-legal models

The role, function and limitations of legislation as a means of promoting positive health and
safety outcomes
Regulation of Health and Safety is globally variable. There are different frameworks used across the world
when addressing the issue of regulation.
Different States therefore take different approaches to
• Legislation
• Regulation
• Enforcement
In the European Union, Member States have enforcing

authorities to ensure that the basic legal requirements
relating to occupational safety and health are met. In
many EU countries, there is strong cooperation between
employer and worker organisations (e.g. unions) to ensure good occupational health and safety
performance as it is recognised this has benefits for both the worker and the enterprise. The European
Agency for Safety and Health at Work was founded in 1996 to cooperate with EU States on these issues.
Europe has incorporated another layer of legislation through the issue of Directives; above the Member
State's own legislation. These Directives are legally binding on each Member State and the hierarchy of
implementation is similar to the United States federal and individual state system of legislation.
In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been regulating
occupational safety and health since 1971. Regulation of a limited number of specifically defined
industries was in place for several decades before that, and broad regulations by some of the individual
states were in place for many years prior to the establishment of OSHA.
In Canada, workers are covered by provincial or federal labour codes depending on the sector in which
they work. The Canada Labour Code covers workers covered by federal legislation, all other workers are
covered by the health and safety legislation of the province in which they work. An Act of Parliament
created the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), an agency of the Government
of Canada, in 1978. The act was based on the belief that all Canadians had "...a fundamental right to a
healthy and safe working environment." CCOHS is authorized to promote safe and healthy workplaces to
help prevent work-related injuries and illnesses.
In Malaysia, the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) under the Ministry of Human
Resource is responsible to ensure that the safety, health and welfare of workers in both the public and
private sector are supported. DOSH is responsible to enforce the Factory and Machinery Act 1969 and the
Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994.
In general, the "laws" concerning health and safety is to derive from ratified legislation or regulations,
supported by codes of practice and standards. In some areas of the world, such as South East Asia, it is

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compulsory to formally adopt a recognised Health and Safety Management system. Approved auditors
monitor these systems impartially.
According to HSG65, although some specific health and safety legislation requires auditing, there is no
general legal requirement to audit. Similarly there is no legal requirement to give ‘tool-box talks’.
What are ‘goal-setting’ and ‘prescriptive’ legal models; the advantages and disadvantages of
each
Goal (aim) setting legislation is concerned with the promotion of self-regulation. To this end, it is not
prescriptive. It sets goals and requires employers and others to manage health and safety so that they
achieve them. It allows for flexibility in safety and those who are responsible are allowed to use their
knowledge of activities to design the best controls for hazards
In Europe, there has been a move away from prescriptive legislation to employer self-regulation via risk
assessment. Other countries, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway have developed similar
self-regulation mechanisms.
In Finland, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Korea, China, Mexico, Costa Rica and Poland (to name but a few),
the ILO-OSH 2001 system has been adopted. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is a United
Nations agency concerned with employment welfare. ILO-OSH 2001 offers a recommended occupational
health and safety management system. However, it is not intended to replace national laws, regulations
and accepted standards. The ILO recognizes that a management system can only be successful when
operated in conjunction with a national policy for health and safety.
Advantages of goal-setting Legislation
• There can be less legislation which is more generic and less detailed
• It needs much less amendment and updating
• It can be supplemented by Regulations which are quick and easy to make
• The necessary detailed guidance can be contained in Codes of Practice or Guidance Notes.
Disadvantages of goal-setting legislation
• There is a risk that employers will not realise what is expected of them.
• Employers may feel that they can get away with the minimum compliance, since there
are no prescriptive requirements.
A prescriptive approach ‘prescribes’ exactly what a duty-holder must do in relation to a particular

circumstance; they are essentially safety rules. Examples of prescriptive clauses that may be the
requirement of the law include:
• Every part of transmission machinery shall be securely fenced

• No driving-belt when not in use shall be allowed to rest or ride upon a revolving shaft
which forms part of the transmission machinery

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• All power driven portable and handheld tools shall have their operating controls so
located as to minimise the possibility of their accidental operation if such an accidental
operation would constitute a hazard to the worker or other persons.
Advantages of prescriptive legislation
• The approach directly addresses hazards that are foreseeable and which ordinarily would
be addressed by tried and tested ‘rules’. This is especially so where there are limited
alternatives as to how the hazard can be managed.
• Secondly, small-scale operators can favor this approach because it gives them a cheaper
avenue to adhere to OH&S issues. Smaller operators may struggle more than their larger
counterparts to implement the other frameworks that require proactive and more
systematic management of OH&S at their sites
Disadvantages of prescriptive legislation
• It has a tendency to develop into very long and detailed legislation and regulation that
can become unwieldy for both the industry and the regulator to implement.
• It is hard to keep up to date; traditionally, legislation and regulation lag behind
advancements in the industry by many years.
• It is impractical to have a rule for every circumstance.
• Enforcement by the regulator tends to become focused on looking for breaches of these
specific rules, at the expense of focusing on systemic or underlying problems (a situation
akin to focusing on symptoms not the underlying causes).
It tends to engender a passive ‘check-list’ type approach to OH&S on the part of mine management, and
even the regulator.
Legal hierarchy of state and federal laws and their application to health and safety law
Understanding the hierarchy of laws helps with developing a clear and consistent legal and regulatory
OHS framework, by ensuring the appropriate content and detail is contained in each level of hierarchy. In
terms of the basic elements of the hierarchy, a constitution states the grounding legal and democratic
principles that its government is obligated to uphold, and because of this is considered the supreme law
in a country to which all other laws must adhere.
A statute is a law enacted by a legislature to govern society, and its authority is derived from the
constitution or founding document of a country, which authorizes the legislature to enact it. Regulations
are issued under the authority of a statute by a division of the government or by a special body. For this
reason, they are sometimes referred to as “delegated” legislation, and they provide administrative and
technical detail to carry out the purpose of the statute. Finally, procedures describe the required steps
necessary to complete a process, and are generally written by an administrative body to ensure that the
law and regulations are applied consistently and fairly to all parties.

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The Hierarchy of Laws

Constitution • Establishes the innate characteristics of the country and its sovereignty;
outlines the rights and responsibilities of its citizens – as such it is the
supreme law
• Establishes the country’s governance structure
• All other laws must adhere to the constitution
• The constitution should reflect and adhere to a country’s international
obligations
International • Trans-border agreements that have different impacts on the country’s law,
laws depending on the treaty language and the way a country’s constitution
manages them
• Sometimes only a limited degree of compliance with treaties, and some
treaties that enshrine fundamental rights are not always followed through
in the signatory nation’s constitution, or through domestic enforcement
• No legal way to enforce compliance, unless the treaty sets up a dispute
resolution process
Statutes / • Statutes are enacted by the legislative branch of government, and govern
Legislation a wide range of issues that require regulation
• Must adhere to the constitution and international law
• Amended by the same process as first enacted, and enforced by a country’s
enforcement agencies.
Common Law / • Common law is law made by the courts, not legislature, and is not a level of
Case Law hierarchy
• It consists of the judgments of courts, to interpret the wording of statute
law, to protect the principles of natural justice, to fill a gap in the law, or to
deal with an unforeseen situation not covered by statute
• A judgment of a court may award damages, punishment, sanction or other
remedial action, enforced by a country’s enforcement agencies.
Regulations • A form of delegated legislation, developed and enacted by ministers,
department heads, or by an independent body or commission, to
administer their responsibilities
• Must adhere to the constitution, international law, and governing statute,
and can be enforced in the same way as statutory law
• Provide detail on the administration of principles in the law
• A violation of a regulation can be treated as an offense and enforced as
such
Procedures • A procedure is a description of the required steps necessary to complete a
process
• Procedures are generally written by an administrative body to ensure that
the law and regulations are applied consistently and fairly to all parties
• Enforcement of a procedure is generally achieved by requesting
compliance as a condition of completing a process or receiving a benefit
Code of conduct • A written set of rules, principles or standards to govern the behavior of
certain groups

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• Enforcement of codes of conduct depends on whether they are considered

“soft” or “hard” law. Codes of conduct are considered “soft law” when they
are not passed by a lawmaking body and thus rely on voluntary compliance.
Guidelines, • Terms such as “guidelines” and “instructions” are uncertain in meaning and
Instructions, and can result in ambiguity, particularly with regard to enforceability
Policies • “Policies” are broad, informative statements of intent regarding principles
to be followed, priority of programs
• These should not be used as if they were elements of the structure of the
hierarchy of laws.
Loss events in terms of failures in the duty of care to protect individuals and the compensatory
mechanisms that may be available to them
Most civil cases are settled out of court, often under a confidentiality agreement. This is usually the result
of negotiation between insurers and lawyers. Often the settlement reflects both the need of the claimant
to get some recompense quickly and the defendant's realisation that costs as well as damages will be
payable if unsuccessful in defending an action.
Failure to protect individuals in health and safety aspects may result in personal injury. The Claimant in
an action to recover compensation may claim a "loss". There are different types of "loss" which result in
payment of compensation known as "damages".
Pecuniary loss compares a claimant's financial position before and after the tort or wrong occurred. It
consists of:
• Pretrial expenses i.e. all the expenses reasonably incurred as a result of the accident from the
time it occurred up to the time of the hearing, such as medical expenses;
• Pretrial loss of earnings;
• Future loss of earnings (which can be speculative).
Non-pecuniary loss looks at other losses less easy to quantify.
• Awards for pain and suffering are based on the severity of the injury. There are generally
adopted systems of tariffs. This head of damages can include mental suffering due to
shortened life expectation or inability to live life to the full.
The characterisation of a no-fault scheme is rooted in the principle of distributive justice, compensating
victims without having to establish causation and fault. Conversely, current liability for negligence involves
fault considerations based on legal theoretical concepts determined through judicial precedent, which are
inherently limited within the confines of the established legal principles of duty of care, proximity and
negligence.
A system of "no-fault" liability would be likely to offer:
• More consistency in damages

• More cost-efficient and quicker

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• More just outcomes; fault-based actions can fail simply because it is not possible to prove the
fault adequately
• Less likelihood of out-of-court settlement, which favors large corporations and their insurers.
Surprisingly enough, there are some disadvantages;
• More cases going to court. At present, the difficulty in proving fault in some cases keeps them
out of court. No-fault liability could encourage litigation.
• Less satisfying to the claimant. In many cases the claimant needs the satisfaction of having a
court determine fault on the defendant.
This concept of “moral values” underpins the current fault based liability for negligence in the framework
of a system of “corrective justice”. The fundamental difference between the corrective system and the no
fault system of distributive justice relates to the legal approach to the structure of interactions. For
example, corrective justice centres on the “transaction” between two parties, whereas distributive justice
is rooted in a distribution whereby compensation is awarded to members of a group.
Whilst justifications for a corrective justice system are sound in principle, the problem is that the practical
approach of the legal concept of fault is far removed from the actual definition of fault and
blameworthiness, which begs the question as to whether the current justifications for fault based liability
in tort are valid
In recent decades, several key pieces of legislation have been passed, protecting both employees generally
and also workers exposed to particular risks. These include:
• Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974

• Electricity at Work Regulations 1989
• Manual Handling Regulations 1992
• Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992
• Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
• Working Time Regulations 1998
• Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999
• Work at Height Regulations 2005
• Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005
• Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005
• Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals Regulations 2007
• Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008
• Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013
• Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015

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Punitive damages
Punitive damages are not intended to be compensatory. They are awarded in order to reform or deter
pursuing a course of action such as a breach of health and safety procedure.
Punitive damages are often awarded where compensatory damages are deemed an inadequate remedy.
For their application, it must be argued that
• There has been oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional actions by the servants of

government
• A defendant's conduct was 'calculated' to make a self-profit and
• Where a statute expressly authorises the same.
It is noticeable that Australia and Canada, countries of the Commonwealth, are critical of these criteria
and have refused to follow them.
Elsewhere, Japanese courts do not award punitive damages as a matter of public policy and Japanese law
prohibits the enforcement of punitive damage awards obtained overseas.
In contrast, punitive damages are a settled principle of common law in the United States. They are a
matter of state law, and thus differ in application from state to state. In many states, including California
and Texas, punitive damages are determined based on statute: elsewhere, they may be determined solely
based on case law. Many state statutes are the result of insurance industry lobbying to impose "caps" on
punitive damages; however, several state courts have struck down these statutory caps as
unconstitutional.
In response to judges and juries which award high punitive damages verdicts, the United States Supreme
Court has made several decisions which limit awards of punitive damages through the due process of law
clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. In a number of cases, the Court has
indicated that a 4:1 ratio between punitive and compensatory damages is broad enough to lead to a
finding of constitutional impropriety, and that any ratio of 10:1 or higher is almost certainly
unconstitutional.
In BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore (1996), the Court ruled that punitive damages must be reasonable,
as determined based on the degree of reprehensibility of the conduct, the ratio of punitive damages to
compensatory damages, and any criminal or civil penalties applicable to the conduct.
Most recently, in Philip Morris USA v. Williams (2007), the Court ruled that punitive damage awards must
be limited to the harm caused to the individual plaintiffs involved in the litigation at hand, although harm
to others may be a criterion in determining the reprehensibility of the defendants' conduct.

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1.2 Enforcement
The purpose of enforcement
Enforcement of the safety provisions of the Acts is primarily the responsibility of trading standards officers
of local authorities. Enforcement officers have authority to make test purchases, seize, enter premises for
the purpose of ascertaining whether there has been a breach of safety provisions of the Act and bring
prosecutions. They can also issue suspension notices prohibiting suppliers from selling goods, which they
believe breach safety legislation.
There are three types of notices that can be served:
• Prohibition notice -this notice can be served in respect of any unsafe goods prohibiting
supply, offer or agreement to supply, or exposing or possessing for supply.
• Notice to warn - this notice can be served and requires the publication of warnings about
unsafe goods.
• Suspension notice - this notice can be served and prohibits for a period not exceeding six
months, supply, offer or agreement to supply, or exposing for supply, any goods in respect
of which there is reasonable ground to suspect the contravention of any safety provision.
The principles of enforcement with reference to the British HSE’s Enforcement policy
statement (HSE41)
Proportionality of enforcement
HSE (Health and Safety Executive) defines the approach of proportionality of enforcement in the policy
statement as;
We adopt a proportionate approach to enforcing the law across different industries and sectors,
recognising the importance of supporting businesses to comply and grow. In our dealings with duty
holders, we will ensure that our enforcement action is proportionate to the health and safety risks and to
the seriousness of any breach of the law. This includes any actual or potential harm arising from any
breach, and the economic impact of the action taken. We expect that duty holders, in turn, will adopt a
sensible and proportionate approach to managing health and safety, focusing on significant risks i.e. those
with the potential to cause real harm. Applying the principle of proportionality means that our inspectors
should take particular account of how far duty holders have fallen short of what the law requires and the
extent of the risks created.
Some health and safety duties are specific and absolute. Others require action “so far as is reasonably
practicable”. Our inspectors will apply the principle of proportionality in relation to both. Deciding what
is reasonably practicable to control risk involves the exercise of judgment. Our inspectors, when
considering the adequacy of the protective measures taken, will balance the degree of risk against the
money, time or trouble needed to avert that risk. Unless it can be shown that there is a gross disproportion
between these factors and that the risk is insignificant in relation to the cost, duty holders must take
measures and incur costs to reduce the risk and comply with the law. Some irreducible risks, particularly

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in the major hazard sectors, may be so serious that they cannot be permitted irrespective of the
consequences.
Consistency of approach
HSE (Health and Safety Executive) defines the approach of consistency of approach in the policy statement
as;
We adopt a consistent approach to enforcement of the law across different industries and workplaces,
recognising the importance of fair treatment to all in promoting and sustaining economic growth.
Consistency of approach does not mean uniformity. It means taking a similar approach in similar
circumstances to achieve compliance with the law.
We understand that people managing similar risks in similar industries expect a consistent approach from
our inspectors when taking enforcement action. However, consistency is not a simple matter. Every
situation is different – by virtue of the industry, workplace, its risks, management systems etc. As a result,
our inspectors are faced with many variables in addition to the degree of risk and the seriousness of any
breach, including the attitude and competence of management, incident history and previous
enforcement action.
Any enforcement decision therefore requires the appropriate exercise of individual discretion and
professional judgement. We aim to ensure, through the application of our enforcement decision-making
framework, the Enforcement Management Model (EMM) and through peer review, that our enforcement
decisions are consistent. Where enforcement action conflicts with the requirements of other regulators
we will work with them to resolve the differences.
Transparency
HSE (Health and Safety Executive) defines the approach of transparency in the policy statement as;
Our enforcement action should clearly outline to duty holders not only what they have to do but, where
relevant, what they don’t. Further guidance on complying with health and safety law can be found on the
HSE website. Where non-compliance has been identified, our inspectors will clearly and promptly explain
the decision taken, their reasons, and the actions required to achieve compliance. They will discuss
reasonable timescales with the duty holder and explain what will happen if they fail to comply.
Additionally, our inspectors will differentiate between the actions required to comply with the law, and
advice given to achieve good practice or inform of upcoming changes to legal requirements. This will
ensure that unnecessary economic burdens are not imposed on businesses. Transparency also involves
keeping employees, employee representatives, injured persons and their families informed of relevant
enforcement action. However, this is subject to legal constraints on disclosure

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1.3 The International Labour Organization and its conventions and

recommendations
The role of the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an international organisation whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation
in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights
issues.
It was founded in 1945 at the signing of the United Nations Charter by 50 countries, replacing the League
of Nations, founded in 1919.
The UN was founded after the end of World War II by the victorious Allied Powers in the hope that it
would act to intervene in conflicts between nations and thereby avoid war. The organisation's structure
still reflects in some ways the circumstances of its founding.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, each of which has veto power on any UN
resolution, are the main victors of World War II or their successor states:
1. People's Republic of China (which replaced the Republic of China).

2. The French Republic.
3. The Russian Federation (which replaced the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).
4. The United Kingdom.
5. The United States of America.
As of 2010, there are 192 United Nations member states, encompassing almost every recognised
independent state. From its headquarters in New York City, the UN and its specialised agencies decide on
substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout each year.
The organisation is divided into administrative bodies, including
• The General Assembly

• Security Council
• Economic and Social Council
• Secretariat
• Trusteeship Council
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ).
International Labour Organisation
The International Labour organisation (ILO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations that deals with
labour issues. Its headquarters are in Geneva. Founded in 1919, it was formed through the negotiations
of the Treaty of Versailles, and was initially an agency of the League of Nations. It became a member of
the UN system after the demise of the League and the formation of the UN at the end of World War II. Its
Constitution, as amended to date, includes the Declaration of Philadelphia (1944) on the aims and
purposes of the organisation. Its secretariat is known as the International Labour Office.

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As stated by its Director-General, the primary goal of the ILO today is to promote opportunities for women
and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human
dignity. In working towards this goal, the organisation seeks to promote employment creation, strengthen
fundamental principles and rights at work, improve social protection and promote social dialogue as well
as provide relevant information, training and technical assistance. At present, the ILO's work is organised
into four thematic groupings or sectors:
1. Standards and fundamental principles and rights at work

2. Employment
3. Social Protection
4. Social Dialogue
International Labour Conference
The International Labour Conference is a yearly event, held each June in Geneva and is hosted by the
International Labour Organisation. The conference makes decisions on the organisation's general policy,
work programme and budget and creates conventions and recommendations that are adopted by
majority decision.
Member states are represented at the conference by four delegates; two government delegates, an
employer delegate and a worker delegate. All delegates have individual voting rights, and all votes are
equal, regardless of the population of the delegate's member state. The employer and worker delegates
are normally chosen in agreement with the most representative national organisations of employers and
workers. Usually, the worker delegates coordinate their voting, as do the employer delegates.
The ILO has a specialist programme addressing child labour, the International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).
HIV/AIDS: Under the name ILOAIDS, the ILO created the Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of
work as a document providing principles for "policy development and practical guidelines for programmes
at enterprise, community and national levels." These include:
• Prevention of HIV
• Management and mitigation of the impact of AIDS on the world of work
• Care and support of workers infected and affected by HIV/AIDS
• Elimination of stigma and discrimination on the basis of real or perceived HIV status.
Nobel Peace Prize: The organisation received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969.
International Training Centre: The ILO maintains an International Training Centre in Turin, Italy.
Personnel Policy: The International Labour organisation is an agency belonging to the United Nations
system, and as such shares common conditions of employment with other agencies.

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Status of ILO conventions and recommendations
Adoption of Conventions
One of the principal functions of the ILO involves setting international labour standards through the
adoption of Conventions and Recommendations covering a broad spectrum of labour-related subjects
and which, together, are sometimes referred to as the International Labour Code.
Adoption of a Convention by the International Labour Conference allows governments to ratify it, and the
Convention then becomes a treaty in international law when specified number of governments have
ratified it.
Ratification of Conventions
The coming into force of a Convention results in a legal obligation to apply its provisions by the nations
that have ratified it. Ratification of a Convention is voluntary. Conventions that have not been ratified by
member states have the same legal force as Recommendations. Governments are required to submit
reports detailing their compliance with the obligations of the Conventions they have ratified. Every year,
the International Labour Conference's Committee on the Application of Standards examines a number of
alleged breaches of international labour standards. In recent years, one of the member states that has
received the most attention is Myanmar/Burma, as the country has repeatedly been criticised for its
failure to protect its citizens against forced labour exacted by the army.
All adopted ILO Conventions are considered international labour standards, regardless of how many
national governments have ratified them. The topics covered by them cover a wide range of issues, from
freedom of association to health and safety at work, working conditions in the maritime sector, night
work, discrimination, child labour and forced labour.
Recommendations
Recommendations do not have the binding force of Conventions, and are not subject to ratification by
member countries. Recommendations may be adopted at the same time as Conventions to supplement
the latter with additional or more detailed provisions. The intent of these recommendations is often to
more precisely detail the principles of related Conventions. In other cases recommendations may be
adopted separately, and address issues not covered by, or unrelated to any particular Convention.
ILO Codes of Practice
Codes of practice are not legally binding instruments and are intended for all those with a responsibility
for occupational safety and health and contain practical recommendations. The Codes of practice are not
intended to replace national laws, regulations or standards, but serve as practical guidelines for all parties
concerned including authorities, services, employers and employees.

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The roles and responsibilities of ‘International governments’, ‘enterprises’ and ‘workers’

Responsibilities of national governments
The Occupational Safety and Health Convention C155 details the responsibilities of member countries in
Articles 4, 8 to 15 below:
Article 4
1. Each Member shall, in the light of national conditions and practice, and in consultation with the
most representative organisations of employers and workers, formulate, implement and
periodically review a coherent national policy on occupational safety, occupational health and the
working environment.
2. The aim of the policy shall be to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked with
or occurring in the course of work, by minimising, so far as is reasonably practicable, the causes
of hazards inherent in the working environment.
Article 8
Each Member shall, by laws or regulations or any other method consistent with national conditions and
practice and in consultation with the representative organisations of employers and workers concerned,
take such steps as may be necessary to give effect to Article 4 of this Convention.
Article 9
1. The enforcement of laws and regulations concerning occupational safety and health and the
working environment shall be secured by an adequate and appropriate system of inspection.
2. The enforcement system shall provide for adequate penalties for violations of the laws and
regulations.
Article 10
Measures shall be taken to provide guidance to employers and workers so as to help them to comply with
legal obligations.
Article 11
To give effect to the policy referred to in Article 4 of this Convention, the competent authority or
authorities shall ensure that the following functions are progressively carried out:
a) The determination, where the nature and degree of hazards so require, of conditions governing
the design, construction and layout of undertakings, the commencement of their operations,
major alterations affecting them and changes in their purposes, the safety of technical equipment
used at work, as well as the application of procedures defined by the competent authorities;
b) The determination of work processes and of substances and agents the exposure to which is to
be prohibited, limited or made subject to authorisation or control by the competent authority or
authorities; health hazards due to the simultaneous exposure to several substances or agents
shall be taken into consideration;

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c) The establishment and application of procedures for the notification of occupational accidents
and diseases, by employers and, when appropriate, insurance institutions and others directly
concerned, and the production of annual statistics on occupational accidents and diseases;
d) The holding of inquiries, where cases of occupational accidents, occupational diseases or any
other injuries to health which arise in the course of or in connection with work appear to reflect
situations which are serious;
e) The publication, annually, of information on measures taken in pursuance of the policy referred
to in Article 4 of this Convention and on occupational accidents, occupational diseases and other
injuries to health which arise in the course of or in connection with work;
f) The introduction or extension of systems, taking into account national conditions and possibilities,
to examine chemical, physical and biological agents in respect of the risk to the health of workers.
Article 12
Measures shall be taken, in accordance with national law and practice, with a view to ensuring that those
who design, manufacture, import, provide or transfer machinery, equipment or substances for
occupational use--
a) Satisfy themselves that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the machinery, equipment or sub-
stance does not entail dangers for the safety and health of those using it correctly;
b) Make available information concerning the correct installation and use of machinery and
equipment and the correct use of substances, and information on hazards of machinery and
equipment and dangerous properties of chemical substances and physical and biological agents
or products, as well as instructions on how known hazards are to be avoided;
c) Undertake studies and research or otherwise keep abreast of the scientific and technical
knowledge necessary to comply with subparagraphs (a) and (b) of this Article.
Article 13
A worker who has removed himself from a work situation which he has reasonable justification to believe
presents an imminent and serious danger to his life or health shall be protected from undue
consequences in accordance with national conditions and practice.
Article 14
Measures shall be taken with a view to promoting in a manner appropriate to national conditions and
practice, the inclusion of questions of occupational safety and health and the working environment at all
levels of education and training, including higher technical, medical and professional education, in a
manner meeting the training needs of all workers.
Article 15
1- With a view to ensuring the coherence of the policy referred to in Article 4 of this Convention and
of measures for its application, each Member shall, after consultation at the earliest possible stage
with the most representative organisations of employers and workers, and with other bodies as
appropriate, make arrangements appropriate to national conditions and practice to ensure the

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necessary co-ordination between various authorities and bodies called upon to give effect to Parts
II and III of this Convention.
2- Whenever circumstances so require and national conditions and practice permit, these
arrangements shall include the establishment of a central body.
Enterprises
Under this Convention employers have many responsibilities including ensuring that so far as is reasonably
practicable, the workplaces, machinery, equipment and processes under their control are safe and
without risks to health. Whenever two or more employees are engaged in activities simultaneously at one
workplace, they must collaborate in meeting these requirements.
Workers
Workers are required to protect themselves and those around them who may also be at risk from harm.
They should co-operate with their employer and should receive adequate training and information to
ensure their occupational safety and health.
How International conventions can be used as a basis for setting International systems of
health and safety legislation
According to ILO C187:
Article 4
1. Each Member shall establish, maintain, progressively develop and periodically review a national
system for occupational safety and health, in consultation with the most representative
organizations of employers and workers.
2. The national system for occupational safety and health shall include among others:
(a) Laws and regulations, collective agreements where appropriate, and any other relevant
instruments on occupational safety and health;
(b) An authority or body, or authorities or bodies, responsible for occupational safety and health,
designated in accordance with national law and practice;
(c) Mechanisms for ensuring compliance with national laws and regulations, including systems of
inspection; and
(d) Arrangements to promote, at the level of the undertaking, cooperation between management,
workers and their representatives as an essential element of workplace-related prevention
measures.
3. The national system for occupational safety and health shall include, where appropriate:
(a) A national tripartite advisory body, or bodies, addressing occupational safety and health issues;
(b) Information and advisory services on occupational safety and health;

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(c) The provision of occupational safety and health training;
(d) Occupational health services in accordance with national law and practice;
(e) Research on occupational safety and health;
(f) A mechanism for the collection and analysis of data on occupational injuries and diseases,
taking into account relevant ILO instruments;
(g) Provisions for collaboration with relevant insurance or social security schemes covering
occupational injuries and diseases; and
(h) Support mechanisms for a progressive improvement of occupational safety and health
conditions in micro-enterprises, in small and medium-sized enterprises and in the informal
economy.
Article 5
1. Each Member shall formulate, implement, monitor, evaluate and periodically review a national
programme on occupational safety and health in consultation with the most representative
organizations of employers and workers.
2. The national programme shall:
(a) Promote the development of a national preventative safety and health culture;
(b) Contribute to the protection of workers by eliminating or minimizing, so far as is reasonably

practicable, work-related hazards and risks, in accordance with national law and practice, in order
to prevent occupational injuries, diseases and deaths and promote safety and health in the
workplace;
(c) Be formulated and reviewed on the basis of analysis of the national situation regarding
occupational safety and health, including analysis of the national system for occupational safety
and health;
(d) Include objectives, targets and indicators of progress; and
(e) Be supported, where possible, by other complementary national programmes and plans which
will assist in achieving progressively a safe and healthy working environment.
3. The national programme shall be widely publicized and, to the extent possible, endorsed and
launched by the highest national authorities.

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As per ILO R-197,
Article 5:
In promoting a national preventative safety and health culture, Members should seek:
a) To raise workplace and public awareness on occupational safety and health through national
campaigns linked with, where appropriate, workplace and international initiatives;
b) To promote mechanisms for delivery of occupational safety and health education and training, in
particular for management, supervisors, workers and their representatives and government
officials responsible for safety and health;
c) To introduce occupational safety and health concepts and, where appropriate, competencies, in
educational and vocational training programmes;
d) To facilitate the exchange of occupational safety and health statistics and data among relevant
authorities, employers, workers and their representatives;
e) To provide information and advice to employers and workers and their respective organizations
and to promote or facilitate cooperation among them with a view to eliminating or minimizing,
so far as is reasonably practicable, work-related hazards and risks;
f) To promote, at the level of the workplace, the establishment of safety and health policies and
joint safety and health committees and the designation of workers' occupational safety and health
representatives, in accordance with national law and practice; and
g) To address the constraints of micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises and
contractors in the implementation of occupational safety and health policies and regulations, in
accordance with national law and practice.
Article 14:
(1) The national profile on occupational safety and health should include information on the following
elements, as applicable:
(a) Laws and regulations, collective agreements where appropriate, and any other relevant
instruments on occupational safety and health;
(b) The authority or body, or the authorities or bodies, responsible for occupational safety and
health, designated in accordance with national law and practice;
(c) The mechanisms for ensuring compliance with national laws and regulations, including the
systems of inspection;
(d) The arrangements to promote, at the level of the undertaking, cooperation between
management, workers and their representatives as an essential element of workplace-related
prevention measures;
(e) The national tripartite advisory body, or bodies, addressing occupational safety and health
issues;
(f) The information and advisory services on occupational safety and health;

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(g) The provision of occupational safety and health training;
(h) The occupational health services in accordance with national law and practice;
(i) Research on occupational safety and health;
(j) The mechanism for the collection and analysis of data on occupational injuries and diseases
and their causes, taking into account relevant ILO instruments;
(k) The provisions for collaboration with relevant insurance or social security schemes covering
occupational injuries and diseases; and
(l) The support mechanisms for a progressive improvement of occupational safety and health
conditions in micro-enterprises, in small and medium-sized enterprises and in the informal
economy.
(2) In addition, the national profile on occupational safety and health should include information on
the following elements, where appropriate:
(a) Coordination and collaboration mechanisms at national and enterprise levels, including
national programme review mechanisms;
(b) Technical standards, codes of practice and guidelines on occupational safety and health;
(c) Educational and awareness-raising arrangements, including promotional initiatives;
(d) Specialized technical, medical and scientific institutions with linkages to various aspects of
occupational safety and health, including research institutes and laboratories concerned with
occupational safety and health;
(e) Personnel engaged in the area of occupational safety and health, such as inspectors, safety
and health officers, and occupational physicians and hygienists;
(f) Occupational injury and disease statistics;
(g) Occupational safety and health policies and programmes of organizations of employers and
workers;
(h) Regular or ongoing activities related to occupational safety and health, including international
collaboration;
(i) Financial and budgetary resources with regard to occupational safety and health; and
(j) Data addressing demography, literacy, economy and employment, as available, as well as any
other relevant information.

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1.4 Non-governmental bodies and health and safety standards

Influential parties and their role in influencing health and safety performance
In most countries around the world, you will find an infrastructure of dedicated occupational health and
safety professional bodies, governmental departments, employee representatives, trade unions and
individuals. Most of these have links with other countries, which have additional links. Occupational
Health and Safety, environmental matters, employee rights and human rights are of course intertwined
in many cases.
As an exercise, make notes of the topics you would need to address when discussing the matter of an
open cast mine in a third world country. Certainly, working conditions, workers' rights, the environmental
impact and of course the safety of those who work there and in the surrounding area would all need to
be considered.
The question is how can other countries influence and assist the less developed country in these matters,
if at all?
Employer bodies; trade associations
Certainly, governments can play a role and do in some cases. Trade Unions and Human Rights groups put
pressure on poor employers and governments who exploit workers. The media can also play a major role
in some circumstances.
Employers–that is, providers of work–are usually differentiated depending upon whether they are in the
private or the public sector. Historically, trade unionism and collective bargaining developed first in the
private sector, but in recent years these phenomena have spread to many public sector settings as well.
Employers have common interests to defend and precise causes to advance. In organizing themselves,
they pursue several aims which in turn determine the character of their organizations. These can be
chambers of commerce, economic federations and employers’ organizations (for social and labour
matters). Where issues centre essentially on social matters and industrial relations, including collective
bargaining, occupational health and safety, human resource development, labour law and wages, the
desire for coordinated action has led to the creation of employers’ organizations, which are always
voluntary in nature.
Some employers’ organizations were initially established in response to pressure from the trade unions
to negotiate, but others may be traced to medieval guilds or other groups founded to defend particular
market interests. Employers’ organizations have been described as formal groups of employers set up to
defend, represent and advise affiliated employers and to strengthen their position in society at large with
respect to labour matters as distinct from economic matters. Unlike trade unions, which are composed of
individual persons, employers’ organizations are composed of enterprises.
The structure of employers’ organizations will depend not only on the level at which bargaining is done,
but also on the country’s size, political system and sometimes religious traditions. In developing countries,
the main challenge has been the integration of a very heterogeneous membership that may include small

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and medium-sized businesses, state enterprises and subsidiaries of multinational corporations. The
strength of an employers’ organization is reflected in the resources its members are willing to devote to
it, whether in the form of dues and contributions or in terms of their expertise and time.
The size of an enterprise is a major determinant in its approach to labour relations, with the employer of
a small workforce being more likely to rely on informal means for dealing with its workers. Small and
medium-sized enterprises, which are variously defined, sometimes fall under the threshold for legally
mandated workers’ participation schemes.
A representative for health and safety at work may be elected by employees to ensure their right to
information and to discuss matters related to this area. The total number of these representatives
depends on the total number of employees working with the employer and on the degree of risk of the
undertaken work. The term of office is determined by the election of this representative at defined
interval and the termination of his or her term.
Trade unions
The classic definition of a trade union as given by ILO is “a continuous association of wage earners for the
purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment”. Trade unions reflect the
conviction that only by banding together can workers improve their situation. Trade union rights were
born out of economic and political struggle which saw short-term individual sacrifice in the cause of
longer-term collective gain. They have often played an important role in national politics and have
influenced developments in the world of work at the regional and international levels.
The functions fulfilled by trade unions are, like employers’ organizations, basically the following: defence
and promotion of the members’ interests; political representation; and provision of services to members.
The flip side of trade unions’ representative function is their control function: their legitimacy depends in
part upon the ability to exert discipline over the membership, as for example in calling or ending a strike.
The trade unions’ constant challenge is to increase their density, that is, the number of members as a
percentage of the formal sector workforce. The members of trade unions are individuals; their dues, called
contributions in some systems, support the union’s activities. Affiliation is generally a matter of an
individual’s voluntary decision, although some unions that have been able to win closed shop or union
security arrangements are considered to be the representatives of all workers covered by a particular
collective bargaining agreement (i.e., in countries where trade unions are recognized as representatives
of workers in a circumscribed bargaining unit). Trade unions may be affiliated to umbrella organizations
at the industrial, national, regional and international levels. Unions in different countries have brought
significant changes to society, including:
• A national minimum wage

• The abolition of child labour
• Improved worker safety
• Improving living standards by reducing the number of hours in the working week and encouraging
a healthy work/life balance
• Improved parental leave

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• Equality legislation
• Better protection of migrant workers and a reduction in exploitation
• Minimum holiday and sickness entitlements.
Professional groups
We have provided many links to safety organisations around the world. You may need to consider those
local to you and gain an understanding of their influence, both locally and globally.
Each of these has, of course, a great deal of local influence, both in prescriptive terms in the way of setting
and enforcing legislation and statutory requirements and in terms of providing an advisory and
consultation services.
Reading through this section of the learning material, you will see how they have had an influence on each
other, either directly or indirectly.
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH): The Occupational Safety and
Health Act of 1970 created both NIOSH and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA). OSHA is in the U.S. Department of Labour and is responsible for developing and enforcing
workplace safety and health regulations. NIOSH is in the U.S Department of Health and Human
Services and is an agency established to help assure safe and healthy working conditions for
working men and women by providing research, information, education, and training in the field
of occupational safety and health.
Information pertaining to the responsibilities of NIOSH are found in Section 22 of the Occupational
Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 CFR § 671). The Institute is authorised to:
• Develop recommendations for occupational safety and health standards
• Perform all functions of the Secretary of Health and Human Services under Sections 20
and 21 of the Act
• Conduct Research on Worker Safety and Health (Section 20)
• Conduct Training and Employee Education (Section 21)
• Develop information on safe levels of exposure to toxic materials and harmful physical
agents and substances
• Conduct research on new safety and health problems
• Conduct on-site investigations (Health Hazard Evaluations) to determine the toxicity of
materials used in workplaces (42 CFR Parts 85 and 85a)
• Fund research by other agencies or private organisations through grants, contracts, and
other arrangements.
The Federal Mine Safety and Health Amendments Act of 1977 delegated additional authority to
NIOSH for coalmine health research. The mine health and safety law authorised NIOSH to:
• Develop recommendations for mine health standards for the Mine Safety and Health
Administration;
• Administer a medical surveillance programme for miners, including chest X-rays to detect
pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) in coal miners;

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• Conduct on-site investigations in mines similar to those authorised for general industry
under the OSH Act; and
• Test and certify personal protective equipment and hazard-measurement instruments.
NIOSH provides national and world leadership to prevent work-related illness, injury, disability
and death by gathering information, conducting scientific research and translating the knowledge
gained into products and services. NIOSH's mission is critical to the health and safety of every
American worker. Each day, an average of 9,000 U.S. workers sustain disabling injuries on the job,
16 workers die from an injury suffered at work, and 137 workers die from work-related diseases.
The Liberty Mutual 2005 Workplace Safety Index estimates that employers spent $50.8 billion in
2003 on wage payments and medical care for workers hurt on the job.
• Health & Safety Executive: Their job is

• To protect everyone in Great Britain against risks to health or safety arising out of work
activities
• To conduct and sponsor research
• Promote training
• Provide an information and advisory service
• Submit proposals for new or revised regulations and approved codes of practice.
They also have a specific duty to maintain the Employment Medical Advisory Service, which
provides advice on occupational health matters.
This is achieved with the help of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, interests and
experience brought together through a network of advisory committees. They actively encourage
feedback from the public - and make special efforts to seek the views of small firms.
The Health and Safety Executive is also responsible for health and safety regulation in Great
Britain. HSE and local government are the enforcing authorities who work together to ensure that
health and safety legislation and regulations are observed. Their mission is to protect people's
health and safety by ensuring risks in the changing workplace, are properly controlled.
They look after health and safety in nuclear installations and mines, factories, farms, hospitals and
schools, offshore gas and oil installations, the safety of the gas grid and the movement of
dangerous goods and substances and many other aspects of the protection both of workers and
the public. Local authorities are responsible to HSE for enforcement in offices, shops and other
parts of the services sector. The HSE is sponsored by the Department of Work and Pensions and
is ultimately accountable to the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Work and Pensions.
• Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH): IOSH is Europe's leading body for health and
safety professionals. As an independent and not- for-profit organisation, they aim to regulate and
steer the profession, maintaining standards and providing impartial, authoritative guidance on
health and safety issues. They believe that offering communicated expert advice from competent
safety and health practitioners is an essential component in defining the safety, health and
welfare policies of employers. By encouraging, facilitating and leading communication of good

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practices and expertise, they aim to promote awareness of health and safety matters in the
workplace and ensure that high standards are achieved, and maintained.
IOSH is the conduit for knowledge, opinion and research on many important matters affecting the
health and safety profession, and is often consulted by government departments for members'
views on draft legislation, codes of practice and other government initiatives.
They aim to ensure that members have a strong and effective voice which influences health and
safety related issues with governments, employers and trades unions. IOSH aims to increase its
contribution within the European Community and explore ways in which it can more directly
influence European directives and guidance. They also aim to work with committees of national
and international standards-making bodies, advancing research and pro-actively assisting the
dissemination of knowledge throughout the wider European community and accession states.
• European Network of Safety and Health Practitioner Organisations: ENSHPO (www.enshpo.org)

was established in 2001. The members of the Network are health and safety practitioner
organisations from the current EU member states, new member states, applicant countries, and
other European countries.
• INSHPO - International Network of Safety and Health Practitioner Organisations: INSHPO
(www.inshpo.org) is a non-profit organisation and exists to bring together generalist professional
safety and health practitioner organisations throughout the world in order to reduce, minimise or
eliminate the exposure of humans to risks connected with work activities.
• POOSH - Professional Organisations in Occupational Safety and Health: POOSH
(www.poosh.org) exists to promote the continuous improvement of the practice of occupational
safety and health through education, communication and the encouragement of cooperation
between all persons and agencies involved in the provision of a healthy and safe working
environment.
• Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents: RoSPA is a registered charity established over 80
years ago and aims to campaign for change, influence opinion, contribute to debate, educate and
inform - for the good of all. By providing information, advice, resources and training, RoSPA is
actively involved in the promotion of safety and the prevention of accidents in all areas of life - at
work, in the home, and on the roads, in schools, at leisure and on (or near) water.
In order to give a clearer picture of some of the key understandings which inform its approach to
safety, RoSPA has developed fifteen Safety Points, both as a guide to outside organisations and
as an aide memoire to its own trustees, staff, members and supporters.
The Society works towards its aims with central and local government, the caring services, the
police and with public and private sector organisations large and small. Some of its work is funded
by grant and sponsorship but mostly relies on the support of its growing membership. As well as
contributing to RoSPA's valuable work, members enjoy a range of benefits from journal
subscription to course discounts. RoSPA featured prominently in the media with its views on
issues such as speed cameras, drink- driving, mini-motorbikes, thermostatic mixing valves and
Christmas safety, featuring on television and radio and in the national press. Specialist magazines
carried articles about RoSPA, including a spread in Auto Express on Driver Profiler and a feature
on RoSPA's views on road safety laws in The House Magazine, which circulates in Parliament.
RoSPA's own journals continued to be an important source of information for safety professionals.

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RoSPA was heavily involved in the launch of Safety Groups UK. This was formed out of the National
Health and Safety Groups Council, a body representing around 80 community-based groups,
which give advice to small and medium-sized businesses in their area. The groups reach out to
small businesses in local communities to help create a safer workplace and have signed a
partnership agreement with HSE.
Pressure groups and public
In Great Britain, consumers are becoming more and more aware of the influence they have with suppliers
of consumer products. As an example of this, marble and other natural stone products have increased in
popularity for use as work surfaces, flooring and decorative features in the home. Recently (2006) the
media, television, newspapers and radio have presented articles of the poor working condition at some
of the quarries where the stone originated. As a result, labels are now posted on those products where
working conditions at the quarries and supply chains have improved. Consumers now have a choice and
many are paying the additional premium as they struggle with their conscience.
Challenges to OHS
As in many other EU Member States, small firms (defined by the UK's Department of Trade and Industry -
DTI - in the UK context as employing fewer than 50 employees) play an increasingly important part in the
economic life of the UK. They account for some 3.5 million businesses (99 per cent of all firms) and about
45 per cent of all private sector employment.
The growth in the number of small firms in recent years has been associated with a number of trends,
including the restructuring of traditional industrial sectors, contracting out by large firms of non-core
business activities and the growth of self-employment and in the number of micro- businesses (fewer than
five employees). Also, many large organisations have restructured as small independent cost centres
which, in practice, function like smaller firms. Although the survival rate for business start-ups is still
relatively low, small firms are viewed as a major source of new employment. These trends have led to an
increasing recognition by Government and regulatory agencies of the need to modify approaches to
regulation and business assistance to create a positive environment for business survival and
development.
In 1996, the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out a consultation initiative aimed at small firms,
which received an unprecedented response from small businesses themselves. It demonstrated on the
whole that, in contrast to views expressed by some small firms' organisations, SMEs themselves were not
opposed to health and safety law but required assistance to interpret it and develop appropriate
responses.

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This consultation exercise and subsequent work undertaken by HSE and others confirmed that small firms
face a number of distinct challenges when dealing with OS&H issues.
• Accident rates are generally higher (on average in manufacturing in firms employing fewer than
50 the rate of fatal accidents is roughly twice that in firms employing 1000+).
• Nevertheless, in any particular small firm, the average interval between accidents and incidents
can be long, meaning no corporate memory of accidental harm.
• The lean management structure in most SMEs (owner/managers running all aspects of the
business themselves) means there is little time to focus on health and safety in detail.
• The business is likely to have other pressing priorities including finance, sales, meeting deadlines
as well as a raft of other regulatory requirements covering taxation, employment, environmental
requirements and so on.
• Many small businesses have a relatively short life meaning insufficient time to mature and
establish necessary systems and skills.
• Those in charge may not have had any specific OS&H training and may not have access to specialist
advice and services.
• Both owners and employees may be ignorant of hazards, risks and control measures ('not knowing
what they don't know').
• They are unlikely to be part of business networks and rely on informal, word-of mouth
communication to secure information and advice.
• Many small businesses, which are either owned by or employ ethnic minorities, face difficulties
in coming with terms with OSH requirements.
• Further, there may be suspicion of or anxiety about contacting enforcing authorities and fears
about the potential costs of OS&H compliance.
Very importantly, there is an increasing recognition that, although in essence the business challenges
faced by small firms are similar to those confronted by large organisations, small firms are not simply
smaller versions of large companies. While they may adopt formal systems (for example, as required by
customer specifications and business standards) their internal dynamics are much more informal, their
communication pathways are more direct, they are characterised by oral rather that literate cultures, and
their business structures and tactics tend to be highly flexible. All of these factors have implications for
the way in which OHS system stakeholders seek to engage with SMEs.
Certification: In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the development and standards for
OSH management systems. The underlying motivation has been to outline the system elements which an
organisation should have in place to enable it to manage OSH in the same way that it manages other key
business issues such as quality or environmental impact. Since the publication by the HSE of their now
well-known guidance, 'Successful Health and Safety Management' (HSG65), the British Standards
Institution (BSI) has produced guidance on health and safety management systems (BS 8800) and further
guidance has been produced on the same subject by the European Commission's 'Luxembourg
Committee' and the International Labour Organisation. These publications have been deliberately
constructed as guides and not auditable standards and thus, in April 1999, BSI's commercial arm,
sponsored by a consortium of certificating bodies, launched OHSAS 18001.
This is a health and safety management system 'standard', certification, which is based on auditing.
Certification in OSH is now widely available and has been taken up by a variety of organisations in different

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sectors. RoSPA strongly supports the case for promoting a systematic approach to OSH management and
the development of guides which enable organisations to carry out 'gap analysis' to assess strengths and
weaknesses in their current approach. However, together with many industry organisations, RoSPA has
expressed opposition to the proliferation of quasi- standards such as OHSAS 18001 on the grounds that:
• A 'standard' is unnecessary given that authoritative guidance is already available in HSG65 and
the other publications mentioned
• The level of competence required of auditors - a critical issue - is often not specified
• There is the danger of too great a reliance on scrutiny of documents rather than evidence
gathered by auditors from interview and observation
• Given this bias, 'certification' to such an OSH management 'standard' cannot of itself attest to
high or improving standards of overall performance, only basic standards of administrative
consistency
• 'Certification' is likely to be 'pushed' inappropriately to clients by certifying bodies (many with
little previous involvement in OSH), leading possibly to additional costs, bureaucracy and little real
added value. Consequently the significance of basic 'certification' on these lines is likely to be
oversold by both 'certificating bodies' and the 'certificated'.
More significantly however, when promoted to SMEs by clients in the contracting context, there may be
further dangers. The management system approach embodied in the standard may not fully recognise
the informality and flexibility that tend to be hallmarks of SME management. The imposition of standards
may in turn violate principles of 'good regulation' and thus may serve only to damage SME perceptions of
health and safety in general (c.f. 'quality' standards such as BS 5750/BS EN ISO 9000); and certification
may involve use of scarce resources in SMEs which might be better deployed in other ways. In RoSPA's
view, the future use of OSH management standards remains an open question very much. RHS includes a
recommendation that HSE should work to create a health and safety management 'yardstick' for small
firms. Regardless of what form this takes or indeed whether certification gains wider acceptance, it seems
clear to RoSPA that companies will need to be encouraged to prove to themselves and others that they:
• Have the essential elements of an OSH management system in place

• Are on a path of continuous improvement
• Are measuring progress against plans and targets
• Are learning from their health and safety experiences.
Small firms, like all businesses, need to consider carefully how they can best furnish evidence to key
audiences, (such as potential clients, insurers etc.) of their capability to manage health and safety. In its
web-based guidance on 'Measuring and Reporting on Corporate H&S performance' RoSPA has argued for
a broader approach to OSH performance assessment, taking account of:
• 'Inputs' (integrity of OSH management systems and culture)

• 'Outputs' (measures of safe systems of work)
• 'Outcomes' (low levels of error, harm and loss).

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In small firms, for statistically obvious reasons, evidence of 'inputs' and 'outputs' is bound to be of more
significance than 'outcome' evidence such as accident rates. Given that requirements for extensive
documentary evidence will not be appropriate for most SMEs, such businesses need to be encouraged to
develop approaches to OSH performance reporting which are proportionate to their circumstances (for
example, reporting progress achieved against a simple 'health and safety action plan' - as suggested
above).
RoSPA takes the view that developing consensus about OSH management system standards and auditing
(and health and safety performance measurement generally) is going to be vital in order to meet the
targets set in RHS.
The Society has therefore suggested that the HSE should consider setting up a special review group in this
area to examine and report on the issues involved and to serve as a focus for stimulating a wider debate
on strategic OSH management issues raised in RHS.
The importance of print, broadcast and social media in a global economy and their role in
changing attitudes to health and safety
Mass media are tools for the transfer of information, concepts, and ideas to both general and specific
audiences. They are important tools in advancing public health and safety goals. Communicating about
OHS through mass media is complex, however, and challenges professionals in diverse disciplines.
Using mass media can be counterproductive if the channels used are not audience-appropriate, or if the
message being delivered is too emotional, fear arousing, or controversial. Undesirable side effects usually
can be avoided through proper formative research, knowledge of the audience, experience in linking
media channels to audiences, and message testing.
Mass media campaigns have usually been one element of broader health and safety promotion
programmes with mutually reinforcing components:
• Mobilising and supporting local agencies and professionals who have direct access to individuals
within the target population
• Bringing together partnerships of public, voluntary and private sector bodies and professional
organisations
• Informing and educating the public, but also setting the agenda for public debate about the OHS
topic, thereby modifying the climate of opinion surrounding it
• Encouraging local and national policy changes so as to create a supportive environment within
which people are more able to change their behaviour.

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Some of the situations in which media have been found to be most appropriate are as follows:
• When wide exposure is desired. Mass media

offer the widest possible exposure, although this
may be at some cost. Cost–benefit
considerations are at the core of media selection
• When the timeframe is urgent. Mass media offer
the best opportunity for reaching either large
numbers of people or specific target groups
within a short timeframe
• When public discussion is likely to facilitate the
educational process. Media messages can be
emotional and thought provoking. Because of
the possible breadth of coverage, they can be
targeted at many different levels, stimulating
discussion and thereby expanding the impact of
a message
• When awareness is a main goal. By their very
nature, the media are awareness-creating tools.
Mass media
Where awareness of an OHS, issue is important
to its resolution, the mass media can increase
awareness quickly and effectively
• When accompanying back-up can be provided on the ground. Regardless of whether media alone
are sufficient to influence the safety behaviour, it is clear that the success of media will be
improved with the support of back-up programmes and services
• When long-term follow-up is possible. Most changes in health behaviour require constant
reinforcement. Media programmes are most effective where the opportunity exists for long-term
follow-up. This can take the form of short bursts of media activity over an extended period, or
follow-up activities unrelated to media
• When a generous budget exists. Paid advertising, especially on television, can be very expensive.
Even media with limited reach, such as pamphlets and posters, can be expensive depending on
the quality and quantity. For media to be considered as a strategy in OHS promotion, careful
consideration of costs and benefits needs to be undertaken.
Several aspects of mass media campaigns may influence their effectiveness. These can be categorized into
variables related to message content and to message delivery.
• Message content: One important aspect of message content involves the themes used to
motivate the desired behavior change. For example, some common motivational themes in mass
media campaigns to prevent unhealthy behaviors include: - fear of legal consequences -
promotion of positive social norms - fear of harm to self, others, or property - and stigmatizing
unhealthy behaviors as irresponsible and dangerous. The actions promoted by the campaigns also
vary, ranging from messages related to abstinence or moderation to more specific behavioural
recommendations.
• Message delivery: A mass media campaign cannot be effective unless the target audience is
exposed to, attends to, and comprehends its message. Two important aspects of message delivery
are control over message placement and production quality. Control over message placement

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helps to ensure that the intended audience is exposed to the messages with sufficient frequency
to exceed some threshold for effectiveness. It also allows for the optimal timing and placement
of those messages. This control can only be assured with paid campaigns. Those that rely solely
on donated public service time may attain adequate exposure, but message placement and
frequency are ultimately left to media schedulers and station management; paid advertising time
always gets preferential placement. Assuming that the target audience is adequately exposed,
high production quality of the campaign messages may maximize the probability that the
audience will pay attention to them.
• Message pretesting: Pretesting of campaign themes and messages is also thought to be
important for a successful outcome. Pretesting can help to assess which themes or concepts are
most relevant to the target audience. It can also help to ensure that the target audience will
attend to and comprehend the specific messages presented.
Media performs three key functions: educating, shaping public relations, and advocating for a particular
policy or point of view. As education tools, media not only impart knowledge, but can be part of larger
efforts (e.g., social marketing) to promote actions having social utility. As public relations tools, media
assist organizations in achieving credibility and respect among public health opinion leaders, stakeholders,
and other gatekeepers. Finally, as advocacy tools, mass media assist leaders in setting a policy agenda,
shaping debates about controversial issues, and gaining support for particular viewpoints.
Television: Television is a powerful medium for appealing to mass audiences—it reaches people
regardless of age, sex, income, or educational level. In addition, television offers sight and sound, and it
makes dramatic and lifelike representations of people and products.
Public health authorities have expressed concern about the indirect influence of television in promoting
false norms about acts of violence, drinking, smoking, and sexual behavior. A hypothetical equation for
viewers might be drinking plus smoking equals sex and a good time. Safe sex practices are rarely portrayed
on television. An additional public health concern is that TV viewing promotes sedentariness in a
population already known for its multiple risk factors for cardiovascular disease and other chronic
illnesses. Despite all its potential strengths, TV suffers many shortcomings. The cost of placing messages
on TV is high, not only because of the expense of purchasing airtime, but because of production time for
advertisement creation.
Radio: Radio also reaches mass and diverse audiences. The specialization of radio stations by listener age,
taste, and even gender permits more selectivity in reaching audience segments. Since placement and
production costs are less for radio than for TV, radio is able to convey public health and safety messages
in greater detail. Thus, radio is sometimes considered to be more efficient.
Internet: The advent of the World Wide Web and the massive increase in Internet users offers regulatory
authorities and public health personnel enormous opportunities and challenges. The Internet places users
in firmer autonomous control of which messages are accessed and when they are accessed. It is possible
to put virtually anything on-line and disseminate it to any location having Internet access, but the user has
little control over quality and accuracy. Internet search engines can direct users to tens of thousands of
web sites after the user's introduction of one or more keywords. A critical task for public educators will
be to assist people in discriminating among Internet information sources.

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Unlike TV or radio, which are available in nearly all households, Internet access requires some technical
skill, as well as the resources to purchase hardware and Internet subscription services. Also, the Internet
suffers from a certain "legacy of fear" about its impact on children, youth, and others. As with cinema
since the 1940s and TV since the 1950s, the Internet has been accused of promoting mindlessness;
exposing people to pornography, violence, and other examples of society's lowest common
denominators; and enabling sedentary behavior. The Internet is said to facilitate activities of society's hate
groups and to teach children and others how to construct bombs and obtain weapons. Unlike some other
mass media, the Internet is presently not universally available across socioeconomic strata due to cost
and other barriers. It is possible that this lack of universality has already contributed to existing
information gaps between society's "haves" and "have-nots."
The Internet's utility for conveying health and safety information can be illustrated by looking at some
sample web sites.
www.hse.gov.uk
www.osha.gov
www.ccohs.ca
www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au
Speculating about the Internet's future is not easy. However, the Internet offers all of the audio and visual
strengths of other electronic media, plus interactivity and frequent updates. The challenge is to increase
its availability and augment the skills of Internet users.
Magazines: Magazines have several strengths, including audience selectivity, reproduction quality,
prestige, and reader loyalty. Furthermore, magazines have a relatively long shelf life—they may be saved
for weeks or months, and are frequently reread, and passed on to others. Magazine reading also tends to
occur at a less hurried pace than newspaper reading. Health and safety messages, therefore, can receive
repeated exposure.
Other Print Media: Pamphlets, brochures, and posters constitute other print media used to disseminate
health and safety messages.
Outdoor Media: Outdoor media include billboards and signs, placards inside and outside of commercial
transportation modes, flying billboards (e.g., signs in tow of airplanes), blimps, and skywriting. For persons
who regularly pass by billboards or use public transportation, these media may provide repeated exposure
to messages. However, the effectiveness of such postings wears out quickly as audiences grow tired of
their sameness.

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The benefits of schemes which promote co-operation on health and safety between different
companies
The OS&H Role of Larger Clients: Strategically, RoSPA has chosen to focus its limited resources on
advancing and maintaining OHS standards in relatively larger organisations with established OS&H
culture, expertise and values. Partly this is because the Society sees them as a resource for the OSH system
generally, for example, given the powerful effect, which such organisations can play in influencing OHS
standards in many other smaller businesses in the business chain.
HSE too have placed considerable emphasis on the idea of large firms and central Government (which is
committed in RHS to being an exemplar employer) influencing OSH standards in SME contractors,
suppliers and even customers.
The idea here is that companies which have themselves developed a strong capability to manage work
related risk and have a vigorous health and safety culture, have a key role to play in exercising influence
over health and safety standard in all other businesses with which they routinely come into contact.
Where larger companies engage contractors - particularly to undertake high-risk tasks such as installation,
maintenance, waste disposal or cleaning - HSE have insisted that they will have suitable arrangements in
place to ensure that they only engage safe contractors.
This involves close attention to detail at all stages of the process, beginning with a thorough assessment
of competence at the pre-contract stage and continuing throughout the job via close co-operation
between all parties and appropriate levels of supervision and monitoring. This goes right through to the
end of the contract when health and safety performance is reviewed and recorded.
Such companies may choose to develop their own lists of 'approved' contractors. They will also provide
contractors and sub-contractors with all necessary information and other forms of advice and support
including training, specialist occupational medical and hygiene services and encouragement to enter
either their own or external health and safety award schemes.
This approach to influencing SMEs has great potential but, handled incorrectly there is a real danger that
large firms may develop unnecessarily bureaucratic approaches to OSH management of suppliers and
contractors leading to a reinforcement of negative OSH stereotypes rather than the reverse. It is
important therefore that, in seeking to screen and control contractors, clients do not adopt approaches
that actually work against HSE efforts to simplify OSH law and guidance.
Suppliers Auditing: Companies which are committed to high standards of health and safety performance
can also be encouraged to have procurement systems and standards in place which enable them to avoid
purchasing plant, equipment, substances which pose unacceptable risks to quality and/or the health and
safety of their operations.
Such systems will also be capable of identifying cases in which a supplier's management of health and
safety is deficient so that remedial action can be taken. Companies which exercise such a role in relation

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to their suppliers often support them through the provision of appropriate health and safety information
and consultancy, through training and appropriate, periodic reviews of performance.
Often, the client's motivation to exert influence over OSH further up the supply chain is not only to
exercise corporate social responsibility but to avoid adverse impacts on their business continuity arising
from accidents and enforcement action, for example where the client may be working on a 'just-in-time'
basis.
Good Neighbour’ Principles: They can do this by supplying necessary information, by making available
their own expertise to such neighbours, for example, by providing additional places on training courses,
by providing specialist advice and services and by providing practical support and funding for local
voluntary health and safety groups (see below).
They may also seek to raise awareness of OSH issues in local businesses by sponsoring events, seeking
media coverage for health and safety initiatives (for example during 'European Weeks of H&S') and
working with appropriate intermediaries to disseminate information at a local level.
HSE has produced useful guidance, 'Good Neighbour Schemes - a guide for employers' aimed particularly
at larger businesses which are working alongside smaller firms. RoSPA has sought to support this approach
by including reference to these principles in its guidance criteria for its own OSH 'sector awards'.
The possible adverse effects on a business’s reputation due to stakeholder reaction to health
or safety concerns
The fundamental question to be asked is, ‘Why should any stakeholder wish to become involved in the
promotion of health and safety in, and through, the workplace?’
Several answers are possible, and in reality, stakeholder involvement may well be based on a mixture of
some or all of them. They include:
• Altruism – we do it because we believe it is the right thing to do irrespective of cost

• Investment – we do it because we perceive that there will be a return on our investment. This can
be tangible e.g. an employer might expect that sickness absence costs will diminish, and / or
intangible – the workforce will see that we are a caring employer and commitment and morale
might rise as a consequence
• Compulsion – we do it because we have been told we have to. The significant risk with this
approach is that we will do the absolute minimum
• Lost opportunity – we do it because the potential benefits are so great that we cannot afford not
to, or that our competitors are doing it, thus we must do the same to maintain our market position
The overarching reason for the involvement of any of the stakeholders is the beneficial outcomes that
their involvement brings to them or to those they represent. In the case of governments this may well be
improvements in public safety, the creation of a safe society etc. But this will not be a legitimate reason
for other stakeholders to become involved. For these, employee productivity, organisational efficiency
and increase in profit will be the driving force. The roles of individual stakeholders can vary in different
circumstances, e.g., the role of the Trade Unions may initially be reluctant participant but having seen the

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benefits of workplace safety promotion they may become proactive champions. This also means that roles
can be interchangeable. The exception of this principle is the leadership role. Whilst all stakeholders can
take the lead in workplace health and safety initiatives, certain groups of stakeholders, such as employees,
can never manifest true leadership as they do not possess the organisational authority necessary to act in
a full leadership role. Where there is mutual respect for one another’s goals, and an understanding that
the achievement of positive outcomes will mean different things for different stakeholders, then
significant progress can be made in developing and implementing a positive safety culture; company and
nationwide.
An organisation’s moral obligations to raise standards of health and safety within their supply
chains
Organisations might have several reasons for changing and improving their performance and developing
the health and safety management system. One of these included pressure from suppliers, customers or
shareholders, suggesting that consideration of the supply chain when it comes to ensuring health and
safety is advisable. In addition, health and safety management is integral to the successful completion of
a contract or to the delivery of goods on time and to the required quality standards. One accident or
incident of ill health with one employer will have knock-on effects on others in the supply chain by
disrupting supply or services. Considering occupational health in the supply chain is therefore very
important.
The successful management and co-ordination of supply chains is a major contributor to the success or
failure of companies, which can include success or failure in health and safety performance. There is a
strong move towards more collaborative relationships between people in the supply chain, which should
be beneficial for considering occupational health hazards and control measures along the chain. There
must be both a willingness to share any mutually beneficial information along the supply chain, but also
the means to do so.’
• Ensuring quality: Health and safety often appear in quality management systems and
organisations may expect their contractors and suppliers to operate to the same standards.
• Ensuring value: Assessing and reviewing potential contractors and suppliers can be expensive and
costs or loss of business from a health and safety incident can be great. Organisations may look
towards reducing contractors and suppliers to achieve better value and excellent health and
safety records may be an important determinant of which ones are chosen.
• Ensuring competence: Being able to ensure that contractors and suppliers are competent and
trained in health and safety is important. This will benefit contractors and suppliers by preventing
loss of business and clients by ensuring safe working and supplies.
• Ensuring reputation: When incidents occur organisations need to show that they were working
in a healthy manner and need to know that their supplies or contractors were not to blame.
Therefore, high health and safety standards are important to maintain the reputation of all
organisations in the supply chain.
• Ensuring everyone’s interest: It is important for all organisations in a supply chain to perform well
in health and safety and to meet the client’s health and safety requirements. This is to ensure that
organisations are not pushed out of the supply chain, which may lose business for one
organisation and may reduce the contractor and supply bases for other clients.

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The meaning of ‘self-regulation’ and the role and function of corporate governance in a system
of self-regulation
The term is frequently used in business and medicine to denote the "self-regulation" of those enterprises
as opposed to governmental regulation. The new approach at EU level represents a shift of regulatory
emphasis away from prescriptive requirements on duty holders towards more process-orientated
measures.
By this is meant that developments in regulatory initiatives have increasingly shared two main new
features. One is a broad tendency to replace traditional detailed technical standards in primary legislation
with more general duties for employers and other duty holders, in which the aim of the provision is
outlined, and to supplement such primary provisions with delegated legislation and codes of practice in
which technical standards are included. The second feature is their requirement from duty holders for a
more systematic management of occupational health and safety. This latter requirement, while
fundamental to the shift in regulatory style, has experienced as low and uncertain gestation in many
national systems but is currently an element of major importance behind regulatory thinking.
Health and safety performance has reached a plateau in many countries and traditional regulatory
approaches towards preventing occupational injuries and ill-health are no longer perceived as primary
contributors to further improvement. They also recognise that traditional approaches to enforcement
have limitations. They are concomitant with a movement away from the external enforcement of detailed
provisions imposed on duty-holders by regulatory inspectorates to a system in which forms of
participatory self-regulation are promoted as means to achieve best practice in health and safety
performance.
Some elements of these developments in regulatory strategies have been influenced by the changes in
the structure and organisation of work. Others have been brought about by changes in the political and
economic strategies of countries within the EU (and in the EU itself). The effects of neo-liberal policies of
disengagement of the state from traditional roles in regulation for example, are also reflected in emphasis
on more self-regulatory systems for health and safety management. The new approaches to regulatory
strategies on health and safety have been introduced at the same time as governmental concerns over
public expenditure and the effect on the national and EU economies of so-called 'over-regulation' of
employment. This has meant that in many countries there have been trends towards reduced support for
the resourcing of regulatory inspectorates and deregulation of existing provisions governing employment.
Such scenarios also add their influence, causing regulatory strategies to place greater emphasis on self-
regulation and require less involvement of inspectorates in the piecemeal application of detailed
provisions. It is therefore important to distinguish the (ideal) application of this concept from that of
deregulating health and safety altogether.
In 'regulating self-regulation' the regulatory function is not meant to disappear; rather it is intended to
operate more in relation to the management system than in relation to inspecting and enforcing
compliance with detailed and specific prescriptive standards. If the management system is functioning

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effectively, then it is argued to be a reasonable assumption that compliance with detailed requirements
will follow.
It is no coincidence that such increased attention to regulating the management of health and safety also
embraces nostrums that better health and safety equates to better business performance.
In the UK for example, the HSE has attributed a large share of responsibility for reduced reporting of injury
and ill-health to changes in the nature of employment, with a massive shift from employment in
dangerous industries such as manufacturing and mining to lower risk employment in the service sector.
Similar patterns exist in other EU countries.
OHSAS 18001: OHSAS 18001 was created via the concerted effort of a number of the world's leading
national standards bodies, certification bodies and specialist consultancies. A main driver for this was to
try to remove confusion in the workplace from the proliferation of certifiable OH&S specifications. A
number of older documents were used in the creation process. These included:
• BS8800:1996 Guide to occupational health and safety management systems.

• Technical Report NPR 5001: 1997 Guide to an occupational health and safety management
system.
• SGS & ISMOL ISA 2000:1997 Requirements for Safety and Health Management Systems.
• BVQI Safety Cert: Occupational Safety and Health Management Standard.
• DNV Standard for Certification of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems
(OHSMS):1997.
• Draft NSAI SR 320 Recommendation for an Occupational Health and Safety (OH and S)
Management System.
• Draft AS/NZ 4801 Occupational health and safety management systems specification with
guidance for use.
• Draft BSI PAS 088 Occupational health and safety management systems.
• UNE 81900 series of pre-standards on the prevention of occupational risks.
• Draft LRQA SMS 8800 Health & safety management systems assessment criteria.
It is worth noting that the certification bodies involved in creation hold about 80% of the world market
for management system certification.
OHSAS 18001 has been developed to be compatible with the ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001
(Environmental) management systems standards, in order to facilitate the integration of quality,
environmental and occupational health and safety management systems by organisations, should they
wish to do so.
The (OHSAS) specification gives requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management
system, to enable an organisation to control its OH&S risks and improve its performance. It does not state
specific OH&S performance criteria, nor does it give detailed specifications for the design of a
management system.
The OHSAS specification is applicable to any organisation that wishes to:

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• Establish an OH&S management system to eliminate or minimise risk to employees and other
interested parties who may be exposed to OH&S risks associated with its activities
• Implement, maintain and continually improve an OH&S management system
• Assure itself of its conformance with its stated OH&S policy
• Demonstrate such conformance to others
• Seek certification/registration of its OH&S management system by an external organisation
• Make a self-determination and declaration of conformance with this OHSAS specification.
International Organisation of Standardization (ISO): ISO is a network of the national standards institutes
of 157 countries, on the basis of one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva,
Switzerland that coordinates the system.
ISO is a non-governmental organisation: its members are not, as is the case in the United Nations system,
delegations of national governments. Nevertheless, ISO occupies a special position between the public
and private sectors. This is because, on the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the
governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand,
other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships
of industry associations.
Therefore, ISO is able to act as a bridging organisation in which a consensus can be reached on solutions
that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society.
When the large majority of products or services in a particular business or industry sector conform to
International Standards, a state of industry-wide standardisation can be said to exist. This is achieved
through consensus agreements between national delegations representing all the economic stakeholders
concerned - suppliers, users, government regulators and other interest groups, such as consumers. They
agree on specifications and criteria to be applied consistently in the classification of materials, in the
manufacture and supply of products, in testing and analysis, in terminology and in the provision of
services. In this way, International Standards provide a reference framework, or a common technological
language, between suppliers and their customers - which facilitates trade and the transfer of technology.
Here is how ISO can benefit the society:
For businesses: The widespread adoption of International Standards means that suppliers can
base the development of their products and services on specifications that have wide acceptance
in their sectors. This, in turn, means that businesses using International Standards are increasingly
free to compete on many more markets around the world.
For customers: The worldwide compatibility of technology which is achieved when products and
services are based on International Standards brings them an increasingly wide choice of offers
and they also benefit from the effects of competition among suppliers.
For governments: International Standards provide the technological and scientific bases under-
pinning health, safety and environmental legislation.

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For trade officials: Negotiating the emergence of regional and global markets, International
Standards create "a level playing field" for all competitors on those markets. The existence of
divergent national or regional standards can create technical barriers to trade, even when there
is political agreement to do away with restrictive import quotas and the like. International
Standards are the technical means by which political trade agreements can be put into practice.
For developing countries: International Standards that represent an international consensus on

the state of the art constitute an important source of technological know-how. By defining the
characteristics that products and services will be expected to meet on export markets,
International Standards give developing countries a basis for making the right decisions when
investing their scarce resources and thus avoid squandering them.
For consumers: Conformity of products and services to International Standards provides

assurance about their quality, safety and reliability.
For everyone: International Standards can contribute to the quality of life in general by ensuring
that the transport, machinery and tools are safe.
For the planet: International Standards on air, water and soil quality, and on emissions of gases
and radiation, can contribute to efforts to preserve the environment.
Consumers & Negative Reactions
So far, we have considered Governmental policy, professional body influence, Trade Union pressures and
Employer strategies. Here we will consider how the consumer has an effect both on raising standards of
health and safety at the companies whose products they purchase and use and the financial impacts on
business who get it wrong.
We have provided you with examples of the effects on business of adverse stakeholder reaction to health
or safety concerns. You may wish to search out others local to you.
You need to consider how these impacted on the business concerned and short and long term affects
impacted on consumers.
How internal rules and procedures regulate health and safety performance
Governmental health and safety regulations represent minimum requirements. In almost all cases,
organizations will have to augment these regulations with specific rules.
We need rules – to protect the health and safety of workers – but there are dangers in having either too
few or too many rules. Too few rules may be interpreted as a sign that health and safety are not important,
or that common sense is all that is required to achieve them. Too many rules may be seen as not treating
employees as thinking adults and makes enforcement of all rules less likely. Following are some guidelines
for establishing rules:
• Rules should be specific to health safety concerns in the workplace

• The joint health and safety committee should participate in their formulation

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• Rules should be stated in clearly understandable terms

• Rules are best stated in positive terms ("employees shall" not "employees shall not")
• The reasons for the rule should be explained
• Rules must be enforceable, since disregard for one rule will lead to disregard for others
• Rules should be available to all employees in written form, in the languages of communication of
employees
• Rules should be periodically reviewed to evaluate effectiveness and to make changes for
improved effectiveness.
Compliance with health and safety rules should be considered a condition of employment. Rules must be
explained to new employees when they start work or if they are transferred or retrained. After a suitable
interval, these employees should be briefed to ensure they understand the rules applicable to their work.
The employer must establish procedures for dealing with repeat rule violators. Supervisors are
responsible for correcting unsafe acts, such as a breach of rules, and they must be supported in this duty.
Points that should be considered in establishing procedures on this issue are:
• Ensure that employees are aware of the rule

• Ensure that employees are not encouraged, coerced, or forced to disregard the rule by fellow
employees
• All rules are to be observed
• No violation will be disregarded
• The role of discipline is that of education, not punishment
• Action is taken promptly
• While having guidelines for penalties for the first offence or infractions may be desirable, some
flexibility is required when applying the guidelines since each case will vary in its circumstances
• Action is taken in private, and recorded.
1.5 Third parties

Reasons for ensuring that third parties are covered by health and safety management systems
Almost all organisations will use contractors at some time. Contractors often work in workplaces with
hazards that are unfamiliar to them. This can include exposure to chemicals, asbestos, lead, noisy or
hot/cold conditions.
Employees of the contracting organisation, or its client, may be at risk from the activities of a contractor,
as could members of the public. Organisations that engage contractors and sub-contractors have a
responsibility under Health and Safety Law to protect them from harm caused by company work activities.
Similarly, contractors and sub-contractors must co-operate with the client and each other to ensure they
don’t do anything that puts themselves or others at risk. Members of the public should not be put at risk
by the contract activities.
The main duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 that apply to the use of contractors
are contained in sections 2, 3 and 4 of this Act. Employers have to ensure as far as is reasonably
practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of employees, employees of other employers and

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members of the public. Those who have control over premises have to consider the safety of anyone who
comes on the premises, including contractors and customers.
The Management of Health and safety at Work Regulations 1999 are of particular importance in any
client/contractor relationship. They set out requirements for a health and safety management system in
all workplaces. Employers have to assess risks in their workplace and take steps to control or eliminate
the risks.
Basic duties owed to and by third parties

Both the client and any external service provider will also have duties under the Management of Health
and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 including:
• Undertaking suitable and sufficient risk assessments

• Making suitable health and safety arrangements
• Providing information to employees and, where an external service provider has been appointed,
to each other where appropriate
• Where an external service provider has been appointed, co-operating and coordinating with each
other
• Taking action as an individual organisation and, where appropriate, in concert to eliminate or
control risks to an acceptable level.
Good practices in working with contractors include:
• Provide the project specifications and requirements to contractors before they tender to help
them decide if they can do the job
• Use appropriate selection criteria to ensure competent contractors are engaged
• Assess any risks to contractors and employees prior to, and during the activity
• Inform contractors of workplace hazards, including special requirements e.g. permit to work
systems or requirements for 'hot' work
• Give information on emergency procedures, site rules and welfare facilities
• Co-ordinate and control the work and ensure all parties are aware of their responsibilities
• Maintain regular communication with all parties to ensure everyone has up-to-date information
• Make company employees aware of hazards created by contract activity
• Monitor Health and Safety performance
• Investigate all injuries, near misses and cases of ill health
• Maintain records of the contract activity
• When the contract ends, review the activity with all parties, discuss what went well and what
areas could have been improved
• Decide if the contractors should go on an approved list for future contracts
Contractors should plan the work and tell the principal about:
• Hazards caused by the work they are doing

• Site-specific hazards
• Any changes, including number of workers, new equipment
• Safety procedures for other people who may be affected by that work, including the public
• Plant to be used, and

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• Necessary safety equipment.

Contractors should confirm they have the relevant health and safety information from the person they
are working for, such as:
• Hazards in the place where they are working

• Company health and safety rules
• Emergency procedures and supply of first aid, and
• How to report new hazards.
If you are a contractor, you have responsibilities as one or more of these roles:
• A self-employed person
• An employer, if you employ others to do work for you
• A principal, if you engage contractors or subcontractors to work for you.
A self-employed person might also have duties as a principal, a contractor, or both. If you hire
subcontractors, you are a principal under the Act. As well as looking after your own health and safety, you
also have a principal’s duties towards subcontractors and their employees.
Principal contractors have an important role in managing health and safety risks during the construction
phase so they must have the skills, knowledge, experience and, where relevant, organisational
capability to carry out this work.
The principal contractor must:
• Plan, manage, monitor and coordinate the entire construction phase

• Take account of the health and safety risks to everyone affected by the work (including members
of the public), in planning and managing the measures needed to control them
• Liaise with the client and principal designer for the duration of the project to ensure that all risks
are effectively managed
• Prepare a written construction phase plan before the construction phase begins, implement, and
then regularly review and revise it to make sure it remains fit for purpose
• Have ongoing arrangements in place for managing health and safety throughout the construction
phase
• Consult and engage with workers about their health, safety and welfare
• Ensure suitable welfare facilities are provided from the start and maintained throughout the
construction phase
• Check that anyone they appoint has the skills, knowledge, experience and, where relevant, the
organisational capability to carry out their work safely and without risk to health
• Ensure all workers have site-specific inductions, and any further information and training they
need
• Take steps to prevent unauthorised access to the site
• Liaise with the principal designer to share any information relevant to the planning, management,
monitoring and coordination of the pre-construction phase
Duties of self-employed people: Every self-employed person shall take all practicable steps to ensure that
no action or inaction of the self-employed person while at work harms the self-employed person or any
other person. As a self-employed person you must look after your own safety and the safety of others,
but the principal who engages you also has duties under the Act towards you. Talk about health and safety
with the principal and agree to a work plan that takes health and safety into account. In particular, ask if

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they know about any hazards related to the work or workplace, and how those hazards will be managed.
You should also tell the principal of any hazards your work may involve (including site-specific hazards
that you have found), and how they will be managed. This should be documented, and both parties should
have a copy.
Duties of designers: The designers of plant (who 'know or ought to know' that the plant will be used in
workplaces) have a duty to; so far as reasonable practicable:
• Design it to be safe and without risks to health
• Carry out testing of the plant to ensure that it is safe and without risks to health
• Give the necessary information to those s/he supplies the design to (e.g. possible manufacturers)
regarding the purpose of the plant, the test results, and any conditions necessary to ensure the
plant is safe.
This information must also be given, if requested, to anyone who uses or will use the plant.
Manufacturer responsibilities: Manufacturers tend to have general duties to design safely, to test and
provide information. Manufacturers have the responsibility to follow a designer’s specifications precisely
in order to ensure the plant is as free from risk as the designer intended. Under some conditions, for
example, if the designer is located outside the country’s territory, the manufacturer takes on the
designer’s responsibility to make sure the risks associated with design are assessed and controlled. The
manufacturer also has a responsibility to provide particular kinds of safety information to the users of the
plant. The manufacturer is obliged to provide safety information about the plant to end users – either
directly (if supply is direct) or through the supplier. This will generally be in the form of an operating or
instruction manual, either provided by the designer, the manufacturer or jointly. The manufacturer should
review and reissue safety documentation whenever new information becomes available about the use of
an item or any associated system of work likely to affect health and safety. The manufacturer should also
notify owners and users if design or manufacturing faults become apparent after supply. The nature of
the fault, risk posed, or action necessary to remove a design risk should be indicated and the item recalled
if the fault is impossible to rectify at the workplace. Similarly, manufacturers and importers have clear
obligations to ensure safety and testing, provide appropriate information and prevent unsafe use of
substances for use in the workplace
Supplier responsibilities: ‘Supply’ essentially involves a commercial transaction and the legislation
generally categorises the transactions as sale, lease, hire, hire-purchase and exchange. It seems logical
that an importer is a sub-category of a supplier - i.e. an importer may be a supplier who supplies the
products. A manufacturer may also be a supplier, of course, if the manufacturer supplies to another that
which it has already manufactured. Suppliers with a general duty under the OHS statutes are legally
responsible for making sure the risks to health and safety from the plant that they supply are eliminated
or minimised. For new plant the supplier must provide the purchaser with the health and safety
information provided by the designer or manufacturer. For used plant any available health and safety
information originally provided by the designer and manufacturer as well as any records kept by the
previous owner must be provided. Material accompanying imported items may need revision to ensure
clarity and effectiveness in the eyes of the reader. Generally, the supplier is required to:
• Ensure that the substance, at the time of supply, is safe for use and without risk to health of
employees
• Have carried out, or caused to have carried out, adequate research, testing, and examination of
the substance to assess risk to health and safety in the workplace

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• Make available to the employer adequate information about the condition of the substance at
time of supply, risks likely unless properly used, steps to be taken to avoid risk, and the first aid
and medical procedures.
Importer responsibilities: According to the national standards in most of the countries, an importer of
plant takes on the responsibility of designer and manufacturer and supplier to ensure the risks associated
with the plant are assessed and controlled, and to provide the required safety information to users.
Franchisors responsibilities: The increasing use of licensing and franchising arrangements means that
business organisations are designing and closely controlling the business operations of those operating
under licence, and imposing detailed requirements restricting the types of suppliers and contractors with
whom the licensee may contract. It is argued that franchisors owe a duty to ensure that in business
systems the subject of the franchise arrangement is designed so as to be, as far as is reasonable
practicable, safe and without risk to health.
Responsibilities for control of risk associated with third parties

If you have a contractor working for you, then both you and the contractor will have duties under health
and safety law. This also applies when a contractor employs subcontractors.
When employing contractors you should:
• Select a suitable subcontractor – ensure they have sufficient skills and knowledge to do the job
safely and without risks to health and safety
• Assess the risks of the work – the level of risk will depend on the nature of the job. Whatever the
risk, you will need to consider the health and safety implications
• Do a risk assessment – you and the contractor should be aware of its findings. You should already
have a risk assessment for the work activities of your own business. The contractor must assess the
risks for the contracted work and then both of you must get together to consider any risks from
each other’s work that could affect the health and safety of the workforce or anyone else
• Provide information, instruction and training to your employees. You should also provide any
information to contractors on the risks from your activities and the controls you have in place. It
may also be beneficial to consider, with the contractor, what instruction and training contractors
will need
• Set up liaison arrangements for co-operation and co-ordination with all those responsible to ensure
the health and safety of everyone in the workplace
• Decide what you need to do to manage and supervise the work of contractors and agree the nature
of the controls before work starts
Reasons for providing information relating to hazards/risks to third parties

Ideally, contractor induction training should be delivered to all contractors before they are permitted to
enter a company site or begin their work. This ensures that contractors understand the important
environmental, health & safety issues in the company. It emphasises the responsibility they have for
ensuring their safety and the safety of others. Communicate company procedures and standards
applicable to all contractors who enter your premises.
Your health and safety induction training should cover:

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1. Health, safety and environment: Train your contractors on all your health, safety and
environment precautions and rules for your site. In order for them to comply they need to know
the rules first.
2. Road traffic rules: You may have a lot of trucks, concrete mixers, cranes etc. working on your site.
Make sure everyone is aware of the traffic rules to avoid any accidents.
3. Security: Train them on your security procedures. You may require all contractors to wear an
identity badge to get access to your site.
4. Fire prevention and emergency response: Your contractors must know what to do in the event
of a fire. They also need to know your rules and regulations when it comes to preventing fires
from occurring. This also includes fire alarms, fire call points, muster points, fire drills etc.
5. Hygiene and housekeeping: Remind your contractors of your storage rules, keeping the
workplace clean and tidy.
6. Welfare facilities: including toilets, washrooms, changing rooms, lockers etc.
7. Mandatory PPEs requirement: which may include safety helmet, safety shoes, safety glass and
high visibility jackets
8. PTW and Risk assessment system: to increase their awareness about carrying out critical and
hazardous jobs on site in safe manner.
9. Confidentiality: You may have certain aspects of your site not open to the public and contractors
may not share this information.
10. Insurance: Your contractors need to know what insurance coverage you have for the site and
employees; and
11. Legislation pertaining to your premises.
1.6 Insurers
How insurers can influence organisational health and safety
For every business protecting their workforce is one of the major concerns that they are facing. If they are
able to give adequate protection then it creates a more productive workforce who are morally up and this
will help to avoid a greater amount of financial liabilities than can arise due to an unforeseen incident. Say
for example sick pay, overtime payment, compensation payment etc.
As per Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 under the section General duties of employers to their
employees it is mentioned that – It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably
practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all him employees.
So, providing insurance to the employees also becomes a part of running the business effectively. The
potential risk of not having business insurance is very high. Without insurance in place, if an accident or
any situation arises where in a situation has come for the company to pay out a large amount of money
to the victim could seriously jeopardies the future of business, which also lead to bankrupt / ceasing it
operations. Business have an additional level of insurance in the form of liability insurance which covers
them in the event of them being sued as a result of an action on their part which caused damage to a
person’s health or property.
Some managers and directors of a company may think of insurance premiums as an added expense. Even
worse, they may see them as a waste of money if they do not make an insurance claim, and so think about

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cutting them out of an already stretched budget. Whilst all insurance costs are slightly strange insofar as
business hope that they are paying money into something that they will never need, the fact is that cover
is there to protect the business in the event that it will be forced to pay out a large sum of money as a
result of a circumstances which is covered by the insurance. Even if the business does end up paying more
in premiums than they ever get out of it, the cover is there as a protection to avoid financial disaster.
Now another important thing to consider is even if there is insurance to cover the financial loss in the
event of a health and safety related claim, it does not in any way lessen the organizations responsibilities
for providing a safe place of work and reducing potential risks. Not only as said about there is a legal
responsibility with regards to health and safety in a place of work, meaning that criminal charges could be
brought in addition to any civil financial case, but negligence or a failure to do or not do certain actions
may in fact invalidate the insurance completely.
So even with a comprehensive level of business insurance cover in place, company managers still have to
comply with their many duties and obligations with regards to workplace health and safety.
Why do insurance companies care about health and safety?
The amounts of money involved for corporate insurance claims are often far higher that they are for
private individuals. Insurance companies will feel a greater financial impact when they have to pay out for
a large corporate claim. As such, they will want to have more of an idea about what goes on within the
company and, more pertinently, what measures and controls are in place to minimize the chances of an
incident taking place which would result in an insurance claim.
The extent to which insurance companies are concerned with potential pay-outs has resulted in an
increase in the level of scrutiny and influence which they have over the company to which they are
insuring. If they are going to cover them for such large amounts, they want to know what the company is
doing to reduce the chances of such an incident occurring. They may even demand certain conditions be
met and particular control measures be put in place as a prerequisite of them providing the requested
level of insurance cover to the organisation.
It is also likely that the insurance company will require a certain level of understanding about what the
company does, how it goes about it, the risks involved and what it does to minimise such risks when it
decides upon the level of premium to charge for providing the insurance. Because circumstances change,
the insurance company will often want to conduct periodic reviews to ensure that risks are still being
managed appropriately to determine that the premium being charged is high enough. It may also be the
case that the company can introduce such comprehensive controls, safety features and level of health
and safety training that it actually warrants a lower insurance premium than currently being charged.
How a change to the workplace could cause premiums to increase
Insurance companies will typically determine premium levels that need to be paid by the company based
on a number of factors. Not only will the amount of cover be a significant determining factor, but there
will also be a number of others, including but not limited to:

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• The type of industry

• The countries or jurisdictions of operation
• Number of employees
• The equipment used
• Existing levels of health and safety controls and staff training
Of course, all of those things can change quite quickly (with perhaps the exception of the type of industry,
but even this is not unheard of). The world of business is dynamic and ever-changing, which means that
factors that the insurance provider used to work out appropriate premiums may now be materially
different.
It may not be an issue, or it could be so much of an issue that it invalidates the insurance. For clarity and
to ensure that every business have the insurance cover that they expect and may depend upon at some
point in the future, it is imperative that regular communication takes place with the insurers. Preferably,
this should take place before major alterations are made.
Benefits of complying with rules set by insurance companies
Aside from simply complying with legislation and ensuring every business meet the terms and conditions
associated with their insurance policy, proactively taking steps to satisfy any insurance health and safety
criteria can also have other benefits for all organisations.
For one, a company which is seen to be proactively taking steps to create a safe place of work with a
positive health and safety culture in place will often be viewed more favourably by employees. Not only
will motivation and productivity pick up, but staff turnover should also decrease as fewer employees have
a strong desire to leave the company.
As mentioned earlier, if changes are made which lower the probability of accidents and injuries occurring,
insurance premiums may in fact go down, and which over a fairly short period of time will more than
offset the cost of the additional safety features or health and safety training provided to staff members.
Improved health and safety within the workplace will also reduce the occurrence of relatively minor
accidents. Whilst these may not have resulted in any compensation claims or need to claim on the
company insurance, having employees sat at home or unable to work at full speed would still have caused
unwanted productivity headaches for the company. By keeping workers healthy and happy, the company
will have a greater number of its workers actually at work, and operating at 100%.
The role of loss adjusters and claims handlers
Loss Adjusters
Insurance companies are generally reluctant to pay out large settlements to policyholders. They might
therefore call upon a loss adjuster to investigate your case.
A loss adjuster is a claims specialist appointed and paid by an insurance company to investigate a complex
or contentious claim on their behalf. They are responsible for establishing the cause of a loss and to

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determine whether it is covered by your insurance policy. They will therefore visit the site of the loss in
order to gather evidence and assess damage. In some cases, your insurance company may even hire
private and forensic investigators to work on their behalf. These investigators are more often than not
completely unregulated, and they will go out of their way to discredit your claim.
They will then present the insurance company with a report, recommending appropriate payment based
on their perceived validity of the claim. Essentially, they review your claim from the insurance company’s
perspective.
Because they are in the pay of insurance companies, loss adjusters might actively work to secure the
lowest possible settlement. They are ostensibly hired to find evidence that could negate your claim. For
that reason, it is important to have a qualified loss assessor fighting your corner.
They are not appointed to advise you on the best way for you to make a claim – they only look at the
incident in the context of your policy cover, and the remit they have with your insurer.
They will not help you if you want to dispute a settlement offer – the onus is on you to prove you are
entitled to more than the offer recommended to your insurer by the loss adjuster.
In some cases, it might feel as though loss adjusters are actively working against your best interests. But
if you appoint a loss assessor, they will fight your corner and expertly negotiate your claim on your behalf.
It pays to appoint them as early in the claim as you can. If you appoint a loss assessor after the loss
adjuster’s report has been submitted, it can be very difficult to challenge their decision.
Claims Handler
When a policy holder requires the services of their insurer for an emergency, they file a claim with their
company. The employee in charge of taking in that claim and seeing it through is the Insurance Claim
Handler. They work for insurance companies as part of a Customer Service team. Their job is to take note
of the client’s personal information, recall their insurance contract, and provide assistance during the
claim process.
Insurance Claim Handlers usually take charge of a case and see that it is properly handled by all the people
involved. They often have to contact Insurance Underwriters, Adjusters, and Brokers when they require
their expertise in a case. Once a settlement payment is issued, Insurance Claim Handlers verify that it was
done properly and that there was no under or overpayment.
In some cases, Insurance Claim Handlers are also required to contact external experts to work on a specific
case. They liaise with hospitals, mechanic workshops, Engineers, and other experts whenever they’re
needed to assess and work on a claim.

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2.1 Organisational structures

The concept of the organisation as a system
In recent years, an approach has developed towards organisations using an analogy of control systems
theory. This approach developed in the late 1960s, and it probably originated at this time for two primary
reasons:
• First, the fresh concern with science following World War II, and such spectacular progress as
nuclear armaments and the computer and,
• Secondly out of the realisation of the inadequacy of existing theory against the background of
new, more complex, organisations.
At its widest, the theory is married (or, at least, the attempt is made) to seemingly-unrelated spheres. The
work organisation is compared with, at one extreme, systems in the human body, atoms, bacteria, and so
forth, and, at the other, with the universe itself! This is general systems theory, seeking dynamic principles
applicable to all kinds of systems - living, mechanical and natural.
When we use the term "system", we mean the whole entity made up of interrelated, functioning parts.
The effective functioning of the whole depends, to a greater or lesser extent, on the performance of the
parts. If we look at the human body, certain parts - such as the heart, lungs and liver - are crucial to the
survival of the body; others - such as hands, feet and gall bladder function to assist survival, but the body
could live without them. All the parts of the human body are linked through the nervous system so that
change or malfunction in one part affects the other parts.
Likewise, the engine and its related parts are vital to the running of a car, whereas parts such as the
windscreen wipers merely help it to be effective and safe in wet conditions.
We can parallel this approach in looking at organisations. They, too, have certain vital parts and, if these
fail, the whole organisation ceases to function. For instance, if finance elements fail, the organisation will
have no funds and will cease to exist. Just as with the body or the car, change or malfunction in one part
of an organisation affects other parts - this is what we mean by saying that the parts of an organisational
system are "functionally interrelated".
Definition of a System
There are a number of definitions of a system. A simple but useful one is:
"A system is a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a united whole."
This is one of several definitions which can be applied to systems. At this point, it is sufficient for you to
know what a system is. The systems approach to management is, basically, a way of thinking in which the
organisation is viewed as an integrated complex of interdependent parts which are capable of sensitive
and accurate interaction among themselves and within their environment.
Characteristics of Systems

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a) Every system is part of a still larger system and itself encompasses many subsystems ("circles
within circles").
b) Every system - whether biological, physical or social - has a specific purpose to which all its parts
are designed to contribute. Without such a common purpose, the interrelationships would be
meaningless.
c) A system is complex - any change in one variable will effect change in others. (For example, a
change in one area can create frustrations and reduce job satisfaction in another area because
one variable in the system has been changed without regard to its effect elsewhere.)
d) Equilibrium: a system strives to maintain balance between the various pressures affecting it,
internal and external. Of course, some systems experience more pressures to change than others,
giving rise to stable and unstable systems.
e) Initial reaction to pressure is often what is called dynamic conservatism - the organisation fights
like mad to stay just as it is! However, sooner or later homeostasis takes place - "activities which
serve to stabilise and vitalise the organisation as a whole in an evolving state of dynamic
equilibrium".
Open and Closed Systems
One systems concept commonly used is the distinction between "open" and "closed" systems.
Closed Systems: A "closed" (or "impervious') system is one in which there is no interaction between any
part of the system and the external environment. You will realise that, nowadays, in the organisational
sense, such a situation does not arise - the concept is used purely for debating reasons. Weber, perhaps,
looked at his ideal bureaucracy as though a closed system were possible: socio- emotional factors did not
intrude into the organisation.
However, Michel Crozier (b.1922) a sociologist who wrote on the French bureaucracy, among others,
showed that the environment does affect both goals and the structuring of the organisation. A major
criticism of the classical school must be its unawareness of the invalidity of the closed-system approach.
Open Systems: The vast majority of organisations are open-loop, rather than closed-loop, systems.
The inputs and outputs can be materials, knowledge and ideas, or even people (as in the education
system). The employees who carry out the processing within the systems are, themselves, drawn from
outside, and so they are influenced at work by environmental factors.
The organisation must, therefore, deal with the demands and constraints imposed by the environment
on raw materials, money and consumer preferences, and it must also deal with the expectations, values
and norms of the people who must operate the work organisations.
Organisational structures and functions

The study of organisations has produced a huge body of sociological research with a number of conflicting
interpretations. However, there has been a convergence of opinion amongst the more prominent
sociologists about the nature of the organisation. Here are a few definitions:

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"Organisations are social units deliberately constructed and reconstructed to seek specific goals"
(Talcott Parsons).
"Organisations are stable associations of persons engaged in concerted activities directed to the
attainment of specific objectives" (Egon Bittner).
"Organisations are bodies persisting over time which are specially set up to achieve specific aims"
(Amitai Etzioni).
In layman's terms an organisation is a group of persons who interact with each other in an effort
to attain certain predetermined goals or objectives.
Take a look at the particular company for which you work. Does it fit within any of the above definitions?
At a very basic level, the shop-floor employee goes to work to earn money - so do his shop steward,
foreman, manager and managing director. The earning of money, then, is a specific goal common to
everyone in that particular enterprise. There will be many other shared goals and objectives. There will
also be many goals which are not shared, which lead to conflict, and which, ultimately, may have a bearing
on the success or failure of the organisation.
A work organisation, then, is an organisation which has been established for a specific purpose, and within
which work is carried out on a regular basis by paid employees. Examples of such are businesses, hospitals,
educational institutions, government departments, etc.
Formal and Informal Organisation
All organisations have a formal and informal structure. Within each organisation, there is a formal
allocation of work roles and the administrative procedures necessary to control and integrate work
activities. This concept of control within an organisation is important. It can be exercised differently by
different organisations.
There is a power structure within which workers are controlled by the managers.
Etzioni described how power was used according to the type of organisation. He suggested that
management power could be described as "coercive, remunerative, and normative" and that there was a
corresponding reaction by the workers which could be termed "alienative, calculative and moral".
We have, so far, been discussing the "classical" theories of organisation and concentrating on the formal
model. Traditionally, formal organisation was typified by the rules and specifications of management, and
you can probably sketch a formal organogram of your own particular company based on the traditional,
conventional management pyramid. Your company probably also has a formal system of written rules and
procedures, contained perhaps in a company handbook, for the smooth and efficient operation and
management of the company.

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However, you will also be aware from your own work experience of an informal arrangement or power
structure within your company, which is based on the behaviour of workers - how they behave towards
each other and how they react to management instructions.
The foreman or supervisor will have specific instructions from management aimed at achieving certain
goals or production targets. In many cases, he often "adjusts" those instructions in accordance with his
personal relationships with individual, or groups of, workers.
This takes us some way towards being able to make a distinction between formal and informal
organisations. There is a blurring at the edges between the two - a cross-over point, where the distinction
between the formal and informal at the actual point of action becomes obscured and is the subject of a
great deal of sociological argument and discussion.
For our purposes, it is sufficient to describe or explain them in the following way.
Formal Organisational Structure: Most organisations describe their structure in the form of an
organogram. This shows the reporting relationships from the chief executive of the company down to the
staff carrying out the most basic tasks.
Informal Organisational Structure: An organisational chart cannot identify all the interactions which
occur between staff. Invariably, it will be the quality of personal relationships which determines how
communications flow within a company, and "how things get done".
Within the prison system, for example, there are strict rules of behaviour enforced by the prison
authorities by means of a rigid authoritarian structure. The prisoners themselves, however, have their
own informal organisation which often dictates "how things get done" in prison. This refers back to
Etzioni's "coercive - alienative" theory.
In the prison workshop, the objective is to produce x number of objects per week. The work is imposed
on the unwilling prisoner (coercion). The prisoner's objective is not the same as that of the prison
authorities - he is not interested in producing x number of objects. He resents being confined in prison
and resents being made to work (alienation). He does only as much work as will keep him out of trouble:
• With the supervising prison officer, and

• With his fellow prisoners.
The end result is that the number of objects produced is considerably less than x.
In most organisations, the formal structure represents the model for interaction, but in reality, the
informal relationship is of considerable importance in understanding how organisations work. The
informal structure cannot replace the formal structure, but works within it. It can influence relationships
and effectiveness in both positive and negative ways. An understanding of it is an in-valuable aid to good
management.
Structure and Function of Organisations

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The structure of an organisation is determined by its general activities - its size, location, business
interests, customer base, etc. It is also determined by the way in which its personnel are configured.
The organisational pyramid mentioned earlier is probably the principal model for most organisations, with
management at its apex and the workforce at its base. The total management structure can be
represented as a pyramid but within it, each separate department has its own pyramid with its own power
structure and departmental goals. With its own head, senior, middle and junior members of staff, each
departmental pyramid has to be climbed by the aspiring, career-minded employee. Career progression
depends on the ability to climb the pyramids - first the departmental one and, with any luck, the company
one.
If the organisation is very large, then considerable problems involving communication, efficiency,
effectiveness, etc. will be encountered. With giant enterprises such as Microsoft or Ford Motors,
organisational theory becomes more and more problematic. Is it realistic to expect their respective
managing directors to share the same goals as their most junior employees? Yet we started out by saying
that organisations were groups of persons interacting in order to achieve predetermined goals or
objectives. Perhaps the success of these companies indicates that they have solved the organisational
problems of motivation and communication.
By examining the pyramidal structures, it is easy to identify the formal levels of authority and
responsibility within the organisation or department. Basically, authority or control runs from top to
bottom or from apex to base. However, there are other important management/employee relationships
such as line management, staff, and functional relationships.
Line Management
A typical line management function in a factory is represented by below figure. From this, you can see a
direct line of authority from the Works Director to the production Operatives.
Large or small structures:
It is very important to understand span of control and organizational structure when describing an
organization. Simply, span of control refers to the number of subordinates under the manager’s direct
control. As an example, a manager with five direct reports has a span of control of five. Too many or too
few direct reports is a good way to view how efficient an organization is as long as it looked at in the
context of the company’s organizational structure.
What needs to be considered is the nature of the work that subordinates are performing and how much
attention each requires. For example a Call Center, the span of control can be numbers over 100, while
executive functions – with high degrees of collaboration and interaction – could productively tolerate no
more than three or four. So the nature of the work being performed, and how much attention it requires
should govern the assignment of personnel to a manager, and not some industry ideal goal.
While we are addressing span of control, let’s also broaden our understanding to see it in the context of
the organizational structure levels of hierarchy.

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Width: Organization structures can be described as wide (with larger span of control) or narrow (with
smaller span of control.)
Height: As there are levels of management, or hierarchy, an organization may be tall (with many levels)
or flat (with fewer levels.)
Flat organizations have a ‘wide’ span of control and tall organizations have a ‘narrow’ span of
control. While there are pros and cons with both tall and flat structures, a company’s structure must be
designed to suit the business (the customer and markets) and in a way that fits with the workforce’s
capability.
Hierarchical vs flat management structures:
A hierarchical or ‘tall’ structure has a longer ‘chain of command’. Employees are ranked at many different
levels within the organisation; each level is one above the other. Like a pyramid, there will be less people
at each level the higher up you go, usually with one chief executive at the top. Larger businesses will use
this type of structure.
The advantages of a hierarchical structure are:
• Authority and responsibility are clear and well defined

• Opportunities for promotion motivates employees
• Employees can specialise and develop expertise in their field
The disadvantages of a hierarchical structure are:
• Communication between different departments may be less effective

• Bureaucracy can slow down decision making
• It may be more difficult for the business to adapt and change
• There could be rivalry between departments leading to decisions that benefit one team, instead
of the organisation as a whole
A flat structure means that the business either has no management layers or where 'chain of command'
is very short and staff level employees all report to one overall manager. This type of structure works in
small businesses and those that need to be very flexible.
The advantages of a flat organisational structure are:
• Better communication and relationships between different roles

• Simple, faster decision making processes
• It is easier for the business to change and adapt
• Increase in employee responsibility levels
The disadvantages of a flat organisational structure are:
• When employees don’t report to specific manager there may be confusion

• Employees may be less specialised and specific job functions may not be clear

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• Long-term growth prospects may be stunted as a result of a flat structure

• It may not be feasible to maintain this structure as the company becomes larger
Staff Relationship
The managing director's secretary reports to the MD and carries out his instructions by passing on his
wishes to other directors and senior heads of department, but there is no "line" relationship between the
secretary and those departments. There is no instruction from the secretary as her/his authority stems
from the MD.
A health and safety consultant reporting directly to a MD is not in a position to "instruct" heads of
departments to carry out health and safety policies or instructions. Again, his/her authority stems from
the MD and, in practice, he would advise heads of department of any changes in policy agreed with, and
authorised by, the MD. It would be most unlikely in such circumstances for a departmental head to refuse
to cooperate.
Functional Relationship
In many larger organisations, certain members of staff have a company-wide remit to carry out activities
"across the board". Human resources departments often implement company appraisal plans which affect
every department; internal auditors visit every department to carry out their work; and quality control
inspectors and health and safety managers have a company-wide role in order to inspect and check
procedures. In such circumstances, any defects discovered would normally be dealt with by reporting
them to the departmental head rather than dealing directly with any individual members of the
department. The various hierarchies and line, staff and functional relationships can create huge problems
for any organisation. Office "politics" and protocols often obstruct communication, which is one of the
keys to efficient management.
Organisation for the Management of Health and Safety
The management of health and safety is a function of management no less than the management of
production, purchasing, sales, human resources, etc. The biggest stumbling block to inculcating the
importance of good health and safety management in many organisations is the attitude of management
itself. "It is expensive"; "It does not produce added value"; "It is not my responsibility"; "It is boring"; are
cries of woe often voiced during any discussion of the subject.
So far, we have looked at formal organisation, hierarchies and lines of authority. It should be a simple
matter, then, to write health and safety instructions and implement those using the models so far
discussed. But is it?
In the real world, health and safety is not, unfortunately, a high priority. Informal organisations as often
as not "water down" or even ignore the formal organisation's instructions. How can this state of affairs
be altered? According to the HSE in "Successful Health and Safety Management" (HSG-65) the key

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elements of successful health and safety management are the concepts of policy; organising; planning
and implementing; measuring performance; reviewing performance; and auditing.
Potential conflict between organisational goals and the goals of the individual
It is imperative for any person to be sincere and goal-driven to be successful in life. One needs to have
a dream and has to be confident and ambitious enough to nurture it over time, in order to transform it to
reality. It would be naïve, however, to imagine that life would present a series of uniformly convenient
situations to simply push individuals along in their road to success. Conflicting circumstances can, and
often do, make an appearance as one moves through life. A prime example of such a situation would be
when an individual perceives his/her job-oriented goals to be coming in the way of personal ambitions.
However, personal goals and professional goals need not be looked upon as two opposing forces and a
person, to attain success in life, needs to find a way to reconcile the two in a viable, effective manner.
Clear-headed, methodical thinking should be one’s constant companion as one sets about in the quest of
bridging apparent conflicts between personal and professional goals. To start off with, the personal goals
of a person should always be within the realms of possibility, which again vary from one individual to
another. A proper assessment of one’s own strengths, capabilities and weaknesses (preferably with the
help of SWOT analysis) would be in order in this regard. While setting too modest goals for oneself can be
self-demeaning, extravagant (and consequently, impossible) dreams can often frustrate people, simply
because they cannot be achieved.
Once a person has a fair idea about his own goals in life, one has to pursue such career paths that would
ultimately help realize his/her personal ambitions. One needs to be extremely careful and selective while
searching for jobs and should take up such a profession where it would be possible to successfully
streamline personal aspirations with the goals of his/her organization. Individuals should be smart enough
to assess the growth prospects that any line of employment has to offer and take up jobs accordingly.
Reconciling personal and professional goals is not the sole responsibility of individuals, however. While
recruiting candidates, organizations need to assess whether the profiles and the aspirations of applicants
are in sync with the overall targets of a company. The role of employees in corporate houses needs to be
clearly stated out, so that their contributions towards the realization of company goals can be properly
monitored, or indeed, enhanced. While choosing and getting selected for just the right job can be a tricky
task, people who manage to do the same are often the most successful ones in life.
In the current age of ‘smart work’, the bridge between personal and organizational goals has to be done
away with by every corporate individual. Landing up in the wrong profession, where personal growth
plans are at loggerheads with company targets, inevitably results in discontent – both on the part of the
concerned employee as well as the management. That, in turn, would lead to the worst possible scenario
for any organization, namely, high attrition rates. In a nutshell, the ability to select the right job often
proves to be instrumental in erasing out perceived differences between personal targets and professional
ones.
Individuals need to strike the right balance between their personal and work-lives to ensure a smooth
progress through life. Focusing too much on personal development, neglecting official assignments, would

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never be looked upon kindly by any organization. One must also ensure that (s)he is not spending all of
his/her time and effort for fulfilling professional commitments, for that could result in the family life of
the concerned person going for a toss. An ideal job would be one where employees would have ample
scope to align their personal aspirations with organizational goals.
It is high time that we got rid of the notion that personal goals and organizational goals are necessarily
opposing forces. Selection of the right job, maintenance of a smart work-ethic and adjustments in lifestyle
can help a person in overcoming the differences that seemingly demarcate these two sets of goals. After
all, nothing could be better than a situation where an individual significantly contributes towards
organizational growth and has enough opportunities to evolve as a person too.
The integration of the goals of the organisation with the needs of the individual
The need to effectively leverage the skills of employees is even more critical for small and mid-sized firms
since most simply cannot compete with large companies when it comes to technology, physical
infrastructure, or financial resources. To survive in today's marketplace, small to mid-sized businesses
must find ways to be smarter, more productive, and more cohesive than their larger competitors.
How can this be accomplished? Studies show a dramatic increase in both worker and business
performance when an organization effectively sets and closely ties individual employee goals to the
company's overall strategy.
Increased Operating Margins: Employees who clearly understand their individual goals-and how they
relate to those of your company-naturally become more engaged with their work. Once employees see
how they can make a direct contribution to your company's success, they begin to focus on finding ways
to work smarter and more efficiently. This boost in employee productivity will naturally lead to
increased operating margins and profitability for your company.
To achieve these results, your company must put a performance management process in place that:
• Increases employee engagement with "SMART" goals

• Provides visibility up, down and across reporting levels
• Creates shared accountability between employees by "cascading" goals from one employee to
another when relevant
• Communicates expectations clearly during every phase of goal completion
Quicker Execution of Company Strategy: Tighter goal alignment and goal visibility allows for quicker
execution of company strategy by enabling your management team to more effectively allocate labor
resources across various projects. By exposing redundant business initiatives, it also increases overall
efficiency by ensuring employees are not duplicating the efforts of others. Plus, goal alignment
strengthens the leadership at your company by allowing managers to:
• Understand more clearly all responsibilities associated with specific goals

• Eliminate redundancies across job titles
• Focus their staffs on your company's most pertinent goals
Reduced Employee Turnover: The business value of having employees engaged in their work cannot be
overestimated. As proof, a recent Gallup poll showed that companies with large numbers of dissatisfied

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workers experience greater absenteeism and lower productivity-as well as a 51% higher employee
turnover rate2. Fortunately, clear goal alignment can remedy this situation by helping to create greater
employee ownership in your company's ultimate success. Goal alignment also lets you establish a true
pay-for-performance culture at your company by providing the foundation for closely linking reward
systems with both individual and team performance.
Setting Effective Goals for Your Employees and Your Company: To be effective, goals must serve both
the needs of your company and those of your employees. For your company, goals must contribute
directly to your short- and long-term business strategies. For your employees, goals must be clear,
objective, and understandable or they will quickly become disengaged.
To achieve "goal alignment" at your organization, you must first clearly communicate strategic business
objectives across your entire company. Interdepartmental goal visibility can also help speed the process
of alignment. By allowing managers to access and see the goals of other departments, your company can
greatly reduce goal redundancies and conflicts throughout your organization. Additionally, many
employee objectives are not entirely under the control of one individual. Enabling and even mandating
that individuals assign some goals to two or more people increases engagement and shared accountability
throughout the organization. Goal sharing also helps departmental heads find ways to better support each
other, as well as identify areas where they may be inadvertently working against each other.
Once company-wide goals have been established, managers can then set goals for their individual
departments which clearly support your overall business strategies. Major job functions and
responsibilities can serve as a general framework when writing employee goals. Managers must
remember to communicate to staff members not only what is expected of them, but how each task is to
be completed. For example, a customer service rep might be given the goal to boost customer retention
(the "what") by improving customer service (the "how"). To be most effective, goals should also pass the
S.M.A.R.T. test and be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. This provides clarity up front
to employees who will ultimately be evaluated against these goals.
Leveraging Technology to Achieve Goal Alignment: As you've already learned, goal alignment is a
powerful management tool that not only clarifies job roles for individual employees, but one that also
demonstrates to workers their ongoing value to your organization. When you engage employees with
their work through goal alignment, they become more committed to your company and achieve higher
levels of job performance. However, fully engaging employees in this manner only becomes possible when
individual workers understand-and accept-your corporate vision and goals. To accomplish this sometimes
difficult task, company managers need tools that can help them communicate and align goals across your
organization with greater clarity and efficiency.
Fortunately, a new breed of web-based, automated performance management system that includes goal
alignment is now available to companies of all sizes. And today, small and mid-sized businesses are
increasingly using these automated systems to increase productivity-and improve their bottom lines.
The Top Reasons to Automate your Performance Management System

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By automating the process of creating, cascading, monitoring, and measuring performance against goals,
your company will enjoy a wealth of benefits. Here are the top reasons to implement such a system at
your company:
1. Establish a more effective and efficient goal-setting process

2. Speed completion of corporate goals exponentially
3. Boost employee cooperation company-wide with shared goals
4. Accelerate performance improvements with clear, continuous feedback
5. Gain powerful insights by using collected data more effectively
6. Improve the quality and relevance of feedback with real-time coaching
7. Improve your company's bottom line
• Establish a more effective and efficient goal-setting process: Often the task of setting company-
wide goals can be even more difficult than actually accomplishing them. By deploying an
automated performance management system, your company can significantly streamline its
entire goal-setting process.
For instance, the best performance management solutions include technology to help managers
set goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based-or S.M.A.R.T. for
short. Many automated systems also offer role-based goal libraries, developed in conjunction
with organizational development experts, which include lists of appropriate goals for specific job
titles. These goals can then be easily customized for your particular needs. Finally, performance
management systems can help keep the goal-setting process on schedule by sending automatic
reminders to managers and reporting their progress back to you.
• Exponentially speed completion of company goals: By providing everyone at your company with
the same vision of success, automated performance management solutions that include goal
alignment help your organization achieve its corporate goals quicker. These systems increase goal
visibility and boost shared accountability, allowing both your employees and managers to:
o Understand how their individual goals match up with your company's business objectives
o Achieve more-in less time-by providing greater visibility into both individual and
company-wide goals
• Boost employee cooperation company-wide with cascading goals: No employee is an island
when it comes to accomplishing your company-wide goals-most can be achieved only through the
combined efforts of many people. By cascading and aligning goals across multiple employees, you
can create a corporate atmosphere of shared responsibility that will drive the success of your
company. An automated performance management solution can greatly simplify the task of
establishing these shared goals and help keep your entire organization working together toward
the same objectives. With an automated solution, goals can be easily aligned and cascaded for
shared accountability.
• Accelerate performance improvements by tying reviews directly to goal performance: If you
want to improve worker performance, you must provide employees with clear and consistent
feedback. Most managers rely heavily on memory to evaluate employees. This leads to a
disproportionate consideration of recent actions and performance. An automated goal
management solution that pulls performance data on each goal directly into the employee
appraisal allows for more accurate and fair employee evaluations.
Additionally, leading automated performance management systems include writing and goal-
setting tools to help managers communicate their thoughts more effectively so they can easily
provide meaningful, concise goals and reviews.

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Automated systems like Success Factors let managers more easily stay in touch with employees,
allowing them to immediately reinforce progress or to coach workers to get their performance
and deadlines back on track.
• Gain powerful insight by using collected data more effectively: With most paper-based systems,
employee goal plans and reviews usually get filed away somewhere, never to be seen again. But
an automated solution collects feedback and other valuable information and stores it
conveniently online where can be utilized by authorized personnel. Who has and has not set their
goals? Which teams are behind their milestones and need extra attention? By making this
important data available company-wide, managers can always find the information they need to
make the best business decisions possible.
Leading automated systems allow you to:
o Track your company's overall progress against its goals

o Identify key strengths and weaknesses, organizational skills, total-rewards drivers, and
other employee performance trends
o Determine competency gaps and pinpoint any missing organizational skills
o Closely monitor any rise (or fall) in employee ratings
o Assess employee rating distributions across the company, so you can appropriately
reward your best performers
• Improve the quality of employee feedback with real-time coaching: Many automated solutions
include integrated coaching tools that offer professional advice on promoting individual employee
achievement. Managers receive specific suggestions for coaching employees on office
communications, interpersonal skills, and other competencies. These tools not only make it easier
for managers to deliver actionable feedback, but also improve its quality and relevance. At the
end employees have a clearer understanding of what they need to do to be successful at their
jobs.
• Improve your company's bottom line: Automating your performance management process can
provide huge returns for your company, generating thousands of dollars annually through
increased employee productivity, improved retention, and compensation optimization. The
following tool will help you estimate the typical bottom-line savings your organization can expect
to realize each year. Automation can bring about dramatic cost savings by impacting the three
cost figures in the above formula in the following ways:
Increased Operating Margins via Improved Productivity
• Align employees to corporate goals

• Increase daily engagement
• Improve performance accountability
• More efficient employee review process
Cost Savings via Better Compensation Planning
• Reward top performers

• Remove "blanket" bonus plans
• Real-time view of budget allocations
Cost Savings via Higher Retention
• Create meaningful feedback

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• Understand development needs

▪ Provide fair compensation adjustments
The internal influences on health and safety within an organisation

The internal organisation consists therefore of the four Ps - People; Procedures; Premises; and Plant and
substances.
If the organisation has eliminated or minimised risk in relation to premises, plant and procedures, it can
concentrate its energies on the fourth element - people. They in turn are influenced by a number of
internal pressures - finance, production targets, and trade unions.
• Finance: Setting up and running a company requires considerable financial investment. Once
established, the company needs to generate more income than it expends on running costs, i.e.
cost of premises, plant, wages, insurance, etc. To do this, the company will set annual budgets
specifying the amount of money available to each department to support its running costs, and
setting production targets to be attained. When budgets are being pared down to make
economies, very often some health and safety requirements will be "short circuited".
It is essential that the person responsible for health and safety is prepared to fight his corner when
budgets are under discussion, to ensure that there are sufficient funds available to support health
and safety requirements. Lack of sufficient funding will inevitably lead to a lessening of the
resources required to administer health and safety effectively. To the uninitiated, health and
safety costs might appear minimal and could be easily absorbed in departmental administration
costs. To operate on this basis would be a recipe for financial disaster and could lead to costly
prosecutions for non-compliance. The following headings give some idea of the possible range of
expenditure. It is worth examining accident costs as an example of how spiraling costs can result
from a seemingly comparatively minor incident.
• Costs of Accidents: Most accidents are minor in nature but may stop production for some time
and lead to the injured employee being away from work for a few days. This involves the cost of
lost production, and sick pay, etc.
A major accident, on the other hand, can lead to a prolonged absence from work for the employee
involved, and the costs of an investigation during which equipment and machinery may be at a
standstill.
Classifying Accidents: An accident is an unplanned event - it may involve personal injury, damage
to property, both or neither. Accidents can be classified into four groups for cost purposes:
Class A: Those causing no injury.
Class B: Those causing no injury but damaging property.
Class C: Those causing injury but no property damage.
Class D: Those causing injury and property damage

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Examples:
a) Steps on banana skin - does not slip.
b) Steps on banana skin - slips - drops cup which breaks.
c) Steps on banana skin - slips - sprains ankle.
d) Steps on banana skin - slips - sprains ankle - drops cup which breaks.
Direct and Indirect Costs: Costs of accidents may be split into two types:
o Those relating directly to the incident

o Those relating indirectly to the incident
Some examples are given below:
• Class A Accident
o Direct Costs - None
o Indirect Costs - Negligible. Possibly the cost of lost production during investigation of the
"near- miss".
• Class B Accident:
o Direct Costs: Cost of damaged property, cost of replacement property, cost of repair to
property.
o Indirect Costs: Waste of material and time spent on job to date, downtime awaiting repair
& downtime awaiting replacement.
• Class C Accidents:
o Direct Costs: Costs of medical treatment - first aid, ambulance, etc. Compensation
payments & fines for breach of statutory duty
o Indirect Costs: Lost time due to: workers stopping to assist, sympathise or discuss the
incident, machinery stop- page to free victim, supervisors assisting victim, persons
investigating accident, rearrangement of schedules, preparation of reports, attendances
at courts of law hospital visits, visits to relatives.
Lost profit due to loss of victim's production, cost of training replacement, reduced productivity,
wages and overtime failure to meet production dates, cancellation of orders, loss of future orders.
Lost overheads due to higher insurance premiums, plant and staff idle, cost of plant hire.
Incidental costs: difficulty recruiting good staff poor staff causing increase in waste poor workers
having more accidents.
• Class D Accidents: These are likely to include, at least, all the costs involved in Class B and C
accidents.
• Budgets: A budget based on company-wide requirements is much easier to administer and
control. Training costs may sometimes be shared with other training budgets. If health and safety
budgets are administered departmentally, there is a huge temptation either to ignore health and

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safety requirements or to divert health and safety monies to priorities perceived as being more
urgent.
• Production Targets: The attainment of production goals subjects operatives to intense pressures
which can lead to stress and an increase in incidents and accidents in the workplace. Indeed, it is
well-recognised that increased competition, longer hours, increased workloads, new technology
and new work patterns are prominent in the list of occupational stressors. It is equally well-known
in industrial psychology that in a "conveyor-type" operation, the speed of the belt should be
geared to the capacity of the slowest operator.
The pressures on management to attain production targets can be translated into action on the
shop floor in a number of ways in order to increase production:
Make existing workforce work longer hours. Increase size of existing workforce.
Pay incentive bonuses to existing workforce to increase daily rate of production. Reduce quality
of actual goods by using inferior materials. Apart from increasing the size of the workforce, the
above measures can induce a "corner- cutting" mentality in the workforce, e.g. longer hours bring
fatigue and a lessening of attention to safety factors.
Payment of bonuses for increased production can lead to disregard for safe systems of work which
may slow down the speed at which the worker can operate. Increased production expectations
may cause anxiety in the slower worker, especially if part of a team, and again short cuts are taken
in an effort to keep pace with colleagues.
Reducing quality may necessitate the introduction of new systems of work, leading to stress. All
of these can lead to unsafe acts which may have considerable effect on the company's health,
safety and accident record.
• Trade/Labour Unions: Earlier, we noted that trade unions exerted an external influence on
organisations but they also exert considerable internal influences. Trade union safety
representatives are involved as members of safety committees, and as such are actively involved
in improving health and safety in the workplace. They have a dual role in that they can be involved
in the formulation of policy (in the more enlightened companies), but they also have a policing
role in as much as they can monitor management's performance. They carry out the following
functions:
- Investigating potential hazards and dangerous occurrences.
- Examining the cause of accidents.
- Investigating health and safety complaints from employees they represent.
- Making representations to the employer on complaints, hazards and accidents. Carrying out
inspections of the workplace.
- Consulting with HSE inspectors on behalf of the employees they represent.
- Receiving certain information from the HSE inspector.
Employee representation has been widened to include employees who are not members of a
trade union. These employees will be represented by "elected representatives of safety". Safety
representatives are protected by legislation from victimisation by employers.
• Organisational goals and culture: An organizational culture that supports safety is essential for
the prevention of injuries and illness. Management systems and programs can provide an
effective safety framework; however, it ultimately is the worker's perception of the value of safety
to himself and the importance of safety to the organization that governs safety performance.

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Simply put, for true performance, you need both the underlying systems and an organizational
culture that supports them. This is often called "safety culture." Once you've met the basic health
and safety program requirements, you can focus on the following:
- Active health and safety management

- Planning for safety
- Leadership and commitment
- Supervising for health and safety
- Engaging workers
- Due diligence
The external influences on health and safety within an organisation

• Legislation: Businesses owe a duty of care to safeguard health and safety at the workplace and
they must have an awareness of the main provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act and
subordinate regulations relevant to their activities.
The primary purpose of the Health and Safety at Work Act should be to help prevent death, injury
and ill-health within the workplace – not simply to prosecute offenders – and this objective should
not be forgotten, despite the increased amount of health and safety prosecutions, particularly of
individuals, in recent years.
In order to reduce the risk of prosecution and maintain a preventative approach to health and
safety, businesses should:
o Develop and regularly review their health and safety policies
o Properly assess the risks posed by their activities
o Consult their employees about anything that could significantly affect their health and
safety at work
o Seek the advice of competent health and safety professionals to ensure that they are
discharging their legal duties.
Failure to comply with these requirements can have serious consequences – for both
organisations and individuals. Sanctions include fines, imprisonment and disqualification. Some
of the main pieces of legislation applicable have been summarized below; which if followed in
true sense, will significantly improve the H&S of the organisation.
Legislation Requirement
The Management of Health • Making 'assessments of risk' to the health and
and Safety at Work Regulations safety of its workforce, and to act upon risks they
1999 identify, so as to reduce them (Regulation 3)
• Appointing competent persons to oversee
Also known as the 'Management workplace health and safety
Regs', these came into effect in • Providing workers with information and training
on occupational health and safety

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1993. Main employer duties under • Operating a written health and safety policy.
the Regulations include:
The Workplace (Health, Safety • Adequate lighting, heating, ventilation and

and Welfare) Regulations 1992 workspace (and keep them in a clean condition)
• Staff facilities, including toilets, washing facilities
The main provisions of these and refreshment
Regulations require employers • Safe passageways, i.e. to prevent slipping and
to provide: tripping hazards.
The Health and Safety (Display • Make a risk assessment of workstation use by DSE
Screen Equipment) Regulations users, and reduce the risks identified
1992 • Ensure DSE users take 'adequate breaks'
The main provisions here apply • Provide regular eyesight tests
to display screen equipment • Provide health and safety information
(DSE) 'users', defined as • Provide adjustable furniture (e.g. desk, chair, etc.)
workers who 'habitually' use a • Demonstrate that they have adequate
computer as a significant part of procedures designed to reduce risks associated
their normal work. This includes with DSE work, such as repetitive strain
people who are regular users of injury (RSI).
DSE equipment, or rely on it as
part of their job. This covers you
if you use DSE for an hour or
more continuously, and/or you
are making daily use of DSE.
Employers are required to:
The Personal Protective • Ensure that suitable personal protective
Equipment at Work equipment (PPE) is provided free of charge
Regulations 1992 "wherever there are risks to health and safety
that cannot be adequately controlled in other
The main provisions require ways." The PPE must be 'suitable' for the risk in
employers to: question, and include protective face masks and
goggles, safety helmets, gloves, air filters, ear
defenders, overalls and protective footwear; and
• Provide information, training and instruction on
the use of this equipment.
The Manual Handling • Avoid (so far as is reasonably practicable) the
Operations Regulations 1992 need for employees to undertake any manual
The main provisions of these handling activities involving risk of injury
Regulations require employers • Make assessments of manual handling risks, and
to: try to reduce the risk of injury. The assessment
should consider the task, the load and the
individual's personal characteristics (physical
strength, etc.)
• Provide workers with information on the weight
of each load.

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The Provision and Use of Work • Ensure the safety and suitability of work
Equipment Regulations 1998 equipment for the purpose for which it is
The main provisions require provided
employers to: • Properly maintain the equipment, irrespective of
how old it is
• Provide information, instruction and training on
the use of equipment
• Protect employees from dangerous parts of
machinery.
The Reporting of Injuries, • The death of any person

Diseases and Dangerous • Specified injuries including fractures,
Occurrences Regulations 1995 amputations, eye injuries, injuries from electric
Under these Regulations, shock, and acute illness requiring removal to
employers are required to hospital or immediate medical attention
report a wide range of work- • 'Over-seven-day' injuries, which involve relieving
related incidents, injuries and someone of their normal work for more than
diseases to the Health and seven days as a result of injury caused by an
Safety Executive (HSE), or to the accident at work
nearest local authority • Reportable occupational diseases, including:
environmental health - Cramp of the hand or forearm due to repetitive
department. The Regulations movement
require an employer to record - Carpal tunnel syndrome, involving hand-held
in an accident book the date vibrating tools
and time of the incident, details - Occupational asthma
of the person(s) affected, the - Tendonitis or tenosynovitis (types of tendon
nature of their injury or injury)
condition, their occupation, the - Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), including
place where the event occurred where the person’s work involves regular use of
and a brief note on what percussive or vibrating tools
happened. - Occupational dermatitis
The following injuries or ill • Near misses (described in the Regulations as
health must be reported: 'dangerous occurrences'). The HSE has produced
a list of the kinds of incidents regarded as
'dangerous occurrences.
The Working Time Regulations • A 48-hour maximum working week. Employers
1998 (as amended) have a contractual obligation not to require a
These Regulations implement worker to work more than an average 48-hour
two European week (unless the worker has opted out of this
Union directives on the voluntarily and in writing)
organisation of working time • Minimum daily rest periods of 11 hours, unless
and the employment of young shift-working arrangements have been made that
workers (under 18 years of age). comply with the Regulations
The Regulations cover the right • An uninterrupted 20-minute daily rest break after
to annual leave and to have rest six hours' work, to be taken during, rather than at
breaks, and they limit the length the start or end of the working time.
of the working week. Key

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protections for adult workers • Extra protection is available to young workers

include: (workers aged 15 to 18). In particular, young
workers:
- Are entitled to a daily uninterrupted rest break of
30 minutes after working more than 4.5 hours
- Are entitled to an uninterrupted 12-hour break in
each 24 hour period of work.
- Are entitled to weekly rest of at least 48 hours in
each seven-day period (and unlike adult workers,
they cannot be made to take this rest over two
days averaged over two weeks)
- Cannot normally work more than eight hours a
day or 40 hours a week. These hours cannot be
averaged out. There is no 'opt-out' for young
workers.
• All full-time workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks'
paid holiday each year, reduced pro-rata for part-
time worker.
• These basic limits on the working week make a
vital contribution to health and safety at work.
• Employers have the right to ask their staff to enter
into a written agreement to opt out of the 48-
hour limit, for a specific period or indefinitely.
• However, if such an agreement is opted into, a
worker is entitled to bring the agreement to an
end without the employer's consent.
• Enforcement agencies: There are a wide range of activities that are typically performed by
enforcement agencies:
o Promotion of good standards of health and safety at work
o Inspection of all places of work and monitoring of compliance with health and safety laws
o Investigation of serious accidents, causes of ill health and complaints
o Undertaking and sponsoring research on health and safety at work
o Developing and publishing codes of practice, guidance and information documents
o Providing an information service
o Developing new laws and standards on health and safety at work.
• Courts/tribunals: If a company is found to have inadequate standards of health and safety, matter
may be brought to courts and the company may have to face civil or criminal case or both. Courts;
depending upon circumstances; may impose financial penalties, imprisonment or remedial orders
by holding the companies accountable as appropriate.
Contracts: Drafting contractor’s agreement can be quite tricky if you do not seek the appropriate legal
advice and guidance. Ensure a contract lawyer looks over your proposed contractor’s agreement or simply
have him or her draft it for you. The Workplace Health and Safety clause is incredibly important in any

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contractor’s agreement, as it outlines the duties and rights of workers on your site. It is essential that
workers (employees, contractors, agents, etc.) are made aware of their rights and responsibilities.
• Although these obligations may be different in different countries and are subject to what a court
considers reasonable, the duties typically include the following:
o Taking reasonable care for personal wellbeing/safety
o Ensuring that other persons are not harmed by the actions/inactions of workers
o Comply with the orders/instructions as appropriate and reasonable practicable
o Comply with any workplace policy/procedure that is aimed at increasing safety of
workers.
Your contract lawyer should draft the Agreement so that the contractor is required to take
responsibility for itself and its workers. Some important points to consider in drafting contracts
include:
o Have your contract lawyer include a sub-clause that requires the contractor and its
agents/employees to comply with any WHS legislation, as well as any safety procedures
or directions during the term of the contract.
o Both parties should guarantee that all equipment is safe and used in accordance with any
applicable safety procedures. Have your contract lawyer reciprocate this sub-clause so
that both parties are responsible for their own tools.
o If something happens to the contractor’s staff, who will take responsibility? If your
contract lawyer inserts a clause that makes the contractor responsible for its own staff,
you will more adequately protect the interests of the business by decreasing its liability.
o Each Party must ensure that before its employees, agents and subcontractors perform
the Services they receive adequate training in security, workplace health and safety and
risk management.
o Have the contract lawyer insert a sub-clause that warrants the removal of any contractor
(or its employees) if the Principal becomes concerned about the safety of other workers
because of their misconduct.
o There are many policies and procedures that are designed to lower the risk of injury on
the workplace, and by including a sub-clause that enables the Principal to impose those
policies the overall risk of injury is decreased.
o Include a sub-clause that shares the reporting responsibilities between the Principal and
the Contractor. If your Contractors Agreement does not include it already, you should
consult your contract lawyer.
• Clients/contractors: For all contracts, good practice clients will:

o Use health and safety responses to pre-tender questionnaires throughout the tender,
clarification and award processes
o Create a culture that fosters cooperation, co-ordination, communication and
competence, avoiding confrontation based on narrow interpretations of the contract,
both internally and with the contractor
o Consistently manage their own dealings with the contractor and expect the contractor to
do the same with their subcontractors
o Have clear contract health and safety management processes and accountabilities,
including regular active monitoring and enforcement of performance standards where
appropriate.

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Good practice contractors will consistently:
o Identify hazards and implement risk based controls for all their activities
o Create a culture which fosters cooperation, co-ordination, communication and
competence, avoiding confrontation based on narrow interpretations of their contract
o Both internally and with the client - adopt up-to-date regional and global health and
safety standards
o Be good practice clients for their own subcontractors.
• Trade unions: HSE recognises that "workplaces where workers are involved in taking decisions
about health and safety are safer and healthier workplaces" Union H&S representatives make a
difference because they:
o Help reduce injuries at work
o Help reduce the levels of ill-health caused by work
o Encourage greater reporting of injuries and near-misses
o Help develop a more positive safety culture in the organisation.
Typical role of trade unions include:
o Negotiate safe working conditions for their embers

o Disseminate collective bargaining agreements regarding OSH to all union members.
o Educate shop floor union leaders about OSH legislation, codes of practice and support
their actions in ensuring members and employers compliance
o Take active part in the formation of OSH legislation and policies as well as monitor and
evaluate their implementation.
o Identify, expose and report abuses of workers working conditions.
o Organize awareness raising campaigns through multiple channels to educate members,
employers, public authorities and the population at large about the importance of
improved OSH working conditions.
• Insurance companies: Insurers play a major role in helping organisations to protect against and
manage health and safety risks by providing advice and guidance on assessing and managing risk,
and incentivizing good behaviour. Insurers complement the regulatory system, but are not
themselves regulators – they deal with civil, not criminal, liability.
Insurers have identified following key measures organisations can adopt to manage their health
and safety risks effectively. These measures build on the HSE's regulations on the management of
health and safety at work.
- Ensure senior management's commitment to and leadership on health and safety:
Organisations should adopt the principles of the HSE and the other applicable legal
guidance on leading health and safety at work, which encourage senior management's
leadership of, and worker involvement in, health and safety practices.
- Obtain competent assistance: Organisations are required to appoint one (or more)
competent people to assist them in complying with health and safety requirements. A person
is regarded as competent if they have relevant and sufficient health and safety training,
experience and knowledge. Depending on the size and nature of your organisation, your
competent person may be an internal member of staff or an external consultant. Many

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organisations, such as small businesses and those in the voluntary sector, will be able
to appoint an internal staff member as a competent person.
- Adopt a structured approach: Organisations are required to make appropriate arrangements
to ensure the effective planning, controlling and review of any preventive and protective
measures that are put in place. These arrangements must be recorded (usually as part of the
health and safety policy) if the organisation has five or more employees.
- Complete suitable and sufficient risk assessments: Organisations are required to establish
relevant performance standards for the control of specific risks. Suitable and sufficient risk
assessments can determine the extent of compliance with health and safety law and
associated guidance, identify any further measures that need to be implemented, and assist
in the defence of claims.
- Foster a positive culture: Once the relevant performance standards have been identified they
need to be implemented and followed to successfully prevent accidents and disease.
Competing demands between productivity and safety, employee perceptions of bureaucracy,
and ineffective safety leadership all impact on the safety culture within an organisation.
Organisations not only need to define arrangements to control the particular hazards they
face, but must also get employees to agree that those arrangements are necessary and
workable.
• Public opinion: Public reaction to risk often appears to be at odds with scientific estimates.
Although risk may technically be defined as ‘probability times severity of harm’, the suggestion
that a hazard poses an annual risk of death of ‘one chance in x’ may cause anything from near
panic to virtual indifference. Perception of risk varies according to the target, gender, value
system and the way in which the different risks are presented. Reactions to risks depend also on
the different type of risk: they can be voluntary or involuntary, natural or man-made or possess
other characteristics. To communicate risk in an effective way, it is important to understand the
reasons behind these variations, perceptions and biases, a sense of outrage is most commonly
triggered if risks are perceived:
- To be involuntary (e.g. exposure to pollution) rather than voluntary (e.g. smoking)
- To be inequitably distributed (some benefit while others suffer the consequences)
- To be inescapable even if personal precautions are taken;
- To arise from unfamiliar or novel sources
- To cause hidden and irreversible damage, such as becoming sick many years after
exposure to a risk factor
- To pose some particular danger to small children or pregnant women or more generally
to future generations
- To cause death (or illness) arousing particular dread
- To damage identifiable rather than anonymous victims
- To be poorly understood by science
- To be subject to contradictory statements from responsible sources (or, even worse, from
the same source).
These factors can be interdependent and strengthen one another Outrage must be carefully managed. If
hazard is high and outrage low (e.g. in the case of smoking), people must be alerted. If hazard is low and
outrage high (e.g. in the case of electromagnetic fields), outrage must be managed with caution as simple
reassurance can upset people. The challenge is to narrow the distance between the risk transmitted by
the communicator’s message and the actual risk. Science claims a certain degree of uncertainty about
many risks and the magnitude of many risks is not fully known. Furthermore, not everyone is faced with
the same degree of risk, which is often unequally distributed in the population. For these and other

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reasons, risk management and communication are very complex tasks relying on variables such as timely
and correct information, empathy, candour, public trust in authorities and effective policies.
2.2 Leadership
The meaning of safety leadership
Safety leadership is defined as the process of interaction between leaders and followers, through which
leaders can exert their influence on followers to achieve organizational safety goals.
What most often confuses people is the concept of

leaders and followers. Too often, the terms ‘leadership’
and ‘management’ are used interchangeably. The
problem here is that many do not recognize the critical
differences between these roles and the vital functions
of each in building strong safety performance.
Specifically, managers exist as part of the organization’s
structural hierarchy and exert formal influence over
their subordinates, while leadership is a voluntary
activity by which an individual exerts social influence
over coworkers by setting an example of appropriate
behavior to elicit shared goals and effect positive change
in the organization. Certainly one individual can be both
a manager and a leader, but this only occurs through
conscious effort to effectively perform both roles.
Leadership elements
Types of safety leadership
What is Authentic Leadership
Whether you've recently been promoted to a leadership position, or you've been leading your team for
years, it can often seem tricky to discern what being a "good" leader actually means.
When you're trying to determine the components of a successful leader, it's easy to fall back on certain
terms we commonly associate with leadership -- words like "assertive", "inspirational", and "confident".
But what about being "authentic"? While the idea of authentic leadership is not a new concept -- it has
its roots in Ancient Greek philosophy, which posited that authenticity is an important state of being and
enables you to control your own destiny -- it can certainly feel like a novel component of leadership today.
I mean, what does "being true to yourself" have to do with anything?
In fact, research has shown authentic leadership serves as the single strongest predictor of an employee's
job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and workplace happiness.
To ensure long-term happiness and productivity out of your team, then, it's critical you demonstrate a
level of authenticity as a leader.

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There are four distinct components to the Authentic Leadership Theory. Let's dive into those, now.
Self-Awareness
As a leader, it's critical you have a strong sense of self, including your strengths, weaknesses, and values.
It's impossible to demonstrate authenticity as a leader if you're unsure of who you are or what you stand
for in the first place.
Additionally, by displaying both your strengths and weaknesses to your team, you're able to demonstrate
that you have nothing to hide, and don't play games. In this way, you're better equipped to build trust
among your team, and when your employee makes a mistake, she'll feel more comfortable admitting her
error to you.
Self-awareness is also critical for you to grow as a leader, and strengthen other components of authentic
leadership. For instance, perhaps you've noticed you don't do a great job at displaying transparency with
your team. By acknowledging this weakness, you can take steps to rectify it.
In Bruce J. Avolio and Tara S. Wernsing's essay Practicing Authentic Leadership, they outline three ways
authentic leaders should practice self-awareness:
• Seek feedback from the environment

• Use self-reflection to better understand your behavior
• Practice regular self-observation to stay aware of your feelings at all times
Self-awareness is vital for acting appropriately as a leader, and feeling empathy for how your employees
might perceive your feedback. For instance, perhaps you feel a conversation you had with your team was
demoralizing -- you'd just received some disappointing news about your team's performance, and you'd
spoken out of frustration. It's critical you seek feedback from your environment by asking your team what
you can do to help them improve moving forward.
Additionally, perhaps you can mitigate these issues in the future by regularly practicing self-observation,
so you're able to notice, in the moment, "I am very frustrated right now, so I will wait until I am calm to
have this conversation with my team."
Relational Transparency
Passive aggression, subtle messaging, and convoluted feedback have no place in leadership. To truly foster
authenticity, it's critical you remain genuine, straightforward, and honest with your team. Let them know
where they stand -- if they mess up, tell them.
While it might seem counterintuitive -- "How will I become close to my team if I am often providing
constructive rather than positive feedback?" -- it works in your favor in the long-run, as your employees
trust that you are not "hiding" your true feelings regarding their performance.
Transparency and honesty must be encouraged from the leadership level if you want your business to be
successful. For instance, when Former President and CEO of Ford, Alan Mulally, began working at Ford,

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he implemented a system in which business leaders would produce color-coded charts at each of their
meetings -- green to signify success, red to signify failure.
At the time, Ford was forecast to lose 17 billion that year. At the meeting, however, Mulally noticed every
chart was green. He recognized that Ford's culture was one in which leaders hid problems, and avoided
transparency out of a fear for job safety.
When one leader, Mark Fields, handed over a chart with red on it -- due to a production issue -- Mulally
began clapping. His reaction signified the concept that failure can be seen as an exciting opportunity for
growth, and honesty should be always rewarded. The following week, he saw charts varying from green
to yellow to red.
The point is, authentic leadership must start with you displaying behavior you hope to see in your
employees, as well. If you aren't transparent and honest, how can you expect your employees to come
forward with problems when they arise?
Balanced Processing
A leader needs to make decisions and stay true to her decision in the face of opposition -- but she must
also be capable of receiving and considering alternative viewpoints before choosing a plan of action.
When making major decisions, it's important you ask for alternative opinions and remain open to
discussion. While it's important you stick to your values, it's equally critical you seek out opposing
viewpoints, which can help you see flaws in your initial course of action, or enable you to strengthen your
argument by understanding all points of view.
Additionally, if you want to be an authentic leader, it's critical you create an environment in which
employees feel both safe and encouraged to share their opinions. This ties back to self-awareness -- you
must be self-aware enough to accept that your opinion, by itself, is likely biased or partial. By collecting
outside feedback, you're able to see more potential weaknesses in your decision.
Internalized Moral Perspective (“Do the right thing”)
An authentic leader needs to know when to put the needs of the company and its customers ahead of
herself and her team. Ultimately, a leader should be focused on doing the right thing for the long-term
success of the business -- not herself.
Additionally, it's critical a leader have strong ethical values and integrity, and exercise these traits even in
the face of tempting shortcuts.
For instance, let's say your employee comes to you with a "make money quick" scheme -- his idea is to
make it difficult for customers to know how to cancel their subscription, so they are forced to keep paying
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As a leader, it's important you recognize the downfall of this type of decision. While it could temporarily
help boost your team's numbers, it's not a decision made out of integrity or fairness for your customer,
and won't result in lasting loyalty.
What is Resonant Leadership?
We are being inspired by great leaders to succeed and innovate in ways we had not anticipated. When
people work with successful leaders who bring out the best in them, we consider building resonant
leadership.
Resonant leaders inspire others through consistent, positive relationships and emotions. It is precisely
what we mean when we depict somebody who causes us to change our organizations. Just like everything
else, leadership also comes in many different leadership styles that one may choose to follow. It's just an
example of what works best, not an example of right or wrong for the organization.
Leaders can impact the emotional states of the people around them. They will have a positive effect,
pulling everyone onto the identical upbeat wavelength. Or they'll create dissonance, where their
negativity starts affecting others.
Resonant leadership is an idea coined by Daniel Goleman. Resonant leaders work on emotional
intelligence to direct their feelings to help a group meet its goals.
Resonance is the ability to synchronize with one another; thus, resonant leadership can adjust the needs
to a team of people. When talking about top managers, according to psychologist and best-selling author
David Coleman, emotional intelligence (EQ) is two times vital as skills and IQ.
Successful leadership is not about who created a product, who is the brightest, or who has most skills; it
is about the relationship that a leader has with his team members. Resonant leaders have a higher degree
of EQ and the ability to connect with their teams.
Their employees trust them, even more, when leaders care for their employees during downsizing times,
challenges, and personal crises. Leaders build unity within a team and motivate employees to follow a
goal, even when the situation is highly stressful.
For instance, if you strike a glass containing a small amount of water,
it will resonate with a particular frequency, causing other glasses to resonate. Resonant leaders are aware
that their actions can impact others and work on emotional intelligence to guide and help others.
There are four styles of Resonant Leadership:
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Visionary leaders can see the organization's overall picture, and share it with their employees,
encouraging them to work together to achieve the team's goals. Everyone recognizes the importance and
significance of your work in this leadership style. If they appreciate the big picture's aim, they will be
actively sticking around a job to achieve it.
2. Coaching
The coaching leadership style most frequently occurs in one-on-one communications. This leadership style
focuses on the personal development of employees. It helps leaders show a genuine interest in
individuals, builds connections, grows trust, and leads to higher levels of motivation.
The leadership style of coaching can bring more motivated employees and better results. This approach
builds consistency by connecting what people want with the objectives of the organization.
3. Affiliative
The affiliative leadership style is about building relationships and working together. Affiliative leaders can
boost employee morale by giving value to the employees, and their feelings by using empathy, a crucial
skill of emotional intelligence.
In a team, you can use this style to fix tensions, help during stressful times, or improve connections. In the
long run, the collaborative relationships that this style creates will boost efficiency and productivity.
4. Democratic
The democratic leadership style depends on the team's knowledge to provide feedback or cooperate in
the decision-making process. Leaders who use this style need many skills in emotional intelligence,
including teamwork and communication, conflict management, and control. They always communicate
easily, as well as great listeners.
Empathy is essential, particularly for understanding the thoughts and feelings of a diverse group. This style
creates awareness through valuing feedback from employees, and by participating through engagement.
Savvy leaders use this leadership style to build buy-in or consensus and to get valuable information from
team members.
What is Transformational Leadership?
Transformational leadership inspires people to achieve unexpected or remarkable results. It gives workers
autonomy over specific jobs, as well as the authority to make decisions once they have been trained. Some
of the basic characteristics of transformational leadership are inspirational, in that the leader can inspire
workers to find better ways of achieving a goal; mobilization, because leadership can mobilize people into
groups that can get work done, and morale, in that transformational leaders raise the well-being and
motivation level of a group through excellent rapport. They are also good at conflict resolution. All of
these traits make transformational leadership a good fit for many types of business.

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Transformational leaders are sometimes call quiet leaders. They are the ones that lead by example. Their
style tends to use rapport, inspiration, or empathy to engage followers. They are known to possess
courage, confidence, and the willingness to make sacrifices for the greater good. They possess a single-
minded need to streamline or change things that no longer work. The transformational leader motivates
workers and understands how to form them into integral units that work well with others.
Transformational leaders specialize in:
• Working to change the system

• Solving challenges by finding experiences that show that old patterns do not fit or work
• Wanting to know what has to change
• Maximizing their teams’ capability and capacity
Transactional leaders do the following:
• Work within the system

• Start solving challenges by fitting experiences to a known pattern
• Want to know the step-by-step approach
• Minimize variation of the organization
History of transformational leadership: The term “transformational leadership” was coined by sociologist
James V. Downton in 1973. Leadership expert James Burns defined transformational leaders as those who
seek to change existing thoughts, techniques and goals for better results and the greater good. Burns also
described transformational leaders as those who focus on the essential needs of the followers.
Examples of transformational leadership: Transformational leaders excel in a variety of sectors. Here are
notable business leaders who used the transformational style.
• William Edwards Deming: William Edwards Deming is known as the father of statistical quality
control. After earning a doctorate in mathematics and physics at Yale in 1928, he spent most of
his career working or consulting for the U.S. government. During World War II, Deming taught
statistical process control techniques to military production workers.
After the war ended, the U.S. Department of the Army sent Deming to Japan to study agricultural
production and related problems. He convinced Japanese officials of the potential for industrial
uses of statistical methods. Deming’s goal was to have Japan become a world industrial power in
five years. Japan did it in four. Deming was asked to do the same thing for U.S. manufacturing
firms, but his methods did not take root until the 1980s.
• Peter Drucker: Peter Drucker was a professor and management consultant among other things.
He predicted some of the 20th-century’s biggest changes, such as the Japanese rise to a world
economic power, the age where people would need to learn in order to keep their jobs or get
ahead, and the importance of marketing and innovation. He coined the term “knowledge
worker.”

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Drucker continually called for balanced management, which called for a balance between short-
term needs and long-term plans, as well as profitability and other elements of business. He was
very interested in how to mesh innovation and entrepreneurship.
He felt that entrepreneurship was a vehicle of innovation. Entrepreneurship was not just high
technology, but high tech was a vehicle for change, in attitude, values, and behavior. The
entrepreneur systematically looked for change, responded to them and took advantage of
opportunities as they present themselves.
• Ross Perot: H. Ross Perot started his career as a salesman for IBM. In the 1960s he started his own
company, Electric Data Systems (EDS), one of the first businesses that built and serviced computer
systems for other companies. In contrast to IBM, Perot trained his workers to do whatever needed
to be done for a customer without waiting for approval. There was a strong bias toward action.
In the beginning, Perot shunned strategic planning. Over the next few years, however, he hired
military officers who could take orders and give orders. Perot’s slogan was “Go, do.”
If an employee took credit for someone else’s work, they were out the door. The motto of Perot’s
company at one point was “We bring order to chaos.”
• John D. Rockefeller: John D. Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil. It started as a single oil
refinery and grew to a huge company. Much of the company’s growth came through acquisitions.
But, Rockefeller also spent a considerable amount of time streamlining the organization as it grew.
Rockefeller built his company’s early reputation by guaranteeing the quality of Standard’s
kerosene. He was known for his organizational tactics and for using disciplined strategies. One of
the reasons for Rockefeller’s success was he could align his company with one simple vision, then
he held everyone accountable for their part in making that vision happen.
Transformational leadership style requirements: Here are some of the characteristics of

transformational leaders:
• Very well-organized and expect their followers to be creative

• Team-oriented and expect that followers will work together to create the best possible results
• Respected, and in turn respects followers
• Acts as coach of the team. He or she provides training and motivation to reach the desired goals
• Responsible for their team, but also instills responsibility into team members
• Engenders respect through rapport and a personal influence
Advantages and disadvantages of transformational leadership: Transformational leadership works well
in organizations where change is needed. Transformational leadership is not the right fit for new
organizations where no structure exists.
Transformational leadership pros: Transformational leadership cons:

• Excellent at communicating new ideas • Ineffective in initial stage or ad-hoc
• Good at balancing short-term vision and situations
long-term goals • Require an existing structure to fix
• Experience building strong coalitions and • Bad fit in bureaucratic structures
establishing mutual trust

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Benefits of transformational leadership: One of the best uses of this leadership style is in an organization
that is outdated and requires serious retooling. It is also a perfect match for a small company that has big
dreams and wants to change and adapt to get there. In both of these examples, the board of directors can
bring in a transformational leader who will change the structure of the organization and also motivate the
current workers to buy into the new direction.
What is Transactional Leadership?
A transactional leader is someone who values order and structure. They are likely to command military
operations, manage large corporations, or lead international projects that require rules and regulations
to complete objectives on time or move people and supplies in an organized way. Transactional leaders
are not a good fit for places where creativity and innovative ideas are valued.
Transactional leadership is most often compared to transformational leadership. Transactional leadership

depends on self-motivated people who work well in a structured, directed environment. By contrast,
transformational leadership seeks to motivate and inspire workers, choosing to influence rather than
direct others.
Transactional leadership focuses on results, conforms to the existing structure of an organization and
measures success according to that organization’s system of rewards and penalties. Transactional leaders
have formal authority and positions of responsibility in an organization. This type of leader is responsible
for maintaining routine by managing individual performance and facilitating group performance.
This type of leader sets the criteria for their workers according to previously defined requirements.
Performance reviews are the most common way to judge employee performance. Transactional, or
managerial, leaders work best with employees who know their jobs and are motivated by the reward-
penalty system. The status quo of an organization is maintained through transactional leadership.
Differences between transactional leadership and other leadership styles: Transactional leaders differ
from charismatic and transformational leaders in both structure and method. Charismatic
leadership emphasizes influencing a group or organization to make the world a better place. In
transactional leadership, the emphasis is on managing the performance of the individual and determining
how well he or she performs in a structured environment.
The difference between transactional leadership and transformational leadership is also quite large.
Simply put, transactional is a “telling” leadership style, and transformational is a “selling” style. While the
transactional approach features positive and negative reinforcement, transformational leadership
emphasizes motivation and inspiration. Transactional leaders are reactive; transformational leaders are
proactive. Transactional leadership appeals to the self-interest of individuals, while the transformational
style prioritizes group progress.
History of the transactional leadership theory: Max Weber, a 20th-century German sociologist, made an
extensive study of leadership styles and divided them into three categories: traditional, charismatic and
rational-legal, or bureaucratic. In 1947, Weber was the first to describe rational-legal leadership — the

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style that would come to be known as transactional leadership — as “the exercise of control on the basis
of knowledge.”
Transactional leadership theory is based on the idea that managers give employees something they want
in exchange for getting something they want. It posits that workers are not self-motivated and require
structure, instruction and monitoring in order to complete tasks correctly and on time.
The transactional leadership style was widely used after World War II in the United States. This was a time
when the government concentrated on rebuilding and required a high level of structure to maintain
national stability.
Political scientist James McGregor Burns was one of the most prominent authors to advance Weber’s
theories. In his 1978 book “Leadership,” Burns argued that both transactional and transformational
leaders must be moral and have a higher purpose. In Burns’s model, transactional leaders espouse
honesty, fairness, responsibility, and honoring commitments.
In the 1980s and 90s, researchers including Bernard M. Bass, Jane Howell and Bruce Avolio defined the
dimensions of transactional leadership:
• Contingent reward, the process of setting expectations and rewarding workers for meeting them
• Passive management by exception, where a manager does not interfere with workflow unless an
issue arises
• Active management by exception, in which managers anticipate problems, monitor progress and
issue corrective measures
Many current leadership theorists agree that principals of transactional and transformational leadership
can be combined for ideal outcomes for both management and the workforce.
Examples of transactional leadership: The transactional model is likely to succeed in a crisis or in projects
that require linear and specific processes. This model is also useful for big corporations, such as Hewlett-
Packard, a company known for its extensive use of management by exception.
Many high-level members of the military, CEOs of large international companies, and NFL coaches are
known to be transactional leaders. Transactional leadership also works well in policing agencies and first
responder organizations. Here are four examples of transactional leaders.
• Norman Schwarzkopf: Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf was born in 1934 and graduated from West
Point. He went to Vietnam as an advisor to the South Vietnamese army. During that war, he was
wounded twice and awarded three Silver Star medals. In 1978, he became a brigadier general; he
attained a four-star ranking in 1988. General Schwarzkopf was commander-in-chief of the U.S.
forces in Operation Desert Storm, responsible for tens of thousands of troops in Iraq and Kuwait.
He used the rules and regulations of the military to coordinate operations on several continents.
• Vince Lombardi: Born in 1913, Vince Lombardi is best known as the coach for the Green Bay
Packers. He signed a five-year contract with Green Bay in 1959. Under his leadership, the team
never had a losing session. Over the course of his career, he led the team to a 98-30-4 record and
five championships. The Super Bowl trophy is named after him. He used to run the Packers

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through the same plays in practice over and over again. The team’s opponents knew the plays
Lombardi would run, but the team was so well trained that many teams had trouble defending
against them.
• Bill Gates: Bill Gates was born in Seattle in 1955. In his early teens, he met Paul Allen at the
Lakeside School, where they both developed computer programs as a hobby. When Gates went
to Harvard, Allen went to work as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston. In 1975, they started
Microsoft, and by 1978, the company had grossed $2.5 million, when Gates was 23. In 1985,
Microsoft launched Windows. Bill Gates is now one of the richest people in the world. As a
transactional leader, he used to visit new product teams and ask difficult questions until he was
satisfied that the teams were on track and understood the goal.
• Howard Schultz: Howard Schultz was born in 1953 and grew up in the Brooklyn housing projects.
He escaped the projects with a football scholarship from Northern Michigan University. After
college, he started selling coffee makers to companies that included the Starbucks Coffee Tea and
Spice Company, which originally sold coffee beans rather than made-to-order drinks. He was hired
by the company in 1982. In 1984, Schultz opened the first Starbucks coffeehouse based on the
concept of an Italian espresso bar. Schultz wanted to grow Starbucks, but the owners wanted to
stay small. Schultz left and opened his own company in 1985. With the help of investors in 1987,
he bought Starbucks and merged the two companies. By 2006, Schultz was ranked 394 on Forbes
magazine’s list of the 400 richest people in America. As a transactional leader, he was responsible
for the vision and implementation of the Starbucks model.
Transactional leadership style: Here are some of the characteristics of transactional leaders:
• Focused on short-term goals

• Favor structured policies and procedures
• Thrive on following rules and doing things correctly
• Revel in efficiency
• Very left-brained
• Tend to be inflexible
• Opposed to change
Advantages and disadvantages of transactional leadership: Transactional leadership works well in

organizations where structure is important. Transactional leadership is not the right fit for organizations
where initiative is encouraged:
Transactional leadership pros: Transactional leadership cons:

• Rewards those who are motivated by • Rewards the worker on a practical level
self-interest to follow instructions only, such as money or perks
• Provides an unambiguous structure for • Creativity is limited since the goals and
large organizations, systems requiring objectives are already set
repetitive tasks and infinitely • Does not reward personal initiative
reproducible environments
• Achieves short-term goals quickly
• Rewards and penalties are clearly defined
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Benefits of transactional leadership: There is definitely a place for transactional leadership in the world
today. One of its best uses is in multinational corporations where not all of the workers speak the same
language. Once the structure and the requirements are learned, it is easy for workers to complete tasks
successfully. This works because transactional leadership is simple to learn and does not require extensive
training. The transactional approach is easy to understand and apply across much of an organization.
The military, policing organizations, and first responders use this style of leadership so that all areas of the
organization are consistent. It is also easier to apply in a crisis situation, where everyone must know
exactly what is required of them and how a task is to be done under pressure.
To many people, money and perks are a powerful motivator. Many people need a job to pay the bills.
They have other obligations and distractions and would just as soon know exactly how to do their job in
order to keep it and reap the rewards.
Behavioural attributes of an effective leader

There are a number of common behaviours recognised in an effective Team Leader at the helm of a
productive team. In particular, an effective Team Leader displays an ability to:
1. Communicate effectively
2. Recognise the developmental requirements of team members
3. Set goals and motivate the team to achieve them
4. Provide enthusiastic and creative encouragement
5. Model acceptable behaviour
Communicate Effectively: An effective Team Leader provides a high level of communication to the team
members about:
• The goals that have been achieved

• Any goals that still need to be achieved
• How to achieve these goals
• Where team members can go for support
When communicating with their team members, good Team Leaders use a consultative approach. This
entails actively listening to team member concerns and opinions before deciding upon an appropriate
strategy. An effective consultative approach also means that Team Leaders should provide feedback to
their team members on a regular basis.
Recognise the Developmental Requirements of Team Members: n effective Team Leader will identify the
developmental needs of the team members and will install a process to ensure that each individual's
needs are developed. This has direct benefits to both the individual and the team, as it increases morale
within the team and helps to ensure that the best is attained from each team member. Delegation may
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Set Goals and Motivate the Team to Achieve Them: An effective Team Leader will set clear, identifiable
and achievable goals and will be able to plan and monitor a team's progress against these goals. The steps
to achieving these goals will need to be mapped out and discussed with each team member.
Provide Enthusiastic and Creative Encouragement: Effective Team Leaders encourage creative and
innovative approaches to problem solving.
Model Acceptable Behaviour: An effective Team Leader provides the team with an appropriate role
model. The Team Leader will demonstrate both acceptable behaviour and the relevant skills required by
the team to undertake their roles within the enterprise.
Role modeling is an important element in the development of individual team members as it enables the
team to observe an example on which they can base their own performance and behaviour.
2.3 Consultation
The role of consultation within the workplace
ILO Occupational Safety and Health Convention (C155), Article 20 and ILO Occupational Safety and Health
Recommendation (R164) have published information on consultation with employees. R164 Occupational
Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981 requires:
12.(1) `the measures taken to facilitate the co-operation referred to in Article 20 of the Convention should
include, where appropriate and necessary, the appointment, in accordance with national practice, of
workers’ safety delegates, of workers’ safety and health committees, and/or of joint safety and health
committees; in joint safety and health committees workers should have at least equal representation with
employers’ representatives.`
12.(2) Workers' safety delegates, workers' safety and health committees, and joint safety and health
committees or, as appropriate, other workers' representatives should;
a) be given adequate information on safety and health matters, enabled to examine factors affecting
safety and health, and encouraged to propose measures on the subject;
b) be consulted when major new safety and health measures are envisaged and before they are carried
out, and seek to obtain the support of the workers for such measures; be consulted in planning
alterations of work processes, work content or organisation of work, which may have safety or health
implications for the workers;
c) be given protection from dismissal and other measures prejudicial to them while exercising
their functions in the field of occupational safety and health as workers' representatives or as
members of safety and health committees;
d) be able to contribute to the decision-making process at the level of the undertaking regarding
matters of safety and health;
e) have access to all parts of the workplace and be able to communicate with the workers on
safety and health matters during working hours at the workplace;
f) be free to contact labour inspectors;
g) be able to contribute to negotiations in the undertaking on occupational safety and health matters;
h) have reasonable time during paid working hours to exercise their safety and health functions
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i) have recourse to specialists to advise on particular safety and health problems.
The four stages to consultation

Health and safety at work is about securing the health, safety and welfare of people at work by reducing
risks, and protecting them and others from harm or illness arising out of work activities by taking the right
precautions. As an employer or manager, it is your legal duty to manage health and safety sensibly in your
business, and involving your employees is at the very heart of this.
Current legislation (Consulting workers on health and safety. Safety Representatives and Safety
Committees Regulations 1977 (as amended) and Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees)
Regulations 1996 (as amended). Approved Codes of Practice and guidance L146 (Second edition with
amendments) HSE 2014 www.hse.gov.uk/pubns//books/l146.htm) provides a framework of
requirements for employee involvement in health and safety. You are required, under these regulations
and other health and safety regulations, to give employees information, instruction and training, and
engage in consultation with them about matters affecting their health and safety. Communication and
consultation are the most basic forms of employee involvement in health and safety management. It is
crucial that you get them right, not only because the law requires this but because they form the
foundation for fully engaging your workforce to achieve the type of changes in behaviour in managers and
employees that will lead to safer and healthier workplaces.
Consultation and workforce involvement is not something you should be daunted by or discouraged
about. It does not have to be lengthy and bureaucratic. If you have a small business, consultation can be
an informal process of talking to your employees regularly and considering their views when you take
decisions about health and safety. It can sometimes be more effective to have a simple process rather
than something overly complicated. However, it is equally important that you do make time to talk and
think together about issues more formally where this is necessary.
Consultation and involvement do not remove the right of employers and managers to manage. You must
still make the final decision, but talking to your employees is an important part of successfully managing
health and safety.
Get started: Prepare
• why you should talk to your employees about health and safety;
• what the law says and how it applies to your workplace; and
• how to gain commitment from the business and your workforce
Why talk to your employees about health and safety?
Accident rates are lower where employees genuinely feel they do have a say in health and safety matters
than in workplaces where employees do not get involved.
Employee involvement in health and safety management relates to a more positive health and safety
climate – 77% of employees felt encouraged to raise concerns in a good health and safety climate
compared to 20% who felt encouraged to do so in a poor health and safety climate. In poor health and

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safety climates, accident rates are highest among workplaces where employees do not feel they can have
a say.
Stronger employee involvement means better control of common workplace risks such as slips and trips
– very effective in 76% of cases where employees felt they were always consulted but only very effective
in 40% of cases if they thought they were rarely, or never, consulted.
Employers can learn about the risks through consultation – the risk of stress and slips and trips occur
practically everywhere, but awareness of them is higher where there is employee involvement (62%)
compared to where there is no involvement (28%).
Research has also shown that workplaces with health and safety committees where some members are
selected by unions have significantly lower rates of work-related injury than those found in workplaces
with no co-operative health and safety management.
Aside from your legal duty to consult, workplaces where employees are involved in taking decisions about
health and safety are safer and healthier. Your employees influence health and safety through their own
actions. They are often the best people to understand the risks in their workplace. Talking, listening and
co-operating with each other can help:
• identify joint solutions to problems;

• develop a positive health and safety culture where risks are managed sensibly;
• reduce accidents and ill health, plus their related costs to your business;
• bring about improvements in overall efficiency, quality and productivity;
• meet customer demands and maintain credibility; and n comply with legal requirements.
A workforce that feels valued and involved in decision-making plays a big part in a high-performing
workplace. Empowering your workforce, giving them the right skills, and getting them involved in making
decisions shows them that you take their health, safety and wellbeing seriously. They not only raise
concerns but offer solutions too. There can be an impact far beyond health and safety management if the
workforce is not engaged on health and safety issues which affect them.
The law sets out how you must consult your employees in different situations and the different choices
you have to make. There are two sets of general regulations about your duty to consult your workforce
about health and safety:
• the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 (as amended);
• the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 (as amended).
Get organised: Plan
• what affects how you involve your workforce;

• what you should consult your workforce about;
• when you should consult so that you do it in good time; and
• arrangements for training health and safety representatives.

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What affects how you involve your workforce?
When planning how best to involve your employees, you need to consider the following factors about the
business, the workplace and the workforce that will have an impact on how you can engage your
employees.
The business
• Structure of the business.

• Management style.
• Organisational and safety cultures.
• Trade union recognition and employment relations.
The workplace
• Size of workplace.
• Location of sites.
• Types of work done.
• Degree and nature of inherent dangers.
The workforce
• Size of workforce.
• Diversity of the workforce.
• Employment structures (e.g. direct employees, agency and contract workers).
• Work patterns such as shift systems, part-time etc.
• Offsite, remote or mobile workers.
These factors will affect whether you consult individuals or representatives, the methods you use,
organisation of inspections and investigations, and co-ordination between committees, among other
things. For example, a high-risk, unionised workplace with a large workforce spread over multiple sites
may have union representatives from each site as a member of a site-based health and safety committee
that meets regularly, and feeds into a corporate health and safety committee. A non-unionised, smaller
workplace, located on one small, low-risk site, is more likely to consult directly with employees on a day-
to-day basis.
What should you be consulting your workforce about?
The law says that you must consult your workforce about anything in the workplace that could
substantially affect their health and safety. The specifics will vary from workplace to workplace. In general,
you must consult about:
• any change which may have a substantial effect on your workforce’s health and safety. Such
changes may include new or different procedures, types of work, equipment, premises, and ways
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• your arrangements for getting competent people to help you meet your obligations under health
and safety laws, for example the appointment of a health and safety manager. For more
information about what a competent person is, see paragraphs 59–60;
• information you must give your workforce on the likely risks in their work and precautions they
should take. Discuss with employees and representatives the best way for information to be
shared. Consider issues of language, literacy and learning disabilities if appropriate (see
paragraphs 103–105 for more information);
• the planning of health and safety training; and n the health and safety consequences of
introducing new technology.
Get it done: Consult and involve
• what your duties are when consulting representatives;

• methods of involving your employees;
• how to involve representatives in investigations and inspections; and
• how to set up a health and safety committee and make it work well.
What are your duties when consulting health and safety representatives?
You have a duty to:
• allow representatives paid time to perform their role and to undertake training;
• provide facilities and assistance;
• provide information; and
• if you recognise trade unions, set up a health and safety committee if two union-appointed
representatives request it in writing.
Get it right: Keep improving
This section is about how to make sure your arrangements for workforce involvement are effective as
possible and covers how you can keep improving by:
• monitoring performance;
• reviewing progress; and
• knowing what to do when things become challenging.
Once you have been consulting and involving your employees for a while and given each other time to
adjust to the processes you have set in place, you should start thinking about how to keep improving over
time. Realistically, there are likely to be some things that work really well, others that could work better,
and some things that need to be approached in a different way. This is not something to worry about as
things are rarely perfect at the first attempt. Even when some things are working well, changes over time
may mean they do not remain effective.
For effective employee engagement, you need to keep monitoring performance and reviewing progress
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you work together to enhance health and safety. You can also explore what others in your industry or
similar businesses do to find out what works and share experiences of successful measures.
If you have had success with worker involvement tackling safety issues then consider other issues.
Engagement with your workforce is a powerful way to tackle musculoskeletal problems like back pain,
work-related stress and other health problems where psychological and social factors contribute.
Monitor performance
To keep an eye on how involvement with your employees is working, you can:
• Check how supportive management are by asking employees and their representatives if they
have been encouraged to get involved and been given time to participate.
• Check that employees know who their representatives are and whether they have been asked for
their views about health and safety matters.
• Look into organisational arrangements for involving the workforce in health and safety and
whether they have changed to allow employees greater opportunity to be involved in
consultation. For example, have training arrangements improved, or do representatives have
their roles noted on their performance appraisals?
• Collect information on health and safety issues and ideas for addressing them that have been
raised as a result of employee involvement to see if there have been improvements in how they
are managed.
• Think about other measures beyond health and safety because involving your workforce in health
and safety could result in additional benefits, for example in productivity, as things improve.
When you monitor performance, ask yourself if:
• what you find is acceptable or if you need to do something more;

• you need to address a matter further, how you will do this and what your employees think;
• there are any lessons to learn.
• You will be doing well if you can show:
• employees are aware of their health and safety representative and they communicate with each
other;
• co-operation between managers and employees so that there are the resources to release people
for meetings and training;
• a health and safety committee that deals with strategic matters balanced with everyday problems
that are resolved as they happen;
• good communication with and through the workforce so that messages are delivered clearly and
decisions are explained;
• competence is built through training and information sharing so new skills can be learned as there
are changes;
• joint problem solving, where employees participate as equals to resolve issues;
• joint inspections and monitoring of health and safety performance, risk control systems, and
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Review progress
As well as thinking about how well consultation with your workforce is going, check how far you have
progressed and consider where there is room for improvement. The review checklist can help you assess
how close you are to moving towards full employee involvement and joint problem solving.
Review checklist
• Gain commitment and action from senior management to involve employees and their
representatives in good time about matters affecting their health and safety.
• Fully involve employees and health and safety representatives in discussions about health and
safety matters affecting them, and encourage the workforce to generate ideas for health and
safety initiatives.
• Train managers, employees and health and safety representatives together in health and safety
matters to enable shared understanding and greater co-operation.
• Use a range of methods to consult and involve employees to appropriately and effectively take
into account the needs of different groups of the workforce who are affected by health and safety
measures.
• Give health and safety representatives access to the facilities and training they reasonably need
to perform their role.
• Ensure the health and safety committee members are equal partners, working together to
address strategic matters, and day-to-day matters are resolved elsewhere.
• Involve health and safety representatives in joint accident investigations, workplace inspections
and risk assessments.
• Explain the reasons behind management decisions so the workforce can understand how their
views have been considered in making decisions about managing their health and safety.
• Build on the success of workforce involvement in some issues by engaging employees in
discussions of health and safety issues that can be more challenging.
• Review progress with involving the workforce in health and safety and update consultation
processes so they are current and effective.
Behavioural aspects associated with consultation

Peer group pressures
We are all members of groups, unless we are peculiarly reclusive. The golf, tennis, darts, bowls clubs, etc.
are all groups to which we belong and consciously or unconsciously, we adapt to their norms. What we
are actually doing is responding to peer group pressure. A peer group is a group of individuals of a similar
age or background, or who have some similar social characteristics in common, with whom a person mixes
in a social context. The workplace is just such a group and we behave, again knowingly or unknowingly, in
accordance with the collective, accepted behaviour of the group. Within the group, individuals can be
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a socialising force where the process is carried out by the equals of the individual rather than by his
supervisors or managers.
It has long been recognised that the peer group is a powerful force for conformity and represents a system
of rewards and punishments often manifested in approval or disapproval. Individuals accept the norms
and values of friends or colleagues (peers). If these norms are oriented in favour of encouraging good
health and safety practices in the workplace, an individual entering that group will normally react or
respond by accepting those same values.
Danger of tokenism
In some organisations the following may be perceived as obstacles to effective management of WHS
consultation and participation:
Tokenism, where workers are not genuinely included in the consultation and are only consulted in a vague
manner or their views and suggestions are not actively sought.
Inequality, particularly where workers, such as young workers, are ignored as they are seen as less
important than other workers.
Stereotyping, particularly where workers may feel that they are being judged or treated unfairly due to
preconceived ideas or stereotypes about them, causing them not to participate in consultative processes.
Their function of all workforce should be incorporated into a coherent program and not be used as
tokenism or window-dressing. Neither should anyone be expected to carry sole responsibility for the
success or otherwise of the health and safety program as this responsibility is part of every manager's or
supervisor's duties.
Potential areas of conflict
In any social group, conflict may arise between two or more people, interest groups, genders, ethnic or
racial groups, etc. Obviously, where there are assemblies of people in the workplace, there may be conflict
within and between groups. For example, the safety committee member "A" serves on the committee to
represent his department or perhaps a particular group of workers with common skills. Similarly,
committee member "B" represents his department members. A and B, although sharing a common
membership of the safety committee, may well be pursuing different objectives. They may both be
seeking improved health and safety arrangements for their members but may be in competition for the
allocation of limited resources to their particular project. The safety representative serving on a safety
committee may see his role as one in which he feels the need to question and destructively criticise, as a
matter of course, any suggestion advanced from a management representative on the committee.
Remember, however, that the safety representative is a worker's representative and not part of the
management team. His perception of health and safety problems will be different from that of
management and not constrained by budgeting considerations. His role is primarily a policing one in which
he monitors the safety performance of management and, because of peer group pressure, he may see
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The safety representative can sometimes acquire delusions of grandeur and perceive himself as an expert
on health and safety matters. Conflict may arise between the safety representative and the first line
supervisor where the safety representative may have advised (wrongly) his members not to carry out a
particular management instruction. The converse is equally true with management taking the view that
their opinions are correct simply because they are management and know better. Consultation about
problems where the views of all the participants are considered should lead to a lessening of conflict and
arrival at effective decisions.
The role of the health and safety professional in the consultative process
In the HSE publication "Successful Health and Safety Management", the role and functions of the health
and safety adviser are described as follows.
Organisations that successfully manage health and safety give health and safety advisers the status and
ensure they have the competence to advise management and workers with authority and independence.
Subjects on which they advise include:
• Health and safety policy formulations and development

• Structuring and operating all parts of the organisation (including the supporting systems) in order
to promote a positive health and safety culture, and to secure the effective implementation of
policy
• Planning for health and safety, including the setting of realistic short and long-term objectives,
deciding priorities and establishing adequate performance standards
• Day-to-day implementation and monitoring of policy and plans, including accident and incident
investigation, reporting and analysis
• Reviewing performance and auditing the whole safety management system.
To fulfill their functions they have to:
• Maintain adequate information systems on relevant law (civil and criminal) and on guidance and
developments in general and safety management practice
• Be able to interpret the law and understand how it applies to the organisation
• Establish and keep up-to-date organisational and risk control standards relating to both "hard-
ware" (such as the place of work and the plans, substances and equipment in use) and "software"
(such as procedures, systems and people) - this task is likely to involve contributions from
specialists, e.g. architects, engineers, doctors, and occupational hygienists
• Establish and maintain procedures for the reporting, investigating and recording and analysis of
accidents and incidents
• Establish and maintain adequate and appropriate monitoring and auditing systems
• Present themselves and their advice in an independent and effective manner, safeguarding the
confidentiality of personal information such as medical records.
The position of health and safety advisers in the organisation is such that they support the provision of
authoritative and independent advice. The post-holder has a direct reporting line to directors on matters
of policy, and authority to stop work which is being carried out in contravention of agreed standards and
which puts people at risk of injury. Health and safety advisers have responsibility for professional

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standards and systems, and on a large site or in a group of companies may also have line management
responsibility for junior health and safety professionals.
Health and safety advisers are involved in liaison with a wide range of outside bodies and individuals
including local authority environmental health officers and licensing officials; architects and consultants,
etc; the fire service; contractors; insurance companies: clients and customers; the Health and Safety
Executive; the public; equipment suppliers; HM Coroner or Procurator- Fiscal; the media; the police;
general practitioners; hospital staff. You can see that this is a very wide brief and indicates that the safety
professional requires a broad and extensive knowledge of health and safety matters in order to fulfil his
duties.
He is the organisation's first port of call when health and safety problems are encountered, and will give
advice on short-term safety solutions to problems, and follow this through with perhaps a
recommendation for a change in policy or the introduction of new technology or new/revised safe
systems of work.
He will also recommend the services of outside expert consultancy where the problem requires scientific,
medical or technical advice which is outside his area of expertise.
He may also be involved in safety committees, either in a chairing role or simply in an advisory capacity
during committee deliberations. It is interesting to note that in October 1997, a discussion document was
circulated within health and safety circles concerning the role of the safety professional in the workplace.
The term "safety professional" covers such diverse staff as safety advisers, occupational hygienists,
doctors, nurses, safety managers, personnel officers, training officers, facilities managers, ergonomists,
engineers and radiation protection advisers.
Another problem lies in the reporting arrangements for the health and safety adviser. Does he/should he
report to a main board director? Should he have any direct influence on line managers? The sensible
answer to both questions is "yes" but the outcome of the discussion is awaited with interest.
2.4 Health and safety culture, Behavioural change programmes

The meaning of ‘health and safety culture’ and ‘health and safety climate’
Culture
• A system of ideals, values, beliefs, knowledge and customs transmitted from generation to
generation within a social group, community or society
• The way of life of a society, including codes of conduct, dress, language, rituals, norms of
behaviour and systems of belief
• A system of shared values and beliefs.
'Culture', then, is not a difficult concept in itself. In your studies, you will have looked at organisations and
discovered that they have a 'formal' and an 'informal' element to them, and that a knowledge of the

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informal rules is just as important as the formal in order to make the operation run effectively. In the same
way, a new employee has to assimilate the culture of his new company in order to function effectively.
How we recognise and acquire a new culture depends on individual perception. The process of
'enculturation' is the formal and informal acquisition of cultural norms and practices, a socialization
process usually engendered by membership of a particular group or organisation. Having acquired a
working definition of culture in its broadest sense, we need to move on to the concept of safety culture.
If you look back at our three definitions, you will see that they mention 'system of ideals', 'systems of
belief', and 'way of life'. If those ideals, beliefs and the way of life can be stretched to include values related
to health and safety, we have the basis of a health and safety culture.
Health and Safety Culture
"A system of shared values and beliefs about the importance of health and safety in the workplace."
This is a good working definition which can be worked into any discussion about health and safety culture.
There is no mystique about it. It is simply a positive attitude to safety which pervades the whole
organisation from top to bottom, and has become a norm of behaviour for every member of staff from
the board of directors down to the newest junior. Health and safety culture can be identified, measured,
improved, and if neglected, allowed to deteriorate. It is of paramount importance in the prevention of
accidents in any organisation. Our voluminous health and safety legislation and rulebooks are of
comparatively little value in a workplace where there is a poor safety culture. The safety practitioner
must be able to look at an organisation and put his finger on the pulse of its safety culture. If the pulse is
strong, he simply needs to sustain and maintain it; if it is thready or weak, he needs to nurture it.
Cultural Indicators and Safety Performance
We have already referred to these in the introduction to this study unit. If organisational culture is the
"objective characteristics of an organisation", then safety culture is the objective safety characteristics of
an organisation. You should have downloaded the HSE's leaflet "Advice to Employers" -
http://www.hse.gov.uk/opsunit/perfmeas.pdf>. This contains a checklist to be used in writing or
reviewing safety policies. If you refer to it now, you will see that it is actually a useful test of safety culture
(but by no means the only one). Affirmative answers to the questions posed would indicate the existence
of a sound, positive safety culture. Blank or negative responses would indicate the opposite.
Checklists apart, there are many other objective safety characteristics in any organisation - accident
figures, good or bad staff relationships, the wearing of PPE, the presence of warning notices throughout
the premises or site, the registration of visitors - the list is considerable. For example, statements made
by employees are often good indicators of the prevailing culture:
Negative:
"That's not my responsibility."
"That's the way we've always done it here."

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Positive:
"We pride ourselves on maintaining a good safety record." "We put safety before productivity."
"We have never had a major accident."
It is quite easy to identify a correlation between cultural indicators and safety performance. When an
experienced safety practitioner carries out a safety audit or inspection of a company, he can often gauge
the standard of safety performance on a fairly superficial walk-round and the first impressions he has
gained. When he has completed his detailed audit/inspection, it will - in most cases - confirm his initial
reaction.
Health and safety climate
Safety climate is the perceived value placed on safety in an organisation at a particular point in time. These
perceptions and beliefs can be influenced by the attitudes, values, opinions and actions of other workers
in an organisation, and can change with time and circumstance.
A positive safety climate improves production, reduces compensation and insurance costs and can also:
• Enhance employee safety knowledge and their motivation to behave safely

• Increase the uptake of safety related policies and programs
• Improve employee perception of more support available from management
• Reduce the perception amongst employees of exposure to a hazardous environment
• Reduce the number of incidents by employees and workgroups.
As safety climate is a snapshot of safety at one point in time it can change rapidly, on a daily or weekly
basis. For example, safety climate might be heightened after implementing a new safety procedure or
after an incident. If that heightened safety climate is maintained over time, it can lead to changes in the
underlying culture. As safety climate captures the attitudes towards safety at a specific point in time, it is
a useful indicator of safety performance. Measuring safety culture is usually done using an employee
survey or team discussions.
Indicators of health and safety culture and measuring health and safety climate
By definition, safety culture is difficult to measure. How do you measure values, attitudes and beliefs?
Following are different ways to tell whether or not you have an awesome safety culture. If you can answer
yes to most of these, you’re doing great. Keep it up!
If not, you have some work to do. Don’t be discouraged, culture change takes time and perseverance.
• There is visible leadership commitment at all levels of the organization: Leadership commitment
(or lack thereof) to safety will always show. What your organization’s leaders value is typically
what gets done. In great safety cultures, leadership proves their commitment to safety through

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their actions and how they empower others throughout the organization to win with their safety
initiatives.
• All employees throughout the organization exhibit a working knowledge of health and safety
topics: When you value something, it’s worth the time and energy it takes you to excel at it. In
great safety cultures, all employees throughout the organization have invested in a working
knowledge of health and safety topics. In order words — they’re competent in safety. They know
their roles and responsibilities. They know their stuff.
• There is a clear definition of the desired culture the organization wishes to achieve: How do you
create movement toward the safety culture your organization wishes to achieve? You set a goal.
You write it down. You measure where you’re at. You develop a plan to make it happen. It’s a
simple strategy, yes, but not simplistic. Make sure you develop a plan that includes a clear
definition of what your desired safety culture looks and feels like.
• There is a lack of competing priorities – safety comes in first every time! Who wins the
showdown between production and safety at your organization? Does safety win every time or
only when it’s the easy and convenient option? Safety needs to win every time or you’ve
developed a toxic culture. It’s that simple.
• There is visible evidence of a financial investment in health and safety: Safety slogans are great,
but creating a winning safety culture requires resources. Improvements need to be made.
Problems need to be solved. If funding a safety project is a constant battle and there is no
evidence of a financial investment in safety, you may have a safety culture issue.
• Opportunities for improvement are identified and resolved before a problem occurs: Proactive
organizations identify issues before they become costly problems and injuries. Are you passively
reacting to every injury? Or are you proactively finding risk factors and putting control measures
in place? Safety leaders that are ahead of the curve identify and resolve issues before a more
serious problem occurs down the road.
• There is regular, facility-wide communication on health and safety topics: Communication,
communication, communication. An internal safety communication process increases awareness
of safety topics and transfers knowledge to empower your people to be successful.
• A fair and just discipline system is in place for all employees: We live in a sowing and reaping
world. There are your actions and there are the consequences. Instituting a fair and just discipline
system for safety behaviors is a necessary step to follow through on your claim that safety is
important to you.
• There is meaningful involvement in health and safety from everyone in the organization: Safety
is everyone’s job, and everyone needs to do their job well. From the facility manager to the safety
manager to the supervisor to the worker on the floor, it takes a team effort to win at safety.
Everyone needs to play a meaningful role in the safety process.
• Managers spend an adequate amount of time out on the shop floor, where the people are:
Great safety leaders spend time out where the people are. It’s where the real work gets done —
the shop floor. That’s where you can find problems. It’s where you can talk to operators and get
their feedback. It’s where you’ll be seen (and respected) as the safety leader. You have
administrative duties, yes. But the great ones get out there and get their hands dirty.
• Participation rates are at an all-time high, indicating that employees are highly motivated and
your marketing of health and safety initiatives is effective: Safety success tends to breed more
success. Safety culture is the vehicle that drives this phenomenon. When participation rates are
at an all-time high, you’ve been able to build buzz and positive momentum for your future
efforts. Keep it going.

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• Employees are actively engaged in health and safety initiatives, producing tangible results for
your company: Are your employees engaged in health and safety initiatives? Or are they
dismissive, leaving you wondering if you’re getting through at all? Engaged employees are more
productive, giving you tangible results and feedback.
• Your employees report high job satisfaction due to the company’s commitment to their health
and well-being: Employee retention and engagement is a focus point for organizations around
the world, and rightfully so. With the skills and talent gap growing wider and wider as experienced
staff retire, engaging your workforce through excellence in health and safety builds culture. Do
this right and you’ll find yourself with highly satisfied employees and the safety culture you were
striving toward.
• Safety is the first item on the agenda of every meeting: Is safety at the top of your agenda sheet?
If not, put safety first or send a loud and clear message to everyone at the meeting that you truly
care.
• Employees feel comfortable reporting safety issues to their supervisors: Do your employees feel
comfortable reporting a safety issue to supervisors? Or do they feel like they will be ignored or
(even worse) punished for coming forward? This is a huge indication of the culture you’re molding.
Employees should feel encouraged and met with praise when they report safety issues.
• Regular, detailed audits of the company’s health and safety program are conducted by an
external auditor: Great safety leaders are confident enough to be audited by an external auditor.
It’s one thing to do an internal audit (and pat yourself on the back). It’s another thing to bring in
an outsider to do an external audit (and meet the challenge head on).
• Rewards and recognition of good behaviors are regularly given and serve to motivate continued
health and safety performance: Positive safety behaviors should be awarded and these awards
should motivate continued health and safety performance. You know what employees value but
don’t get nearly enough? Recognition of a job well done. Recognize and reward positive behaviors.
The word will get out.
• Safety is a condition of employment: Can you really afford an employee who thinks they are
above the rules when it comes to safety? Lives are on the line. Safety should be a condition of
employment. If your organization values safety above all else, you make safety a fundamental
value. Any employee who doesn’t share this value should be asked to leave and go work
somewhere else.
• Managers and supervisors respond positively to safety issues that are raised: Good managers
and supervisors understand that when employees raise a safety issue, it’s another opportunity
for improvement. This opportunity mindset allows them to respond positively to the employee
that raised the issue and escalate the issue far enough to get a solution put in place.
• Safety is viewed as an investment, not a cost: Companies that perform well in safety also perform
well in business. Knowing the true value of safety, organizations with a great safety culture view
safety as an investment, not a costly and dreaded expenditure.
• A high standard exists for accurate and detailed reporting of injuries and illnesses – nothing is
swept under the rug! This is a big one. Nothing should be swept under the rug. In great safety
cultures, transparency and integrity is the only way to conduct business. This is about living in
reality and confronting the challenges that exist in your workplace.
• There is a concrete definition of what success looks like for your health and safety program:
How will you know when you’ve achieved your goals? You’ll know because you have set
measurable goals and you know exactly what success looks like.
• The organization has the willpower to make major changes when necessary: Quick fixes and
easy solutions are great. But your organization’s willpower will be tested when you need to make

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a major move. In great safety cultures, good intentions are backed by the willpower to endure
major changes, expensive investments and hard decisions.
• Safety issues are dealt with in a timely and efficient manner: A functioning safety process deals
with issues in a timely and efficient manner. Hazards are identified and controls are put in place
within a reasonable time period. Knowing injury risks exist and not doing anything about them is
a sure sign the organization has become complacent and culture is rapidly deteriorating.
• All employees throughout the organization are empowered with the necessary resources and
authority to find and fix problems as they see them: Your safety process should have clearly
defined roles and responsibilities. In order for the people throughout your organization to
successfully accomplish their role in the process, they will need resources and authority to make
decisions.
Factors that may promote a positive health and safety culture or climate
Management commitment and leadership: The attitudes and behaviour of managers is critical in setting
the priorities of the organisation. Some of the ways by which managers can help to promote positive
approaches to health and safety include leading by example, effective communication and engagement
with staff, encouraging a learning culture, promoting a “just, no-blame culture”, and tracking and
monitoring progress to fight complacency.
High business profile of health and safety: One of the initial steps to be taken in order to promote a
positive health and safety culture is to understand the risk profile of the business. Risk profiling means
building a description, picture or image of what things are like or may potentially be like. And using this
as a basis of decision making. As part of this process, you may also decide what is the acceptable risk level
that you are happy with. The risk profiling identifies the major risks that relate to the business operations,
for example, if you are a chemical manufacturer, you major risk are associated with chemicals (e.g. their
handling, processing, storage, use and transport etc.). Instead if you focus on sorting your new office
building, you have got your priorities wrong.
Provision of information: Employees must be provided complete information about the health and safety
measures and the job. This not only is a legal requirement but may be considered as bullying if complete
information about the job is not provided.
Involvement and consultation: Managers may have the right approach and keenness to promoting a
positive health and safety culture but this cannot be achieved without effective communication and staff
engagement. Employees play an important role in shaping the health and safety culture of an
organisation. Managers that work with their staff, engage with them regularly, encourage an open door
policy to discuss issues and provide timely feedback generate effective communication within teams.
Proactive communication by managers can be achieved through regular planned meetings, face to face
discussions, health and safety briefings, and so on. Regular communication and staff engagement enables
managers to identify any issues that staff may have at an early stage, e.g. competence issues, additional
training needs, welfare provisions and facilities, so that these can be addressed in a timely manner. Active

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involvement in health and safety empowers staff to take ownership for health and safety, which is a
positive step towards preventing and controlling hazards.
Training: Conduct appropriate training sessions that support the Safety Culture Improvement Process.
Such training may include but is not limited to: “hazard identification and risk assessment”, “Critical Error
Reduction Techniques”, “concern reporting”, “Near Miss and Good Catch Reporting”, and Incident
Investigation & Root Cause Analysis”. Utilize a Safety Professional or expert as needed. Most importantly,
ensure that all employees know how to recognize potential hazardous conditions, practices and behaviors
in the workplace, at home and on the road. Use visuals such as posters, flyers, booklets along with emails
and memos to keep Safety in front of employees.
Promotion of ownership: Unfortunately, we humans tend to want to shirk responsibilities of any sort and
especially avoid blame. At a high-hazard operation with a negative safety culture, complacency and
ineffective safety-related communication can lead to lapses in accountability, whether for oneself, one’s
co-workers, or one’s subordinates, because the culture occasions blame and reprimand rather than
compassion and positive change.
Sometimes, management’s seeming lack of concern is also made evident by apparent double standards.
Many times, people are not disciplined for failing to use proper personal protective equipment (PPE), but
they are punished for accidents. Managers are seen walking through the plant without proper protection.
Management want employees to remind each other to wear their PPE, but employees feel that
constitutes “enforcing the rules,” which is a management responsibility. Thus, employees feel
management is sidestepping its responsibilities.
A truly positive safety culture would mean that all personnel, regardless of position, job description, or
time spent at the worksite have an equal responsibility in keeping themselves and each other safe, and
hold themselves and each other accountable. Management especially should lead by example and “walk
the walk” when it comes to safety, not just “talk the talk.”
Setting and meeting targets: Continuous reviewing and monitoring of health and safety performance is a
positive way of gauging the health and safety culture in an organisation and a means for improving on
existing processes. Managers need to ensure that reliable targets are set and performance indicators are
in place that reflects the hazards to which staff are exposed. They need to have a competence assurance
program to ensure that staff have the right skills they need to work safely and help them identify any
issues and establish actions for improvement.
Managers should note that it takes some time to develop a good health and safety culture and it can be
lost easily and in a shorter time than it took to achieve it. Health and safety cultures continually evolve
and continuous effort is required to ensure that changes are positive. Managers working at improving
factors will have a positive influence on their organisation’s health and safety culture.

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Factors that may promote a negative health and safety culture or climate
Company Reorganisations: Company reorganisations may originate from a variety of sources -

relocations, mergers, redundancies, downsizing, etc. and where these occur, the management of the
organisation needs to treat its staff with sensitivity.
There is legislation covering major redundancies, and compensation arrangements are provided for by
statute. Many companies also offer financial packages which are in excess of the statutory limits.
However, difficulties arise when the retained members of staff have to operate with reduced resources
and manpower, and perhaps in the shadow of further impending redundancies which may affect them
personally.
If companies effect economies by shedding staff, paying the minimum statutory redundancy amounts and
at the same time paying increased dividends to their shareholders and awarding better financial packages
to their directors, it is hardly surprising that the loyalties of remaining staff are going to be severely tested.
Changes occurring as a result of external pressures over which the organisation has little or no control -
which may include a major change in industry procedures (e.g. the effect of BSE on the meat industry) -
may not be as damaging as changes brought about by the need to improve profitability.
Frequent company reorganisations, unless handled well, can lead to growing dissatisfaction in the
workforce. In many cases those employees who have the most saleable skills will leave, creating
operational difficulties in an already difficult situation. First-level management may then have additional
burdens placed upon them when they are already concerned about their own future. This, in turn, may
adversely affect the organisation's normal controls and practices, leading to a greater number of incidents
and accidents. This is often accompanied by an increased level of sickness and absences from
undetermined causes.
Lack of confidence in organisation's objectives and methods: Most companies will have objectives in
terms of safety and productivity, including a company safety policy outlining the organisation's
commitment to health and safety. However, if in fact productivity is seen to be pre-eminent over safety,
then worker perception will inevitably be that the company is unethical and untrustworthy in its
operations, thus leading to a lack of trust and a deterioration of the safety culture.
Typical of complaints made by off-shore gas and oil workers were:
• Changes had been made to safety rules during the construction.

• Safety improvements were only made after incidents occurred.
• The permit to work system was not operating as it should.
• Accident statistics were being massaged.
• "Low visibility" of the offshore installation manager.
• Double standards in the application of safety regulations by safety advisers and management.

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If management and first-line supervisors perceive that the company has an overwhelming drive to achieve
productivity at the expense of safety, they may well adopt the same attitude to demonstrate their
commitment to company objectives. This can have a disastrous effect on the shop floor employees,
affecting safety, morale and motivation.
Uncertainty: Human beings by nature seek security and stability. Creating an uncertain environment
generates feelings of insecurity. Self-actualisation is the goal - the highest need - but is unimportant unless
the lower, more basic needs have been satisfied.
Lack of job security or uncertainty about the future leads to dissatisfaction, lack of interest in the job and
generally poor attitudes towards the company and working colleagues. Uncertainty is often caused by
management behaviour, which sends mixed signals to the workforce. If managers are seen to say one
thing and then do something completely different, this will be perceived by the workforce as an example
of management's cynicism and will undermine their authority and credibility.
Management decisions that prejudice mutual trust or lead to confusion regarding commitment: f a
manager claims to be in favour of health and safety but is then seen acting in an unsafe manner, e.g. by
drinking on the job, neglecting to wear PPE, or condoning other unsafe acts, there will be at best only
token acceptance of his spoken views.
Communications specialists claim that non-verbal actions, i.e. gestures or body language, constitute 70%
of communication and that words only make up perhaps less than 30% of the messages that we give.
Translated into health and safety terms, it is likely that where there is conflict between what management
say and what they do in practice, their actions will dominate the communication process and it will be
those actions which set the tone for the organisation and become the cultural norm.
We are all familiar with those old clichés -"Don't do as I do, do as I say" and”, Actions speak louder than
words" - and the key to good communication lies somewhere between the two.
To be effective, management's verbal communications and their observable behaviour and actions should
be consistent, as it is more likely that the workforce will judge management by their actions rather than
their words.
Decisions are perceived or interpreted in different ways by individuals, dependent upon their own
experience and expectations. Inconsistency in decision-making about salaries, bonuses, incentives,
promotions, transfers, etc. can be the trigger which sets off a good deal of unrest and distrust in an
organisation.
From your own working experience, you can probably cite some management decisions which beggared
belief at first glance, but which perhaps were not unreasonable when the full facts surrounding the
decision became public. Management therefore have to be aware that good communication is part and
parcel of effective decision-making.
The following circumstances give rise to distrust and doubt about management commitment generally,
but apply equally to decisions about safety.

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Where there are no rules or no precedents, decisions may appear to be arbitrary and inconsistent.
• Refusal to delegate decision-making leads to demotivation and diminution of a sense of

responsibility in subordinates.
• Constant rescinding by senior management of decisions made at lower levels of management.
• Delays in making decisions.
• Decisions affected by conflicting goals between management and workers.
• Decisions affected by conflicting goals between different departments.
• Lack of consultation prior to decision-making.
Management decisions which are aimed at achieving individual rather than organisational objectives, or
decisions generated according to some hidden agenda are also disruptive. It is this placing of self-interest
in terms of career progression before service to the organisation which can often disrupt relationships
and affect the efficiency of the company.
Many modern management thinkers urge that "ownership" or "stewardship" by workers of the
organisation's goals is the ideal basis for good management in any company.
Changing the culture

Planning and communication: How do you create movement toward the safety culture your organization
wishes to achieve? You set a goal. You write it down. You measure where you’re at. You develop a plan to
make it happen. It’s a simple strategy, yes, but not simplistic. Make sure you develop a plan that includes
a clear definition of what your desired safety culture looks and feels like. After that Communication,
communication, communication. An internal safety communication process increases awareness of safety
topics and transfers knowledge to empower your people to be successful.
Strong leadership: The most important factor affecting culture is the commitment from the top.
Your organisation needs to be positively led by its directors and managers. They should set the tone and
demonstrate their personal commitment to high safety standards. This means being compliant
themselves – not “I’m the MD, I don’t need to wear safety goggles”.
Achieving the necessary managerial leadership and commitment may require particular effort. For
example, running a senior management workshop to find ways to improve your organisation’s Health &
Safety performance. This might be followed up by publishing a draft action plan that invites comment
from all staff.
Commitment is shown in many ways. It needs to be formal in terms of an organisational structure, job
descriptions and a Health & Safety policy but it also needs to be apparent during stressful times. For
example, Health & Safety procedures are often simply forgotten when performance targets are
threatened.
The need for a gradualist (step-by-step) approach: The process for the development of safety culture can
be assisted by the use of a learning process within an organization. There is a wide range of practices that
are of potential value in the practical development of a progressive safety culture. The timescale required
to progress through the various stages of development cannot be predicted. Much will depend upon the

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circumstance of an individual organization and the commitment and effort that it is prepared to devote
to effect change. However, sufficient time must be taken in each stage to allow the benefits from changed
practices to be realized and to mature. People must be prepared for such change. Too many new
initiatives in a relatively short period of time can be organizationally destabilizing. The important point to
note is that any organization interested in improving safety culture should start and not be deterred by
the fact that the process will be gradual.
Put the initiative’s success down to consistent controls, and change the culture gradually, taking things
one step at a time and making sure that new developments are bedded in before moving on to the next
one. Great buy-in at shop floor level is essential, as is senior support.
Direct and indirect action to promote change: You should identify and praise positive Health & Safety
efforts.
All too often we report on Health & Safety failures, accident numbers and days lost through sickness.
Reporting on how many of your staff were seen wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) or correctly
using work equipment is a way of countering negativity. It will also help develop a positive culture of
achievement.
In developing a positive Health & Safety culture, everyone in your organisation needs to understand:
• The Health & Safety standards expected of them

• Their individual role in achieving and maintaining those standards.
Strong worker engagement: This is the most common and perplexing question in Safety and perhaps the
most critical aspect of sustaining a Culture of Safety: “How does one get and sustain Employee
Involvement in Safety”? Of course there is no one correct answer, but here are some common solutions:
• Implement a “Good Catch & Near Miss Process” (there are applications for this, so it is easy to
use) All employees that have a Smartphone can easily submit Good Catches or Near Misses on
the spot. This proactive process allows employees to report potential hazards in advanced in order
to get the potential hazard corrected immediately.
• Internalize Safety – Make it personal; let the employee know how safety can positively impact his
family. This can be accomplished by sharing stories of near miss/close calls and incidents.
• Ask employees for their involvement. Actively search for opportunities to involve employees
based on their expertise.
• Start every meeting with a “Safety Minute”. Every story should include “What Happened”, “What
was the Critical Error”, and “How could it have been worse” (all Employees can share in this story-
telling process).
• Recognize employees often: Soon (as soon as they’ve contributed to safety excellence), Certain
(specifically note what they’ve done right) and Positive (highlight the positive impact that their
action made on safety excellence).

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You need to involve all staff. Not only will this tap into the creativity and knowledge within your
organisation but it will make compliance more likely. The amount of consultation and involvement with
the workforce in Health & Safety matters is crucial for a positive Health & Safety culture. No single section
or department can develop a positive Health & Safety culture on its own.
Training and performance measurements and the importance of feedback: In order to create a
workplace safety culture, it requires a team approach and a proactive attitude to learn from indicators of
unsafe conditions. There is no doubt that organizations with a better safety culture are successful in
preventing workplace accidents and injuries. Safety culture is often associated with the safety
performance of an organization. Because, employees are often used to a particular set of workplace
practices, it is usually challenging to promote a change. Behavior based safety programs largely focus on
ensuring that everyone in the organization adhere to the best workplace practices.
The definition and objectives of safety culture can be industry specific and subject to perceptions.
However, there are certain critical elements which are common across the board irrespective of the
organization.
• The feedback of employees with respect to risks, hazards and safe behavior is important for
incorporating safe habits. Paper work should be removed wherever possible to ensure quick and
seamless reporting of accidents, injuries and near misses.
• Taking corrective actions for near misses and incidents is important. For a flawless safety culture,
one shouldn’t shy away from making changes to the system and put in practices which encourages
safe behavior.
Problems and pitfalls

Attempts to change culture too rapidly: It is rare for organisational change to be effective if those affected
by the change process are not fully involved in the change process. “When initiating change remember,
People support what they create.” The 6 P rule is very important in change – Prior Preparation and
Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
Attempting too big a change and / or changing things too quickly can create an adverse reaction and
alienate the very people you want to make allies. Learn the context, culture and past before trying to
make changes. Unless a crisis situation is apparent realise effective change requires a lot of effort and
time.
Adopting a broad approach: A broad approach may not be very effective. First learn the context, identify
specific problems and adopt specific control measures in order to get maximum results.
Responsibility for accidents and incidents: When a program puts the target directly on workers and their
actions, you completely lose sight of the second part of the equation: external factors. With 100 percent
of the focus on employees’ end actions, external factors such as safety program management, engineering
controls, communication and best practices training may be ignored. Without well rounded information,
an organization prevents improvements in these areas.

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Absence of trust in communication: Trust is one of the core components for an effective safety culture.
One needs to learn from mistakes and errors which offers invaluable learning opportunities. The
workforce should have a good relationship across all levels as that allows the employees to voice their
opinion.
To create safety and trust:
• Get to know each other: Make an effort to understand colleagues as individuals. This doesn’t
require a great deal of time or deep, personal disclosures — just taking a moment to ask about
someone’s weekend and occasionally sharing stories of your own.
• Talk about emotions: The ability to discuss emotions is a critical feature in any group that aspires
to share effective feedback, not only because feelings are at the heart of most difficult feedback,
but also because feedback inevitably generates difficult feelings. When we can talk about our
embarrassment, disappointment, frustration, and even anger, the culture is sufficiently safe —
and robust — to handle real feedback.
• Make it OK to say no: A risk in feedback-rich cultures is that people feel obligated to say “Of
course,” when asked, “Can I give you some feedback?” The freedom to postpone such
conversations when we’re not ready to have them ensures that when they do take place all
participants are willing parties.
Incentive program: Depending on how incentives are used, they may negatively affect your safety
program. If employees are rewarded for hitting the company quota on injury rates or days without
incidents, they may be discouraged from reporting incidents. This can cause near misses to go unreported
and put workers’ safety in a fragile state. Incentive programs should be carefully planned and considered
before implementing to make sure that they do not discourage employees from taking an active role in
safety.
Anonymous observation: is the third issue that can arise with a 100-percent focus on behavior-based
safety. By using anonymous observation of other employees, each employee is responsible to report
unsafe behavior conducted by their peers to management. This can cause conflict and peer pressure
amongst workers and concern that safety issues are not being addressed. It is critical to encourage
employees to report issues without the fear of negative consequences, as well as encouraging them to
report good behavior and share ideas for improving workplace safety.
Risk Perception: Another obstacle to change is an organization’s general approach to the perception of
risk. Often, injured employees and their supervisors evaluate the seriousness of an event by the result.
For example, an employee with a small cut on their finger might feel frustrated at having to fill out a three-
page accident report for what appears to be a minor injury. A sage employee may not even report a similar
injury in the future because the reporting process appears to provide little value.
In this case the employee is evaluating the seriousness of the event based on the injury—the result.
However, in the safety profession we evaluate the seriousness of the event by its potential. Making a
change in our safety system based on a result like a small cut will meet natural resistance if the potential

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risk isn’t evident to all stakeholders. asking, “You want to spend more money on what?!” to employees
wondering why they’re being trained on something that isn’t required.
Conversely, sticking with the status quo presents little overt risk in terms of job security or professional
reputation. But if the goal is to reduce injuries by as much as possible then it’s clear that the status quo
bias must be overcome. If you stick with the status quo then you will only get status quo results. The best
way to address problems with perception is through education. Companies have a decent track record of
teaching workers the mechanical functions of a change—like the ins and outs of new paperwork or
processes—but spend far less time educating employees on the reason a change is necessary. At the
outset of any change initiative, companies can secure employee buy-in by clearly explaining why the
change is necessary, why it will be beneficial for employees and by answering any questions they have.
Doing so will not only recalibrate workers’ risk perception but it will cut down on their resistance to change
too.
Resistance to change: The attitude of an organization, from top to bottom, affects the success of a safety
management system. It’s important to acknowledge that employees will resist change unless that change
is framed with a positive outcome for them as individuals. These are specific attitudinal obstacles and
misconceptions to address for both leaders and employees:
• Lack of trust
• A climate of fear
• The uncertainty of constant change
• Treating change like a program instead of a process
• A history not conducive to employee involvement
• Leaders who won’t let go
• Employees who focus on their co-workers’ imperfections
• Amount of time and effort involved
Training: When making changes to a system or rolling out a new system, you need ample time to train a
core team of experts and then additional time for people to change old habits, ask questions and make
adjustments. The success of a safety management system can be challenged by:
• Inadequate training
• Team members being assigned or assuming too much responsibility
• Inadequate time for training to take root, leading to employee frustration and fear of getting it
wrong
Building trust in the workforce including psychological confidence i.e.. Workforce know that their
view matter and are not afraid to voice an opinion
As individuals, we each choose whether we will trust someone or not. Within an organization, that
decision to trust plays a bigger role in your company’s success that you might think. As per a research
done by – Great Places to Work Institute, trust between managers and employees is the primary
defining characteristic of the very best workplace. They’ve found that companies with high trust
regularly outperform the S&P 500 by a factor of three.

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The importance of trust in the workplace
In the workplace, if trust is low, it impacts your relationships with your teammates and often means that
projects aren’t completed properly or even at all. Headlines have blared for years: “Your team will succeed
only if they trust each other” or “A team without trust really isn’t a team.”
But here’s the problem: Organizations are not great at fostering trust, with 63% of employees not trusting
their direct boss. Trust in senior executives is even worse — in the United States, it’s around 38% of
employees that fully trust the CEO and her/his team, and in Canada it’s about 25%. (Japan is the lowest
of studied countries, with a dismal 18% of employees trusting the leadership team.)
Trust is inherently important to the functioning of a team, but many organizations are operating seemingly
devoid of trust. That’s both a chasm and an inefficiency. If you could develop more trust on your team
and in your organization, it would be akin to a “blue ocean” strategy — where you carve out a new area
of differentiation — over your rivals, because statistically it doesn’t seem like they’re actively developing
trust internally.
In many cases companies need to revamp their existing practices and implement new safety initiatives,
technologies and strategies. Successfully doing all that requires a tremendous amount of trust, and we
can’t have a conversation about safety culture without talking about this essential building block. A high
level of trust promotes an environment in which employees can focus on their work and do their jobs
better. Improved performance leads to fewer safety issues and better output overall. Companies who
have ensured this high trust have seen impressive results which can extend to better safety programs.
These firms experience 56% lower employee turnover, generate more repeat business, and see 25-95%
higher profit margin.
Trust builds a strong safety culture
Trust paves the way for a strong safety culture, where employees actively participating in various
programs, adhere to best practices, and contribute when necessary. Good companies have a robust
organization-wide understanding and buy-in to safety programs. That means all employees know about
which safety steps the company has taken and how they work. This is fully embedded in the culture, and
employees feel like it’s their duty to be as safe as possible.
Getting that buy-in and encouraging employees to live for safety values (versus just paying lip-service to
them) requires trust. Employees and project stakeholders need to feel secure and confident that
management has their back in order for them to feel safe about doing things like participating and
contributing to your initiatives, reporting incidents, and voicing their opinions.
In other words, team members need to feel emotionally safe in order to do their part and also look out
for the rest of the team.

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Importance of Transparency
Good companies demonstrate transparency through their internal processes and communications. For
most of the starters, safety programs rely on open communication and transparency to work. By
improving communication among crew members it can translate to superior safety performance and
fewer workplace injuries. In other words, jobsites will be much safer when communication improves and
matters are discussed openly. After all, safety issues can’t be dealt with if team members don’t know
what’s going on. A high level of trust can prevent this from happening because it promotes an
environment where people feel secure about speaking up, and thus issues are addressed promptly.
Minimizes Uncertainty
Uncertainty prevents employees from being able to do their jobs efficiently. When people aren’t sure
where they stand or what happens next, they can’t be as responsive or productive, and this diminishes
safety at the jobsite.
Uncertainty also contributes to low morale. When teams are uncertain of something, they naturally begin
to assume the worst. This leads to fear, which in turn can prevent or hinder needed action and good
decision making.
The best way to minimize uncertainty is to foster a high-trust environment that promotes transparency
and clear communication. And never blindside your employees. This is a sure-fire way to lose their trust.
Keep project stakeholders in the loop with all updates and developments, so they know what to expect at
any given time. The bottom line: jobsites will be much safer when matters are discussed openly.
Importance in Investing in Employee safety
Employees play a critical role in maintaining jobsite safety, so you need them to be at the top of their
game. In order for that to happen, your team members need to trust that you’re looking out for their
safety.
Provide the right tools and equipment
Always have the appropriate machinery and tools in place and conduct regular checks to ensure
compliance with the latest safety standards. Maintenance histories and detailed safety checklists are a
must, not just for the sake of compliance, but also for transparency. Proper record-keeping communicates
to employees that you’re looking out for them.
Offer protective and safety equipment
The usual safety gear such as hardhats and vests are essential all year round, but during a pandemic,
additional PPE — such as respiratory protection — are likely required. You’ll need to equip your team with
PPE that works and functions well, while maintaining proper fit. Don’t settle for one-size-fits-all gear, as
they can do more harm than good. For instance, women often have to wear ill-fitting gear designed for

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men, which can impede their movement, making them less effective at their jobs as well as more likely to
experience mishaps.
Focus on training
Part of helping employees feel safe is giving them confidence to do their jobs well. This starts with the
right training. It doesn’t matter how well-intentioned an employee is; if they don’t know how to operate
a particular tool or wear their gear properly, they’re endangering themselves and their colleagues, which
puts the whole project in jeopardy. So, implement rigorous training for all team members, and conduct
follow-ups regularly — even when they’re not strictly required. Not only will this keep you compliant (and
preserve your eligibility for insurance payouts), but it will also dramatically reduce jobsite safety
violations.
If you already have a training program in place, re-evaluate its effectiveness. According to a 2018 study
on commercial construction, 80% of contractors are concerned about jobsite safety. The study also found
that 67% of respondents feel that the most impactful actions that contractors could take to increase safety
is to provide more training to employees. By giving suitable and sufficient training employees trust
towards health and safety culture can be further increased.
Create clear processes and transparency
Having consistent, repeatable methods and practices leads to more streamlined operations, and fewer
errors. Strive to find a routine and promote consistency in your projects. This means implementing
predictable practices around meetings, project planning, post-mortems, etc. Again, when people know
what to expect, they’ll worry less, do their jobs better, and be safer overall.
Of course, jobsites can be complex and unpredictable at times, and this is where transparent
communication comes in. If routines aren’t possible, keep everyone safe by keeping them in the loop.
Communicate clearly and be direct. If unexpected or complicated issues come up, discuss them via one-
on-one meetings to prevent misunderstandings.
Improve Teamwide Relationship
Trust organically stems from great relationships, which is why you should encourage your team to form
strong bonds. Every organization is different, so there’s no one best way to improve relationships. But a
good starting point is to develop informal personal contracts between team members.
These are not signed and written legal contracts, but rather agreements about how things will be done.
For example, what is the communication plan for team members? How should decisions be made? Who
has the authority to make what decisions, and when? Establishing answers to these questions will help
facilitate trusting relationships — which ultimate improves safety in the workplace and jobsite.
Introduce new technology to promote health and safety

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New technologies that promote health and safety are constantly being developed. Investing in these
things is a smart thing to do, but you need to do it with caution. Technology, no matter how innovative or
safe, can make people uncomfortable, simply because it’s unfamiliar.
Employees might have some misgivings about new technology — even if it’s designed to keep them safe
(e.g. tools that utilize AI to enforce social distancing, or even temperature checks). One way to overcome
employee distrust or apprehension is to come up with a strong communication and training program.
Launch an initiative that showcases the value of the new tools, and make sure employees know what’s in
it for them.
It’s also smart to roll out any tech changes gradually, as to not overwhelm the crew. Being methodical
with your implementation gives you the chance to learn and refine your efforts. Finally, collect feedback.
Check-in with team members to see how they feel about the transition and what can be done to make
them more engaged and comfortable.
Psychological Safety in the workplace
Psychological safety in the workplace is felt when managers and peers do not penalise a person or think
they are not good enough, just because of a mistake made by them. In an environment that is considered
psychologically safe, people don’t mock others or create hurdles for the ones asking for help, feedback or
information to slow them down. A positive mental and emotional state psyche is conducive to developing
trust and a sense of belonging in the organisation. The role of managers at this juncture is to inspire the
teams to be resilient and motivated.
The managers need to buckle up and put robust practices in place including regular feedback,
development of effective relations, setting a proper incentive structure and development of a supportive
work environment. Without these elements, the teams tend to lack the attitude for high performance and
collaboration.
In a safe culture, asking questions without a fear of retribution is acceptable and welcomed, which leads
to confident teams that can take risks for a better future of the company. It is important for managers to
create a culture of psychological safety for their teams. When beginning to develop and manage large
teams, the leaders must be able to foster open communication and conversations that can promote
mutual engagement and enhance levels of cognitive safety in the organisation at large.
In the absence of the culture of questioning and cognitive resilience, employees tend to consider peer and
managerial pressure to be more than a transactional issue at work. They start viewing these situations as
a threat to their position at the company. In turn the team starts to focus on the negative consequences
of not obeying their managers.
This results in lack of creative thought, as the employees are fearful of developing thinking practices of
innovation and bringing new ideas on the table. As the team starts to grow in number, it is important to
develop a culture that looks beyond competence of the team members.

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The elements and levels of the British HSE’s Safety culture maturity model
The safety culture maturity model concept was initially developed by the Software Engineering Institute
(SEI) as a mechanism to improve the way software is built and maintained. The model provides
organisations with a five level process to assist them in developing their software engineering practices.
The five levels are Initial, Repeatable, Defined, Managed and Optimising. The capability maturity model
framework has been adapted to be used in other domains and to address issues, such as project
management, human resources, usability and quality. The capability maturity model concept is useful
because it enables organisations to establish their current level of maturity and the actions required to
reach the next level.
The safety culture maturity of an organisation consists of ten elements, which are described below. An
organisations or installation’s level of maturity is determined on the basis of their maturity on these
elements. It is likely that an organisation will be at different levels on the ten components of the SCMM.
Deciding which level is most appropriate will need to be based on the average level achieved by the
organisation or installation being evaluated.
Ten elements of the safety culture maturity model
• Management commitment and visibility Communication

• Communication
• Productivity versus safety
• Learning organisation
• Safety resources
• Participation
• Shared perceptions about safety
• Trust
• Industrial relations and job satisfaction
• Training
Five levels of safety culture maturity
The safety culture maturity model presented in Figure 1 overleaf is set out in a number of
iterative stages. It is proposed that organisations progress sequentially through the five levels, by
building on the strengths and removing the weaknesses of the previous level. It is therefore not
advisable for an organisation to attempt to jump or skip a level. For example, it is important for
organisations to go through the managing level before the involving level as it important that
managers develop their commitment to safety and understand the need to involve frontline
employees.

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The concepts of blame, no-blame and just culture (Dekker)

About Sidney Dekker
Sidney Dekker (PhD Ohio State University, USA, 1996) is Professor and Director of the Safety Science
Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, and Professor at the Faculty of Aerospace
Engineering at Delft University in the Netherlands. Sidney has lived and worked in seven countries across
four continents and won worldwide acclaim for this ground breaking work in human factors and safety.
He coined the term ‘Safety Differently’ in 2012, which has since turned into a global movement for change.
It encourages organizations to declutter their bureaucracy and set people free to make things to well, and
to offer compassion, restoration and learning when they don’t. An avid pilot of planes large and small, he
has been flying the Boeing 737 as airline pilot on the side.
What is a just culture?
Accountability is a trust issue and fundamental to human relationships. Being able to and having to explain
why one did what he did is a basis for a decent, open, functioning society. Just culture is about balancing
safety (learning and improvement) and accountability. Just Culture wants people to bring information on
what must be improved to groups or people who can do something about it and spend efforts and
resources on improvements with safety dividend rather than deflecting resources into legal protection
and limiting liability. This is forward looking accountability. Accountability must not only acknowledge the

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mistake and harm resulting from it, but also lay responsibilities and opportunities for making the changes
so that the probability of the same mistake/harm in the future goes down.
Research shows that not having a just culture is bad for morale; commitment to the organization; job
satisfaction and willingness to do that little extra outside ones role. Just Culture is necessary if you want
to monitor safety of an operation, want to have an idea about the capability of the people or organization
and to effectively meet the problems that are coming your way. Just culture enables to concentrate on
doing a quality job and making better decisions rather that limiting (personal) liability and making
defensive decisions. Just culture promotes long term investments in safety over short-term measures to
limit legal or media exposure.
The concept of blame, and no-blame
Events can have different interpretations: is a mistake just a mistake or a culpable act? Often there is no
objective answer, only how you make up your mind about it.
Companies often impose difficult choices on their employees. On one side “never break rules, safety first”
on the other “don’t cost us time or money, meet your operational targets, don’t find reasons why you
can’t”.
A single account cannot do justice to the complexity of events. A just culture:
• Accepts nobody’s account as ‘true’ or ‘right’,

• Is not about absolutes but about compromises
• Pays attention to the “view from below”
• Is not about achieving power goals
• Says that disclosure matters and protection of those who do just as much
• Needs proportionality and decency.
In a just culture people will not be blamed for their mistakes if they honestly report them. The organization
can benefit much more by learning from the mistakes than from blaming the people who made them.
Many people fail to report not because they are dishonest, but because they fear the consequences or
have no faith that anything meaningful will be done with what they tell. One threat is that information
falls in the wrong hand (e.g. a prosecutor, or media - notably for government related agencies due to
freedom of information legislation!). Some countries provide for this reason certain protection to safety
data and exempt this information from use in courts.
Getting people to report is difficult and keeping the reporting up is equally challenging. It is about
maximizing accessibility (low threshold, easy system, …) and minimizing anxiety (employees who report
feeling safe). It is building trust, involvement, participation and empowerment. Let the reporter be a part
in the process of shaping improvement and give feedback. It may help to have a relatively independent
(safety) staff to report to instead of line reporting (which does have advantages regarding putting the
problem where it should be treated and having the learning close to the process).

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Behavioural change programmes

Principles of Behavioural Change Programmes
• Define 'safe' and 'unsafe' behaviour.

• All involve observation of behaviour in the workplace.
• By managers and/or peers.
• With/without targets.
• Provide feedback.
• Reinforce safe behaviour 'reeducate' unsafe behaviour.
• Feedback ranges from on-the-spot specific feedback and discussion, to impersonalized general
data.
Behavioural change programme

Advantages Disadvantages
• Discussing safety in the workplace. • Rule violation vs. good rules?
• Learning to communicate • BIG, disciplined effort required.
constructively. • Very often fails through lack of real
• Management visibility. commitment or discipline.
• Employee engagement in safety. • Some changes will be expensive.
• Managers/supervisors (when involved). • Not 'owned' by everyone.
• Learn to observe. • Off the peg' or consultant-led
• Learn to act promptly on unsafe acts. programmes can fail because of poor fit
• Can learn about safety leadership. with local style/culture (UK/US).
• Learn to think about aspects of human • Trust levels amongst management and
factors. employees must match.
• Can provide some leading indicators for • Lack of friendly
safety. communication/Directive style of
• Can actually change behaviour management.
("cognitive dissonance").
• Will identify dangerous situations.
The organisational conditions needed for success in behavioural change programmes

There are a number of ways in which you can successfully influence safe behaviour at work, e.g.:
• By education and training;

• Through improved ergonomic design; and
• By introducing a goal-setting and feedback programme.
The approaches complement each other and you may choose to consider more than one.
Beliefs and knowledge are important determinants of safe behaviour. People need to know what the safe
behaviour is. Education and training are therefore vital.

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Training should cover such key aspects as:
• Knowledge of the work-related health and safety risks;

• Training and feedback in the proper use of safety-related equipment and procedures;
• Awareness of the benefits of carrying out safe behaviour; and
• The views of managers and colleagues on risk-taking.
Behavioural safety programmes have made a substantial contribution to improving health and safety
performance in several industrial sectors. However, there are a number of difficulties that may arise
during their implementation. Workforce concerns, including:
• Issues about 'spying' on colleagues.

• Seeing the programme as another initiative that will not last.
• Worries that workers will be blamed for accidents.
• Disagreements over safe practices.
Management issues, including:
• Insufficient management support for the approach.

• Expectations of a 'quick fix', leading to loss of commitment when improvements come more
slowly.
• Organisational changes that may lead to low morale and loss of key players.
• Autocratic management style.
• Inconsistent behaviour of managers when enforcing agreed safety behaviours and rules.
Increasing the effectiveness /chance of success:
• Ownership - developed in-house is best.

• Good fit with organisations needs culture and SMS.
• Commitment (involvement is better) from management.
• Good communication and understanding of programme.
• Approach seen as 'fair and just' - trust.
• Managers act as role models.
Focusing on Behaviour: While most safety professionals now accept that the majority of workplace
accidents are caused by a combination of employee, employer, job and workplace factors, the outdated
view was that on-the-job accidents and injuries were the direct result of carelessness and unsafe
behaviours. This led to a focus on discipline and training and to the promotion of health and safety
incentive programmes which have had little proven success in the long term.
Awareness of the hazard: People are normally concerned with doing a good job rather than being
consciously aware or concerned about the occupational health and safety hazards in their workplace. At
appropriate danger signals or for certain critical tasks we need to be able to switch over to a more
conscious and focused way of thinking about the risks and controls.

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There are a number of influences on whether a person feels at risk from a hazard. A risk is seen as being
greater if we perceive it as having severe consequences or if we feel personally vulnerable. For example,
a health worker's beliefs about the likelihood of contracting the HIV virus will impact on their perception
of the hazard as significant or not. If we feel that the available controls are of limited effectiveness then,
in extreme cases, this can lead to us dismissing the threat.
Overconfidence, over-optimism or over-familiarity may act to reduce our appraisal of a hazard as

significant. There are also well-known biases in individual risk perception, which will influence our
appraisal of a hazard.
People are bad at judging probability and especially bad at judging risk. This is important because
accident rates tend to be higher in groups of people who estimate risks as low. Typically we underestimate
the risks attached to our own work. This tendency is greater in familiar situations or where we choose
ourselves to take a risk.
People with different roles in the same workplace may judge risks differently. In general we make a lower
risk estimation of our own job than of other jobs. For example, workers in the construction industry were
asked to estimate the risk of falls by different tradesmen. These included carpenters, tile layers,
scaffolders, painters and steel erectors. Each of these groups made consistent judgements but
overestimated the risks of trades other than their own by about 10%. They all underestimated their own
risks.
To improve our appreciation of risks we need information about the hazard, risk estimates, exposure
modes, and available control measures. If individual workers can be made to feel personally vulnerable
then this is also helpful. Fear-inducing messages are not usually advisable since people are more likely to
reject a threatening fear-inducing message and to assume that the message is for someone else. Constant
pressure is needed to make sure that judgments of risk are realistic.
Behaving safely: The work environment and the health and safety climate influence our safe behaviour.
If supervisors and managers appear to condone unsafe behaviour in order to achieve productivity goals
then safe behaviour will be less likely.
Content of typical behavioural change programmes

A typical behavior change programme will consist of following elements:
• Develop a local behaviour change policy and strategy

• Ensure organisation policies, strategies, resources and training all support behaviour change
• Commission interventions from services willing to share intervention details and data
• Commission high quality, effective behaviour change interventions
• Plan behaviour change interventions and programmes taking local needs into account
• Develop acceptable, practical and sustainable behaviour change interventions and programmes
• Use proven behaviour change techniques when designing interventions
• Ensure interventions meet individual needs
• Deliver very brief, brief, extended brief and high intensity behaviour change interventions and
programmes

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• Ensure behaviour change is maintained for at least a year

• Commission training for all staff involved in helping to change people's behaviour
• Provide training for behaviour change practitioners
• Provide training for health and social care practitioners
• Assess behaviour change practitioners and provide feedback
• Monitor behaviour change interventions
• Evaluate behaviour change intervention
According to the ‘stages of behaviour change’ model, the following six steps make up the complex process
a person uses to change their habits and behaviours and integrate changes into their lives.
Pre-contemplative/unaware: In this stage, people are not interested in change, can’t see the need to
change and have no intention of doing anything differently. They defend their current behaviour and are
not aware that their life could be better. This group does not see falls as a real issue for them. This group
tends to avoid information, discussion or even thought about change and the need for it. Some observers
would characterise this group as ‘resistant’, ‘unmotivated’, or ‘in denial’ and not focused on the need to
change or the actual change itself
Contemplative: In this stage, people start to think about the issue and the possible need to make some
changes. They recognise that there is a problem and that they can and should do something to make their
lives better. There may have been a trigger event like an older person who is a friend or neighbour having
had a bad fall or there may be some other form of prompt that starts the process of considering change.
For example, people could be motivated to get their eyes checked or have a medication review. This group
is now beginning to see that their behaviour needs changing. People in this group are often seen as
procrastinators and ambivalent, however what they are actually doing is weighing up the pro’s and con’s
(including the costs and benefits) of any possible behaviour change. Giving up an enjoyed behaviour
causes them to feel a sense of loss despite the perceived gain. At this stage, people are very open to
information and scour sources for options and strategies.
Preparing: A change is about to happen. The person concerned has realised how serious their situation is,
has made a decision or a commitment to change and is currently completing any ‘pre-change’ steps with
a view to making the required change within the next month. An example would be finding out details of
local physical activity classes and working out which public transport option to use. This stage is also an
information gathering period. This stage is typified by determination, making plans, introspection about
the decision to change as well as a reaffirmation of the need and desire to change. This is typically a period
of transition. It is not seen as a stable time and is usually quite short.
Action/trying: This stage applies to those people who have made real and overt changes or modifications
to their lives and are starting to live their ‘new’ life. While the chances of relapse and temptation are very
strong, there is also openness to receiving help and support. This stage is the ‘willpower’ stage and short-
term rewards to sustain motivation are commonly used. This group is also prone to analyse any behaviour
changes to enhance their self-confidence and to help make better plans to deal with either personal or

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external pressures. Usually, after about six months, the person moves from the action stage to the
maintenance stage.
Maintaining: By this stage, people are working to consolidate any changes in their behaviour, to maintain
the ‘new’ status quo and to prevent relapse or temptation. The former behaviour is now seen as no longer
desirable and a number of coping strategies have been put in place and are working. This group needs to
be patient and avoid personal and environmental temptations. There is a need for them to remind
themselves of the progress that has been made already and to stay on the course of change. The risk of
lapsing is substantially less than in earlier stages
Termination/advocacy/transcendence: This ‘new’ stage is the continuing part of any behaviour change
and includes the understanding that going back to old habits or behaviours would ‘feel weird’ and that
former problem behaviours are no longer perceived as desirable. This stage can also have an element of
advocacy about it with some people committed to spreading the word to their neighbours, family
members, other workplaces or the public at large. This sort of advocacy plays an important part in helping
move other people along the behaviour change path and needs to be encouraged and supported. During
this stage, relapse can occur, but it is not seen as a failure but rather as a learning opportunity to help
strengthen coping strategies and support mechanisms
2.5 Traditional and proactive safety management

Safety management is commonly understood as applying a set of principles, framework, processes and
measures to prevent accidents, injuries and other adverse consequences that may be caused by using a
service or a product. It is that function which exists to assist managers in better discharging their
responsibilities for operational system design and implementation through either the prediction of
system’s deficiencies before errors occur or the identification and correction of system’s deficiencies by
professional analysis of safety occurrences.
Safety management implies a systematic approach to managing safety, including the necessary
organisational structure, accountabilities, policies and procedures.
Safety management is an organisational function, which ensures that all safety risks have been identified,
assessed and satisfactorily mitigated. In any industry safety management is a combination of the two
described perspectives, traditional and modern. The reactive (or traditional) safety management
approach is useful when dealing with technological failures, or unusual events. It is generally described by
the following characteristics:
• The focus is on compliance with the minimum safety requirements;

• The level of safety is based on reported safety occurrences, with its inherent limitations, such as:
examination of actual failures only; insufficiency of data to determine safety trends; insufficiency
of insight regarding the chain of causal and contributory events; the existence and role of latent
unsafe conditions.
In today’s economy, businesses are challenged to continually improve quality and they do it. At these
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daily problems with quality, productivity and safety in the system. Knowledge always is given voluntarily,
so the de-motivating methods practiced in command and control will not work in this new environment.
This is as true for safety as it is for quality.
Traditional safety (sometimes called ‘Safety I’)

Traditional safety management is effective but nowhere near what it could be if it adopted the
management theory of continual improvement. To do this, it would have to change its objectives from
compliance and employee motivation to continual improvement of safety in the work system.
In this world, safety management must be fast, focused, flexible and friendly to address the variations in
common causes in the always-changing processes created in lean work systems. Safety management must
create a system in which employees experience autonomy, mastery and purpose when it comes to on-
the-job safety. These three concepts are absent in traditional safety management and this prevents
ownership of the safety program by employees, a step that is necessary for any safety program to be
effective.
According to any Safety Management Manual safety management in any industry is a combination of the
two described perspectives, traditional and modern. The reactive (or traditional) safety management
approach is useful when dealing with technological failures, or unusual events. It is generally described by
the following characteristics:
The focus is on compliance with the minimum safety requirements;
The level of safety is based on reported safety occurrences, with its inherent limitations, such as:
examination of actual failures only; insufficiency of data to determine safety trends; insufficiency of insight
regarding the chain of causal and contributory events; the existence and role of latent unsafe conditions.
Proactive safety management (sometimes called ‘Safety II’ and ‘Safety Differently’)
The proactive approach in the safety management is based on following a risk management strategy that
includes identifying hazards before they materialize into incidents or accidents and taking the necessary
actions to reduce the safety risks. Components of a proactive safety management strategy are:
• Unambiguous safety policy ensuring the senior management commitment to safety;

• Hazard identification and risk assessment using state-of-the-art risk assessment methods;
• Safety reporting systems used to collect, analyse and share operational safety related data;
• Competent investigation of safety occurrences with sole purpose of identifying systemic safety
deficiencies;
• Safety monitoring and safety oversight aimed to assess safety performance and eliminate
problem areas;
• Dedicated safety training for personnel
• Safety lesson dissemination and sharing best practices among operators and service providers;
• Building a corporate safety culture that fosters good safety practices and encourages safety
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None of these components will, on their own, meet expectations for improved safety management. An
integrated use of all these components will increase a system’s resistance to unsafe acts and conditions.
The consistent integration of the components of proactive safety management is commonly referred to
as a Safety Management System (SMS).
The growing recognition of the role and importance of safety management has led to the progressive
implementation of safety management systems by aviation service provider organisations (airlines, air
navigation service providers, airport operators) in the last few years. This process is managed and
monitored by States through dedicated safety programmes in line with International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO) recommendations.
Improving corporate safety performance by proactively managing the safety of provided services is
increasingly recognized by all aviation sectors as a prerequisite for sustainable business management and
operational growth.
Limitations of traditional and proactive safety management

It has become increasingly clear that traditional risk management approaches do not adequately identify,
evaluate and manage risk. Traditional approaches tend to be fragmented, treating risks as disparate and
compartmentalized. These risk management approaches often limit the focus to managing uncertainties
around physical and financial assets. Because they focus largely on loss prevention, rather than adding
value, traditional approaches do not provide a holistic framework most organisations need to redefine
the risk management value proposition in this rapidly changing world. The main problem with proactive
safety management is that the future is uncertain and that an expected situation may, therefore, never
happen. In that case, preparations will have been made in vain, hence wasted. Another, and possibly
worse, problem is that predictions may be imprecise, so that the wrong preparations are made. When a
system prepares to respond, the human and material resources that are allocated to the response will not
be available for other purposes. Proactive safety management thus means taking a risk, not least an
economic one. On the other hand, not being ready may be even more costly in both the short and the
long run.
The effects of proactive safety management on health and safety culture

The benefits of a proactive safety regime are that it will enforce a positive safety culture, help to prevent
accidents from occurring, and improve health and safety budgeting.
Safety culture encompasses the expectations, feelings, and perspectives of employees toward the safety
of all workers in an organization - it is how safety is managed in the workplace. Of course, taking a
proactive approach to building a positive safety culture will have a large impact on your company. A
positive safety culture can lower staff turnover, reduce absenteeism, lower training costs, decrease
workplace accidents, reduce possible insurance claims, and have a positive effect on your company’s
reputation. In general, a happier group of employees will be more productive and produce higher quality
work. Hence, a positive safety culture is something that’s worth being proactive about.

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Hence if there is a proactive safety management there is a positive safety culture can definitely help us
achieve the below benefits.
1. In a positive safety culture, nothing takes precedent over safe work under any circumstances. The
workforce never feels as if safe work procedures are an obstacle to getting their tasks done correctly, on
time, and without reprimand. The keyword here is “feels."
2. In a positive safety culture, all personnel, from the front line to the senior leadership, share the same
responsibility for safe work. If you want to keep your workforce safe, accountability is key. Complacency
and ineffective safety-related communication can lead to lapses in accountability if your company has a
negative safety culture.
3. In a positive safety culture, the safety system is informed by the workforce, not designed and enforced
only by management. Even if you think you have a great, positive safety culture, your workers’ input is
critical to ensure it actually works to reduce incidents. Why? Because it needs to be in their language and
suited to their needs and the pressures of their jobs.
4. In a positive safety culture, existing safety systems are constantly developed and improved. The
answer is yes, of course. You can make changes to prevent accidents every day. This is called Proactive
Safety.
5. In a positive safety culture, communication occurs openly between departments, members of the
workforce, and management. communication is not just one-way and is always open and encouraged.
Yes, more communication. But it’s so important. We’ve already provided two examples of
miscommunication:
• when a manager’s meaning was not appropriately conveyed resulting in assumptions

• when communication from management reflected double standards
6. In a positive safety culture, management/leadership play an active role to demonstrate that the
safety of the workforce is the top priority. When management says they prioritize worker safety and then
somehow communicate the opposite, the workforce begins to mistrust management and their intentions.
7. In a positive safety culture, incidents, safety issues, or stopping work for safety concerns are not met
with negativity. Negativity and reprimands are the most obvious indicators of a negative safety culture.
Responding to a safety issue with punitive measures sends a pretty ridiculous message: “Don’t hurt
yourself or you’ll get in trouble.”

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2.6 Risk perception

Human sensory receptors and their reaction to stimuli, sensory defects and basic screening
techniques
When reacting to and involving yourself and others in matters of health and safety, the human senses are
required. The sensory system is used all the time in everyday life and can be defined more professionally
as:
A sensory system is a part of the nervous system responsible for processing sensory information. A sensory
system consists of sensory receptors, neural pathways, and parts of the brain involved in sensory
perception.
Commonly recognised sensory systems are those for vision, hearing, somatic sensation (touch), taste and
olfaction (smell).
Receptive fields have so far been identified for the visual system, auditory system and somatosensory
system. Sensory systems code for four aspects of a stimulus;
type (modality), intensity, location, and duration. Certain
receptors are sensitive to certain types of stimuli (for example,
different mechanoreceptors respond best to different kinds of
touch stimuli, like sharp or blunt objects). Receptors send
impulses in certain patterns to send information about the
intensity of a stimulus (for example, how loud a sound is).
The location of the receptor that is stimulated gives the brain

information about the location of the stimulus (for example,
stimulating a mechanoreceptor in a finger will send
information to the brain about that finger). The duration of the
stimulus (how long it lasts) is conveyed by firing patterns of
receptors.
The Five senses
Basic screening techniques refer to how, as humans, we screen out what we perceive to be of little use to
use at that given time. Certain tasks can become screened out such as typing on a keyboard or driving a
car.
Sensory processing disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to
information that comes in through the senses.
Some people with sensory processing disorder are oversensitive to things in their environment. Common
sounds may be painful or overwhelming. The light touch of a shirt may chafe the skin.
Others with sensory processing disorder may:
• Be uncoordinated
• Bump into things

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• Be unable to tell where their limbs are in space

• Be hard to engage in conversation or play
Sensory processing problems are usually identified in children. But they can also affect adults. Sensory
processing problems are commonly seen in developmental conditions like autism spectrum disorder.
Sensory processing disorder is not recognized as a stand-alone disorder. But many experts think that
should change.
The process of perception of danger, perceptual set and perceptual distortion

Perception is defined as “the process by which an individual selects, organises, and interprets stimuli into
a meaningful and coherent picture of the world”. It is essentially how individuals see the world, which is
undoubtedly a unique vision based on a lifetime of internal and external influences.
A stimuli can be highly subjective and an individual can have different perceptions of that stimuli based
on different circumstances. An interpretation of a stimulus depends on the ambiguity of the stimuli, an
individual’s past experiences, their motives and their interests at the time.
Risk perception is rarely entirely rational. Instead, people assess risks using a mixture of cognitive skills
(weighing the evidence, using reasoning and logic to reach conclusions) and emotional appraisals
(intuition or imagination). Several theories have been proposed to explain why different people make
different estimates of the dangerousness of risks. Three major families of theory have been developed:
psychology approaches (heuristics and cognitive), anthropology/sociology approaches (cultural theory)
and interdisciplinary approaches (social amplification of risk framework). Some specific factors that affect
perception of danger include:
• Trust: When people trust the officials providing information about a particular risk — or the
process used to assess risk — they tend to be less afraid than when they don't trust the officials
or the process.
• Origin: People are less concerned about risks they incur themselves than the ones that others
impose on them. This helps explain why people often get angry when they see someone talking
on the cell phone while driving — and yet think nothing of doing so themselves.
• Control: Perceived control over outcomes also matters. This helps explain why someone is not
afraid of driving a car — even though automobile crashes kill thousands of people each year —
but may be afraid of flying in an airplane.
• Nature: Dangers in nature — such as sun exposure — are perceived as relatively benign, whereas
man-made harms — nuclear power accidents or terror attacks — are more menacing.
• Scope: Cataclysmic events, capable of killing many people at the same time, are scarier than
chronic conditions — which may kill just as many people but over a longer period. That helps
explain why a tsunami or earthquake feels scarier than heart disease or diabetes.
• Awareness: Saturation media coverage of high-profile disasters raises awareness of particular
risks more than others. Likewise, an event that hits close to home, such as having a friend
diagnosed with cancer, heightens risk perception.
• Imagination: When threats are invisible or hard to understand, people become confused about
the nature of the risk, and the event becomes scarier.

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• Dread: Events that invoke dread — such as drowning or being eaten alive — scare people more
than those that do not.
• Age affected: Risks are more frightening when they affect children. Asbestos in a school building,
for example, may bother people more than asbestos in a factory.
• Uncertainty: Events inspire more fear when officials don't communicate what is known — or
when the risks are simply unknown. In the Deepwater Horizon spill, for example, officials could
more easily estimate the amount of oil spewing into the ocean than they could predict what effect
that would have on wildlife and fisheries.
• Familiarity: Novel risks are perceived to be more dangerous than more familiar threats. That's
why West Nile virus may be perceived as more of a risk to health than not testing a smoke detector
regularly.
• Specificity: Victims who are publicly identified evoke a greater emotional reaction than those who
remain nameless and faceless.
• Personal impact: Risks that affect people personally are more frightening than those that affect
strangers.
• Fun factor: Engaging in risky behavior may not seem that way if it involves pleasure. Some
examples are drug taking, unsafe sex, and high-risk sports.
A perceptual set refers to a predisposition to perceive things in a certain way. In other words, we often
tend to notice only certain aspects of a object or situation while ignoring other details.
When it comes to our perceptions of the world around us, you might assume that what you see is what
you get. What if I told you that the way you see the world is heavily influenced (and biased) by your own
past experiences, expectations, motivations, beliefs, emotions, and even your culture?
For example, think about the last time you started a new class. Did you have any expectations at the outset
that might have influenced your experience in the class? If you expect a class to be boring, are you more
likely to be uninterested in class?
In psychology, this is what is known as a perceptual set. A perceptual set is basically a tendency to view
things only in a certain way. Perceptual sets can impact how we interpret and respond to the world around
us and can be influenced by a number of different factors.
Forces that influence perceptual sets include:
• Motivation can play an important role in perceptual sets and how we interpret the world
around us: If we are rooting for our favorite sports team, we might be motivated to view members
of the opposing team as overly aggressive, weak, or incompetent. In one classic experiment,
researchers deprived participants of food for several hours. When they were later shown a set of
ambiguous images, those who had been food-deprived were far more likely to interpret the
images as food-related objects. Because they were hungry, they were more motivated to see the
images in a certain way.
• Expectations also play an important role: If we expect people to behave certain ways in certain
situations, these expectations can influence how we perceive these people and their roles. One
of the classic experiments on the impact of expectation on perceptual sets involved showing
participants either a series of numbers or letters. Then, the participants were show an ambiguous

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image that could either be interpreted as the number 13 or the letter B. Those who had viewed
the numbers were more likely to see it as a 13, while those who had viewed the letters were more
likely to see it as the letter B.
• Culture also influences how we perceive people, objects, and situations: Surprisingly,
researchers have found that people from different cultures even tend to perceive perspective and
depth cues differently.
• Emotions can have a dramatic impact on how we perceive the world around us: For example, if
we are angry, we might be more likely to perceive hostility in others. One experiment
demonstrated that when people came to associate a nonsense syllable with mild electrical shocks,
they experienced physiological reactions to the syllable even when it was presented subliminally.
• Attitudes can also have a powerful influence on perception: Prejudice could have an influence
on how quickly people categorize people of various races.
Perceptual distortions are incorrect understandings or abnormal interpretations of a perceptual
experience. A perceptual distortion occurs when a person's response to stimuli varies from how it is
commonly perceived. Perceptual distortions can relate to either sensory or psychological perception and
can occur as a result of cognitive bias, psychological disorders, medication or drugs, or physical damage
to the brain or sensory organs
An example of perceptual distortion is found in people suffering from an eating disorder. People afflicted
with anorexia nervosa holds a distorted self-image. They see their bodies as overweight and unsightly,
whereas other people see the sufferer as malnourished and underweight.
Another example of perceptual distortion is commonly found in people with the mental illness
schizophrenia. When a person is unable to recognize that he has an illness, then he is said to have
anosognosia, or lack of insight.
Perceptual distortions can result from cognitive biases, or patterns of thought and deviations in judgment
in particular situations. Common examples are the observer expectancy effect, known also as the selective
perception bias, which skews interpretation of results to be in line with a theory one already believes, and
attentional bias, which is the tendency for one’s emotions to determine or affect one's focus.
Errors in perception caused by physical stressors

Studies of risk perception examine the judgments people make when they are asked to characterise and
evaluate hazardous activities and technologies.
This research aims to aid risk analysis and policy-making by providing a basis for understanding and
anticipating public responses to hazards, and improving the communication of risk information among lay
people, technical experts and decision-makers.
This work assumes that those who promote and regulate health and safety need to understand how
people think about, and respond to, risk. Without such understanding, well-intended policies may be
ineffective.
Fatigue as a concept is extremely hard to define, since everybody has their own idea of what being tired
means. Everybody is tired once in a while - the most common reason is, of course, lack of sleep. A wide

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range of illnesses and diseases can also cause fatigue. In such cases, a person usually finds they suddenly
(or even gradually) need more rest and sleep. This may affect their performance at work. Fatigue is also
common when you are feeling depressed.
Fatigue and shift work: Many individuals work shift systems, work at night, or work very extended hours.
Such working patterns can lead to adverse effects upon health, particularly for night workers. Reduced
levels of performance have been associated with night working, which can also increase the likelihood of
accidents and ill-health.
Some people experience severe fatigue at work. This can lead to poorer performance on tasks, which
require attention, decision-making or high levels of skill. For safety-critical work, the effects of fatigue can
give rise to increased risks. However, all too often, fatigue is seen as a familiar and acceptable part of
everyday life. Working long hours may even be accepted in the culture of a workplace as 'the thing to do'.
Some organisations are starting to look carefully at three aspects of shift work:
Health effects: Shift work, especially night work, can lead to the following health problems:
• Difficulty in falling asleep and staying asleep, difficulty in staying alert and awake at work.
• Reduced quality and quantity of sleep, increased use of sleeping pills.
• There may be a gradual build-up of sleep loss into a 'sleep debt'.
• Gastrointestinal disorders. These may be linked to an increased tendency to eat snack meals at
work.
• Respiratory problems. Asthma attacks may be worse at night. Allergic reactions may become
worse. Lung function declines at night, especially for those with chronic respiratory conditions.
• Individuals taking regular medication may have problems with shift work. Dosages may need to
be altered to take account of variations of drug effectiveness due to the time of day.
• A proportion of people find that they cannot cope with working shifts. They may experience
health problems, which become acute only weeks after starting shift work, and they may need to
move to other duties.
Possible effects on safety: Job performance may be poorer on shift work, especially when working night
shifts. Tasks tend to be completed more slowly at night, although this can be balanced by altering the
workload. In general, the early hours of the morning, e.g. between 02:00 and 05:00 present the highest
risk for fatigue-related accidents. Sleep loss can lead to lowered levels of alertness. Cumulative sleep loss
over a number of days can result in a 'sleep debt' with much reduced levels of productivity and attention.
Such sleep loss results from working not only night shifts but also morning shifts with very early start
times, and from 'on call' situations where it may be difficult to plan when to sleep.
Social and family life: Shift work, especially working rotating shifts, may have an impact on the social life
of shift workers. However, this depends on the shift schedule as well as the age, sex, number of children
and perhaps the personality of the shift worker. The quality of family life for the worker, and the ability
to take part in leisure activities may be affected by shift work.

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What causes these negative effects?
There are a number of important influences including:
• Biological rhythms: We have built-in body clocks to regulate all important body functions. These
clocks tell us when to be active and when to rest. They also govern other physiological functions
such as body temperature, hormones, digestion and blood pressure.
The 24-hour biological rhythms from these clocks do not disappear even if there are changes to
the environment (lighting, noise, temperature) and your routine (no sleep, changes of meal
routine). Even if you are working nights, your body clock will still reduce your body temperature
in the early hours of the morning, lower your blood pressure and stop digestion. This will make
you sleepier and less alert.
A night worker trying to sleep during the daytime will find it harder to get to sleep because their
body clock is telling them they should be awake. The reduced quality and quantity of sleep will
lead to more fatigue as a 'sleep debt' builds up.
• Time at work: Human performance tends to deteriorate significantly when people have been at
work for more than 12 hours. Below 12 hours, the evidence is less clear, and the extent to which
fatigue occurs may depend on aspects such as the adequacy of rest breaks, the nature of the
work, and the working environment. The effects of fatigue tend to be more marked if the task is
monotonous or very repetitive.
• Amount of sleep: The daily rest between shifts needs to be adequate to enable shift workers to
return to work fully rested. An adult typically needs about seven to eight hours of sleep each night.
Rest days are valuable in allowing people to 'recharge their batteries' and to maintain their work
performance. The planning of rest days needs to take account of their frequency and the length
of 'recovery' time available after blocks of shifts. Shift workers, especially night workers, benefit
from regular recovery periods of at least 48 hours. This is because shortened or interrupted sleep
over a period of time can result in their spending part of their rest day sleeping.
• Shift rotation: A shift pattern which changes about once a week is likely to be more difficult to
adjust to than either a more rapidly or a more slowly changing pattern.
Current thinking suggests that starting a shift later than the previous one (forward rotation) may
create less of a problem than starting a shift earlier than the last one (backward rotation).
A typical forward rotation roster would be mornings, afternoons then night shifts. Some shift pat-
terns can result in a short daily rest interval of perhaps only eight hours. This is particularly likely
to lead to fatigue through reduced sleep.
Managing the impact of shift work
There is no one solution to the potential health and safety impact of fatigue and shift work. The 'best
practice' management approach, which will go beyond what is required by health and safety legislation,
is through a multi-component approach which includes:
• Careful planning of shift rotas, taking into account knowledge of the effects of biological rhythms
• Reviewing maximum hours of duty and time for recovery
• Education of shift workers on sleep routines, nutrition, effects on family and social life, exercise
• Environmental design changes, especially those aspects which can improve alertness such as
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• Reducing the number of safety-critical tasks planned for the night shift
• Rotating jobs to reduce levels of boredom
• Providing medical advice for shift workers, especially for those with existing medical conditions.
Perception and the assessment of risk

If an occupational hazard exists, there are three aspects relevant to our decision about behaving safely:
1. Being aware of the hazard and feeling personally at risk

2. Believing that you can control the risks by your actions and the available equipment
3. Behaving safely.
For each aspect, there are individual, job and organisational influences to consider.
1- Being aware of a hazard: People are normally concerned with doing a good job rather than being
consciously aware or concerned about the occupational health and safety hazards in their
workplace. At appropriate danger signals or for certain critical tasks, we need to be able to switch
over to a more conscious and focused way of thinking about the risks and controls.
There are a number of influences on whether a person feels at risk from a hazard. A risk is seen
as being greater if we perceive it as having severe consequences, or if we feel personally
vulnerable.
For example, a health worker's beliefs about the likelihood of contracting the HIV virus will impact
on their perception of the hazard as significant or not. If we feel that the available controls are of
limited effectiveness then, in extreme cases, this can lead to us dismissing the threat.
Overconfidence, over-optimism or over-familiarity may act to reduce our appraisal of a hazard as

significant. There are also well-known biases in individual risk perception, which will influence our
appraisal of a hazard. People are bad at judging probability, and especially bad at judging risk. This
is important because accident rates tend to be higher in groups of people who estimate risks as
low. Typically, we underestimate the risks attached to our own work. This tendency is greater in
familiar situations, or where we choose ourselves to take a risk.
People with different roles in the same workplace may judge risks differently. In general, we make
a lower risk estimation of our own job than of other jobs. For example, workers in the construction
industry were asked to estimate the risk of falls by different tradesmen. These included
carpenters, tile layers, scaffolders, painters and steel erectors. Each of these groups made
consistent judgements but overestimated the risks of trades other than their own by about 10%.
They all underestimated their own risks.
To improve our appreciation of risks, we need information about the hazard, risk estimates, expo-
sure modes, and available control measures. If individual workers can be made to feel personally
vulnerable, then this is also helpful.
Fear-inducing messages are not usually advisable, since people are more likely to reject a
threatening fear-inducing message and to assume that the message is for someone else. Constant
pressure is needed to make sure that judgements of risk are realistic.

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2- Believing you can control the risks: We ask ourselves how effective our actions might be in
controlling the risks. We weigh up the benefits of carrying out safe behaviours against the costs
we will incur. For example, a construction worker may weigh up the costs such as physical
discomfort of wearing a hard hat in hot weather against the benefits. The 'costs' are typically time,
reduced productivity and physical discomfort. We also consider how effective the available
actions or procedures may be, and whether we can carry them out. For example, if a health
worker believes that they will be able to dispose of used needles safely, this will influence their
safe behaviour.
3- Behaving safely: The work environment and the health and safety climate influence our safe
behaviour. If supervisors and managers appear to condone unsafe behaviour in order to achieve
productivity goals, then safe behaviour will be less likely.
Some key influences on whether a person will behave safely are:
• You perceive the threat as severe

• You feel personally vulnerable
• You believe that the available action will be effective
• You are confident that you can carry out the protective behaviour
• The costs of responding are low
• Your colleagues are carrying out the action.
Other barriers to safe behaviour include:
• Equipment which is not readily available or in good order

• Not being trained to use the equipment provided
• A job which is designed in a way which makes it hard to behave safely
• Other people's risk-taking behaviours.
A major influence will be what we see our colleagues. So, if very few other workers wear hearing
protection in a noisy environment, then this will not encourage us to comply with the safe behaviour.
Managers and supervisors need to be aware that group social norms for safe behaviour exist. They need
to set a good example and positively influence such standards of behaviour. Maintaining safe behaviour
is highly dependent on safety culture including group norms and workplace influences.
Influencing safe behaviour: There are a number of ways in which you can successfully influence safe
behaviour at work, e.g.
• By education and training

• Through improved ergonomic design
• By introducing a goal-setting and feedback programme.
The approaches complement each other, and you may choose to consider more than one.
Reducing error and influencing behaviour: Beliefs and knowledge are important determinants of safe
behaviour. People need to know what the safe behaviour is. Education and training are therefore vital.
Training should cover such key aspects as:
• Knowledge of the work-related health and safety risks

• Training and feedback in the proper use of safety-related equipment and procedures

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• Awareness of the benefits of carrying out safe behaviour

• The views of managers and colleagues on risk-taking.
An individual's perception of a situation is based on two sources of data:
• Information from the senses

• Expected information
Both of these sources could be incomplete or incorrect. Physical defects of sight or hearing can affect the
presented information, while fatigue, stress or drugs can alter the expected information. From past
experience or some stereotyped expectation, we sometimes see a situation other than the actual one.
Other errors can occur in decisions as to possible actions and the internal processing of information. This
also involves some cost/benefit decision. Errors can occur because of our lack of knowledge, our ideas of
possible actions and in our estimate of effects of any action. The action, whether good or bad, will affect
the situation and so produces a feedback loop. New information will be presented, and there is a
possibility of a trial and error situation.
2.7 Human failures and factors Improving human reliability

Human failure
‘Human factors refer to environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual
characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety’. A simple
way to view human factors is to think about three aspects: the job, the individual and the organisation
and how they impact on people’s health and safety-related behaviour.
People bring to their job personal attitudes, skills, habits and personalities which can be strengths or
weaknesses depending on the task demands. Individual characteristics influence behaviour in complex
and significant ways. Their effects on task performance may be negative and may not always be mitigated
by job design. Some characteristics such as personality are fixed and cannot be changed. Others, such as
skills and attitudes, may be changed or enhanced.
Why should I be interested in human factors issues at work?
Careful consideration of human factors at work can reduce the number of accidents and cases of
occupational ill-health. It can also pay dividends in terms of a more efficient and effective workforce.
Accidents can occur through people’s involvement with their work. As technical systems have become
more reliable, the focus has turned to human causes of accidents. It is estimated that up to 80% of
accidents may be attributed, at least in part, to the actions or omissions of people. This is not surprising
since people are involved throughout the life cycle of an organisation, from design through to operation,
maintenance, management and demolition. Many accidents are blamed on the actions or omissions of an
individual who was directly involved in operational or maintenance work. This typical but short-sighted
response ignores the fundamental failures which led to the accident. These are usually rooted deeper in
the organisation’s design, management and decision-making functions. Work has an impact on people’s
health as well as on their safety. A positive work experience leads to job satisfaction and contributes to

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physical and mental wellbeing. Well-designed tasks and working environments that suit people’s
individual skills and capabilities can help here. Physical health problems can result from lost time injuries
such as slips and falls, and from manual handling problems. Mental well-being can be affected if someone
witnesses a traumatic event, suffers bullying or violence at work, or experiences stress at work.
Human factors
What are human factors?
‘Human factors refer to environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual
characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety’. A simple
way to view human factors is to think about three aspects: the job, the individual and the organisation
and how they impact on people’s health and safety-related behaviour.
People bring to their job personal attitudes, skills, habits and personalities which can be strengths or
weaknesses depending on the task demands. Individual characteristics influence behaviour in complex
and significant ways. Their effects on task performance may be negative and may not always be mitigated
by job design. Some characteristics such as personality are fixed and cannot be changed. Others, such as
skills and attitudes, may be changed or enhanced.
Why should I be interested in human factors issues at work?
Careful consideration of human factors at work can reduce the number of accidents and cases of
occupational ill-health. It can also pay dividends in terms of a more efficient and effective workforce.
Accidents can occur through people’s involvement with their work. As technical systems have become
more reliable, the focus has turned to human causes of accidents. It is estimated that up to 80% of
accidents may be attributed, at least in part, to the actions or omissions of people. This is not surprising
since people are involved throughout the life cycle of an organisation, from design through to operation,
maintenance, management and demolition. Many accidents are blamed on the actions or omissions of an
individual who was directly involved in operational or maintenance work. This typical but short-sighted
response ignores the fundamental failures which led to the accident. These are usually rooted deeper in
the organisation’s design, management and decision-making functions. Work has an impact on people’s
health as well as on their safety. A positive work experience leads to job satisfaction and contributes to
physical and mental wellbeing. Well-designed tasks and working environments that suit people’s
individual skills and capabilities can help here. Physical health problems can result from lost time injuries
such as slips and falls, and from manual handling problems. Mental well-being can be affected if someone
witnesses a traumatic event, suffers bullying or violence at work, or experiences stress at work.
Job factors
• Illogical design of equipment and instruments

• Constant disturbances and interruptions
• Missing or unclear instructions
• Poorly maintained equipment
• High workload

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• Noisy and unpleasant working conditions
Individual factors
• low skill and competence levels

• tired staff
• bored or disheartened staff
• individual medical problems
Organisation and management factors
• poor work planning, leading to high work pressure

• lack of safety systems and barriers
• inadequate responses to previous incidents
• management based on one-way communications
• deficient co-ordination and responsibilities
• poor management of health and safety
• poor health and safety culture
Organisational and managerial role in violations
Organisational culture and managerial goals and priorities can influence whether health and safety rules
are broken. If the wrong messages about health and safety are received rule breaking can be encouraged.
A lack of visible communication from management can be seen as somehow condoning violations of
health and safety rules. Managers and supervisors need to send positive messages about health and
safety. Designing for people
Many of the human factors problems highlighted so far can be prevented or reduced during design. This
chapter introduces the following topics:
• some basic principles of ergonomic design;

• job design to improve levels of job satisfaction and mental well-being;
• writing procedures which are more likely to be used efficiently;
• designing warnings that are more effective; and
• assessing human reliability.
Ergonomic design
Ergonomics is about ensuring a good ‘fit’ between people and the things they use. People vary enormously
in height and weight, in physical strength, in ability to handle information and in many other ways.
Ergonomics uses information about human abilities, attributes and limitations to ensure that our
equipment, work and workplaces allow for such variations. For example, a car built for only ‘average’ sized
drivers might require larger people to crouch, while smaller people may be unable to reach the pedals.
This is clearly unacceptable, so designers use information about variations in size, reach and so on to
produce cars that most people can operate comfortably, conveniently and safely. Designing tasks,

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equipment and workstations to suit the user can reduce human error, accidents and ill health. Failure to
observe ergonomic principles can have serious consequences for individuals and for the whole
organisation. Effective use of ergonomics will make work safer, healthier and more productive.
• Is the task and equipment ergonomically satisfactory?

• Does it suit your body size?
• Does it also suit all other users?
• Can you see and hear all you need to readily?
• Do you understand all the information that is presented?
• Do errors occur frequently and are they easy to detect and put right?
• Does the equipment or system cause discomfort if you use it for any length of time?
• Is it convenient to use?
• Is it easy to learn how to use?
• Is it compatible with other systems in use?
• Are you forced to make movements which feel too fast or too slow?
• Can you reach the controls that you use frequently without overstretching and
without adopting an awkward posture?
• Can you move safely and with ease between operating positions?
• Is the workplace environment comfortable for you?
• Do you feel stressed physically (through noise, temperature, pacing of the machine,
etc) or psychologically (from deadlines, work rate, etc)?
• Could any of these aspects be improved?
• Do other users have similar reactions?
Designing jobs for mental well-being
Problems with mental well-being are one of the major causes of time off work. Depression and anxiety
stem from causes both outside and inside work. They affect not only the mental well-being of staff but
also organisational performance through increased staff turnover, poor work performance and accidents
at work. When jobs are designed it tends to be the technology or the equipment which determines the
content of the job. However, it is also desirable to design jobs in ways which improve levels of job
satisfaction for the workforce. Feeling satisfied with your job has been shown to improve your
performance at work, reduce your feelings of being under stress, and generally lead to a sense of mental
well-being.
Sources of stress
Stress defined as ‘the reaction that people have to excessive pressure or other types of demands placed
upon them. It arises when they worry that they can’t cope’. A number of sources of stress have been
identified. They include:
• Factors intrinsic to the job, e.g. poor physical working conditions (such as high levels of noise, poor
ventilation), working inconvenient and excessive hours, working on a repetitive and fast-paced task,
or having a job which involves risk or danger. The introduction of new technology can be another

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source of stress. Both work overload (having too much to do or the work being too difficult) and work
underload (routine, boring and under-stimulating tasks) can be sources of stress.
• If a person’s role in an organisation is ambiguous, i.e. they do not have a clear idea of their role and
responsibilities or their work objectives, this can be a source of stress. Role conflict and conflict
situations are possible sources of stress, e.g. being torn between competing or conflicting job
demands or having to perform tasks that you do not like or which are outside your job specification.
Having responsibility at work for other people can be particularly stressful.
• Other people at work and our interactions with them can be sources of both support and stress.
Relationships with our bosses, our subordinates and our co-workers are all important. Mistrust of co-
workers and poor communications with them can lead to low job satisfaction. Close supervision and
a management style characterised by constant negative performance feedback is related to high
levels of stress and poor worker health. (Organisational culture is discussed in Chapter 4.)
• A lack of job security, fear of redundancy, or forced early retirement are potential stressors relating
to career development. Another source of job dissatisfaction would be under or over-promotion
arising from a failure to advance or promotion to a position beyond one’s capabilities. A particular
stressor in some jobs is the threat of violence in the workplace and the experience of trauma following
a violent incident.
• People can sometimes feel they do not belong to an organisation or lack opportunities to participate.
If the workforce is allowed more participation in decision making this can lead to higher levels of job
satisfaction and lower absenteeism and staff turnover. Participation in the decision-making process
may create a sense of belonging and can improve communication channels within the company. It
can generate a sense of ‘being in control’ which is important for mental well-being.
Organisational factors associated with a health and safety culture
An effective health and safety management system is the basis for a good health and safety culture. There
are certain key aspects of an organisation which will influence its culture. These factors tend to be
intangible and often difficult to change and include:
Senior management commitment - crucial to a positive health and safety culture. This commitment
produces higher levels of motivation and concern for health and safety throughout the organisation. It is
best indicated by the proportion of resources (time, money, people) and support allocated to health and
safety management and by the status given to health and safety. The active involvement of senior
management in the health and safety system is very important. Managers need to be seen to lead by
example when it comes to health and safety.
Management style - influential. A ‘humanistic’ approach to management involving more regard by

managers for individuals’ personal and work problems is likely to be effective. This assumes direct and
rapid action to identify and resolve individual problems in an appropriately caring and concerned manner.
Visible management - very important for a health and safety culture. Good managers appear regularly on
the ‘shop floor’ and talk about health and safety. Staff need to believe that all their managers are
committed to health and safety.

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Good communications between all levels of employee - An ‘open door’ policy may be helpful with direct
access to the management hierarchy where appropriate. In a positive culture questions about health and
safety should be part of everyday work conversations. This flows from ownership - the encouragement of
personal responsibility and participation by everyone in health and safety measures.
A balance of health and safety and production goals. People may believe that high standards of health
and safety inevitably mean slower work rates. In contrast, production may be seen to be increased
through ‘cutting corners’. Excessive production pressure creates an atmosphere of distraction and a
shortage of time which makes human errors more likely. Excessive pressure may give rise to physical or
mental health effects in some employees, and to a higher rate of ‘violations’ of health and safety rules. In
a positive culture health and safety is regarded as important, is promoted, and is not compromised.
Contribution of human failure and human factors to incidents

People can cause or contribute to accidents (or mitigate the consequences) in a number of ways:
• Through a failure a person can directly cause an accident. However, people tend not to make errors
deliberately. We are often ‘set up to fail’ by the way our brain processes information, by our training,
through the design of equipment and procedures and even through the culture of the organisation
we work for.
• People can make disastrous decisions even when they are aware of the risks. We can also misinterpret
a situation and act inappropriately as a result. Both of these can lead to the escalation of an incident.
• On the other hand we can intervene to stop potential accidents. Many companies have their own
anecdotes about recovery from a potential incident through the timely actions of individuals.
Mitigation of the possible effects of an incident can result from human resourcefulness and ingenuity.
• The degree of loss of life can be reduced by the emergency response of operators and crew.
Emergency planning and response including appropriate training can significantly improve rescue
situations.
The consequences of human failures can be immediate or delayed.
Active failures have an immediate consequence and are usually made by frontline people such as drivers,
control room staff or machine operators. In a situation where there is no room for error these active
failures have an immediate impact on health and safety.
Latent failures are made by people whose tasks are removed in time and space from operational
activities, e.g. designers, decision makers and managers. Latent failures are typically failures in health and
safety management systems (design, implementation or monitoring). Examples of latent failures are:
• poor design of plant and equipment;

• ineffective training;
• inadequate supervision;
• ineffective communications; and
• uncertainties in roles and responsibilities.

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Latent failures provide as great, if not a greater, potential danger to health and safety as active failures.
Latent failures are usually hidden within an organisation until they are triggered by an event likely to have
serious consequences.
Writing procedures
Procedures, especially operating and maintenance procedures, are important for the prevention of
accidents and ill health. Written procedures are vital in maintaining consistency and in ensuring that
everyone has the same basic level of information. They are a key element of a safety management system
and an important training tool. However, poor procedures can be a reason for people not following
recommended actions.
As well as being technically accurate, procedures need to be well-written, usable and up to date.
Remember that even if your procedures are not formally written down, they exist through the working
practices of staff. Ask yourself:
• Are your procedures accessible?

• Are they actually followed by staff?
• Are they written so that they can be understood and followed easily?
• Do they reflect the tasks as they are actually carried out?
• Do the procedures include key safety information?
• Are they kept up to date and reviewed occasionally?
Procedures ideally need to:
• be accurate and complete;

• be clear and concise with an appropriate level of detail;
• be current and up to date;
• be supported by training;
• identify any hazards;
• state necessary precautions for hazards;
• use familiar language;
• use consistent terminology;
• reflect how tasks are actually carried out;
• promote ownership by users;
• be in a suitable format; and
• be accessible.
Designing warnings for maximum effect
In our working lives we are used to seeing written warnings, hearing alarms, and noticing warning signs
or labels on products. All of these are intended to communicate risk to us. Yet, as accidents show, all too
often we ignore these warnings. We need to ensure that warnings are effective, or consider alternative
ways of reducing the risks.

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Responding to warnings is important in all work situations but particularly so where the risks have not
been completely eliminated through design. Here human actions may be needed to minimise risks. For
example, control room staff need to respond to alarms to safeguard the plant and its process, medical
staff need to respond to intensive care equipment alarms. Risk assessments should indicate where it is
important or essential for someone to respond appropriately to a warning or alarm.
People who comply most with warnings tend to:
• perceive the risks of not complying to be serious or highly likely to occur;

• believe they will be personally affected by the consequences;
• are unfamiliar with the product or situation;
• see other people around them are complying with the warnings;
• find it is easy to comply, e.g. any necessary personal protection is close at hand; and
• believe that if they comply there will be a real personal benefit.
Can warning response be improved?
Yes. Think about the people and the warning. People need to:
• be alert and sober;

• be seeking information (either because they suspect a hazard is present or because their past
experience indicates that such information may be needed);
• accept the warning as being important (they should not be overloaded with information or other
warnings and not have experienced many false alarms);
• believe the warning, receive information that is consistent with their past experience, accept the
source of the warning as credible and see that other people are acting consistently with the warning;
• judge the risk to be significant (see the health and safety consequences as highly likely or severe,
believe that they do not have control over the hazard, appreciate that the risks outweigh any adverse
peer pressure and accept that the risks outweigh the cost/effort of avoidance);
• be capable of carrying out the required action; and
• remember how and when to carry out the action.
The warning needs to:
• be present when and where needed;

• give only the information needed; and
• be in a suitable format (brief, understandable and attention-grabbing)
Improving human reliability

Motivation and reinforcement; workplace incentive schemes; job satisfaction and appraisal schemes

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Typically behaviour-based safety systems consist of:
• Identification of behaviours which could contribute to or have contributed to accidents (agreed

by management and employees);
• A system of ongoing observations (as identified and defined) and feedback (intervention);
typically peer-to-peer and employee-driven combined with positive verbal feedback, in-
formation collection and problem-solving to improve the identified behaviours and the
management system that produced them;
• Use of the information to identify corrective actions.
Behaviour based safety systems are typically introduced in organisations with established safety
management system committed to continuous improvement, one of their particular strengths is the direct
practical and visible involvement of employees at all levels. Implementation of a system does require time
and commitment and in particular strong visible management support.
Why is it commonly used?
• Significant number of accidents reportedly caused by inappropriate behaviour.

• Good vehicle for management and workforce participation.
• Can improve the visibility of managers.
• Behaviours and actions influence culture through attitudes and perceptions.
• Behaviours determine the performance of systems.
Key features:
• Define 'safe' and 'unsafe' behaviour.

• All involve observation of behaviour in the workplace.
• By managers and/or peers.
• With/without targets.
• Provide feedback.
• Reinforce safe behaviour.
• 're-educate' unsafe behaviour.
• Feedback ranges from on-the-spot specific feedback and discussion, to impersonalised general
data.
Advantages:
• Discussing safety in the workplace.

• Learning to communicate constructively.
• Management visibility.
• Employee engagement in safety.
• Managers/supervisors (when involved).
• Learn to observe.
• Learn to act promptly on unsafe acts.

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• Can learn about safety leadership.

• Learn to think about aspects of human factors.
• Can provide some leading indicators for safety.
• Can actually change behaviour ("cognitive dissonance").
• Will identify dangerous situations.
Disadvantages:
• Rule violation vs. good rules?

• BIG, disciplined effort required.
• Very often fails through lack of real commitment or discipline.
• Some changes will be expensive.
• Not 'owned' by everyone.
• 'Off the peg' or consultant-led programmes can fail because of poor fit with local style/culture
(UK/US).
• Trust levels amongst management and employees must match.
• Lack of friendly communication/Directive style of management.
Human reliability may be improved in workplace by:
1. Motivation and reinforcement

2. Workplace incentive schemes
3. Job satisfaction and appraisal schemes
Motivation and reinforcement
Factors affecting job satisfaction:
Leading to dissatisfaction:
• Company policy
• Supervision
• Relationship with the boss
• Work conditions
• Salary
• Relationships with colleagues
Leading to satisfaction:
• Achievement
• Recognition
• Work itself
• Responsibility
• Advancement
• Growth

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It is important to continually remind and train employees of safe behavior through:
• Safety Meetings: Regular safety meetings give the opportunity to review the same safety
procedures and methods you taught at orientation and during on-the-job safety training. Your
continual review in safety meetings helps employees remember and focus on safe ways of doing
their work. Holding scheduled safety meetings also helps your employees realize that safe
behavior is just as important as any other aspect of their work. Safety messages should be a part
of all pre-task planning.
• Daily Safety Messages: Daily safety messages give another opportunity to reinforce what is
taught in your regular safety meetings. Give employees a safety message at the beginning of each
shift. The message does not have to be lengthy; it can be a short reminder about a topic or
behavior that will help the work day be safe. You can develop a list of important safety topics and
your supervisors can select a topic each day. You can also have your supervisors develop a list.
Focus on topics that will help you reduce the potential for injury.
• Written Safety Program: Having a written safety program that covers safe procedures, describes
unsafe conditions and behavior, and outlines the means to control hazards, provides safe
behavior reinforcement. A written resource is valuable because it remains a consistent source of
safety for all workers. Employees can turn to the written safety program to find, recall and relearn
safe behaviors. Your written safety program should be a working document within your
organization.
• Safety Surveys: Completing regular and random safety surveys or audits to find and correct
hazardous conditions and behavior also reinforces safe behavior. Involve your employees in the
process. Bring the survey findings to your employees and seek their suggestions on preventing
the recurrence of these hazards. You many even teach employees to conduct their own safety
survey.
• Signage: The use of signage is an important part of a safety program. Signs help to identify
hazardous conditions and remind people to work safely. Warning and caution signs should be
posted in places to help personnel identify and be reminded of hazardous work operations. Signs
are an important part of emergency evacuation and personnel performing safety surveys should
be looking for proper signage. Safety incentive signs should be changed frequently and posted in
high employee use areas.
• Supervision: Line supervisors are critical to the success of your safety program. Supervisors who
are trained in safe behavior and understand safety are in a good position to reinforce safe
behavior. Supervisors who have the authority to stop and correct unsafe conditions and behavior
are a tremendous asset because they can continually observe the workforce and the
environment. They can also praise their workers for safe behaviors, which can be an immediate
safety reinforcement
Workplace incentives schemes: Incentives such as performance-related bonuses - can help boost staff
performance. The rewards usually relate to the achievement of certain goals, either personal, team or
organisational, or a combination of all of these.
An effective system of incentives and perks could help:

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• Persuade staff to join your business

• Retain existing staff
• Increase staff motivation, morale and loyalty
• Boost productivity
• Link individual and business performance
• Focus employees on achieving targets
• Build teamwork
Some incentives and perks may benefit your business indirectly, e.g. free health assessments may reduce
absences.
Job satisfaction and Appraisal schemes: Job satisfaction relates to one's feelings or state-of-mind
regarding the nature of work. Job satisfaction can be influenced by a variety of factors, e.g. the quality of
the employer-supervisor relationship, the quality of the physical environment, degree of fulfillment etc.
Frederick Herzberg’s motivation and hygiene factors: Herzberg's work, originally on 200 Pittsburgh
engineers and accountants, has become one of the most replicated studies in the field of workplace
psychology.
Herzberg was the first to show that satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work nearly always arose from
different factors, and were not simply opposing reactions to the same factors, as had always previously
been believed.
He showed that certain factors truly motivate ('motivators'), whereas others tended to lead to dis-
satisfaction ('hygiene factors').
According to Herzberg, humans have two sets of needs; one as an animal to avoid pain, and two as a
human being to grow psychologically. Certain parallels can clearly be seen with Maslow.
Herzberg's research proved that people would strive to achieve hygiene needs because they are unhappy
without them, but once satisfied the effect soon wears off - satisfaction is temporary.
Examples of hygiene needs (or maintenance factors) in the workplace are:
• Policy
• Relationship with supervisor
• Work conditions
• Salary
• Company car
• Status
• Security
• Relationship with subordinates
• Personal life.
True motivators were found to be completely different factors, such as:

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• Achievement
• Recognition
• Work itself
• Responsibility
• Advancement
• Personal growth.
People commonly argue that money is a primary motivator. For most people, money is not a motivator -
despite what they might think and say. And for all people, there are bigger more sustaining motivators
than money. Surveys repeatedly show that other factors motivate more than money.
Lots of other evidence is found in life, wherever you care to look. Consider what happens when people
win big lottery prizes. While many of course give up their 'daily grind' jobs, some do not. They wisely
recognise that their work is part of their purpose and life-balance.
Others who give up their jobs do so to buy, or start and run, their own businesses. They are pursuing their
dream to achieve something special for them, whatever that might be. And whatever it means to them,
the motivation is not to make money, otherwise why don't they just keep hold of what they've got? Why
risk it on a project that will involve lots of effort and personal commitment? Of course the reason they
invest in a new business venture is that pursuing this sort of plan is where the real motivators are found -
achievement, responsibility, personal growth, etc. not money.
The people who are always unhappy are those who focus on spending their money. The lottery
prizewinners who give up work and pursue material and lifestyle pleasures soon find that life becomes
empty and meaningless. Money, and spending it, is not enough to sustain the human spirit. We exist for
more.
Money is certainly important, and a personal driver if you lack enough for a decent civilised existence, or
you are striving for a house or a holiday, but beyond this, money is not - for the vast majority of people -
a sustainable motivator in itself.
Selection of individuals – matching skills and aptitudes; training and competence assessment; fitness
for work
In order to select the best individual for a job, be really clear about what you need from the person you
are hiring for this role – in terms of both behavioral traits and skills. (This will help you filter out what is
not important.)
Here are two simple steps to help figure it out:
1. Identify the five core behavioral traits you want individuals to have for this role.
2. Consider the skills they will need to perform the job. – Think of the five primary tasks you need
them to accomplish.
When selecting individuals for jobs, focus on the following four questions:

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• Is the person competent to do the job?

• Is the person motivated to do the job?
• Is the person manageable?
• Does the person fit in the corporate team?
Matching skills and aptitudes
A person can be able to do the job but might lack of motivation and not perform his tasks to its full
potential. A candidate might be highly motivated but might not have the skills or the required knowledge
in order to do the job properly. A person might feel so senior and experienced that it might become
difficult for him to follow another supervisor’s instructions and therefore be less manageable. And last
but not least, a professional might be able to do the job, be motivated and manageable but might not fit
in the company for various reasons.
It must also be considered that people do change over the course of their lifetime because their lives
change. You get new jobs; you get new challenges and you get new opportunities. Some of those are not
all good. Some people get fired and they've got to change careers and they've got to learn a new set of
skills. Other people get married. Other people move to different parts of the country or different parts of
the world. And there are very significant demands on them as a result.
Training and competence assessment
Competency assessments are often developed as skills checklists which employees and employers can
keep over time to note employees’ performance. Competency assessments present an effective means
to:
• Provide a performance assessment tool

• Provide ongoing employee performance coaching
• Acknowledge satisfactory and exemplary performance
• Target performance deficits
• Highlight skills that require additional training or practice
• Benchmark employee performance across organization norms
• Define competence within your organization
The common types of competency assessments include:
• Skills checklists. Skills checklists may be used for apprenticeship, mentorship, and on-the-job training
programs where employees note their progress in achieving the desired job performance.
• Competency assessment tests. Competency assessments tests can be used as the basis for certification
in an occupation, for performance management, and for the validation of knowledge and skills.
• Online competency assessments. Lists of job skills combined with performance standards are well
suited to be delivered as online competency assessments.
• Competency-based interviews. These are effective means of screening candidates who qualify for the
job by targeting the specific competencies required for the position.

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Benefits of a Competency-Based System for Benefits of a Competency-Based System for

Employers Employees
• Ensures that organization-funded • Sets clear performance expectations for
training and professional development employees, enabling them to make
activities are cost-effective, goal- better decisions and work more
oriented and productive effectively
• Enables employees to achieve a high • Gives employees insight into the overall
level of competence in an efficient strategy of their team, department, and
manner organization, leading to greater
• Records the employee’s acquisition of engagement and motivation
the skills, knowledge, safety and other • Enables employees to be more
procedures relating to each task proactive beyond their individual roles,
• Reduces cost overruns caused by poor by learning additional competencies
performance or miscommunication of that are valued by the organization
job expectations • Provides clear direction for learning new
• Improves communication between job skills
employee and management • Offers a reference resource for day-to-
• Increases internal employee mobility, day requirements
providing the organization with greater • Increases the potential for job
ability scale and flex as needed satisfaction
• Establishes a framework for • Provides a mechanism for the
constructive feedback by management recognition of employees’ abilities
at scheduled training and performance • Ensures that individual professional
appraisal intervals development and training milestones
• Clarifies job standards for performance are recorded and acknowledged by the
appraisals organization
• Outlines employee development and
promotional paths within the
organization
On- & Off-the-Job Training
On the job training Off the job training

Advantages: Advantages:
• Training an employee in their own working • If staff members have designed the course, it
environment, on equipment with which they can be delivered to fit in with the employee's
are familiar with, and people they know can regime and workload, so it does not affect
help them gain direct experience to a productivity.

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standard approved by the employer. • Can work out extremely cost effective as no
• Employees may find that they have more hotel fees, trainer fees or extra equipment are
confidence to use the equipment if they are incurred, all is provided in-house and in work
supervised and guided. time.
• Employees may feel more at ease being • Depending on the course, employees are able
taught or supervised by people they know to meet other employees; perhaps from other
rather than complete strangers. branches or departments they would not have
• Managers or supervisors can assess normally met.
improvement and progress over a period of • As employees are familiar with the trainer and
time, and this makes it easier to identify a the environment in which they are being
problem, intervene and resolve problems taught, this would help them to feel more
quickly. relaxed.
• This type of training is also productive, as the • The person developing the course would be
employee is still working as they are learning. able to gauge the level of ability and content
• As training progresses and the employee for the course to be taught.
begins to feel more confident, this confidence • The course would be more relevant and
will allow them to work at a higher standard adaptable to the needs of the company.
and ultimately be more productive
• Training "on-the-job" would also prove an
opportunity to get to know staff to whom they
might not normally talk.
• Mentoring or training on-the-job can work out
very cost effective.
Disadvantages: Disadvantages:
• Teaching or mentoring is a specialisation in • Extra Audio or Visual aids to aid learning
itself; unless the person mentoring or training (whiteboard, overhead projector, projector,
has the skills and knowledge to train, this video etc.) might not be available, and so this
would mean that the training would not be would mean courses might be basic or
done to a sufficient standard. substandard.
• The person teaching or mentoring may not be • As a member of staff may be delivering the
given the time to spend with the employee to course rather than an experienced trainer, the
teach them properly, which would mean employees might not take the course
substandard training has been achieved and seriously and this might hamper learning.
learning has only been half-done. • Employee rivalry and banter may mean that
• The trainers may possess many bad habits and employees bypass the course and under-
pass these on to the employee being trained. value its content as they think they know
• If the trainer has been given limited time to better, or have better ways of doing it
train the employee, this would mean that the • Depending on the teaching skills of the
skill or knowledge has not been fully employee training the members of staff, they
understood. might not be able to gauge the existing
• If a trainer has been brought into the company abilities, knowledge, skill or need for training,
externally, they might not be familiar with the and so employees attending the course might
equipment fully or layout and this would already know what is being taught.
waste time. • If the need for training has not accurately
been gauged this would result in the
workspace being wasted where it could have
been utilised more productively.
• If resources are limited, equipment available
may be different from that used by the

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employees, and this would be counter-

productive.
• Employees may feel devalued if they are sent
on an internal training course to improve skills
rather than learn new ones, and so courses
have to be selected and promoted to the
employees very carefully and sensitively.
Fitness for work
Fitness for work is a broad topic and understanding the interaction between the human and the workplace
is complex. Ideally, the demands of the workplace would not exceed the capabilities of an employee and
would not increase the relationship between employee health and workplace demand by gaining a
thorough understanding of these components and implementing appropriate programs. Effective health
and wellbeing programs will consider;
• The Ageing Workforce

• Fatigue Management
• Employee Health and Well being
• Return to Work Screening
• Stress Management
• Medical Fitness Standards
• Pre-employment Screenings
• Alcohol and other Drugs (AOD)
A fitness to work assessment may be needed because:
• The individual’s health condition may limit or prevent them from performing the job effectively
(e.g. musculoskeletal conditions that limit ability)
• The individual’s condition may be made worse by the job
• The individual’s condition may make certain jobs and work environments unsafe to them
personally (e.g. liability to sudden unconsciousness in a hazardous situation, risk of damage to the
remaining eye in an individual with monocular vision)
• The individual’s condition may make it unsafe both for themselves and for others in some roles
• The individual’s condition may pose a risk to the community (e.g. infection transmitted by a food
handler)
Assessment of medical fitness may be needed for those who are:
• Being recruited for the first time (depending on work exposures)

• Being considered for transfer to a new job (depending on work exposures)
• Returning to work after significant or prolonged illness or injury
• Undergoing periodic review relating to specific requirements (e.g. health surveillance)
• Being reviewed for possible retirement on grounds of ill-health

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3.1 Competence, training, information and supervision

The meaning of competence
The words “competence” and “competent” are used comprehensively throughout health and safety
related legislation, Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs) and guidance. It is a key element in promoting
positive health and safety outcomes.
The HSE publication HSG65 Managing for Health and Safety describes competence as “the ability to
undertake responsibilities and perform activities to a recognised standard on a regular basis”.
Competence is, therefore, a demonstrable output or outcome and is about being able to perform
consistently, effectively and successfully, to a required standard utilising a combination of the building
blocks of competence (skills, knowledge and experience).
Skills
Skills are abilities that have been gained or developed through training or experience. In health and
safety, this covers the ability to do practical things such as identify hazards, draft a risk assessment
and implement control measures.
Personal skills are important too, such as the ability to communicate effectively. Skills support
technical competence and help health and safety professionals do their jobs effectively
Knowledge
Knowledge covers familiarity, awareness or understanding gained through experience or study. In
health and safety, it includes knowing such things as:
- what hazards are
- the range of hazards and how they can affect people
- the difference between hazards and risks
- how to evaluate risks and decide on appropriate controls
- key elements of occupational safety and health management systems
- how to gather and analyse health and safety data
- how health and safety law applies to the workplace
Experience
Experience is the result of a process of observing, encountering or doing something. People gain
experience when their knowledge and skills are tested in practice, and learn as a result of their
actions. People can also gain experience when they’re supervised by someone who’s already
experienced. The experienced person can give the learner feedback and point out mistakes that
they can correct more easily. Experiential learning is increasingly part of qualification programmes.
This helps learners ‘hone’ their knowledge and skills during their course, and gives them a higher
level of competence once they’ve completed it.
HSG65 also states “truly effective health and safety management requires competency across every facet
of an organisation and through every level of the workforce”.
Competency, or its plural competencies, can be defined as “the behaviours and technical attributes that
individuals must have, or must acquire, to perform effectively at work”.

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Competence is also about knowing your limitations and when to call on advice from others who have
more knowledge, skills or experience. A way of testing your own competence (and that of others) is to ask
three questions:
• What could go wrong?

• How could this be avoided?
• What would I do if things went wrong?
The difference between training and competence

Training is the structured approach to enhance someone’s knowledge, this usually requires completion of
prerequisite courses or on the job training where a worker is given the knowledge needed to apply theory
into practice. Usually it is the combination of both.
However, competency consists of a number of elements, of which training is only one. Others include
skills, knowledge, experience appreciation and understanding of the task at hand, the surrounding
environment, and a range of human factors such as behavioural safety and interpersonal communication.
Clearly training and / or qualifications alone will not necessarily mean that a Worker is competent.
The circumstances when training is likely to be required

• New employees - induction training takes place when workers join an organisation. This allows
the worker to obtain knowledge about the organisation in a safe, structured manner and ensures
that critical information is delivered and understood. Since a worker is at risk in a workplace from
their first day of work it makes sense to deliver induction training as soon as they start work and
to cover safety critical information first.
• Job change - additional training is necessary when a worker’s job changes in such a way that they
are exposed to new hazards and risks. For example, a health-care worker whose job changes from
being hospital-based to delivery of care in clients’ own homes will need additional training, not in
how to deliver care, since the service they provide has not changed, but in lone working. They will
be at far greater risk when they go out into the community to conduct home visits as opposed to
working in the hospital.
• Process change - when the way in which the work is done changes, workers may be exposed to
new hazards and risks that require additional training - for example, when a different product is
being produced on an existing piece of machinery this may create new risks that require training
in new safe operating procedures.
• New technology - new technologies adopted by organisations create different hazards and risks
that workers may be unfamiliar with. The mass introduction of desktop computers, screens and
keyboards is an example of new technology introducing new risk into workplaces. Training on the
hazards associated with the use of this Display Screen Equipment (DSE) and the correct layout and
use of the DSE workstation is now standard practice in many workplaces.
• New legislation - changes to the law governing a particular health and safety issue often create a
need to train workers on the implications of the new legislation, perhaps because working
practices have to change or simply to ensure an understanding of the law and its requirements.

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The groups of people having specific training needs

We all have to understand that an effective health and safety performance comes from the top. Directors,
Board Members, Senior Managers etc all have collective and individual responsibility towards health and
safety. Directors and boards need to examine their own behaviours, both individually and collectively,
against the guidance given and, where they see that they fall short of the standards it sets them, to change
what they do to become more effective leaders in health and safety.
Company directors are primarily responsible for the management of their companies and, generally, their
duties are owed to the company. However, they also owe duties to the owners as a whole. Every employer
has a legal duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all
its employees as set out in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA). A breach of health and
safety regulations can result in an employee being injured (with the possibility of a personal injury claim
against the employer to follow). Even if no one is injured, a breach may also expose the business, and/or
its responsible officers, to the risk of criminal prosecution.
This duty towards an employee specifically extends (HSWA Section 2(2)c) to the provision of such
information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure the employee’s health and
safety at work. A failure to provide such training etc. is an offence in its own right, and can of itself result
in criminal charge. It is therefore essential that an employer trains its employees, where appropriate.
Senior managers are a vital element in the structure of a company. They are the building blocks that
connect the strategic board or managing director with the tactical customer-facing employees. By
providing adequate training to the management, it can have a huge ripple effect on the rest of the
business. Not only can it improve the outcomes of training delivered to teams, but it can also make
managers more effective and adaptable to their role.
The circumstances where there are specific training needs for certain hazardous types of
work equipment
Employers must 'ensure that all persons who use work equipment have received adequate training for
the purposes of health and safety, including training in the methods which may be adopted when using
work equipment, and risks which such use may entail and the precautions to be taken.
It is not possible to detail here what constitutes 'adequate training', as requirements will vary according
to:
• the job or activity

• the existing competence of workers
• the circumstances of the work (e.g. degree of supervision)
• the work equipment etc
The training standard required should be adequate in ensuring the health and safety of your workers and
any people who may be affected by the work, so far as reasonably practicable.

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The requirements for training lift truck operators

Potential lift-truck operators should be:
• reasonably fit, both physically and mentally, to safely control and operate lift trucks, with the
learning ability and potential to become competent operators;
• reliable, with a responsible attitude to their work;
• physically capable – you should assess this on an individual basis. You may need to get medical
advice and make reasonable adjustments to enable some disabled people to work as lift-truck
operators.
• over the minimum school-leaving age (16), except in ports, where they must be at least 18 years
old, unless they are undergoing a suitable course of training, properly supervised by a competent
person.
Operator training should always include three stages:
• Basic training - Basic training should cover fully all the skills and knowledge needed to safely
operate the type of lift truck and handling attachments (if any) the trainee will use, including
awareness of the risks from lift-truck operation. It should take place ‘off the job’, without the
pressures of production. It is difficult to specify how long a course should last as many things affect
the rate of learning, e.g. the ratio of trainees to instructors, but a course for a novice operator
would typically last 3-5 days.
• Specific job training - Specific job training will normally follow the completion of basic training,
but may be combined or integrated with it. It will be tailored to your particular needs and include,
where appropriate
o knowledge and understanding of the operating principles and controls of the lift truck to
be used, especially relating to handling attachments and loads specific to the job (to be
repeated when the design of truck is changed);
o routine inspection and servicing of that truck, in accordance with the operator’s
handbook or manufacturer’s instructions, which may reasonably be carried out by the
operator (to be repeated when the design of truck is changed);
o using the truck in conditions the operator will meet at work, e.g. gangways; loading bays;
racking; lifts; automatic doors; confined areas; cold stores; slopes; rough terrain; loading
platforms; other vehicles; and bad weather;
o instruction on site rules, e.g. site layout; one-way systems; speed limits; general
emergency procedures; using protective clothing and devices including operator
restraints and eye and hearing protection; work near excavations and overhead lines; and
other hazards;
o raining in the work to be carried out, e.g. loading particular types of vehicle with loads
normally found at that workplace; using the lift truck fitted with working platforms where
appropriate;
o safe systems of work, which should include custody arrangements for keys.

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• Familiarisation training - Familiarisation training is the third stage of training, which should be
carried out on the job, under close supervision, by someone with appropriate knowledge. This
could include:
o applying, under normal working conditions, the skills already learned in basic and specific
training, starting with simple tasks and moving on to more complex ones;
o becoming familiar with the lift-truck activities of the employer;
o familiarisation with the site layout, local emergency procedures and any other feature of
the work which it is not practicable to teach off the job.
3.2 High Reliability Organisations

What is an HRO?
An organization that operates and manages processes with the potential to adversely affect human life or
the environment.
Example: Nuclear Power Organization.
High reliability organizations are organizations that operate in complex, high-hazard domains for
extended periods without serious accidents or catastrophic failures. The concept of high reliability is
attractive for health care, due to the complexity of operations and the risk of significant and even
potentially catastrophic consequences when failures occur in health care. Sometimes people interpret
high reliability as meaning effective standardization of health care processes. However, the principles of
high reliability go beyond standardization; high reliability is better described as a condition of persistent
mindfulness within an organization. High reliability organizations cultivate resilience by relentlessly
prioritizing safety over other performance pressures.
High reliability organizations use systems thinking to evaluate and design for safety, but they are keenly
aware that safety is an emergent, rather than a static, property. New threats to safety continuously
emerge, uncertainty is endemic, and no two accidents are exactly alike. Thus, high reliability organizations
work to create an environment in which potential problems are anticipated, detected early, and virtually
always responded to early enough to prevent catastrophic consequences. This mindset is supported by
five characteristic ways of thinking: preoccupation with failure; reluctance to simplify explanations for
operations, successes, and failures; sensitivity to operations (situation awareness); deference to frontline
expertise; and commitment to resilience.
Adoption of HRO principles in health care offers promise of increased excellence; however, major barriers
to widespread implementation include difficulty in adopting organization-level safety culture principles
into practice; competing priorities between HRO and other large-scale organizational transformation
initiatives such as electronic health records; and difficulty in creating and implementing process
improvement tools and methods to address complex, system-level problems.
Characteristics of an HRO
Containment of unexpected events

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• Deference to expertise
• Redundancy
• Oscillation between hierarchical and flat/decentralised structures
• Training and competence
• Procedures for unexpected events
Successful containment of unexpected events by:
Having in place back-up systems in the event of failures and cross-checking of important decisions
(redundancy), Allowing people with expertise, irrespective of rank, to make important safety related
decisions in emergencies, whilst during routine operations there is a clear hierarchical structure and an
understanding of who is responsible for what (deference to expertise in emergencies; oscillation between
hierarchical and flat organizational structures), investment in training and technical competence, and
Well-defined procedures for all possible unexpected events.
In particular, the following facets and processes were characteristic of high reliability organisations:
Just culture
• Encouragement to report without fear of blame

• Individual accountability
• Ability to abandon work on safety grounds
• Open discussion of errors y Procedures for
Just culture characterised by:
Open reporting systems for near misses and accidents without fear of punishment, Follow-up of
accident investigation outcomes by implementing corrective actions, Empowering staff to abandon work
on safety grounds, and fostering a sense of personal accountability for safety.
Problem anticipation
• Preoccupation with failure

• Reluctance to simplify
• Sensitivity to operations
Effective anticipation of potential failures through:
Engagement with front line staff in order to obtain ‘the bigger picture’ of operations
(Sensitivity to operations), Attentiveness to minor or what may appear as trivial signals that may indicate
potential problem areas within the organisation and use incidents and near misses as indicators of a
system’s ‘health’ (preoccupation with failure), Systematic collection and analysis of all warning signals, no
matter how trivial they may appear to be, and avoid making assumptions regarding the nature of failures.
Explanations regarding the causes of incidents tend to be systemic rather than focusing on individual,
‘blame the operator’ justifications (reluctance to simplify).

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Definition
• Tight coupling
• Catastrophic consequences
• Interactive complexity
Description of HROs as organisations where failure may have far-reaching, potentially catastrophic
consequences. Such organisations will be typically characterised by: Interactive complexity i.e. interaction
among system components is unpredictable and/or invisible, and Tight coupling (i.e. high degree of
interdependence among a system’s components including people, equipment and procedures).
Learning Orientation
• Continuous technical training

• Open communication
• Root Cause Analysis of accidents /incidents
• Procedures reviewed in line with knowledge base
Learning orientation characterised by:
Continuous technical training, Systematic analysis of incidents to identify their root causes and accident
types or trends within the organisation, Open communication of accident investigation outcomes, and
Updating procedures in line with the organisational knowledge base.
Mindful Leadership:
• Bottom-up communication of bad news

• Proactive audits
• Management by exception
• Safety-production balance
• Engagement with front-line staff
• Investment of resources
Mindful leadership characterised by:
Proactive commissions of audits to identify problems in the system (often in response to incidents that
occur in other similar industries), ‘Bottom-up’ communication of ‘bad news’, Engagement with front line
staff through site visits, Investment of resources in safety management and the ability to balance profits
with safety.
The lessons that other organisations can learn from HROs

A plane landing on a carrier slows from about 250 kph (150 mph) to zero in seconds. It stops by catching
a hook on a steel wire connected to enormous hydraulic motors under the flight deck. Hooking the
arresting wire is difficult, made tougher when the carrier is in motion, tougher again at night, and
horrendously difficult in rain or bad weather. Consider also, that the plane carries jet fuel, and sometimes
high explosives while landing above a nuclear power plant and an explosives magazine. It doesn't get

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much more dangerous than this. So why is it that nuclear aircraft carriers have better track records than
most businesses?
Some of the best research in the area of risk management comes from studies into an area known as high-
reliability organizations (HRO’s). HRO’s include organizations such as nuclear power plants, aircraft
carriers, and air traffic control. At any given time, there are between 5,000 and 10,000 planes in the air.
And yet our track record with air safety has only been improving for the past few decades. The complexity
of this sort of a system is staggering.
HROs are notable because "these organizations have not just failed to fail; they have actively managed to
avoid failures in an environment rich with the potential for error." That ability to actively and reliably
manage to reduce the chances of mistakes occurring, rather than to avoid the hazards, has been the
distinguishing hallmark of most HRO’s. Their experience offers many lessons for the application of risk
management at the enterprise level.
Five Elements of Successful Risk Management:
Research into this area suggests that five key elements contribute to a state of ‘mindfulness’:
• Preoccupation with failure

• Reluctance to simplify interpretations
• Sensitivity to operations
• Commitment to resilience
• Deference to expertise
At first many of these processes appear to be self-defeating on multiple levels. But as they further explain
why these processes are necessary if a high-reliability organization is to be successful their validity
becomes increasingly more apparent.
Preoccupation with failure
A healthy amount of paranoia or preoccupation with the potential for failure is part of a recipe for success.
An antidote to complacency. HRO’s like most organizations celebrate their successes but “a chronic worry
in HROs is that analytic error is embedded in ongoing activities and that unexpected failure modes and
limitations of foresight may amplify those analytic errors.”
Reluctance to simplify interpretations
Most organizations are happy to handle complex issues by simplifying them and categorizing them, thus
ignoring certain aspects. HROs, however, take nothing for granted. They build cultures which attempt to
suppress simplification because it limits their ability to envision all possible undesirable effects as well as
the precautions necessary to avoid these effects.

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HROs pay attention to detail and actively seek to know what they don't know. They endeavor to uncover
those things that might disconfirm their intuitions despite being unpleasant, uncertain or disputed.
Skepticism is also deemed necessary to counteract the complacency that many typical organizational
management systems foster.
Sensitivity to operations
Sensitivity to operations points to “an ongoing concern with the unexpected. Unexpected events usually
originate in ‘latent failures’ are loopholes in the system’s defenses, barriers and safeguards who’s
potential existed for some time prior to the onset of the accident sequence, though usually without any
obvious bad effect.”
Management focus at all levels to managing normal operations offers opportunities to learn about
deficiencies that which could signal the development of undesirable or unexpected events before they
become an incident. HRO’s recognize each potential near-miss or ‘out of course’ event as offering a
‘window on the health of the system’ – if the organization is sensitive to its own operations.
Commitment to resilience
HRO’s develop capabilities to detect, contain, and bounce back from those inevitable errors that are a
part of an indeterminate world. The hallmark of an HRO is not that it does not experience incidents but
that those incidents don’t disable it. Resilience involves a process of improvising workarounds that keep
the system functioning and of keeping errors small in the first place. Another word for this commitment
might be persistence.
Deference to expertise
HRO’s put a premium on experts; personnel with deep experience, skills of recombination, and training.
They cultivate diversity, not just because it helps them notice more in complex environments, but also
because rigid hierarchies have their own special vulnerability to error. Errors at higher levels tend to pick
up and combine with errors at lower levels, exposing an organization to further escalation.
HRO’s consciously evoke the fundamental principle of risk management – that ‘risk should be managed at
the point at which it occurs.' This is where you will find the expertise and experience to make the required
decisions quickly and correctly, regardless of rank or title. The most junior sailor on the deck of an aircraft
carrier has the authority to abort a landing or takeoff if they see a safety issue. Something as simple as a
piece of metal on a deck that might be invisible to the pilot or the captain can lead to a catastrophic crash.
This is one of the best examples of devolving responsibility to the point at which risk occurs.
Unfortunately most organizations do not work at this level, preferring to manage risk through the
introduction of standard operating procedures, policy and work instructions. While these undoubtedly
have their place and can help people to make quick and consistent decisions, a significant body of research
also indicates that the blanket application of these controls can reduce individuals ‘mindfulness’ and
personal responsibility, thereby contributing indirectly to increasing operating risk.

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Other lessons from HRO’s
Other lessons from HROs include the strong support and reward for reporting of errors based on a
recognition that the value of remaining fully informed and aware far outweighs whatever satisfaction that
might be gained from identifying and punishing an individual. In other words, they want to hear the bad
news. Before it becomes worse news.
There is no place for shooting the messenger in HROs. That is a recipe for catastrophic failure and the sort
of behavior that most of us have seen too often. A culture of reporting and trust is a culture where people
can also learn from their mistakes.
4.1 Hazard identification techniques

Types of hazard identification techniques
The industries have been using a variety of hazard identification techniques for many years. Each
technique has its own strengths and weaknesses for identifying hard (e.g. mechanical) and soft (e.g.
computer controls) failures.
The cost of alterations to the plant, to produce an inherently safer process, corresponds to the stage in
the process life cycle in which they are performed. Generally the earlier in the process life cycle the hazard
is identified, the lower the cost of improving the safety of the process is, as it allows simple alterations to
be performed before any of the items have been built. However, expense though is balanced with the
inability of techniques performed early in the process life cycle to identify all the hazards associated with
the process allowing the potential for hazards to be missed. Hazard identification studies can be
performed at seven stages during key stages in the life cycle of a new process
Not all of the hazard identification techniques are suitable for all stages in the life cycle. Some of the
techniques may be suitable to more than one stage in the life cycle, but others have been specifically
developed for one stage and it would be inappropriate to apply these in some of the other stages.
To offset the various limitations of the techniques, two separate techniques can be incorporated. This
often occurs for checklists and ‘What if?’ analysis. The checklist speeds up the normal ‘What if?’ technique
which is used to bolster the checklist by identifying any missed hazards, and allowing it to be applied to
new processes
Observations / Inspections
Workplace observations/inspections help prevent incidents, injuries and illnesses. Through a critical
examination of the workplace, observations help to identify and record hazards for corrective action.
Every observation must examine who, what, where when and how. Pay particular attention to items that
are or are most likely to develop into unsafe or unhealthy conditions because of stress, wear, impact,
vibration, heat, corrosion, chemical reaction or misuse. Include areas where no work is done regularly,
such as parking lots, rest areas, office storage areas and locker rooms.
Types of workplace hazards to look for in an observation include:

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• Safety hazards such as those caused by inadequate machine guards, unsafe workplace conditions,
unsafe work practices.
• Biological hazards caused by organisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites.
• Chemical hazards caused by a solid, liquid, vapour, gas, dust, fume or mist.
• Ergonomic hazards caused by physiological and psychological demands on the worker, such as
repetitive and forceful movements, awkward postures arising from improper work methods, and
improperly designed workstations, tools, and equipment.
• Physical hazards caused by noise, vibration, energy, weather, heat, cold, electricity, radiation and
pressure.
• Psychosocial hazards that can affect mental health or well-being such as overwork, stress,
bullying, or violence.
How often observations/inspections are performed will depend on several factors:
• The frequency of planned formal inspections may be set in legislation

• Past incident records
• Number and size of different work operations
• Type of equipment and work processes - those that are hazardous or potentially
• Number of shifts - the activity of every shift may vary
• New processes or machinery
• Legislative requirements for your jurisdiction
High hazard or high risk areas should receive extra attention. It is often recommended to conduct
observations as often as committee meetings. Do not conduct observations immediately before a
committee meeting but try to separate observations and meetings by at least one week. This time allows
for small items to be fixed and gives the committee an opportunity to focus on issues requiring further
action.
Look for deviations from accepted work practices. Use statements such as: "a worker was observed
operating a machine without a guard." Do not use information derived from inspections for disciplinary
measures.
Some common poor work practices include:
• Using machinery or tools without authority

• Operating at unsafe speeds or in other violation of safe work practice
• Removing guards or other safety devices, or making the devices ineffective
• Using defective tools or equipment or using tools or equipment in unsafe ways
• Using hands or body instead of tools or push sticks
• Overloading, crowding, or failing to balance materials or handling materials in unsafe ways,
including improper lifting
• Repairing or adjusting equipment that is in motion, under pressure, or electrically charged
• Failing to use or maintain, or improperly using, personal protective equipment or safety devices
• Creating unsafe, unsanitary, or unhealthy conditions by improper personal hygiene, by using
compressed air for cleaning clothes, by poor housekeeping, or by smoking in unauthorized areas

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• Standing or working under suspended loads, scaffolds, shafts, or open hatches

• Discussion with or observation of workers who may be overloaded, fatigued, working in conflict
with others, or working in isolation (working alone)
When making observations, follow these basic principles:
• Draw attention to the presence of any immediate danger - other items can await the final report.
• Shut down and "lock out" any hazardous items that cannot be brought to a safe operating
standard until repaired.
• Do not operate equipment. Ask the operator for a demonstration. If the operator of any piece of
equipment does not know what dangers may be present, this is cause for concern. Never ignore
any item because you do not have knowledge to make an accurate judgement of safety.
• Look up, down, around and inside. Be methodical and thorough. Do not spoil the observations
with a "once-over-lightly" approach.
• Clearly describe each hazard and its exact location in your rough notes. Allow "on-the-spot"
recording of all findings before they are forgotten.
• Ask questions, but do not unnecessarily disrupt work activities. This interruption may interfere
with efficient assessment of the job function and may also create a potentially hazardous
situation.
• Consider the static (stop position) and dynamic (in motion) conditions of the item you are
observing. If a machine is shut down, consider postponing the observation until it is functioning
again.
• Consider factors such as how the work is organized or the pace of work and how these factors
impact safety.
• Discuss as a group, "Can any problem, hazard or accident generate from this situation when
looking at the equipment, the process or the environment?" Determine what corrections or
controls are appropriate.
• Do not try to detect all hazards simply by relying on your senses or by looking at them during the
inspection. You may have to monitor equipment to measure the levels of exposure to chemicals,
noise, radiation or biological agents.
• Take a photograph if you are unable to clearly describe or sketch a particular situation.
Task analysis
Task analysis is the primary method for recognizing potential hazards. The five steps of a thorough task
analysis include:
Step 1: Select the job or task to be analysed: Ideally, all jobs should have a job/task analysis. But because
of the number of jobs in the workplace, it may not be practical to do this for every single one so you may
have to prioritize jobs for analysis. To establish that priority, consider the following groupings:
• Jobs with particularly high injury rates or injury severity

• Jobs where you know the potential for injury or illness is high
• New or modified jobs where hazards may not be evident
• Non-routine or infrequently performed jobs with which workers may not be familiar

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Step 2: Identify the steps involved in that job or task: A job step, or “task”, is one piece of getting a job
done. As a general rule, most jobs can be described in 10 steps or less. If more steps are identified,
consider dividing the job into two parts.
It may sound simple, but job analysis takes time and thought. Too detailed, and you will create too many
steps. Too general, and you may miss key job functions. It’s also extremely important to keep the steps in
their correct sequence. Any step which is out of order may miss potential hazards or may introduce
hazards which do not actually exist.
Step 3: Identify and rank potential hazards at each step: Next, list the things that could go wrong at each
step. If possible, watch the job being performed as you work through this analysis process. Think of worst-
case scenarios and focus on potential hazards.
Ask questions like:
• Can any body part get caught in or between objects?

• Can I be struck by or against anything?
• Can I slip, trip or fall?
• Can I strain or sprain my back or other muscle from lifting, pushing or pulling?
• Is there possible exposure to extreme heat or cold?
• Is excessive noise or vibration a problem?
• Is there a danger from falling objects?
• Is lighting a problem?
• Can weather conditions affect safety?
• Can I come in contact with an energy source?
• Can I come in contact with a hazardous substance?
• Are there dusts, fumes, mists or vapours in the air?
Step 4: Determine preventative measures to control the hazards: Steps of a job have been identified along
with the hazards at each step. Now, how to prevent injury by eliminating or controlling hazards?
The primary method of control is to eliminate the hazard completely. If that is not practical, the next
option is to reduce the risk as much as possible. There are three key ways to reduce the risk. Always
consider them in this order:
Engineering controls can include:
• substitution, such as using a less toxic substance, or using smaller boxes when
handling/transferring materials
• isolation, such as using a sound-proof barrier to reduce noise levels or using remote control
systems to operate machinery
• modification of tools/equipment, such as installing guards around moving parts of machinery
Administrative controls can include:
• using work permit systems for hazardous work such as hot work (i.e., welding) or confined space
entry

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• providing training and supervision

• implementing job rotation to reduce exposure times
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a last resort. It should only be used if you have exhausted all other
possible methods of reducing risk. If you do require your workers to wear PPE, always ensure that:
• the right type of PPE is selected for the job

• PPE fits properly and is comfortable under working conditions
• workers are trained in the need for PPE, its use and maintenance
• PPE is stored in a clean and fully operational condition
List the hazard control methods in the right hand column of the worksheet, numbered to match the hazard
in question. In listing the methods, avoid general statements such as “be careful” or “use caution.” Be
specific about what workers should do and how they should do it.
Step 5: Write a safe work procedure to identify and control the potential hazards: It is best to involve your
workers in this process. They are the people most familiar with the tasks. They are most likely to have
insight into the jobs that a casual observer may not notice.
Checklists
Checklists produce a detailed examination of the workplace by applying experience of everyday

operations and previous incidents in similar workplace. If an assessment of a workplace is to be performed
with the aid of a checklist, it is believed that the use of a detailed list early on will minimise the
inventiveness of the team members, and so only a coarse list should be used to aid in the direction of the
work. Once the brainstorming has been completed the detailed checklist can then be used to identify
areas that have been overlooked. The main task for the assessment team is to identify the potential
hazards in the area. Once a hazard has been identified, recommendations should be made of possible
methods for it to be minimised. When the assessment has been completed a report should be produced,
in co-operation with the people who have to perform the modifications, giving the alterations required as
well as an appropriate timescale for completion.
Advantages of checklists
• Easy to apply. The principle behind the technique is simple, compares a list of predefined
questions to the process to aid in the identification of hazards.
• A simplistic assessment can be performed by inexperienced practitioners. Little experience is
required to perform a simplistic assessment consisting of checking the list against existing
conditions.
Disadvantages of checklists
• The assessment will only be as complete as the list used. The methodology will only ask questions
stated in the checklist; if this is not comprehensive areas might be left unevaluated, leaving
possible hazards unidentified.

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• Not easy to apply to novel processes. A check list is generally formulated from past experience.
For new plants there is no past experience limiting the information available for the preparation
of an appropriate checklist.
Here are some simple guidelines for developing checklists for the workplaces:
• Develop the checklist in consultation with staff who work in the area and who will be conducting
the inspections.
• Develop checklists specific for each area, e.g. the warehouse, administration area, manufacturing,
laboratory.
• Divide the work area into sections, e.g. floor, lighting, fire extinguishers, electrical equipment,
chemical, biological, transport etc.
• Design checklists suitable for use on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, e.g. a daily check for forklift
trucks, a monthly inspection of the factory.
• Ensure legislative requirements are included in the checklist.
• Checklists are not permanent lists. Allow some flexibility so that new safety items can be included.
• Ensure the checklist includes a space for comments against each item. This is the best way to
record the findings of the inspection.
• Link the checklists to a reporting system to ensure items identified are controlled and reviewed.
Inspection reports can then be reviewed to determine if there are any trends appearing.
• Ensure the format is in a simple and logical format.
• Ensure the checklist fits the work flow of the department.
The importance of worker input

As an essential element of each occupational safety and health management system, workers’
participation influences its effectiveness and can result in improved safety, health and well-being of
workers. The participation can be implemented as indirect (through representatives) or direct, weak or
strong, formal or informal, etc. Development of workers participation in OSH management is supported
by legal regulations as well as standards and guidance on OSH management systems.
Legally, workers and/or their representatives with specific responsibility for their safety and health should
be consulted and entitled to submit proposals on:
• Measures which may substantially affect safety and health,

• The designation of persons to carry out activities related to the protection and prevention of
occupational risks and implementation of first aid, fire-fighting and evacuation measures,
• Information on risk assessment, preventive measures, accidents at work and other information
related to health and safety,
• The plans and organization of training activities.
The employer is obliged to ensure that workers representatives have sufficient amount of time and
resources necessary to ensure effective participation.
The main reasons why workers should actively influence management decisions include:
• Worker participation helps in developing effective ways of protecting workers

• By getting involved in an issue at the planning stage, workers are more likely to identify the
reasons for taking a particular action, help find practical solutions, and comply with the end result

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• If workers are given the opportunity to participate in shaping safe work systems, then they can
advise, suggest, and request improvements - helping to develop measures to prevent
occupational accidents and ill-health in a timely and cost effective manner.
4.2 Managing health and safety risks

The meaning of the term sensible risk management
Risk management is about taking practical steps to protect people from real harm and suffering – not
bureaucratic back covering.
According to HSE, taking a sensible approach to risk management is about:
• Ensuring that workers and the public are properly protected

• Enabling innovation and learning not stifling them
• Ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly and understand that failure to
manage significant risks responsibly is likely to lead to robust action
• Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing
significant risks – both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences
• Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to
exercise responsibility
It is not about:
• Reducing protection of people from risks that cause real harm

• Scaring people by exaggerating or publicizing trivial risks
• Stopping important recreational and learning activities for individuals where the risks are
managed
• Creating a totally risk-free society
• Generating useless paperwork mountains
Adopting a risk-based approach means targeting resources commensurate with the level of risk of a
specific activity. For a regulator, this involves identifying, measuring, and evaluating different risk factors;
developing risk mitigation requirements proportionate to the risks of that specific activity; imposing
enhanced mitigation measures for higher-risk activity; and allowing simplified measures for lower-risk
activities.
For employers committed to promoting positive safety culture, a robust consultation process is essential.
Principles of and differences between qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative

assessments
Where the hazards presented by the undertaking are few or simple, for example in many small businesses,
it is appropriate to just carry out a simple qualitative risk assessment. This can be a very straightforward
process based on informed judgement and reference to appropriate guidance. Where the hazards and
risks are obvious, they can be addressed directly, and no complicated process or skills will be required. A

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qualitative risk assessment should be a systematic examination of what in the workplace could cause harm
to people, so that decisions can be made as to whether existing precautions or control measures are
adequate or whether more needs to be done to prevent harm. HSE has published guidance on carrying
out simple, qualitative assessments in the booklet ‘Five steps to risk assessment’. In a qualitative
assessment it is appropriate to complete just the following steps:
• Identify the hazards

• Identify the possible consequences
• Evaluate risk
• Record the findings.
However, in carrying out the assessment it is also important to ensure transparency throughout; ensure
appropriate and adequate consideration of human factors; and ensure adequate handling of uncertainty.
In many intermediate cases where the hazards are neither few and simple, nor numerous and complex,
for example if there are some hazards that require specialist knowledge, such as a particular complex
process or technique, it may be appropriate to supplement the simple qualitative approach with a semi-
quantitative assessment. In carrying out semi-quantitative risk assessments, simple qualitative
techniques, supplemented by for example measurements to identify the presence of hazards from
chemicals or machinery, or the use of simple modelling techniques may be appropriate. Simple modelling
techniques may be used to derive order of magnitude estimates of the severity of the consequences and
likelihood of realisation of hazards. These estimates can be combined to obtain estimates of the order of
magnitude of the risk. A number of different techniques for carrying out semi-quantitative risk
assessments exist, including risk matrix approaches and layers of protection analysis etc.
Where the hazards presented by the undertaking are numerous and complex, and may involve novel
processes, for example in the case of large chemical process plants or nuclear installations, detailed and
sophisticated risk assessments will be needed, and it is appropriate to carry out a detailed quantitative
risk assessment in addition to the simple qualitative assessment. Quantitative risk assessment (QRA)
involves obtaining a numerical estimate of the risk from a quantitative consideration of event probabilities
and consequences (in the nuclear industry the term ‘probabilistic safety analysis’ is used in place of QRA).
Detailed guidance on the application of QRA in the chemical process industries is given in IChemE and
AIChemE. In carrying out quantitative risk assessments, special quantitative tools and techniques will be
used for hazard identification, and to estimate the severity of the consequences and the likelihood of
realisation of the hazards. Where such methods and techniques are used it is important that they are
carried out by suitably qualified and experienced assessors. The results of the QRA will be numerical
estimates of the risk, which can be compared to numerical risk criteria at the risk evaluation stage.
How to engage workers at all levels in the risk assessment process

Your workers deal directly with the hazards and risks associated with their job on a daily basis. This gives
them a good understanding of what can go wrong and why. They will also understand what will help make
their job safer. To assess the risks before you start, discuss the task with experienced workers and
supervisors who are familiar with it – and also with less experienced workers (who can be a ‘fresh pair of
eyes’). Three key steps to engage your workers in risk management:

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Step 1 At the beginning, ask:
• What has gone wrong in the past?

• Are there examples where near-misses have occurred doing this task?
• How often have these problems occurred?
• What is the worst-case scenario?
• Could a member of the public be affected?
Step 2 At the end of your risk assessment (and to help you develop a method statement) ask:
• Is there a safer way of doing this task?

• Are workers likely to implement any planned safety controls correctly?
• Do these controls make the job more difficult or inconvenient?
• Are there small changes that will improve the control method(s) in these respects?
• How will these controls work in adverse conditions (e.g. weather)?
• Will workers require additional briefing or instructions to use the safety controls?
Step 3 At a daily or pre-task briefing, check that any controls put in place on site are being effectively
communicated to workers; ask:
• Does what actually happen on site match the agreed procedure for the job?
• Is the sequence of work clearly spelt out?
• Is everybody clear on: who the supervisor is ? whether specialist training or knowledge is
required?
• Will this task affect the public or other trades working nearby?
• Have today’s weather and site conditions been taken into account?
• How will feedback be given on completion, or if a change occurs before then?
When dynamic risk assessments/situational awareness should be used

Introduction The dynamic management of risk is about decision making. Prior to involvement at
operational incidents, members are required to be fully trained and conversant with all the elements
involved in the decision making process. The Officer in Charge (OIC) of an incident must be able to
recognise and appreciate the risks which are present at the incident in order to carry out an effective
dynamic risk assessment.
The definition of a dynamic risk assessment is:
“The continuous process of identifying hazards, assessing risk, taking action to eliminate or reduce risk,
monitoring and reviewing, in the rapidly changing circumstances of an operational incident.”

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During the dynamic (rapidly changing) phase, the decision making process involves analysing and
reviewing the risks and benefits presented by the incident, selecting an appropriate response (system of
work) and making a judgement on whether the risks are proportional to the benefits.
Levels of Operational Risk Management
In order to provide an acceptable level of protection at operational incidents, ACT Fire Brigade Work
Safety must operate successfully at three levels
• Strategic,
• Systematic and
• Dynamic.
Strategic:
Strategic work safety management is carried out at a whole of government level, an example being the
Work Safety Act 2008 and ISO 3100:2009.
Systematic:
Systematic work safety management is carried out by departments including the ACT Fire Brigade and is
represented by Work Safety policy distributed by the Brigade.
Dynamic:
Dynamic risk management is carried out by all personnel at an operational incident.
The main responsibility for dynamic risk assessment lies with the Incident Controller (IC) who must identify
the hazards, assess the risks, then make professional judgements in order to use the available resources
in such a way as to achieve an acceptable level of safety during work activities.
Dynamic Risk Assessment
The term ‘Dynamic Risk Assessment’ is commonly used to describe a process of risk assessment being
carried out in a changing environment, where what is being assessed is developing as the process itself is
being undertaken.
This is further complicated for the Incident Controller in that, often, rescues have to be performed,
exposures protected and hose lines placed before a complete appreciation of all material facts has been
obtained.
Nevertheless it is essential that an effective risk assessment is carried out at any scene of operations.
However, in the circumstances of emergency incidents, experience has shown that it is impractical to
expect the IC, in addition to the incident size-up and deployment and supervision of crews, to complete
some kind of check-list or form. After action has been initiated on the basis of a ‘Dynamic Risk

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Assessment’, it is important that this is reviewed and confirmed as quickly as practicable, and further
reviewed and confirmed at regular intervals.
Although the dynamic management of risk is continuous throughout the incident, the focus of operational
activity will change as the incident evolves. It is, therefore, useful to consider the process during three
separate stages of an incident. These are;
• The Initial Stage

• The Development Stage
• The Closing Stage.
Initial Stage of Incident
There are 6 steps to the initial assessment of risk:
1. Evaluate the situation, tasks and persons at risk

2. Introduce and declare tactical mode
3. Select safe systems of work
4. Assess the chosen systems of work
5. Introduce additional control measures
6. Re-assess systems of work and additional control measures.
Development Stage of Incident
If an incident develops to the extent that the span of control is exceeded or if sectors are designated, the
Incident Controller may delegate incident control roles. This may include the appointment of an
operations officer or sector/ divisional command responsibilities.
As the incident develops, changing circumstances may make the original course of action inappropriate,
for example:
• Firefighting tactics may change from defensive to offensive

• New hazards and their associated risks may arise, e.g. the effects of fire on building stability
• Existing hazards may present different risks
• Personnel may become fatigued.
The Incident Controller, Operations Officer and Sector / Division Commanders need to manage safety by
constantly monitoring the situation and reviewing the effectiveness of existing control measures. The
appointment of a safety officer (s) may assist with this process.
The Closing Stage of the Incident
The three key activities involved in the closing stages of an incident are:
• Maintaining control

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• Welfare, and
• Incident Debrief.
The process of task and hazard identification, assessment of risk, planning, organisation, control,
monitoring and review of the preventative and protective measures must continue until the last appliance
leaves the incident ground.
There are usually fewer reasons for accepting risks at this stage, because there are fewer benefits to be
gained from the tasks being carried out. The Incident Controller and Sector Commanders should therefore
have no hesitation in halting work in order to maintain safety.
As the urgency of the situation diminishes, the Incident Controller may wish to nominate an officer to
gather information for the post incident review.
Whenever possible, this officer should debrief crews before they leave the incident, whilst events are still
fresh in their minds. Details of all ‘near misses’ i.e. occurrences that could have caused injury but did not
in this instance, must be recorded because experience has shown that there are many near misses for
every accident that causes harm. If, therefore, we fail to eradicate the causes of a near miss, we will
probably fail to prevent injury or damage in the future.
The link between the outcomes of risk assessments and the development of risk controls
Selecting an appropriate control is not always easy. It often involves doing a risk assessment to evaluate
and prioritize the hazards and risks. In addition, both "normal" and any potential or unusual situations
must be studied. Each program should be specially designed to suit the needs of the individual workplace.
Hence, no two programs will be exactly alike.
Choosing a control method may involve:
• Evaluating and selecting temporary and permanent controls.

• Implementing temporary measures until permanent (engineering) controls can be put in place.
• Implementing permanent controls when reasonably practicable.
For example, in the case of a noise hazard, temporary measures might require workers to use hearing
protection. Long term, permanent controls might use engineering methods to remove or isolate the noise
source.
Factors affecting the choice of sensible and proportionate control measures

Establish suitable risk control measures for the highest priority risks with reference to the risk assessment.
For example, if the assessment finds that poor lighting in the area is a risk factor, then the lighting should
be improved as a risk control.
When considering risk control options, it is essential that supervisors and managers consult with workers
directly involved in the process. These experienced people typically have good, practical ideas about

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suitable risk control measures. Gaining their ownership and commitment to the chosen risk controls is
also essential to attaining acceptance for the use of the control measures
But sometimes, the most ideal risk control options may be prohibitively expensive and need to be planned
for in the longer term, e.g. in next year's budget. In these cases, short term and medium term risk control
measures (implemented within one week and 3 months respectively) should be established for the interim
period.
Selection of the best option of prevention and control measures requires consideration of following
factors:
• The number of people protected by the risk control measure: In general, it is better to use a risk
control measure which will protect everyone who could be exposed to the hazard, rather than
relying on individuals to provide their own protection. For example, it is better to put a
soundproof enclosure around a noisy machine than to expect everyone who might be exposed to
the machine's noise to wear hearing protection.
• The extent to which the continuing effectiveness of the risk control measure relies on human
behaviour: In general, it is preferable to have risk control measures which, apart from any
necessary maintenance, operate without human intervention. When a risk control measure relies
on the actions of people, it is inevitable that on some occasions it will not be used, either
deliberately or inadvertently.
• The extent to which the risk control measure requires testing, maintenance, cleaning and
replacement: All of these required activities rely on human intervention and can, therefore, fail.
This reduces the likelihood that the risk control measure will continue to be effective.
• The cost of the risk control measure: Ideally, the cost should be calculated over the whole of the
time for which risk control is required, since some risk control measures have a low installation
cost but are expensive to maintain, while others have higher installation costs but are cheaper to
maintain. This aspect of risk control measures is dealt with in more detail later in this chapter.
• Legal requirements and associated standards: If there are legal requirements to control a
particular type of hazard in the workplace, more stringent controls are required.
• The competence of workers and training needs relevant to preferred controls: The level of
competence of workers need to be taken care of; in reference to their ability to handle the new
controls measures. Where workers are unable to manage the new controls, additional training
must be provided.
• The extent to which the risk control measure reduces the risk: Ideally, a risk control measure, or
combination of measures, will reduce the risk to near zero, but this may not be achievable in
practice.
When deciding on the “best” risk control measures, we need to arrive at a compromise between all the
demands listed above, since they are often in competition. However, a critical issue for a measure's long-
term effectiveness is the extent to which it relies on human beings continuing to carry out particular
activities.
The highest values can be found for measures aimed at substitution or avoidance. The lowest values can
be found for measures such as training and personal protective equipment. So measures considered to
be the most effective according to the prevention principles are also more cost-effective (profitable).
However, companies would rather implement technical and personal measures but leave out efforts to
eliminate or reduce hazards because of:
• Attitude: never change a running process, as process changes may bring about uncertainties

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• No priority neither at enterprises nor in practical governance

• Dealing with the current problems is already too laborious; no additional problems by an
unnecessary innovative approach (existing standards etc.)
• Uncertainty in risk assessment – a shift of risks may be possible
• Substitutes are less tested in practice
• Integration in the production chain makes an innovation beyond enterprise borders necessary
• Technological or economic difficulties
The influential factors, such as society, public policy, regulation, market forces, etc. all have to play a role
in order to overcome these difficulties.
The difficulties in applying the hierarchy of control measures in practice can be overcome by:
• Support from top management: This is essential to ensure that necessary resources such as
budget, human resources, equipment, etc., are made available for the project.
• Involvement of relevant parties such as workers themselves (participatory risk assessment),
human resources, financial department, OSH practitioners, etc. An important group that has to
be motivated and involved from the beginning are the workers. They should be involved not only
in the risk analysis itself but also during the identification and implementation of possible
solutions. Their practical and detailed knowledge and competence is often needed to develop
workable preventive measures.
• A good analysis/knowledge of effective potential solutions, best practice and scientific or
technological innovations available.
Organisational arrangements for implementing and maintaining an effective risk assessment

programme
Procedures
• A procedure must be developed detailing the roles and responsibilities, protocols and stens to
carry out the risk assessment
• Most importantly procedure must include guidelines on selecting the values of likelihood and
severity.
Recording protocols
• Risk assessment record form must be developed and used during the exercise
• Check that the record of the assessments is accurately documented with the significant
conclusions and actions identified.
• Record must include area details, activity brief, names of risk assessment teams, date of risk
assessment, review period, validity time, hazards, people exposed, risk level, controls suggested
and action planning of controls.
Training and competence
• Ensure that all work has been subject to risk assessment by a suitably experienced, competent
and trained assessor, who preferably has experience of undertaking that work or work of a similar
nature, and involving all relevant staff

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Responsibilities and authorisation
• Where necessary, identify and appoint a coordinator to cover a specific type of risk assessment
for a particular area, section, activity or operation.
• Where additional control measures are required to be put in place before the work starts, appoint
/ assign a responsible person, set a timetable for putting those measures into place and ensure
this has been done before the work starts.
• Share the risk assessments with other employers / contractors / visitors etc. who may need to
know about its controls and their implementation or may be affected by or interfere with its
application.
• Identify other key persons or departments who need to be involved / appraised and make sure
they are provided with relevant information about the precautions, especially when large or
complex projects are involved. This is particularly important when staff from more than one group
are involved
• Risk assessments must be accepted by the responsible manager as adequately controlling the
risks involved in the work they cover. “Sign-off” and authorising the assessment is an important
function for managers and shows they have met their responsibilities.
Follow-up of actions
• Bring the risk assessment to the attention of all staff involved in such a manner that they
understand the need for, and how to follow its requirements, ensuring that training and other
information is given where applicable
• Provide health surveillance, occupational health checks or biological monitoring where necessary
to check that the precautions are adequate to control the risk e.g. below any relevant prescribed
legal limits
• Consider if occupational hygiene monitoring is required to check that the precautions are
adequate to control exposure to a hazardous material/condition e.g. to below any relevant
prescribed limits
Monitoring and review
• Monitor the assessment and the control measures.

• Carry out regular checks, inspections and reviews (ideally annually) to ensure that the assessment
is still valid.
• Record when assessment has been reviewed, archiving former risk assessments for at least five
years after they have been superseded.
• Ensure that risk assessment remains suitable and sufficient
Acceptability/tolerability of risk
How safe in safe enough?
In response to this question, the industry had to answer several fundamental questions.
• What can go wrong?

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• How often can it go wrong?

• Do the benefits of nuclear power outweigh the risks?
During the past two decades, many regulatory agencies have required that quantitative risk analyses be
performed as part of the overall process of permitting and building new hazardous facilities, as well as
modifying existing ones. The question remains, “How safe is safe enough?” Efforts to answer this question
have resulted in various methods for presenting and comparing risks, several of which are described
below.
Professionals in risk analysis realize there is no single measure that completely describes the risk a project
poses to the public. Measures that have been used by risk analysts include hazard footprints, individual
risk contours, and f/Ncurves.
Hazard Footprints and Vulnerability Zones: When conducting a QRA, it is necessary to determine the
probability of occurrence (How often can it happen?) and the consequences (What is the effect if it does
happen?) of each possible combination of conditions (i.e., hole size, release orientation, release outcome,
wind speed, atmospheric stability, wind direction, etc.) for each potential release that is included in the
study. For each potential release, each unique combination of these factors results in a “unique accident.”
A hazard footprint can be defined as the area over which a given unique accident is capable of producing
some level of undesirable consequences (e.g., 1% mortality). A vulnerability zone is defined as the area
within the circle created by rotating a hazard footprint around its point of origin. Any point within that
circle could, under some set of circumstances, be exposed to a hazard level that equals or exceeds the
endpoint used to define the hazard footprint. However, except for accidents that produce circular hazard
zones (e.g., BLEVEs and confined explosions), only a portion of the area within the vulnerability zone can
be affected by a unique accident.
Except for accidents that produce circular hazard footprints, the whole area within a vulnerability zone
cannot be simultaneously affected by the effects of a unique accident. In addition, many “smaller”
accidents might be capable of producing hazard footprints that would affect parts of the vulnerability
zone associated with a “large” accident.
Vulnerability zones can be used to define the size and shape of the area around a facility within which
there is a finite probability of exposure to a fatal hazard. Along a pipeline, this would be referred to as a
hazard corridor. Persons located outside this area or corridor would not be at risk from accidents involving
releases of hazardous materials from the facility or pipeline.
Individual Risk: The results of all possible unique accidents can be combined to produce a measure of the
overall risk presented by the subject of the study. The measure of risk must be in a form that is easy to
interpret and can be compared to risk criteria and/or risks associated with ordinary human activities.
One presentation method that meets these criteria is the use of risk contours. If early fatality is the
measure of risk, then each risk contour is the locus of points where there exists a specific probability of
being exposed to a fatal hazard, over a one-year period. The level of risk illustrated by a particular risk
contour is the risk of lethal exposure to any acute hazards associated with many possible releases. Because
the risk contours are based on annual data, the risk level for a given contour is the risk to an individual
who remains at a specific location for 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

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Risk contours define the summation of all hazard zones for all accident scenarios, combined with their
respective probabilities. The set of risk contours in Figure 3 represents the variation of probability of fatal
exposure (from a release within the facility) with location around the facility. It is important to note that
the individual risk contours are independent of the local population density and distribution. Thus,
whether there are 2, 20, or 200 persons at a specific location (for the entire year) outside the facility, the
risk of exposure to a fatal hazard would be the same for each of the persons at that location.
Societal Risk: A second technique used to describe the overall risk posed by a hazardous materials facility
is an accounting of the number of persons potentially affected by each unique accident. In this technique,
the consequences (expressed as number of persons potentially exposed to a fatal hazard) and probability
of occurrence of each unique accident are plotted as points on an x,y plot on a graph.
The data can be consolidated into a more manageable form by grouping the number of fatalities into
defined bands. For example, if the frequencies of all unique accidents that result in one to three fatalities
are summed, a histogram is produced that represents the frequency at which one to three fatalities are
expected to occur. By making similar groupings for other fatality ranges (3 to 10, 10 to 30, 30 to 100, etc.),
the individual points can be converted into the histogram.
The result would be an f/N curve which is a measure of cumulative frequency versus consequences. By
definition, any point on the f/N curve represents the expected frequency at which N or more persons will
be exposed to a fatal hazard.
When calculating the consequences (expected number of fatalities) of any unique accident, the answer
will depend on the local population density and distribution. Therefore, unlike individual risk contours,
an f/N curve will change if the local population density or distribution changes.
Individual Risk Acceptability Criteria

There have been a few attempts to define acceptability criteria for public risk. Several international stan-
dards are described below.
Western Australia: The Environmental Protection Agency of Western Australia uses the following
definitions of acceptable and unacceptable limits of individual risk for new industrial installations.
• Individual risk levels lower than 1.0 x 10-6 per year are defined as acceptable.
• Individual risk levels greater than 1.0 x 10-5 per year are defined as unacceptable.

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Hong Kong: Individual risk guidelines have been developed

by the government of Hong Kong for potentially hazardous
installations. The guidelines are to be applied to new
facilities and expansion of existing facilities. The purpose of
the guidelines was to limit the expansion of housing
developments near potentially hazardous installations.
In general, development of new housing near an existing
facility, or expansion of a facility near existing housing,
would be restricted if the individual risk of fatality contour
of 1.0 x 10-5 per year encroaches onto the housing
development. Thus, the Hong Kong criteria can be defined
as:
• Individual risk levels lower than 1.0 x 10-5 per year
are defined as acceptable.
• Individual risk levels greater than 1.0 x 10-5 per
year are defined as unacceptable.
United Kingdom: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is

The ALARP concept
the regulatory authority for hazard identification and risk
assessment studies in the United Kingdom. In 1989, the HSE published a document entitled Risk Criteria
for Land Use Planning in the Vicinity of Major Industrial Hazards. Individual risk criteria proposed by the
HSE are:
• Individual risk levels greater than 1.0 x 10-5 per year are unacceptable for small developments.
• Individual risk levels greater than 1.0 x 10-6 per year are unacceptable for large developments.
Netherlands: The Directorate General for Environmental Protection in the Netherlands published a
document entitled Premises for Risk Management, Dutch Environmental Policy Plan, 1989. This plan
requires companies to quantify the risks associated with industrial activities and then determine their
acceptability. For facility siting, the regulatory requirements are:
• Individual risk levels greater than 1.0 x 10-5 per year are unacceptable for existing facilities.
• Individual risk levels greater than 1.0 x 10-6 per year are unacceptable for new facilities.
Societal Risk Acceptability Criteria

At present, there are no widely accepted criteria for use in judging whether the risk represented by
an f/N curve is or is not acceptable. Nevertheless, there have been a few attempts to define “acceptable”
limits for f/N curves. The most widely referenced criteria are outlined below.
United Kingdom Nuclear Industry Risk Target: The Health and Safety Executive has suggested
frequency/consequence data from which an f/N curve can be made. The curve (acceptable/unacceptable
line) would serve as a “target” for risks posed by nuclear power plants. The curve is based upon the
presumption that a large-scale accident would fatally affect people at great distances from the reactor;
the x-axis (number of fatalities, N) extends out to the hundreds.
Proposed County of Santa Barbara System Safety Guidelines: Santa Barbara County, California, has
proposed a set of risk guidelines for use in evaluating permitting of oil and gas development projects. The

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draft proposal [County of Santa Barbara, 1991] does not elaborate on the decision making process that
was taken in developing these guidelines. The proposed guidelines for “off-site” risk, in the form of
an f/N curve, are presented in Figure 8. The terms De Manifestis and De Minimis are simply other ways to
say “unacceptable” and “acceptable.” De Manifestis is derived from Latin meaning “obvious risk,” in other
words, a risk that should be obvious to all. De Minimis is derived from legal principals and means the level
of risk is below a level of regulatory concern.
By these definitions, it would appear that the county is stating that if an f/N curve were below the De
Minimis or “acceptable” line, there would be no need for extensive regulatory review. At the same time,
if the f/N curve for a project were above the De Manifestis line, the risk to the public should be obvious
and the project would be deemed “unacceptable.” The remaining area, the area between the two lines,
is labeled the “grey region.”
United Kingdom HSE Proposed Guidelines: The f/N lines on Figure below were proposed by the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE), United Kingdom. The lines separate three categories of risk, “negligible,”
“ALARP,” and “intolerable.” ALARP stands for “as low as reasonably possible.” This region of the curve
indicates an area where further risk reduction measures should be considered (if reasonably practical).
Generally,
• The “acceptable” level of individual risk is slowly rising as newer standards are being proposed.
• Most of the individual risk standards have adopted a “grey area” or negotiable risk band between
the unacceptable and acceptable range. This band is often used by the governing agency to
negotiate a lower, but still practical, level of risk to the public.
• Currently, the 1.0 x 10-6 chance of fatality/year individual risk level seems to be generally used as
an upper limit of acceptable individual risk.
A similar review of the societal risk guidelines results in the following findings.
• All societal/risk indices reflect the public’s aversion to multiple fatalities. This is shown by the
continuously and sometimes dramatically decreasing frequencies (f) associated with higher
fatalities (N).
• Most of the societal risk indices define a negotiable risk band between the unacceptable and
acceptable boundaries. This band serves two purposes:
1) it allows for some uncertainty in the overall analysis,
2) it allows the regulating body some freedom in negotiating an “acceptable” risk level for an
individual project.
In summary, various risk measurement techniques are now available for use when evaluating
petrochemical projects. Although there is no consensus on which standard should be viewed as the best,
the standards that are being developed are starting to exhibit two trends.
1) The use of a grey or negotiable area between the lower limit of an unacceptable risk and the
upper limit of acceptable risk.
2) The level of public risk that is defined as acceptable is slowly rising.
Universally accepted risk criteria may never exist since it is clear that the acceptability criteria adopted for
use by one community may be inappropriate for use by another community. What is acceptable in
Houston, or London, or Singapore might not be acceptable in Caracas, and vice versa. In the end, the
question “How safe is safe enough?” must be answered by local authorities using the values of their local
communities.

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4.3 Risk management

Organisational risk profiling
The risk profile of an organisation informs all aspects of the approach to leading and managing its health
and safety risks. Every organisation will have its own risk profile. This is the starting point for determining
the greatest health and safety issues for the organisation. In some businesses the risks will be tangible
and immediate safety hazards, whereas in other organisations the risks may be health-related and it may
be a long time before the illness becomes apparent.
A risk profile examines:
• The nature and level of the threats faced by an organisation

• The likelihood of adverse effects occurring
• The level of disruption and costs associated with each type of risk
• The effectiveness of controls in place to manage those risks.
The outcome of risk profiling will be that the right risks have been identified and prioritised for action, and
minor risks will not have been given too much priority. It also informs decisions about what risk control
measures are needed.
Key actions in effective risk profiling include:
• Identify who takes ownership of health and safety risks:

o This might be the owner, or chief executive – in larger organisations it may be a risk
committee or a senior board champion for health and safety
• Think about the consequences of the worst possible occurrence for your organisation:
o How confident are you that plans are in place to control the effects?
• Ensure that risk assessments are carried out by a competent person:
o This is someone who has the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage
health and safety effectively
• Maintain an overview of the risk-profiling process:
o Make sure you are aware of the major risks within your organisation
o Check that minor risks have not been given too much priority and that major risks have
not been overlooked.
• Identify who will be responsible for implementing risk controls and over what timescale.
• Remember to assess the effects of changing technology:
o Think about issues related to changes in asset ownership. This may increase the risk
profile if design information and knowledge haven’t been passed on
o Have the effects of ageing plant and equipment been examined?

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Why health and safety risks must be integrated into main business risk
Every business and organization faces the risk of unexpected, harmful events that can cost the company
money or cause it to permanently close. Risk management allows organizations to attempt to prepare for
the unexpected by minimizing risks and extra costs before they happen.
Importance
By implementing a risk management plan and considering the various potential risks or events before they
occur, an organization can save money and protect their future. This is because a robust risk management
plan will help a company establish procedures to avoid potential threats, minimize their impact should
they occur and cope with the results. This ability to understand and control risk enables organizations to
be more confident in their business decisions. Furthermore, strong corporate governance principles that
focus specifically on risk management can help a company reach their goals.
Other important benefits of risk management include:
• Creates a safe and secure work environment for all staff and customers.
• Increases the stability of business operations while also decreasing legal liability.
• Provides protection from events that are detrimental to both the company and the environment.
• Protects all involved people and assets from potential harm.
• Helps establish the organization's insurance needs in order to save on unnecessary premiums.
Employers will find that implementing these recommended practices also brings other benefits. Safety
and health programs help businesses:
• Prevent workplace injuries and illnesses

• Improve compliance with laws and regulations
• Reduce costs, including significant reductions in workers' compensation premiums
• Engage workers
• Enhance their social responsibility goals
• Increase productivity and enhance overall business operations

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The concepts of avoidance, reduction, transfer and retention with/without knowledge

Risk Management is about taking practical steps to protect people from harm, suffering and ill health. This
may be achieved by:
• Ensuring that workers and the public are

properly protected
• Providing overall benefit to society by
balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on
reducing real risks – both those which arise
more often and those with serious
consequences
• Enabling innovation and learning not stifling
them
• Ensuring that those who create risks manage
them responsibly and understand that failure
to manage real risks responsibly is likely to
lead to robust action Domino effect
• Enabling individuals to understand that as well
as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility
The following detail provides an overview of reasoning to the perceptions of and responses to risk:
Individual differences affecting the ranking of risks: There are individual differences between human
beings, and these differences affect responses to external influences. One person for example may readily
accept newly introduced safety control measures, whilst another may resist them. Understanding how
individual differences can arise may help to influence behaviour by enabling managers to formulate
control systems which work with individual characteristics rather than against them. It can be as simple
as the manner of approach made to an individual, which will decide if he or she will co-operate or not. An
understanding of individual differences between people is necessary before the most appropriate form
of approach can be decided upon. The principal Individual differences affecting the ranking of risks are
cultural factors, personality, physically and anthropometrical differences.
The recognition process or how people interpret information is dependent upon their physical and mental
capabilities, experience, attitudes, socialisation etc. In the field of health and safety, perception of risk is
all-important, but is complicated by the fact that people often perceive things in different ways. Each
individual within a group may perceive the same situation in different ways, reacting differently
accordingly.
The evaluation of risk consequences: It well known that people draw distinctions between various kinds
of risk and so perceive them differently. Personal safety, health risks, and threats to societal health and
safety are all viewed in different ways. As well as considering the potential consequences that the risk
presents, people seem to make judgments about a number of other factors before they decide how they
regard risk. These other factors include:

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• Whether there is any choice in entering or leaving the circumstances of danger

• Who has control of the potential for harm – the individual, some other person, or factors beyond
human control?
• The foreseeability of the danger
• The degree and extent of harm that could be caused, and the dramatic or vivid nature of the
overall consequences.
Taking on board all of the above, risk aversion is an area of concern as people’s perception of the risk
together with their understanding and experience of the hazard may create a loathing, dislike or fear for
undertaking a process for which they perceive the risks disproportionate to the actual risk presented.
The assessment of economic factors affecting the acceptance of risk is one of the key fundamentals of
risk management / risk control. The four main approaches to risk control are: risk avoidance, risk
retention, risk transfer and risk reduction. Economic factors affecting the acceptance of risk come into
play when evaluating risks. Detailed below is an overview of the four risk control measures:
Risk avoidance is perhaps the absolute form of risk control and involves the elimination of risk by
discontinuing the activity which is its source; provided that it can be readily identified. The nature of the
solution may be engineering, technical, financial, political, or whatever else addresses the cause of the
risk. However, care should be taken so that avoiding one known risk does not lead to taking on unknown
risks of even greater consequence. E.g. a transport company withdrawing from high risk routes, where its
vehicles are likely to be subjected to attack or vandalism or shutting down a scaffold work in bad
weather to avoid the risk that someone will get hurt.
Risk retention is the situation when the organisation retains or carries the risk itself. This is done either
with or without knowledge.
o With knowledge is where hazards have been identified and risk evaluated, and the organisation
consciously decides that it is willing to meet any losses that result, from its own resources. An
example might be where having assessed the risks, and taking account of high insurance excess
figure, an organisation decides to limit its insurance, e.g. excluding theft from offices.
o Without knowledge is the situation usually arises from a lack of management control. There is no
knowledge of the risk because risk assessment has either not taken place, or has been performed
poorly. In a without knowledge situation, the organisation is carrying risk without even knowing,
and almost certainly without any idea of the possible consequences should the risks be realised.
An example might be where a company does not realise that toxic, explosive or flammable
deposits are present in the ground in an area of its site which it intends to develop.
Risk transfer is where a third party agrees to accept or carry risk on the organisations behalf, the most
common example is insurance. Insurance companies enter into a legal agreement with organisation’s that,
subject to certain conditions, require them to pay compensation (usually financial) for specified losses
which occur during the course of the business. In return the organisation pays a regular insurance
premium to the insurance company whether any claims are made or not.
Some risks are transferred by a guarantee included in the contract of sale. A noteworthy example is the
warranty provided a car buyer. When automobiles were first manufactured, the purchaser bore the

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burden of all defects that developed during use. Somewhat later, automobile manufacturers agreed to
replace defective parts at no cost, but the buyer was required to pay for any labor involved. Currently,
manufacturers typically not only replace defective parts but also pay for labor, within certain constraints.
The owner has, in effect, transferred a large part of the risk of purchasing a new automobile back to the
manufacturer. The buyer, of course, is still subject to the inconvenience of having repairs made, but he or
she does not have to pay for them.
Risk reduction is a strategy that finds its parallel in good health and safety management practice. It is one
where hazards and risks are properly considered, and logical, appropriate control measures are
introduced to either eliminate or control risk. In risk management, risk that may affect the business and
its assets is considered, as well as that which may affect people’s safety and health. Risk reduction should
integrate all possible causes of loss, damage or injury into overall loss control system.
Risk avoidance is probably underutilized as a strategy for risk mitigation, whereas risk transfer is
overutilized—owners are more likely to think first of how they can pass the risk to someone else rather
than how they can restructure the processes to avoid the risk. Nevertheless, risk avoidance is a strategy
that can be employed by knowledgeable owners to their advantage.
Circumstances when each of the above strategies would be appropriate

Not all risk treatment strategies will be relevant for every risk or uncertainty. When selecting which risk
control method there are a few factors that need to be taken into account to ensure the right treatment
method is implemented.
• The balance between risk severity and cost

• Possible opportunities and upside risk
• Compliance with governmental policy and law
• Existing Controls
Balance between risk severity and implementation cost: Risk funds need to be allocated on a priority
basis. There is no reason for an organisation to spend substantial amounts on a low priority risk as the
impacts of its outcome might be low or it may never happen. This also applies for the opposing scenario
where we do not want to spend too little on a critical risk.
Possible opportunities: Organisations cannot operate or survive by avoiding all risk. For them to succeed,
risks need to be taken to allow opportunities to arise. Therefore we must take into consideration the
‘upside risk’ of certain activities and aim to implement controls that maximise desirable activity, not
completely remove all risks.
Compliance: Particularly in Health and Safety Risk Management there are risks that are required to be
controlled to comply with laws and policies. This should be taken into account when deciding on a risk
strategy as it may limit our options (e.g. we may be forced to act, removing the ‘avoid’ or ‘accept’ the risk
options).

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Existing controls: If existing controls are already implemented, the organisation should focus on
improving its effectiveness before implementing new costly measures.
Factors to be considered in the selection of an optimum solution based on relevant risk data
Criteria to select the best option of prevention and control measures include:
• The number of people protected by the risk control measure. In general, it is better to use a risk
control measure which will protect everyone who could be exposed to the hazard, rather than
relying on individuals to provide their own protection. For example, it is better to put a
soundproof enclosure around a noisy machine than to expect everyone who might be exposed to
the machine's noise to wear hearing protection.
▪ The extent to which the continuing effectiveness of the risk control measure relies on human
behaviour. In general, it is preferable to have risk control measures which, apart from any
necessary maintenance, operate without human intervention. When a risk control measure relies
on the actions of people, it is inevitable that on some occasions it will not be used, either
deliberately or inadvertently.
▪ The extent to which the risk control measure requires testing, maintenance, cleaning,
replacement and so on. All of these required activities rely on human intervention and can,
therefore, fail. This reduces the likelihood that the risk control measure will continue to be
effective.
▪ The cost of the risk control measure. Ideally, the cost should be calculated over the whole of the
time for which risk control is required, since some risk control measures have a low installation
cost but are expensive to maintain, while others have higher installation costs but are cheaper to
maintain. This aspect of risk control measures is dealt with in more detail later in this chapter.
▪ And, last but not least, the extent to which the risk control measure reduces the risk. Ideally, a
risk control measure, or combination of measures, will reduce the risk to near zero, but this may
not be achievable in practice.
When deciding on the “best” risk control measures, we need to arrive at a compromise between all the
demands listed above, since they are often in competition. However, a critical issue for a measure's long-
term effectiveness is the extent to which it relies on human beings continuing to carry out particular
activities.
In 2009, the benOSH study (benefits of occupational safety and health) established the costs of work
related accidents and diseases and compared these with the costs of optimum prevention measures that
could have prevented or reduced the incidents. The study concluded that the highest values can be found
for measures aimed at substitution or avoidance. The lowest values can be found for measures such as
training and personal protective equipment. These results seem to support the case that measures
considered to be the most effective according to the prevention principles are also more cost-effective
(profitable).
The question of why companies would rather implement technical and personal measures but leave out
efforts to eliminate or reduce hazards meet a number of challenges:
• Attitude: never change a running process, as process changes may bring about uncertainties
• No priority neither at enterprises nor in practical governance
• Dealing with the current problems is already too laborious; no additional problems by an
unnecessary innovative approach (existing standards etc.)

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• Uncertainty in risk assessment – a shift of risks may be possible

• Substitutes are less tested in practice
• Integration in the production chain makes an innovation beyond enterprise borders necessary
• Technological or economic difficulties
The difficulties in applying the hierarchy of control measures in practice have caused the European Agency
for Safety and Health at Work, EU-OSHA, to provide good practice examples on how to eliminate or
combat risks at source. The cases cover different sectors, such as: roadwork, office work, metal sector,
railway, health sector, mines, packaging and cement production. A similarly wide range of issues was
presented, namely: ergonomics, accident prevention, chemicals, biological risks, psychosocial problems,
noise, electricity and climate. The success factors include, amongst others:
• Support from top management: This is essential to ensure that necessary resources such as
budget, human resources, equipment, etc., are made available for the project.
• Involvement of relevant actors: such as workers themselves (participatory risk assessment),
human resources, financial department, OSH practitioners, etc. An important group that has to
be motivated and involved from the beginning are the workers. They should be involved not only
in the risk analysis itself but also during the identification and implementation of possible
solutions. Their practical and detailed knowledge and competence is often needed to develop
workable preventive measures.
A good analysis/knowledge of effective potential solutions, best practice and scientific or technological
innovations available.
The principles and benefits of risk management in a global context

Risk management is about taking practical steps to protect people from real harm and suffering - not
bureaucratic back covering. Taking a sensible approach to risk management is about:

significant risks - both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences
It is not about:

• Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising trivial risks
managed

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There are some myths and stories that, health and safety is all about stopping any activity that might
possibly lead to harm. This is not sensible health and safety management – safety is about saving lives,
not stopping them.
In order to address some of these stories, or myths, surrounding health and safety, HSE has set up the
Myth Busters Challenge Panel. The challenge panel provides a mechanism for anyone (whether on behalf
of a company or organisation, or as an individual), who receives advice or is told that a decision has been
taken in the name of health and safety that they believe to be disproportionate or inaccurate, to challenge
that advice.
5.1 Loss causation Quantitative analysis of data

Understand the theories/models, tools and techniques
Accident causation models were originally developed in order to assist people who had to investigate
occupational accidents, so that such accidents could be investigated effectively.
Knowing how accidents are caused is also useful in a proactive sense in order to identify what types of
failures or errors generally cause accidents, and so action can be taken to address these failures before
they have the chance to occur.
Accident/incident ratio studies, understanding their use and limitations
Accident ratio studies are often used to justify recording and analysing near-hits as part of a monitoring
programme. They typically compare the number of fatalities or serious harm injuries with minor injuries,
property damage and near-hit events. How useful are accident ratio studies? It might be assumed such
studies gives some useful results over a long period of time (say 10 years) but the rarity of data on fatalities
and serious harm injuries within an organisation could make such studies pointless. Further, long-term
changes in the external and internal business environment may mean we are not comparing like with like.
Some business sectors may share anonymous data to help identify common causes but this may mask
variations in equipment, substances, products, training, etc. between organisations. Aggregation of data
for a whole country means a ratio may be comparing fatalities and serious harm events in, say, mining or
deep-sea fishing with minor injuries in IT services. An early ratio study was carried out by Herbert Heinrich
but a more recent and widely quoted ratio study was carried out by Frank Bird in 1969.
Frank E. Bird, Jr., was the Director of Engineering Services for the Insurance Company of North America.
He was interested in the accident ratio of 1 major injury to 29 minor injuries to 300 no-injury accidents
first discussed in the 1931 book, Industrial Accident Prevention by. H. W. Heinrich.

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Since Mr. Heinrich estimated this

relationship and stated further that the
ratio related to the occurrence of a unit
group of 330 accidents of the same kind
and involving the same person, Mr. Bird
wanted to determine what the actual
reporting relationship of accidents was by
the entire average population of workers.
H.W. Heinrich’s classic safety pyramid is
now considered the foremost illustration
of types of employee injuries. The accident triangle
There Bird analyzed 1,753,498 accidents reported by 297 cooperating companies. These companies
represented 21 different industrial groups, employing 1,750,000 employees who worked over 3 billion
hours during the exposure period analyzed. The study revealed the following ratios in the accidents
reported:
For every reported major injury (resulting in fatality, disability, lost time or medical treatment), there were
9.8 reported minor injuries (requiring only first aid). For the 95 companies that further analyzed major
injuries in their reporting, the ratio was one lost time injury per 15 medical treatment injuries.
Forty-seven percent of the companies indicated that they investigated all property damage accidents and
eighty-four percent stated that they investigated major property damage accidents. The final analysis
indicated that 30.2 property damage accidents were reported for each major injury.
Part of the study involved 4,000 hours of confidential interviews by trained supervisors on the occurrence
of incidents that under slightly different circumstances could have resulted in injury or property damage.
Analysis of these interviews indicated a ratio of approximately 600 incidents for every reported major
injury.
In referring to the 1-10-30-600 ratio detailed in a pyramid it should be remembered that this represents
accidents reported and incidents discussed with the interviewers and not the total number of accidents
or incidents that actually occurred.
Bird continues, as we consider the ratio, we observe that 30 property damage accidents were reported
for each serious or disabling injury. Property damage incidents cost billions of dollars annually and yet
they are frequently misnamed and referred to as "near-accidents”. Ironically, this line of thinking
recognizes the fact that each property damage situation could probably have resulted in personal injury.
This term is a holdover from earlier training and misconceptions that led supervisors to relate the term
"accident" only to injury.
The 1-10-30-600 relationships in the ratio indicate clearly how foolish it is to direct our major effort only
at the relatively few events resulting in serious or disabling injury when there are so many significant
opportunities that provide a much larger basis for more effective control of total accident losses.

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It is worth emphasizing at this point that the ratio study was of a certain large group of organizations at a
given point in time. It does not necessarily follow that the ratio will be identical for any particular
occupational group or organization. That is not its intent. The significant point is that major injuries are
rare events and that many opportunities are afforded by the more frequent, less serious events to take
actions to prevent the major losses from occurring. Safety leaders have also emphasized that these actions
are most effective when directed at incidents and minor accidents with a high loss potential. There is
always a large variation between the most serious and no claim incident.
Can the study be relied on? What is wrong with it? The following criticisms and others are possible.
• The original study was not published or peer reviewed and so has not been critically reviewed
• The data was collected in 1969 (i.e. more than 45 years ago) from companies in the USA and may
not relate to data in other countries for the same period
• It is not clear how much analysis of the 1,753,498 accidents was possible, or accurately carried
out (e.g. at the time, computers had relatively little power and software was not as sophisticated
as that currently available
• The effects on hours worked of external factors (e.g. the state of the US economy and seasons) is
not discussed
• The industrial groups studied are not specified, making comparisons with current industry sectors
unreliable
• The 21 different US industry groups covered by the study have probably changed substantially
since 1969 (e.g. the iron and steel industry has diminished while IT services barely existed in 1969)
making current reliability of the ratio doubtful
• The ANSI standard definitions may well have changed and may have been different to then-
commonly-used or currently-used definitions elsewhere in the world
• As Bird & Loftus noted, the numbers used were for reported events, not all events, and may
contain under- or over-reporting across the sectors studied.
Birds domino and multi-causality theories (immediate, underlying and root causes)
The Domino theory, also known as Heinrich’s Domino theory, is considered the first scientific approach to
accident prevention. According to Heinrich, an “accident” is one factor in a sequence that may lead to an
injury. The factors can be visualized as a series of dominoes standing on edge; when one falls, the linkage
required for a chain reaction is completed. Each of the factors is dependent on the preceding factor.
According to the Domino theory, a person injury (the final domino) occurs only as a result of an accident.
An accident occurs only as a result of a personal or mechanical hazard. Personal and mechanical hazards
exist only through the fault of careless persons or poorly designed or improperly maintained equipment.
Faults of persons are inherited or acquired as a result of their social environment or acquired by ancestry.
The environment is where and how a person was raised and educated.

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The sequence of domino theory is:
Unsafe act and/or

mechanical or
Injury, caused by an Accident, due to an
physical hazard, due
to the
Fault of the Person, Ancestry and Social

caused by their Environment.
The factor preceding the accident (the unsafe act or the mechanical or physical hazard) should receive the
most attention. Heinrich felt that the person responsible at a company for loss control should be
interested in all five factors, but be concerned primarily with accidents and the proximate causes of those
accidents. He also emphasized that accidents, not injuries or property damage, should be the point of
attack. He defined an accident as any unplanned, uncontrolled event that could result in personal injury
or property damage. For example, if a person slips and falls, an injury may or may not result, but an
accident has taken place.
Injury: Injury results from accidents, and some types of injuries Heinrich specifies in his "Explanation of
Factors" are cuts and broken bones.
Accident: Heinrich says, "The occurrence of a preventable injury is the natural culmination of a series of
events or circumstances which invariably occur in a fixed and logical order." He defines accidents as,
"events such as falls of persons, striking of persons by flying objects are typical accidents that cause
injury."
Unsafe Acts and/or Unsafe Conditions: The third domino deals with Heinrich's direct cause of incidents.
As mentioned above, Heinrich defines these factors as things like "starting machinery without warning ...
and absence of rail guards. " Heinrich felt that unsafe acts and unsafe conditions were the central factor
in preventing incidents, and the easiest causation factor to remedy, a process which he likened to lifting
one of the dominoes out of the line. These combining factors (1, 2, and 3) cause accidents.
Heinrich defines four reasons why people commit unsafe acts "improper attitude, lack of knowledge or
skill, physical unsuitability, and improper mechanical or physical environment." He later goes on to

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subdivide these categories into "direct" and "underlying" causes. For example, he says, a worker who
commits an unsafe act may do so because he or she is not convinced that the appropriate preventative
measure is necessary, and because of inadequate supervision. The former he classifies as a direct cause,
the latter as an underlying cause. This combination of multiple causes, he says, create a systematic chain
of events leading to an accident.
Fault of Person: The second domino also deals with worker personality traits. Heinrich explains that
inborn or obtained character flaws such as bad temper, inconsiderateness, ignorance, and recklessness
contribute at one remove to accident causation. According to Heinrich, natural or environmental flaws in
the worker's family or life cause these secondary personal defects, which are themselves contributors to
Unsafe Acts, or and the existence of Unsafe Conditions.
Social Environment and Ancestry: This first domino in the sequence deals with worker personality.
Heinrich explains that undesirable personality traits, such as stubbornness, greed, and recklessness can
be "passed along through inheritance" or develop from a person's social environment, and that both
inheritance and environment (what we usually refer to now as "nature" and "nurture") contribute to
Faults of Person.
The accident is avoided, according to Heinrich, by removing one of the dominoes, normally the middle
one or unsafe act. This theory provided the foundation for accident prevention measures aimed at
preventing unsafe acts or unsafe conditions
Heinrich’s Axioms of Industrial Safety states that Injuries result from a completed series of factors, one of
which is the accident itself
• Accidents occur only as a result of an unsafe act by a person, and/or a physical or mechanical
hazard
• Most accidents result from unsafe behaviors of people
• Unsafe acts do not always result in an accident/injury
• Reasons why people do unsafe acts can aid in the corrective action
• Severity of the accident is largely fortuitous, and the cause is largely preventable
• Accident prevention techniques are analogous with best quality and production techniques
• Management should assume responsibility for safety as it is in the best position to get results
• The supervisor is the key person in accident prevention
• Any accident results in direct and indirect costs
In Heinrich’s theory, he proposed three corrective sequence actions (“The Three E’s”), as follows:
Engineering
• Control hazards through product design or process change
Education
• Train workers regarding all facets of safety

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• Impose on management that attention to safety pays off
Enforcement
• Ensure that internal and external rules, regulations, and standard operating procedures are
followed by workers, as well as management
Heinrich concluded that accidents were primarily the result of unsafe acts, unsafe conditions, or
unavoidable.
Multiple causation theory is an outgrowth of the domino theory, but it postulates that for a single accident
there may be many contributory factors, causes and sub-causes, and that certain combinations of these
give rise to accidents. According to this theory, the contributory factors can be grouped into the following
two categories:
• Behavioural: This category includes factors pertaining to the worker, such as improper attitude,
lack of knowledge, lack of skills and inadequate physical and mental condition.
• Environmental: This category includes improper guarding of other hazardous work elements and
degradation of equipment through use and unsafe procedures.
The major contribution of this theory is to bring out the fact that rarely, if ever, is an accident the result
of a single cause or act.
Active failures are errors and violations having immediate negative results and are usually caused by an
individual normally by front-line people such as drivers, control room staff or machine operators. Latent
failures are caused by circumstances such as scheduling problems, inadequate training, or lack of
resources which results in an active failure. Investigators examine the company culture, policy, and latent
errors whose effects lie dormant until triggered later by a technician. We should not just point fingers
when a technician makes an error; we have to investigate the latent failure.
Both latent and active failures interact, creating a window for an accident to occur. Latent failures set the
stage for the accident, while active failures tend to be the catalyst for the accident. As the model
illustrates, there are several lines of defense, and if there is a hole in that line of defense, it can create a
failure. If a situation contains a sufficient number of failures allowing the holes to line up, then an accident
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Latent failures are present in the system well before an

accident and are most likely bred by decision-makers,
regulators, and other people far removed in time and
space from the event. Conflicting goals and bad
management decisions unknowingly create the
conditions under which the latent failures can reveal
themselves. Safety efforts should be directed at
discovering and solving these latent failures rather than
by localizing efforts to minimize active failures by the
technician. This is why with any human factors program;
management has to be involved right from the
beginning.
Latent failures are made by people whose tasks are Layers of protection
removed in time and space from operational activities,
e.g. designers, decision makers and managers. Latent failures are typically failures in health and safety
management systems (design, implementation or monitoring). Examples of latent failures are:
• Poor design of plant and equipment

• Ineffective training
• Inadequate supervision
• Ineffective communications
• Inadequate resources (e.g. people and equipment)
• Uncertainties in roles and responsibilities
• Poor SOPs
The Accident Causation Model (or "Swiss Cheese Model") is a theoretical model that illustrates how
accidents occur in organisations. The model focuses on both organisational hierarchy and human error. It
postulates that the typical accident occurs because several (human) errors have occurred at all levels in
the organisational hierarchy in a way that made such accident unavoidable. For example, decision makers
may have made ill decisions when purchasing aircraft (fallible decisions), line management may have
pushed for faster turnarounds (line management deficiencies), pilots may have felt pressurised to cope
with a stressful climate, an unsafe culture and little rest (preconditions), the particular pilot who suffered
the accident may have gotten distracted with other tasks three seconds prior to the accident (unsafe act),
and the aircraft systems fail in providing unmistakable warnings of the danger (inadequate defenses).
What makes Reason's model particularly useful in mishap investigation is that it forces investigators to
address latent failures and conditions within the causal sequence of events. For instance, latent failures
or conditions such as fatigue, complacency, illness, and the physical/technological environment all affect
performance, but can be overlooked by investigators with even the best of intentions. These particular
latent failures and conditions are described within the context of Reason's model as Preconditions for
Unsafe Acts. Likewise, supervision can promote unsafe conditions of operators and ultimately unsafe acts
will occur. For example, if an Operations Officer were to pair a below average team leader with a very

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junior/inexperienced crew, the result is increased risk of mission failure. Regardless, whenever a mishap
does occur, the crew naturally bears a part of the responsibility and accountability. However, latent
failures or conditions at the supervisory level are often equally responsible for poor hazard analysis and
subsequent increased mission risk, and may ultimately cause the mishap. In this particular example, the
crew was set up for the opportunity for failure.
Fault Tree
A fault tree diagram is used to conduct fault tree analysis (or FTA). Fault tree analysis helps determine the
cause of failure or test the reliability of a system by stepping through a series of events logically.
Fault trees are built using gates and events (blocks). The two most commonly used gates in a fault tree
are the AND and OR gates. As an example, consider two events (called input events) that can lead to
another event (called the output event). If the occurrence of either input event causes the output event
to occur, then these input events are connected using an OR gate. Alternatively, if both input events must
occur in order for the output event to occur, then they are connected by an AND gate.
Steps to Creating a Fault Tree Diagram
• Define the undesired event: the primary fault or failure being analyzed
• Deduce the event's immediate causes
• Keep stepping back through events until the most basic causes are identified
• Construct a fault tree diagram
• Evaluate your fault tree analysis
Benefits of Fault Trees
• A fault tree creates a visual record of a system that shows the logical relationships between events
and causes lead that lead to failure. It helps others quickly understand the results of your analysis
and pinpoint weaknesses in the design and identify errors.
• A fault tree diagram will help prioritize issues to fix that contribute to a failure.
• In many ways, the fault tree diagram creates the foundation for any further analysis and
evaluation.
• Fault tree diagram can be used to help design quality tests and maintenance procedures.
Event tree analysis
An event tree analysis (ETA) is an inductive procedure that shows all possible outcomes resulting from an
accidental (initiating) event, taking into account whether installed safety barriers are functioning or not,
and additional events and factors. By studying all relevant accidental events (that have been identified by
a preliminary hazard analysis, a HAZOP, or some other technique), the ETA can be used to identify all
potential accident scenarios and sequences in a complex system. Design and procedural weaknesses can
be identified, and probabilities of the various outcomes from an accidental event can be determined.

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Event tree construction steps:
1. Identify (and define) a relevant accidental (initial) event that may give rise to unwanted
consequences
2. Identify the barriers that are designed to deal with the accidental event
3. Construct the event tree
4. Describe the (potential) resulting accident sequences
5. Determine the frequency of the accidental event and the (conditional) probabilities of the
branches in the event tree
6. Calculate the probabilities/frequencies for the identified consequences (outcomes)
7. Compile and present the results from the analysis
Advantaged of ETA:
• Visualize event chains following an accidental event

• Visualize barriers and sequence of activation
• Good basis for evaluating the need for new / improved procedures and safety functions
Disadvantages of ETA:
• No standard for the graphical representation of the event tree

• Only one initiating event can be studied in each analysis
• Easy to overlook subtle system dependencies
• Not well suited for handling common cause failures in the quantitative analyses
• The event tree does not show acts of omission
Bow tie analysis
The Bowtie method is a risk evaluation method that can be used to analyse and demonstrate causal
relationships in high risk scenarios. The method takes its name from the shape of the diagram that you
create, which looks like a men’s bowtie. A Bowtie diagram does two things. First of all, a Bowtie gives a
visual summary of all plausible accident scenarios that could exist around a certain Hazard. Second, by
identifying control measures the Bowtie displays what a company does to control those scenarios.
However, this is just the beginning. Once the control measures are identified, the Bowtie method takes it
one step further and identifies the ways in which control measures fail. These factors or conditions are
called Escalation factors. There are possible control measures for Escalation factors as well, which is why
there is also a special type of control called an Escalation factor control, which has an indirect but crucial
effect on the main Hazard. By visualising the interaction between Controls and their Escalation factors
one can see how the overall system weakens when Controls have Escalation factors.
Besides the basic Bowtie diagram, management systems should also be considered and integrated with
the Bowtie to give an overview of what activities keep a Control working and who is responsible for a
Control. Integrating the management system in a Bowtie demonstrates how Hazards are managed by a
company. The Bowtie can also be used effectively to assure that Hazards are managed to an acceptable
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There are two things that the Bowtie does. First, the Bowtie analyses chains of events, or possible accident
scenarios. The way it does that was inspired by three different methods. The first method is the fault tree
which covers the left side of the Bowtie in a different form. Second, the event tree which can be seen on
the right side of the Bowtie, but also in a different form than the original event tree. Lastly, causal factors
charting, which is most likely the origin of Escalation factors. The second thing the Bowtie does is to
identify control measures that an organisation has in place. This type of thinking is more easily explained
with the famous Swiss Cheese model by James Reason, which originated in the early nineties.
Bow tie construction steps:
1. Define the Hazard and the Top Event which is the initial consequence
• What happens when the danger is released?
2. Identify the Threats which are the Top Event causes
• What causes the release of danger?
• How can lost control?
3. Identify the existing Protection Barriers each Threat
• Prevent the Top Event occurrence
• Can be independents or dependents
• How can controls fail?
• How can that their effectiveness can be compromised?
4. Identify for each Barrier their Escalation Factors
• Factors that make the Barrier fail
• How can we avoid that the hazard being released?
• How can we keep the control?”
5. Identify for each Barrier their Escalation Factors Control
• Factors that prevent or minimize the possibility of the Barrier or the Recovery Measures
becomes ineffective
• How to ensure that the controls will not fail?
6. Identify the consequences
• Top Event could have several consequences
7. Identify the Recovery Measures
• Factors that make the barriers fail
• How can we limit the severity of the event?
• How can we minimize the effects?
8. Identify for each Recovery Measure their Escalation Factors and Escalation Factors Controls
9. For each Barrier, Recovery Measures and Escalation Factors Controls identify the Critical Safety
Tasks
Benefits of bow tie analysis:
• Ensures identification of high probability-high consequence events

• Combined application of a high-level fault/event trees
• Representation of the causes of a hazardous scenario event, likely outcomes, and the measures
in place to prevent, mitigate, or control hazards
• Existing safeguards (barriers) identified and evaluated
• Typical cause scenarios identified and depicted on the pre-event side (left side) of the bow-tie
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• Credible consequences and scenario outcomes are depicted on the post-event side (right side) of
the diagram
• Associated barrier safeguards included
• Highly effective for initial Process Hazard Analysis
Limitations of bow tie analysis
• Entirely qualitative
• Does not replace other techniques (JSA, method statements, etc.) – is complementary to them
• Depends on experience of personnel and active workforce involvement
• Ensure controls in bowtie are truly independent
Fishbone Diagram:
A fishbone diagram is a cause-and-effect discovery tool that helps figure out the reason(s) for defects,
variations or failures within a process. In other words, it helps break down, in successive layers, root
causes that potentially contribute to an effect. Sometimes called an Ishikawa diagram or cause-and-effect
analysis, a fishbone diagram is one of the main tools used in a root cause analysis.
A fishbone diagram, as the name suggests, mimics a fish skeleton. The underlying problem is placed as
the fish’s head (facing right) and the causes extend to the left as the bones of the skeleton; the ribs branch
off the back and denote major causes, while sub-branches branch off of the causes and denote root
causes. These causes mimic the bones of the fish skeleton. The construction of the fishbone can branch
off to as many levels as is needed to determine the causes of the underlying problem.
The concept of the fishbone diagram is said to have been around since the 1920s, but it was popularized
by Japanese professor of engineering, Kaoru Ishikawa, who, most notably, put into place the quality
management processes for the Kawasaki shipyards. One of the more famous uses of the fishbone diagram
wasn’t used to find causes of existing problems, but rather in the design phase to prevent problems.
Mazda Motors used fishbones diagrams to design the Miata (MX5) sports car. Details down to the design
of the car’s doors, so drivers could rest their arm on it while driving, were considered.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Fishbone Diagrams
As we dive into when and how to use a fishbone diagram, it’s important to note the advantages and
disadvantages that can present themselves when using this root cause analysis tool. Advantages go in
accordance with the purpose and method of the diagram.
• Help identify cause and effect relationships with underlying problems,

• Help facilitate joint brainstorming discussions,
• The brainstorming process encourages broad thinking, keeping teams from limited thinking
patterns that can lead to getting stuck,
• The process of asking why something happened repeatedly at each stage helps drill down to one
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• Help prioritize relevant causes, so underlying root causes are addressed first.
• Some disadvantages that can present themselves relate to the greatest strengths of the fishbone
diagram.
• The brainstorming process can produce irrelevant potential causes along with relevant ones,
which can result in confusion and a time drain.
• Complex diagrams with multiple factors can lead to a jumbled mess that is too difficult to display
in a fishbone diagram.
• Fishbone diagrams can lend themselves to the divergent approach – the temptation to identify
and fix everything that might be causing the problem. This usually leads to a low success rate
because hardly any team has the resources to fix every potential cause. For example, if you
complete a fishbone diagram and it has 40 potential causes, the team will be left feeling like the
problem is too big to handle.
The quantitative analysis of accident and ill-health data

The impacts that statistics can have on an organisation and organisational reputation
Statistical research in business enables managers to analyze past performance, predict future business
practices and lead organizations effectively. Statistics can describe markets, inform advertising, set prices
and respond to changes in consumer demand.
Descriptive analytics look at what has happened and helps explain why. By using historical data, managers
can analyze past successes and failures. This is also called “cause and effect analysis.” Some common
applications of descriptive analytics include sales, marketing, finance and operations.
Predictive analytics uses a variety of statistical techniques (such as modeling and data mining) to predict
future probabilities and trends based on historical data. This goes beyond reporting what has happened
to create best estimates for what will happen. Some common applications of predictive analysis include
fraud detection and security, risk assessment, marketing and operations.
Prescriptive analytics is the stage of determining the best course of action in a given business situation.
This includes knowing what may happen, why it may happen, and how to navigate it. Constantly updating
information changes prescriptive analysis, allowing managers to maintain action plans for their
organizations in real-time.
Mean, Median and Mode
Those who use statistical research in business should be familiar with how statistics are calculated,
including how the mean, median and mode work together to create meaning from a set of numbers. The
mean is an average of a set of numbers, the median is the middle number within a set of numbers and
the mode is the most common number in a set.
Successful managers understand that these concepts work in concert to create an accurate picture of a
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Responsibility with Statistics
According to Six Sigma Online, managers should be prepared when they use statistical research in business
to explain the research to other stakeholders and vouch for its authenticity. It is important to know the
source of the data and ask questions such as What does this research represent, and why was it
generated? Was the person who compiled this data capable of doing so, and were they unbiased?
Methods of calculating loss rates from raw data
Description of methods of calculating injury rates from raw data (accident frequency rate, accident
incidence rate, accident severity rate). Measuring safety performance can be a complex and time-
consuming exercise but is also a necessity.
• Prevalence rate is defined as the prevalence estimate divided by the population at risk of having
a work-related illness.
• Incidence rate is defined as the incidence estimate (restricted to individuals working in the 12
month period) divided by the population at risk of experiencing a new case of work-related illness
during the reference period (generally defined as people working in the last 12 months).
The following formulae are used in the United Kingdom as a standard for the health and safety industry
(details given at HSE website):
Accident / Incident Frequency Rate = (Total number of accidents / total number of man hours worked) x
1,000,000
Accident Incidence Rate = (Total number of accidents / Number of persons employed) x 10,000
Accident Severity Rate = (Total number of days lost / Total number of man hours worked) x 1,000
Ill-health Prevalence Rate = (The estimated number of people ever employed with a work-related illness
in a reference period / Estimated number of people ever employed) x 100 000
Mean duration Rate = (Total number of days lost / Total number of accidents)
The multipliers in the statistical analysis given above are the more common ones used in workplace
organisations and are used as an internal comparison of performance from one period of time to another.
If a company wishes to make comparisons with other companies, then it should be noted that other
organisations may use different multipliers; for example the ILO & HSE use 1,000,000 for the frequency
rate and the USA uses 200,000.
There is no right or wrong multiplier but, should you wish to compare with other organisations, you will
need to ensure you use their multiplier to ensure a true comparison takes place.
Epidemiology is used to identify problems that would not be noticed from single unwanted events, for
example accidents occurring more frequently in certain locations. It should be noted that using
epidemiological analysis would only help to identify areas for investigation and will not provide solutions

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to problems; that will come from the investigation. The results provide a guide to where investigations
will be most cost-effective, although they provide no information on their causes
Epidemiological analysis techniques are employed by using statistical techniques of unwanted events and
not just medical ones. The statistical techniques associated with epidemiological analyses can be used in
most circumstances where it is required by employers to analyse unwanted events, including accidents.
The use of Epidemiological Analysis was first used as a scientific technique in the study of certain diseases
and epidemics. An example of this is the early outbreaks of cholera that caused the deaths of many people
in the major cities of Great Britain. No one knew what caused the disease but many doctors looked for
patterns in how the epidemics occurred. This was done on a trial and error basis with different people
looking at where cholera victims lived, what they ate and the work they did.
Eventually it was discovered that cholera epidemics were centred on certain pumps from which local
people obtained their drinking water. It also found that closing these pumps stopped the spread of the
disease in those areas. Although no one knew why the pumps, or the water from them, were causing the
disease, they had found an effective way of stopping it spreading. In fact, it was many years later that the
water-borne organisms responsible for cholera were identified.
5.2 Measuring and monitoring

The purpose and use of health and safety performance measurement
The meaning of key performance indicators and their role in setting business objectives
A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is
achieving key business objectives. Organizations use KPIs at multiple levels to evaluate their success at
reaching targets. Health and safety key performance indicator is an important way to mainstream OSH
into business management.
Key performance indicators should provide objective data on the Occupational Health and safety
situation. It is often said that ‘what gets measured gets managed’. Without sufficient information on OSH
performance, no adequate feedback on actions and policies is available. The most frequently used KPIs
reflect past performance rather than future performance at a workplace.
The business world regularly uses key performance indicators, or KPIs, to track the performance and
project the future success of a business organization.
The role of KPIs in the strategic planning process stems from the belief that KPIs provide a measurable
and objective standard by which business leaders can track progress and implement change. To be useful
as a tool to manage occupational safety and health, KPIs should provide quantitative or semi-quantitative
data that reflect the safety and health issues and activities in the organization. These should comprise
condensed information on existing and emerging risks, exposures, and hazards, as well as on preventive
activities to (further) reduce the remaining hazards and risks.

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The KPIs should be based as far as possible on objective and validated measurements; however, some
OSH aspects (e.g. safety climate or worker satisfaction) are difficult to measure entirely objectively; in
such cases, making use of validated surveys or questionnaires that deliver self-reported data is the best
option.
In principle, it is only useful to measure a performance indicator if the KPI can be used for decision-making.
In other words, it is only useful when the measurement has potential consequences for adapting OSH
policies, OSH plans, or existing practices. For steering purposes, the relevance of the KPIs increases when
they are based on real time measurements or have a validated predictive value.
A KPI that is measured every week implies that information becomes available every week whereupon
action can be taken when necessary. If the measurement is only once a year, it can provide relevant
information for an annual OSH plan, but it cannot have consequences for day-to-day activities and it
cannot be useful in managing acute risks.
The types, benefits and limitations of leading and lagging indicators
Leading Lagging
What it is? Leading indicators are proactive, Lagging indicators measure the end result of
preventative, and predictive measures OHS processes, policies and procedures.
that monitor and provide current They’re a record of things that have already
information about the effective happened. Since they record things after the
performance, activities, and processes fact, they inform a reactive health and safety
of an EHS management system that culture.
drive the identification and elimination
or control of risks in the workplace that
can cause incidents and injuries.
Leading indicators focus on future
health and safety performance with the
intent of continuous improvement.
They are a signal and monitor of what is
being done on an ongoing basis to
prevent worker illness and injury.
Benefits Leading indicators can be a useful tool Lagging indicators are the traditional safety
to help organizations track, measure metrics used to indicate progress toward
and adjust their OHS related activities compliance with safety rules. These are the
so they can effectively direct their bottom-line numbers that evaluate the
health and safety performance and overall effectiveness of safety at your facility.
avoid incidents/harm. Because they are It tells the company how many people got
able to target specific aspects of the hurt and how badly.
organization’s health and safety
management program, leading

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indicators can provide equally specific

insight into the strengths and
weaknesses of that program.
Challenges • May prove difficult to identify and The major drawback to only using lagging
capture; often there are new measures indicators of safety performance is;
with no history within the organization. • They tell you how many people got hurt
and how badly, but not how well your
company is doing at preventing incidents
and accidents.
• The reactionary nature of lagging
indicators makes them a poor gauge of
prevention. For example, when
managers see a low injury rate, they may
become satisfied and put safety on the
bottom of their to-do list, when in fact,
there are numerous risk factors present
in the workplace that will contribute to
future injuries.
• Lagging indicators measure negative or
unwanted outcomes such as injuries,
illnesses or deaths. It’s an approach that
can impair an organization’s efforts at
building a positive safety culture. Waiting
for the damage to be done before
addressing the risks may send a message
that worker health and safety isn’t a
priority.
The assessment of the effectiveness and appropriateness of health and safety objectives and
arrangements, including control measures
One of the reasons why occupational safety & health receives less board level attention than other
business priorities is because of the difficulty in measuring effectiveness in responding to what is a
complex, multi-dimensional challenge.
• Selecting the right measures: Most organizations use performance measures as part of their
monitoring. Checking performance against a range of pre-determined measures is one of the most
frequently used techniques of monitoring. Selecting the right measures to use is the critical step.
Using the wrong measures will cause a lot of unnecessary and unproductive effort, with little
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• Comparing actual performance against target: The emphasis should be on achievements rather
than failures, but it is important to analyze the reasons for substandard performance if
improvements are to be made.
• Decide on corrective action: The measurement data should provide information to enable
decisions to be made about what corrective action is required and where and when it is necessary.
• Review the measures: The measures derived need to be reviewed regularly to ensure that they
remain appropriate, useful and cost-effective. There should not be frequent changes of measures
because this can lead to confusion.
• Improving your performance measurement arrangements: In seeking to improve your
organization’s approach to measuring health and safety performance, a useful starting point is to
review what measuring activity is currently taking place against this guidance. You should include
consideration of:
o Range, nature and deployment
o Gaps in the coverage
o Balance and emphasis
o Design basis
Making recommendations based on performance, for the review of current health and safety
management systems
Organizations need to monitor their performance to assess how well they are controlling risks. A low
accident rate is not necessarily a sign that all risks are being managed, and so measures of performance
need to be more wide ranging. Carrying out reviews will confirm whether your health and safety
arrangements still make sense. For example, you’ll be able to:
• Check the validity of your health and safety policy

• Ensure the system you have in place for managing health and safety is effective
Periodic reviews of control measures and risk assessments should be conducted to ensure the control
measures implemented are appropriate and effective and the risk assessments are still valid. This can be
achieved through:
• Safety audits
• Regular workplace inspections
• Consultation with employees
• Review of incident investigations
Risk management should be built into all workplace activities that can give rise to safety issues. The
information helps in deciding:
• Where you are relative to where you want to be

• What progress is necessary and reasonable in the circumstances
• How that progress might be achieved against particular restraints (e.g. resources or time)
• The way progress might be achieved
• Priorities and effective use of resources.

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Audit is a formalized method of investigating a systems performance. Of course it is no good collecting

information, if nothing is done with it to correct deficiencies. Organizations need to review the data
information they have from all sources and act on it.
Review the information from regular inspections to identify where corrective action was needed.
Determine if these actions have been taken. Use older reports to identify trends. Analysis of inspection
reports may show the following:
• Priorities for other corrective action

• Need for improving safe work practices
• Insight about why incidents are occurring in particular areas
• Need for education and training in certain areas
• Areas and equipment that require more in-depth hazard analysis
The health and safety committee can review inspections, identify trends, and monitor the progress of the
recommendations. This analysis can be used as part of the continual improvement process for the
occupational health and safety program or management system.
The benefits of measuring what goes right (proactive safety management).

You Get to See Mistakes
When you have your eyes and ears on employees through the day, you have the chance to watch out for
any errors or mistakes that may take place in the workplace in the course of the day. Whenever you spot
an employee committing an error, you have the opportunity to get in touch with them immediately and
tell them they are committing it, compelling them to correct it on the spot. Alternatively, you can file it in
your employee notes and bring it up the next time you’re having a performance review meeting with the
employee.
Improving Employee-Employer Relationships
If you want to improve the relationship, you have with your employees in the office, you can note down
the mistakes that are being committed by employees and, rather than point them out immediately
(especially if they are not serious in the immediate moment), you can revisit them at a later and better
time.
You Get to Spot Employee Strengths
Employees don’t only want to know what they’re doing wrong so that they may improve and fix their
mistakes – they also want to know what they’re doing right, so that they can keep doing it and become
even better at it. They want you to tell them their strengths.
Recognition Benefits of Monitoring Performance
Being able to see what your employees are doing well gives you the opportunity to congratulate them
and recognize them for the good work they are doing. When you can back up the recognition with

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evidence gathered from the monitoring system, then the employees will have fewer trust issues with the
idea of being monitored. They will see how it is of benefit to them and will learn to accept the system.
This is one of the benefits of monitoring performance.
Health and safety monitoring

The objectives of active monitoring
We cannot assume our people will always do what we want them to do, our systems and procedures will
always work as intended and that our equipment and hardware will always perform as desired. Even good,
motivated, trained and experienced people who are not tired make mistakes. We know that our people
are not perfect and nor are our systems and procedures, and consequently, they are not always applied
as intended. Furthermore our equipment wears out over time and can fail. In other words people and
systems need regular supervision.
Active monitoring involves checking all these components, people, equipment and systems, continue to
work as intended. This is not new. What distinguishes the approach described here is the recognition that
the topics which are actively monitored must include those barriers or controls needed to prevent a major
accident. This needs to include preventive barriers as well as those barriers which are intended to mitigate
the consequences of the event if it materializes. Furthermore there are subtly different types of active
monitoring that should take place in different points in the organisation. There is a hierarchy of active
monitoring:
• First line supervisors should regularly go into the “field” and observe what their staff are doing
and discuss their jobs with them and how the systems and equipment they use are working in
practice.
• The managers of first line supervisors should do the same with their supervisors and ask how they
know what their teams are doing; how the equipment is operating and how the systems they use
are operating. In other words how do they monitor their staff? In addition these managers
themselves should go into the “field” to see what is happening (albeit on a less frequent basis).
• More senior managers should check that their reports have systems for monitoring their people,
the equipment and the systems they use. In addition, they too should also go into the “field”
themselves on occasions to see what is happening and thereby provide leadership. This is likely
to be on a less frequent basis than managers and first line supervisors.
A common thread throughout these different layers of management is that all layers should go into the
“field” and focus on those controls that have a direct impact on major accident events. It is inevitable that
the most senior managers will go less often but the positive impact they can have because of their
positional power makes this activity very important and a key leadership opportunity.
The objectives of reactive monitoring
Analysis of reactive monitoring data should:
• Identify the reasons for substandard performance and establish what happened
• Identify the reasons for substandard performance
• Identify the underlying failures in the health and safety management system
• Learn from events
• Prevent recurrences

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• Satisfy legal and reporting requirements
The reactive monitoring system should answer the following questions:
• Are failures occurring (injuries/ill health/loss/incidents)?

• Where are they occurring?
• What is the nature of the failures?
• How serious are they?
• What were the potential consequences?
• What are the reasons for the failures?
• What are the costs?
• What improvements in the health and safety management system are required?
• How do all the above points vary with time?
• Are we getting better/worse?
The distinction between Active/reactive, objective/subjective and qualitative/quantitative

performance measures
An ideal work environment is an environment in which employees feel their safety and well-being is
considered a top priority. Accidents in the workplace are often unpredictable and erratic, however
implementing proactive procedures rather than reactive measures make it easier to deal with the
aftermath of an event. The differences between proactive measures and reactive measures may be the
determining factor that decide whether or not a business or company recovers from the incident.
A reactive response occurs in safety and health, after an injury or illness and usually has the purpose of
minimizing the costs associated with the injury or illness. When management emphasizes a reactive
approach to safety and health, it sends a negative message to employees. Reactive programs always cost
much more than proactive programs...always...because an injury or illness has occurred. Reactive
programs kick in only after an accident has occurred. Some examples of reactive safety programs include:
• Accident investigation to fix the blame, not the system.

• Early return to work/light duty programs.
• Incentive programs that reward not reporting..."Work six months without an accident."
• Accountability systems that tie discipline to accidents
Active/Proactive measures are preventive actions taken to decrease the likelihood of an incident
occurring, these measures also set in place techniques or procedures meant to mitigate the damage
caused by the workplace accident. Proactive measures anticipate accidents and are defined by level of
preparation, these types of measures have many advantages. These measures cut down on response time,
guarantee a uniform response from all employees, reduce the total number of injuries and workers’
compensation claims, and promote an environment of safety and security in the workplace. This approach
is always less expensive in the long-term as a result of fewer accidents and injuries. Some examples of
proactive safety and health programs include:

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• Accident analysis to fix the system, not the blame.

• Safety committees and/or safety teams
• Hazard analysis programs.
• Inspection and Job hazard analysis programs.
• Incentive/Recognition programs that recognize complying, reporting, suggesting, involvement.
• Safety education and training: must not be viewed as punishment.
• Accountability systems that do not tie discipline to accidents.
Objective and subjective performance measures are used to classify the various different types of
performance measures.
Objective performance measures are independent of the observer. That means the measurement is done
using something other than the person observing. This independent measure can include: a stop-watch,
measuring tape or record of goals. The objectivity of the performance measure is increased through
measures such as: time, checklists, or established criteria.
In contrast subjective performance measures are dependent on the observer and based on opinions,
feelings, and general impressions. Subjective measures rely more on the observer than independent
measures. Sports such as dance and gymnastics are more subjective than objective in their measures.
One of the ways that people like to classify their KPIs and performance measures is by whether they are
quantitative or qualitative. Should we, do it? And if we do, are we doing it right?
A qualitative KPI is a ‘descriptive’ characteristic – an indicator that would describe or assess a quality or a
behaviour. For example, worker ratings of management commitment to achieving ‘best practice’ in OHS.
A quantitative KPI is a measurable characteristic – really anything that involves numbers. This is the most
common type of KPI and covers many things for instance: number of safety audits conducted.
The distinction between quantitative and qualitative measures is often misunderstood. Really if you’re
measuring anything, you’re gauging the amount to which it’s happening. And numbers are the essential
building blocks of amounts. Even when you use rating scales to turn attitudes into numbers, you’re doing
it to gauge an amount. So, technically, every measure is quantitative.
In the field of statistics, we distinguish variables as qualitative (or attribute) when those variables are not
gauging an amount but rather are simply putting things into buckets. The buckets are classifications like
gender or market segment or geographical region or product group.
Qualitative variables aren’t performance measures. But they are used to help us analyse our measures.
Qualitative Methods - produce data with more depth and description
• Looks at questions that concern why and/or how

• Matches with outcomes about application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation

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Examples of qualitative methods: focus group/interview, portfolio, rubric (if descriptive), visual methods,
one-minute assessment, open-ended survey question, observation, document analysis, case study
In the field of statistics, we distinguish two types of quantitative variables: continuous and
discrete. Continuous variables can take any value (including decimals) over a range, and are measured in
units like kilograms, hours and minutes and seconds, dollars and cents, metres.
Discrete variables are generally counting of things like complaints, accidents, new customers – anything
that takes an integer value. This includes rating scales for measuring attitudes, such as satisfaction or
agreement on a 10-point scale.
Quantitative Methods - produce data that shares facts or figures
• Looks at questions that concern who, what, where, when

• Matches with outcomes about knowledge and comprehension (define, classify, recall, recognize)
Examples of quantitative methods: survey, existing data, rubric (if assigning #’s), tracking system,
observation, document analysis, KPI
Health and safety monitoring and measurement techniques

Collecting and using sickness absence and ill-health data
Monitoring sickness absence Attendance management has become a major issue with many large
employers. Information obtained from more tightly-managed attendance can be very useful in spotting
possible work-related health problems. If there are certain jobs or parts of the workplace where absence
is higher, this may be an indication of a problem. High levels of back pain or WRULD symptoms may be
associated with certain types of work. Some caution needs to be exercised when analyzing absence
patterns. More detail may be available from medically certificated absences (usually over seven days) than
from self-certificated absence. However, absence certificates are mainly completed by GPs who have little
experience or training in occupational health.
Recording absence additionally allows targets to be set. Where a uniform attendance standard or target
rate is defined for all employees, it becomes easier to identify cases that deviate from the standard or
normal position. At the same time it can provide an imperative for supervisors or managers to deal with
absence abuse, as with an objective measure and analysis tool in place, taking action against problem
absence becomes more easily done.
The role, purpose and key elements of health and safety audits, workplace inspections, safety tours,
safety sampling, safety surveys, safety conversations and behavioural observations
Safety Audits
A thorough systematic and critical examination of an organization’s safety management systems and
procedures to assess the quality and implementation of its safety policy; identifying potential risks and
their means of control; analyzing the operations in the work place to see if they are being carried out in a
sensible and safe manner.

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When conducting a safety audit there are two things to

evaluate: compliance and safety. When reviewing
compliance it is important to evaluate how the company
handles conformance to the prescribed codes or standards,
recordkeeping and training of employees. When assessing
safety, the objective is to identify unsafe work conditions,
rather than unsafe acts or behaviors.
There is no “one size fits all” approach to health and safety

audits. Audits must be customized to the type of industry,
size of the company or location being audited, applicable
local, state and federal laws and any other company specific
factors that might affect the safety and health of your Workplace safety audit
workforce.
Purpose of Safety Audit:
• The health and safety audit seeks to determine the health and safety strengths and weaknesses
of an organization.
• Companies giving health and safety a high priority in their planning will certainly wish to see this
reflected in reduced insurance premiums. It is, as we have said before, no coincidence that more
insurance companies are becoming actively involved in health and safety training.
• Audits are conducted to determine the effectiveness of management systems and to identify the
• strengths and opportunities for improvements
• Initial health and safety audit can be used to establish standards against which future audits can
be measured.
• A H&S audit will also provide an objective outlook of the status of occupational health and safety
management within the workplace.
Audit Types:
Legislative Compliance Audits:
These types of audits can be specific and undertaken to determine if workplace practices are
meeting legislative requirements. Compliance audits are conducted to ensure the workplace
meets the requirements of the applicable legislation. A compliance audit will identify hazards,
unsafe work practices and procedures, and systems of work do not meet legislated standards.
The hazards addressed during a legislative compliance audit are determined by the workplace
environment along with information obtained from specific training, relevant injury data and
industry input. The outcomes of legislative compliance audits conducted give results that indicate
if compliance is being achieved or if further actions are required to meet legislative standards.

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Hazard Specific Audits
Hazard specific audits address particular issues such as lifting or using hazardous substances, and
involve the inspection and testing of current workplace control methods. This type of audit has a
narrow focus and looks at the effectiveness of policies and procedures in dealing with specific
hazards. These audits differ from compliance audits in that the standards set by the workplace to
address a risk of injury may exceed legislative requirements.
Management System Audits

Management systems audits have a wider scope, and although addressing hazards and risk
controls, it also looks at workplace structures, planning activities, responsibilities, implemented
procedures, review cycles and measurement and evaluation issues. The management system, as
such, is a planned, documented and verifiable method of managing WH&S hazards. What makes
it a system is the deliberate linking and flow of processes that creates an intentional way of
managing WH&S matters. A basic occupational health and safety management system has some
of the following characteristics:
• Existence of a health and safety policy that is communicated to staff;

• Management commitment;
• Allocation of responsibilities and accountability for health and safety matters;
• Controls for suppliers, sub-contractors and purchasing;
• Health and safety consultation;
• Hazard identification, evaluation and control;
• Provision of information and training of staff;
• Incident recording, investigation, analysis and review; and
• Measuring and evaluating work health and safety performance.
Many workplaces undertake these audits on an annual basis as the amount of resources and time required
to conduct a management systems audit can be substantial.
Benefits of Safety Audits:
Identify problems: If there are problems lurking behind the scenes, this can lead to accidents and other
negative consequences for a business. The sooner they are identified and addressed, the better prepared
your business will be for assisting its clients.
Credentials: If you are bidding for clients or looking into new business, you will find that the majority of
companies expect you to have proper health and safety procedures in place. Having positive public
relations on the back of this will ultimately benefit your business goals.
Save money: A health and safety audit provides a calculated analysis of procedures and provides fact-
based changes to be implemented. This will save you from wasting money on what may be little more
than second guesses about procedures and benefit areas such as employee sick leave.
Law abiding: There are different regulations and laws in place to ensure safety within different industries.
If you are not abiding by these laws, it can lead to your business getting in trouble with the authorities or
possibly being shut down. Being in the know that you have the proper regulations in place and eliminating
the risk of injury in the workplace will ultimately benefit you and your employees.

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Factors to consider when preparing your audit programme include:

1. Location: What department or area will you include in your audit?
2. Purpose/scope: Why do you need to do the audit? For example, is it a routine audit? Or problem
investigated etc. What scope should the audit cover?
3. Dates: How long will it take to complete the audit?
4. Resources availability: Including competence and availability or auditors and the logistics
5. Preparedness: of the facility being audited
6. Time of opening meeting: Every audit must begin with an opening meeting and responsible
managers of the departments/areas you're auditing should be present.
7. A timing plan of when you'll visit the areas that you're auditing: How many visits will you need.
8. Time of closing meeting: Every audit must end with a closing meeting. Ideally, management who
were at the opening meeting should be there
Workplace inspections
A physical look at aspects of the workplace, as opposed to a paper exercise inspection of part(s) of the
workplace or of aspects of the work, which is undertaken, probably making use of checklists - different
checklists being developed to meet the needs of different departments of the company.
A safety inspection could involve one or more of a

range of in-house staff - safety officer, safety
representative, line manager, director - either
inspecting together or working separately and then
comparing results. The latter can be extremely
valuable, not only in that one person can spot what
others have missed, but also it can be useful in
highlighting differences in perception held by
management, workers and so on. Management may
feel that a particular operation is very satisfactory,
workers may feel differently and the safety
inspection can help to sort out some of these
Workplace inspection perception problems. An inspection will often
concentrate on the work of one particular department, perhaps as part of a planned rolling inspection
programme. During the course of this programme, inspections could cover a wide range of topics: fire and
other emergency procedures, use of PPE, ergonomic aspects of work, condition of safety signs and so on.
There are several ways to perform safety inspections of a workplace, task or job. The most popular ways
include using checklists, general knowledge, and risk mapping. To be effective, safety inspections must be
individualized or tailored to meet the needs of a specific workplace, task or job.
• Safety Checklist Inspections: A checklist is very good for the regular inspection of specific items.
However, they may not be as useful in identifying previously unrecognized hazards. Many
different checklists are available from a variety of sources. Unfortunately, since these readymade
checklists are generic, they rarely meet the needs of a specific workplace, task or job. However,

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you may find them useful to inspect a part of your area. For instance, the owner's manual for a
table saw may have a checklist that works perfectly for inspecting the saw in a department shop.
Taking parts of several ready-made checklists and putting them together may be an easy method
of beginning the development of your customized checklist.
• General Knowledge Safety Inspections: Another way of conducting inspections is to use the
information you have in your head and just walk around looking at what is going on. You do not
use a pre-made checklist for this type of inspection. This method keeps you from getting stuck
looking at the same things every time. However the effectiveness of this inspection method is
dependent on the individual's level of knowledge about workplace related safety practices. It is
important to document the results of the inspection and any action taken in resolving or
addressing safety hazards.
• Risk Mapping Safety Inspections: The third inspection method is called risk mapping. It is a good
method to use at a safety meeting where everyone there is familiar with the workplace or process.
This technique uses a map/drawing of the workplace or a list of steps in a process. People in the
group then tell the leader the hazards they recognize and where they are located in the workplace
or process. The leader uses different colors or symbols to identify different types of hazards on
the map or list of steps. This type of inspection is valuable for involving all employees in identifying
and resolving safety hazards.
When you do your inspections make sure you are looking at your entire operation's safety program.
Remember to evaluate:
• Processes
• Equipment
• Workplace environment
• Employee training
• Emergency plans
Safety inspection may also be routine, pre-operational and periodic. How often inspections are performed
will depend on several factors:
• The frequency of planned formal inspections may be set in your legislation

• Past incident records
• Number and size of different work operations
• Type of equipment and work processes - those that are hazardous or potentially
• Number of shifts - the activity of every shift may vary
• New processes or machinery
• Legislative requirements for your jurisdiction
Safety Survey
This can mean a detailed investigation of one aspect of the workplace; for example a noise survey of an
engineering workshop might involve detailed measurements over several days and subsequent analysis
of the results.

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'Survey' may also mean a familiarization exercise, planning the campaign to make best use of limited
resources - for example, an occupational hygienist may have conducted a walk-through survey of the
engineering workshop in order to ascertain if a full noise survey is required and, if so, how this should be
undertaken.
Safety surveys are an organization’s internal activity conducted by those in charge. They differ from the
general safety inspections or audits conducted by the government or other legislative bodies. Surveys are
conducted regularly to detect unsafe conditions due to malpractices, mishandling of equipment, improper
stowage of materials, poor housekeeping, workplace hazards, fire hazards, machine wear and tear, unsafe
and unauthorized activities, and no or improper use of personal protective equipment.
Safety surveys reduce accidental exposure and make employees more aware of standard operation
procedures. They are also an effective way of obtaining a complete picture of day-to-day work and safety
practices.
Safety surveys may include the following points:
• Building Conditions: Structural safety, housekeeping, unobstructed exits, fire protection, and
electrical items
• Equipment: Machine guarding, wear-and-tear on joints and connections
• Health Conditions: Sufficiency of light and air, temperature and humidity levels, noise pollution,
ergonomics, and the presence of slip, trip and fall hazards
• Procedures and Practices: Standard operating procedure is in place, safety practices are adhered
to, personal protective equipment is used, and procedures for preventing exposure to harmful
substances are followed
• Personal Acts: The presence of unsafe and unauthorized activity, talking while working,
mindlessness, etc.
Safety Tour
A brief examination of one or more aspects of an

organization’s activities by a small management
team; this might serve as a means of indicating
management's commitment to health and
safety. Alternatively, the tour could be a prelude to a
more detailed series of inspections. A safety tour is an
effective visual management tool for a manager for
monitoring and controlling his or her organization. It
instantly provides the following:
• A demonstration of management’s
commitment to the health, safety and
environment Safety tour
• Keeping an up to date knowledge on the current layout of the workplace and surrounding
• Comparison of theory with practice in the workplace

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• Monitoring of safe systems in place

• Time to identify and recommend improvements and corrective actions
• A chance to plan for further inspections
• An opportunity to meet the employees at their workplace
A safety tour is generally human-oriented and is not a substitute for safety audits and routine inspections,
which are more technical in nature. It is a good practice for an organization’s journey towards a goal to
achieve a zero accident status.
Many people are influenced by over-confidence, complacency, optimism and peer pressure, etc., which
may lead them to workplace hazards. It is the responsibility of the managers to make their supervisors
commands make the consequences of the risk one is taking known, and to convince an employee to
change his actions to avoid injury to himself and others. A manager taking a safety tour has to react to the
observations, communicate to the responsible people, follow up the progress and finally raise the
standards to make it successful.
Safety Sampling
Sampling implies an inspection that is limited either to certain areas of the workplace or to certain aspects
of workplace activity e.g. Inspection of all the fire doors and fire escape signs. The defects that are spotted
are noted and the total number of defects is added up to give an index of accident potential. You will
appreciate that both trivial and major defects will register the same.
Behavioral observation and safety conversations
A behavior-based approach to safety and safety training is almost universally considered, and rightly so,
to be the best way to improve safety. Behavioral Observations – where an employee, designated or not,
observes another employee doing the job and records both safe and at-risk behaviors – are a key part of
any behavior-based approach to safety and safety training.
It is important to teach employees how to accurately and effectively use a behavior observation card. This
includes learning to look for both safe and at-risk behaviors. It also involves how to approach someone
regarding an observation. Effective observation and feedback processes are anonymous and confidential.
Observers should not write down the name of the employee being observed.
Further, it is important that employees are clearly visible when doing observations. In other words,
employees should not be “sneaking around corners” trying to do an observation. Beyond teaching
employees how to conduct a behavioral observation, it is important to teach employees how to give and
receive feedback effectively. In addition, employees learn how to better receive feedback instead of being
defensive. The communication piece of BBS training is very important in shaping an observation and
feedback process that builds a more open and trusting safety culture.
Safety observations should not be the responsibility of “the safety committee” or another select few who
sneak in, look over shoulders, jot down notes and then leave. This promotes the “Us/Them” mentality and
the perception that someone is snitching on us or that, even worse, Big Brother is watching.

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In an Absolute safety culture, safety observations are not “add-ons” to our work, they are part and parcel
of our work. Everyone is looking for both Safe and At-Risk behaviors. When either is observed, the
observer – whether boss, peer or subordinate – has a conversation with the employee. This conversation
is structured to recognize and lift up safe behaviors, as well as recognizing at-risk behaviors; then the
observer helps the employee to consider and choose other ways to get the job done correctly and safely.
These conversations are short, positive, professional and pervasive. They reinforce the correct perception
that we are all looking out for one another and challenge the negative perception usually attached to
safety observations.
Workplace accidents occur for many reasons. After an accident, people tend to look for someone or
something to blame rather than identifying the root cause. Below are some of the unsafe workplace
behaviors that can lead to accidents. As you read them, ask yourself whether you have ever been guilty
of any of these. It may not have resulted in an accident the first time, but you might not be so lucky in the
future.
• Taking Shortcuts: It’s only natural to look for ways to do our jobs faster and more efficiently. But
do these time savers come at the expense of your own safety, or that of other workers? Shortcuts
that reduce your job safety are not shortcuts at all, but an increased risk of injury.
• Being Over Confident: Confidence is never a bad thing. But too much confidence in one’s work
ability can lead to improper procedures, tool mishandling, etc. which could lead to an accident.
• Beginning a Task with Incomplete Instructions: To perform a job safely and correctly you need
complete information. Never be shy about asking for further explanations about work procedures
and safety precautions. The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked.
• Poor Housekeeping: When clients, managers or safety professionals walk through the workplace,
cleanliness is usually an accurate indicator of everyone's attitude about quality, production and
safety. Poor housekeeping creates hazards of all types. A well maintained area sets a standard for
others to follow. Good housekeeping involves both pride and safety.
• Ignoring Safety Procedures: Purposely ignoring known safety procedures can endanger not only
you but your co-workers too. Being indifferent about safety is a death wish.
• Mental Distractions: Letting your personal life keep you from focusing on your work is a
hazardous situation. Dropping your mental awareness can pull your focus away from safe work
procedures.
• Failure to Plan: Hurriedly starting a task, or not thoroughly thinking through the process can put
you in harm’s way. As the old saying goes “People Don’t Plan to Fail, They Fail to Plan!”
Health and safety practitioner’s role in third party (certification) audits
Main responsibilities of in house safety practitioner
• Work with Department of EHS to ensure your department is in compliance with all standards and
regulations.
• Work with Department to assess new safety and health hazards.
• Consult with EHS staff members and your department head to shut down any imminent health
hazards.

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• Consult with principal investigators (PIs) and appropriate departmental staff to make sure they
are aware of any environmental health and safety issues.
Role of Safety practitioner in external Audits

• Know your position: Where you can, take time to understand what the audit’s purpose is and why
it’s being carried out? By understanding this you’re already better prepared to make the process
run smoothly.
• Be honest: External auditors are there to help as well as audit, but by being frugal with the truth,
trying to bluff or misdirect just makes auditors suspicious and so more likely to dig deeper.
Confrontation rather than collaboration is never helpful.
• Gather the information: Most visits are booked weeks in advance, so unless it’s a spot or
deliberately unannounced audit, you have time to gather all the information requested. In
advance of the audit, if you haven’t been told about the information your auditor wants to see,
proactively ask them.
• Schedule: Check who else you need to support you on the day of the audit, make sure they’re
available and allot time for meetings. For site walk rounds do the same. Many auditors are familiar
with time-wasting techniques, and key people not present (or their absence not covered) often
just confirms poor management.
• Work together: Particularly with health and safety, risk appetite is a key performance driver in
most organisations. Helping your auditor understand where your business is going and/or the
issues it/you are facing, allows them to make recommendations more pertinent and meaningful.
Comparison of previous performance data with that of similar organisations/industry sectors and with
national performance data
Performance measurement is an essential aspect of monitoring and evaluating OHS performance in any
industry. One of the primary objectives of measuring OHS performance is to provide feedback regarding
health and safety performance. The benefits associated with the introduction of a performance
measurement system for OHS include:
• The ability to provide an indication of how an enterprise is performing in relation to OHS issues
• The ability to identify problem areas where adverse outcomes are occurring and subsequently to
identify where preventive action should take place
• The ability to document effects of attempts to improve OHS. For example, a measurement system
could provide feedback as to whether implemented safety interventions are operating adequately
• The ability to promote OHS reviews of existing work practices and work organisation
• The use of performance measures for benchmarking or comparative performance assessments.
Health and safety benchmarking is a planned process by which an organisation compares its health and
safety processes and performance with others to learn how to:
• Reduce accidents and ill-health
• Improve compliance with health and safety law
• Cut compliance costs.

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Benchmarking is not just about comparing data or copying your competitors. Benchmarking is more about
continuously learning from others, learning more about your organisation’s strengths and weaknesses in
the process, and then acting on the lessons learned. This is what leads to real improvement.
Use and potential benefits of benchmarking
• Improve your reputation - this is increasingly important in getting and keeping contracts;
• Avoiding re-inventing the wheel’ – learn from others’ experience and pick up on others’ good
ideas by comparing and contrasting how things are done;
• Develop relationships with your customers and suppliers, including contractors;
• Find out where you stand - you may think you’re better than average, or eve n the best, but are
you really?
• Save money and help keep your competitive edge. Savings can come, for instance, from reduced
insurance premium, increased productivity and reduced staff turnover;
• Improve overall management of health and safety and reduce risks to people’s health and safety
Reviewing health and safety performance
Each Workplace should examine its own health and safety status periodically and correct deficiencies or
make improvements. If left alone, any management activity, rule or procedure will tend to deteriorate
over time. It is important, therefore, that risks which have to be closely controlled should be re-examined
periodically, and preferably annually. These arrangements have to be recorded.
Health and safety performance measurement or review has several aims:
• Ensuring that the aims and objectives of the health and safety policy are met
• Ensuring that sufficient resources are allocated to the health and safety management programme
• Uncovering risks not previously recognized
• Gaining a fuller picture of the potential for loss
• Improving focus on reducing significant risks
• Reducing insurance liabilities for residual risk
• Convincing stakeholders of the commitment of senior managers
• Supporting management systems
• Ensuring that all staff are complying with legislation and policy
Need for formal and informal performance reviews

Managers can be effective coaches to assist their employees in achieving higher OHS standards and
increased performance. They just need to know how. A good avenue to do this is in the informal
performance review process.
Informal reviews serve several purposes, including the following:
• Provide feedback for a specific job or how the person responded to a situation
• Set and reset goals
• Provide clarity to the employee
• Help reinforce good habits and point out bad habits
• Identify special skills and accomplishments

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• Provide specific recognition

• Provide clarity and encouragement to the employee
The three steps of an informal performance review include:
1. Acknowledge the good the person did and thank him or her for it.
2. Address any areas that need to be corrected or improved.
3. Speak specifically about your hope that the employee will be successful in the future because of
the specific strengths and abilities you have seen.
A formal boardroom review of health and safety performance is essential. It allows the board to establish
whether the essential health and safety principles – strong and active leadership, worker involvement,
and assessment and review – have been embedded in the organization. It tells you whether your system
is effective in managing risk and protecting people.
Formal reviews are planned and announced in advance in order to provide groups of employees with
information from weekly safety letters, training issues, regulations, procedures, and hazard protections.
Informal reviews, often referred to as "Tailgate" meetings, can also be planned. "Tailgate" meetings are
often short in duration covering a specific topic. These short safety meetings are very effective at relating
safety to a specific job or work task.
Review meetings are important to the success of your safety program because they impact all of the
following:
• Review meetings encourage safety awareness: Other means of getting the safety message
across are often too easily ignored. But, when a group of workers get together to discuss the
hazards they have encountered and the steps they can take to eliminate them, it increases each
worker's safety consciousness.
• Review meetings get employees actively involved: In a sense, safety meetings put employees
"on the spot"; that is, they demand feedback. They get employees thinking about safety and
encourage them to come up with ideas and suggestions for preventing accidents and minimizing
the hazards with which they are most familiar.
• Review meetings motivate employees to follow proper safety practices: Small group meetings
are the best place to demonstrate the uses of protective equipment, proper lifting techniques and
other safety procedures.
• Safety Review meetings can help to nip safety hazards in the bud: A safety meeting is the time
to pinpoint minor hazards before they result in real problems. It also presents a good opportunity
to discuss hazards that are inherent in the environment and that experienced employees are likely
to take for granted.
• Safety review meetings introduce workers to new safety rules, equipment and preventive
practices: In addition to introducing new things, a safety meeting is a good time to reinforce the
importance of long-standing safety procedures and to remind employees of the reasons behind
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• Safety review meetings provide vital information on accident causes and types: Regular
meetings are the best way of keeping employees up-to-date on the hazards in their environment
and what can be done about them. They also make it easier for the company to maintain accurate
accident statistics, an important tool in tracing the progress of prevention efforts.
The review process

The measurement or review process must be designed to support, and indeed be indistinguishable from,
the management of other business processes. It should be closely allied to the financial, personnel and,
in the broadest sense, quality-based monitoring systems. If the process of measuring health and safety
performance is tackled in a logical manner, then it can reveal much of use to managers for planning
purposes.
The inputs to a review process

The main review that is required of top management in a workplace is for top management to assess any
opportunities for improvement and any needed changes in the OH&S Management System, including
updates to the OH&S policy and OH&S objectives. There are several standards which also ask the top
management to review certain inputs from the OH&S Management System listed below:
• Results of internal audits: What was found during your internal audits? Along with corrective
actions that were identified, were there any opportunities for improvement to investigate or even
best practices that should be communicated throughout the company?
• Evaluations of compliance with legal requirements: In your review of how well you meet legal
requirements, did you find anything that could be improved, was a near miss, or was done better
in one part of the company that other areas of the company could learn from?
• Results of participation and consultation: In talking with employees and other interested parties,
was there something identified that could improve your OH&S system?
• Communication from external parties: While this includes complaints, it is not exclusively
complaints. If someone outside of the company has taken the time to identify something to you
regarding health & safety, such as a potentially hazardous situation that they noticed, take the
opportunity to address this before something happens.
• OH&S performance: How many accidents or near misses happen in your company? Is there
something that needs to be done to ensure that accidents don’t happen to your employees or
contractors?
• Extent of meeting objectives: Since you took the time and effort to set objectives for your OH&S
Management System, how are you progressing toward meeting those objectives? By tracking your
progress, you can tell if you are going to meet the target in time or if you need to change your
approach or increase your resources.
• Status of incident investigations, corrective actions, and preventive actions: If you have
implemented your corrective or preventive action process, or are investigating an incident to
correct it, what is the status of the investigation and implemented plan? These should be done in
a timely fashion in order to gain the most benefit from the improvement.

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• Follow-up on previous management review actions: Why take actions if you are not going to
make sure they are completed effectively and in a timely fashion?
• Changing circumstances related to the OH&S: This includes knowing any developments in legal
requirements for the organization. By keeping up to date with legal and other changes, you can
make sure you implement any necessary updates in a time that is most advantageous to you.
Recommendations for improvement: If someone has recommended a way that they think you can
improve your OH&S performance; you owe it to yourself to see if it is feasible. It could even save you time
and money.
The outputs from a review process

From the above mentioned inputs, there are a few outputs that may be received, includes decisions and
actions from the review that need to be made. These need to be consistent with the commitment to
continually improve, and are to be made available for communication and consultation with internal and
external parties where applicable. These outputs include possible changes to:
• OH&S performance: Are there things that need to happen to improve your performance to an
acceptable level?
• OH&S policy and objectives: Have changes happened that require you to update your policy or
objectives?
• Resources: In order to meet your targets and legal requirements, do you need to adjust the
resources applied?
• Other elements of the OH&S Management System: What else should be recorded as a record of
what was done?
As a result of review of H&S management system, it is important to identify appropriate training objectives
and methods by first identifying the training needs. Training needs may be organizational, job-related and
individual:
1. Organizational needs: Everyone in the organization should know about the organization’s Safety
Statement and the philosophy underlying it and the structure and systems for delivering the policy.
Employees should also know which parts of the systems are relevant to them, to understand the major
risks in the organization’s activities and how they are controlled.
2. Job-related needs: This fall into two main types - management needs and non-management needs.
Management needs include:
• Leadership skills
• Communication skills
• Techniques of safety and health management
• Training, instruction, coaching and problem - solving skills relevant to safety and health
• Understanding of the risks in a manager's area of responsibility

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• Knowledge of relevant legislation and appropriate methods of control, including risk assessment
• Knowledge of the organization’s planning, measuring, reviewing and auditing arrangements
• Awareness of the financial and economic benefits of good safety and health performance.
Non-management needs include:
• An overview of safety and health principles

• Detailed knowledge of the safety and health arrangements relevant to an individual‘s job
• Communication and problem-solving skills to encourage effective participation in safety and
health activities
3. Individual needs: Individual needs are generally identified through performance appraisal. They may
also arise because an individual has not absorbed formal job training or information provided as part of
their induction. Training needs vary over time, and assessments should cover:
• Induction of new starters, including part-time and temporary workers

• Maintaining or updating the performance of established employees, especially if they may be
involved in critical emergency procedures
• Job changes, promotion or when someone has to deputies
• Introduction of new equipment or technology
• Follow-up action after an incident investigation.
6.1 Professional skills

The role of the health and safety professional
The role of a safety professional is no easy feat. The entire well-being of a company and its employees are
in your hands. You’re tasked with determining the best way to prevent accidents, create a safe place to
work, and get others to care about safety just as much as you do.
Not to mention, there are tons of rules and regulations that you’re expected to know and uphold.
Take a closer look at a day on the job as a safety professional – you might just find a new appreciation for
your safety team.
Responsibilities of a Safety Professional
The biggest responsibility of a safety professional is simple: keeping employees, the company, and the
surrounding community safe from safety and environmental hazards. The way this is accomplished isn’t
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Every day holds something different for safety managers and team members. One day might start and
end with the same audit, inspection, or training, while other days may be filled with a combination of
incident management, reporting, safety planning, and observing.
The core responsibilities are many. Since these are the ones who oversee all safety and environmental-
related activities, their duties affect employees, leadership, government regulatory agencies, and the
surrounding community. These may include some or all the following:
• Creating and reviewing safety plans

• Providing ongoing training for all employees
• Documenting work observations
• Analyzing safety data
• Managing incidents and associated reporting
• Maintaining company and government compliance
• Preventing workplace health and safety hazards
• Creating sustainable practices for better environmental impact
This list is far from comprehensive. Duties will vary by company and size, especially smaller companies
whose safety team may only have one or two people.
Daily Challenges
One of the biggest challenges of safety professionals, regardless of team size, is time management. Given
the above sample list of regular duties, safety is easily a full-time job for multiple employees within a
company, regardless of company size or industry.
With so much responsibility, getting tasks completed in a timely, impactful way can be difficult. From
logging data to reporting hazards to the need to be everywhere at once, safety professionals must rely on
the help of others, even if they aren’t officially part of the safety department.
Another major challenge many companies are currently experiencing is the transition from traditional
paper records to digital platforms. In the past, documents and data were stored in filing cabinets. There
was no easy way to compile data, collect insights, or quickly access information.
To overcome some of these challenges, many safety teams are using EHS software to streamline their day
to day work. A central EHS management platform can log data on the go. It encourages self-learning by
allowing employees to access necessary information (e.g. SDS, forms, important documents, checklists,
data) on their own. Remote access gives teams the flexibility to use the platform for tasks even when
they’re not on-site. And the digitization has made it easier than ever for safety teams to learn more about
the information they collect.
The role of the health and safety practitioner and the potential conflicts that this role brings ie, who the
practitioner is there to protect; employees, employers or third parties

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A key role of H&S practitioner is to establish a positive safety culture where participation by employees
supports risk control by encouraging their ‘ownership’ of health and safety policies. It establishes an
understanding that the organisation as a whole, and people working in it, benefit from good health and
safety performance. Pooling knowledge and experience through participation, commitment and
involvement means that health and safety really becomes ‘everybody’s business’ including employees,
employers or third parties.
Organisations should recognise that involving employees may initially increase the potential for short-
term conflict and disagreement about what constitutes safe and healthy working. They need to anticipate
such conflict by supporting the activities of supervisors and managers with procedures which establish
when and how specialist advice can be obtained to resolve problems and disputes. It may also be
appropriate to identify when specific investigations are appropriate and any circumstances in which work
should be suspended. The potential for conflict is likely to reduce in the longer term as participants
develop more constructive working relationships and shared objectives.
The need for health and safety practitioners to evaluate and develop their own practice so as to
maintain competence
Training is any activity that leads to skilled behaviour. Training also leads to knowledge and supports
competence. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines health and safety training as covering all
training and developmental activities that aim to provide workers, safety representatives and managers
with:
• A greater awareness of health and safety issues - skills in risk assessment and risk management
• Skills relating to the hazards of particular tasks and occupations
• A range of other skills, including those relating to job specification and design, contract
management, ergonomics and occupational health.
It’s worth bearing in mind that if you have an academic qualification in health and safety – such as one
from the higher education sector or nationally accredited awarding bodies such as the National
Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) – it doesn’t make you competent to
practise health and safety. What it demonstrates is that you’ve carried out a programme of academic
work leading to the development of knowledge and some skills, and that they’ve been formally assessed
in an examination and/or by some other method. The knowledge you’ve gained can form the basis of
competence, as long as you then acquire suitable experience and skills in the workplace. Similarly, if you
hold an NVQ/SVQ in occupational health and safety, while this demonstrates competence in the
knowledge and skills needed in the workplace setting you took your qualification in, you still have to gain
more work experience to become competent.
Refresher training can be useful to make sure that people maintain their competence in a specific area.
Many occupational safety and health-related courses, such as first aid, passport schemes, gas testing and
fire warden training, have a prescribed frequency for retraining. Retraining may not always be needed,
and this is where a basic competence assessment can be useful, for example using a computer-based

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package for the knowledge element, with refresher training for those who haven’t reached the required
standard.
Competence is about having the right amount of knowledge, skills and experience to carry out a task to a
set level. These levels may be prescribed by law, by national standards or by best practice. Regardless of
how competence is set or developed, H&S practitioners need to maintain their competence.
Competence has several distinct stages:
• Unconscious incompetence – when you’re unaware of what you need to do to act in a competent
way
• Conscious incompetence – when you begin training and become aware of what you don’t know
• Conscious competence – when you’ve completed enough training to complete a task in a
competent way and you’re aware of this
• Unconscious competence – when you carry out tasks in a fully competent way and you’re unaware
of this because your behaviour has become habitual.
With ‘unconscious competence’, you could continue to perform competently. On the other hand, your
performance could deteriorate if you:
• Unconsciously develop bad habits

• Don’t keep up to date with best practice
• Don’t regularly use your skills or knowledge.
There may be occasions when you are asked to carry out a specific task that requires specialist skills or
knowledge that are beyond the limits of your competence. In these circumstances you should inform the
client or employer of the limitations of your competence and consider the following options:
(a) Decline the work, indicating where specific competences are required. It is recommended that
you identify a suitable person or organisation with such competences to complete the work
(b) Agree to carry out the work, provided it is supervised and/or peer-reviewed by another suitably
competent person. This may be the best way to extend your current competences if you desire
that.
(c) Agree to carry out the work, but with your initial advice subject to review in the light of wider
experience. This option may be appropriate for novel situations for both you and your client or
employer, and where the risks to all involved are assessed and acceptable. You should make
efforts to avoid such situations and learn how to minimise them, but they may be the only realistic
option in certain circumstances. Remember that stopping or delaying work to consult others with
appropriate competences is also a safe option in most cases. Working outside your competence
area may have legal implications to you and the employer.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a part of every professional’s working life. CPD activities
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competence and development needs. It is the reflection of what has been gained from activities that is
important.
IOSH runs an Initial Professional Development (IPD) scheme for all members in the Graduate category.
Under IPD, members have to demonstrate that they have enough knowledge, skills and experience before
they can progress to Chartered membership. For more information, visit www.iosh.co.uk/ipd.
The role of the health and safety practitioner in mentoring and supporting the development of health
and safety competency in other relevant employees
need depends on their role and responsibilities. The Health and Safety at Work Act and Management of
Health and Safety at Work Regulations set out a framework for training and competence. There are also
other specific laws that cite competence requirements, for example the Control of Asbestos at Work
Regulations and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations
It’s important to understand what specific competences are needed over and above those that may be
provided by basic awareness training. A ‘training needs analysis’ will help identify any competency gaps,
so that training can be tailored to fill them. This is a more professional approach than providing ‘blanket’
training on a topic, which can be unnecessary in some cases.
Remember that, on its own, attending training isn’t enough. Delegates are often set learning objectives
by course providers, and usually have to pass end-of-course assessments to successfully complete a
course. More importantly, learning needs to be transferred and applied to the workplace. To assess how
successful training has been, managers can agree objectives with staff before they begin a course, for
example a reduction in poor safety behaviours. At a suitable point after the course, staff and managers
can then evaluate how far the training has helped to meet the objectives
• Employees: Every employee should have a basic understanding of health and safety so that they
aren’t injured, killed or made ill by work, and so that they can comply with their organisation’s
health and safety policy.
• Supervisors and line managers: Supervisors and line managers need to have a much deeper
understanding of their health and safety duties than non-supervisory staff. They need to know
how health and safety law applies to them and what their organisation’s health and safety policy
expects of them. They should be able to apply their management skills in a health and safety
context, know about the risks associated with the work they oversee, and be able to manage them
on a day-to-day basis. There are a number of courses that can help managers and supervisors
handle health and safety in their teams.
• Senior managers: Senior managers need to know their responsibilities and accountability within
the law, especially their duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act and any specific
regulations that apply to their sector. They should be able to recognise key health and safety risks
related to the work their organisation carries out, understand how these impact on the business,
be able to provide leadership, and plan strategically to minimise those risks.
• Employees’ representatives: Although employees’ representatives hold voluntary positions, they
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time off for training. This includes training in health and safety, as well as personal communication
and negotiation.
Effective health and safety management can only be achieved when employers, employees, employees’
representatives and health and safety professionals work together in partnership. Each of these groups
needs a different level of competence so that they can take an active part in managing health and safety
and comply with their duties under the law.
Competence for specific duties
As well as the general levels of competence that employees and managers need to have, there are also
specific requirements for particular tasks, and work involving specific hazards. These include:
• Using certain types of work equipment

• Driving forklift trucks
• Handling and disposing of asbestos
• Working with radiation
• Advising on the transport of dangerous goods
• Working with chemicals and other dangerous substances.
Employers need to check both their own competence and that of their employees regularly, to make sure
that their organisation’s health and safety performance is at the level they believe it to be. To make sure
staff keep their competences up to date, employers need to:
• Assess their level of competence

• Produce a development plan that sets out the current position and the desired level
• List the development activities that will help staff achieve the desired level.
Employers should encourage all employees to take responsibility for their own competence. And if
employees have any concerns about their competence, or suggestions for more development, employers
should encourage them to raise them with their manager. Employers must make sure that development
plans evolve so that they remain relevant to the work that an employee does. In sectors that have a
transitory workforce, some schemes capture information about competence so that it can easily be
transferred from one employer to another. These are often known as ‘passport’ schemes. You can get
more information on these schemes from industry associations and trade unions.
The following organisations provide advice, guidance, training and/or qualifications to industry in the field
of health and safety.
• The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) offers a range of training courses on health and safety-
related topics: www.hsl.gov.uk/hsl-shop/health-and-safety-training-courses.aspx
• Chartered Institute of Environmental Health: www.cieh.org
• European Agency for Safety and Health at Work: https://osha.europa.eu/en
• Access Industry Forum: www.accessindustryforum.org.uk
• EEF – The Manufacturers’ Organisation: www.eef.org.uk

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• LANTRA: www.lantra.co.uk
• National Examination Board for Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH): www.nebosh.org.uk
• Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH): www.iosh.co.uk
• International Institute of Risk and Safety Management: www.iirsm.org
• Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA): www.rospa.com
• British Safety Council: www.britsafe.org
• British Safety Industry Federation: www.bsif.co.uk
• Olympic Development Authority: http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk
The distinction between leadership and management and how this can apply to a health and safety
practitioner
The way you lead your team on health and safety can determine how safe your site is to work on (and the
number of accidents, incidents and ill-health cases that happen) because:
• Your attitudes and beliefs about health and safety drive your behaviour
• Your behaviour on site sends a powerful message to your workers about how seriously they
should take health and safety
• The real causes of accidents on site can often be traced back to managers’ decisions.
A leader influences others to reach a goal. A transformational leader makes a positive impact on attitudes,
behaviours and organisational performance. They transform, energise and motivate their workers to:
• View their work from different perspectives

• Be aware of their organisation’s vision
• Reach their full potential by challenging themselves
• Work to benefit the team rather than just themselves.
The 5-STARS model (OSHA) of safety leadership entails:
• Supervision: overseeing work activities to make sure employees are safe

• Training: conducting safety education and training
• Accountability: insisting that everyone complies with company safety policies and rules
• Resources: providing physical resources – tools, equipment, materials – so employees can work
safely
• Support: creating a supportive psychosocial work environment – schedules, workloads,
recognition – so employees do not work under undue stress
The 4 key behaviors that make up the L.E.A.D. Model of safety leadership:
• Lay Out a Vision
When was the last time you sat in on a safety briefing or toolbox talk that was exciting and actually moved
you? It’s a rare thing. But successful safety leaders give their people a compelling and motivating vision
for safety, and why they care about it. This recipe has 2 key ingredients:

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o Be crystal clear – it is very clear to everyone what the leader is asking for
o Make it personal – the leader shares a reason for why safety is really personal to them
• Embrace Change
As we all know, change is constant these days. When there are changes that impact safety policies or
procedures, strong safety leaders can convince their people of the benefits and roll them out successfully
even when there is initial push back. How do they do this? Here's a couple of tips:
o Involve others – leaders can get buy-in from their people by involving them in the process,
getting input from them, and being open to new ideas on how to implement changes
o Drive the change – Get on top of the change! Why wait for questions and confusion to
start when you can proactively communicate things the right way from the start?
• Act as a Coach
What do teams with a great safety culture often have in common? Their leader is more of a coach than a
sergeant or a buddy. So how do you act like a coach when it comes to safety? You:
oActively listen – by listening to employees and asking questions before you correct an
unsafe behavior, you completely change the paradigm and you show them that you value
and respect them as a person.
o Give timely and constructive feedback – knowing how to give effective feedback is
absolutely essential for a great safety leader. It should be balanced (start with the
positive, then discuss where they can improve; constructive rather than negative; and
should be given as soon after the behavior as possible).
o Keep it positive – People respond best to positive interactions and positive reinforcement.
Always try to keep your interaction positive, professional, and respectful.
• Demonstrate Credibility
Good luck leading a team successfully if you have no credibility in their eyes! At the end of the day, people
have to respect their leaders, and know that they have integrity. When it comes to safety, this is even
more critical. Safety leaders must:
o Walk the talk – if you want people to wear their PPE on the shop floor – guess what?
You’d better be wearing it too! Good safety leaders must always role model safe behavior.
o Everyone’s accountable, starting with the leader – supervisors must feel a personal sense
of accountability for the safety of their people. So while everyone is accountable for
safety, it has to start with the leader.
o Be organized – In order to lead safety initiatives with credibility, leaders must be
organized and planful. When people see you know what’s going on, it builds trust and
credibility.
There are some specific differences between a leader and a manager. This is not to belittle management
or even to suggest we need less management. However, we need more leadership in safety and this is
not the same as management. But managers can be leaders too!

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Leader Manager
Creates and communicates a vision for the Develops a plan and allocates resources
future.
Encourages others to commit to the vision Sets objectives and organises a schedule
Motivates and inspires workers to overcome Monitors situations
barriers. Encourages innovation
Helps the organisation to develop by adapting to Focuses on order and efficiency. Ensures
changing circumstances standards are met
A healthy and safe organisation requires both managers and leaders.
In order to become an effective health and safety leader (HSE)
Challenge the status quo
• How could current health and safety practices be improved?

• Are there new ways to improve health and safety – e.g. by learning from accidents, incidents and
ill-health?
• Challenge your workers, by asking them ‘What can we do to solve the problem?’
Create a vision
• Consult your workforce to identify and set clear health and safety goals
• Motivate them to create a ‘shared vision’ through those goals
• Involve them in planning and decision making
• Make sure everyone knows what they need to do.
Inspire workers to be healthy and safe
• Make sure everyone has the skills, abilities and resources they need to do their jobs safely
• Plan enough time for work to be done in a healthy and safe way
• Share your expertise to help workers overcome barriers
• Develop mutual trust
• Reward workers who successfully work safely.
Be a good role model
• Be honest with yourself. Do you set a good example to your workers?

• Put health and safety first and behave in a healthy and safe way on site
• Promote safe work behaviour and practices – encourage the attitude: ‘I do it because I want to,
not because I have to’
• Be fair – trust and respect workers when making health and safety decisions.

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Show consideration
• Get to know workers and respect their opinions

• Treat each worker as an individual
• Show personal concern for their safety and well-being
• Treat others as you would expect to be treated yourself
• Develop a team spirit where health and safety comes first and everyone looks out for one another.
• Communicate regularly
• Update workers on developments and performance in health and safety and encourage feedback
• Be approachable and receptive to your workers’ ideas
• Respond to concerns immediately and discuss the actions you will take.
The need to adopt to different management styles dependent on any given situation
Every leader has a unique style of handling the employees (Juniors/Team). The various ways of dealing
with the subordinates at the workplace is called as management style. The superiors must decide on the
future course of action as per the existing culture and conditions at the workplace. The nature of
employees and their mindsets also affect the management style of working.
Not all managers are the same. Some are good, some are found to be lacking. Some are well-liked, while
others have a hard time getting the favor of the people above them, and the members of their team.
There are six management styles:
1. Directive
2. Authoritative
3. Affiliative
4. Participative
5. Pacesetting
6. Coaching
Directive Management Style The Directive Manager
Other terms for this management style are • The manager takes on the “do as I say”
Coercive and Autocratic. This is characterized by approach. It’s “my way or the highway” for
a top-down decision-making process, where the this type of manager. He directs, or even
decision is made from the top, and all the others dictates, what is to be done, and the
below are expected to fall in line and follow. employees are expected to follow along,
Often, this management style is not with no questions.
recommended, although there are times when • The manager keeps a close eye on the
using this style may be needed. Thus, this style employees and their every move.Control is
should be used with extreme caution, and only very important for this type of manager,
when absolutely necessary, or as a last resort. which is why she has to know what each
employee is doing at all times. This is where
Objective the definition of micromanagement applies.

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The primary objective of this management style, In essence, micromanagement is a style

which is no different to the concept of where the manager closely observes and
micromanagement, is to obtain immediate controls every little detail in the work and
compliance of employees or subordinates. actions of subordinates.
• The manager motivates by delivering
threats. He gives ultimatums to employees.
“Do it this way, or else…” Basically, the
manager will tend to order the members of
the team around.
• The manager places a high value on
discipline, giving punishments to those who
are not able to meet the standards that she
has set previously.
• Often, the manager demands immediate
compliance from the employees without
asking questions.
Advantages: Disadvantages:
• The manager is in full control of the • This management style promotes very little
direction that the work is taking. As such, learning, and even none at all. Remember
conflicts and differences in opinion are that the employees are merely told what to
avoided, since it is the manager that solely do, and how to do it. This means that they
decides what to do, and how to go about are not given any room to exercise their
performing the tasks. judgment and, in the process, learn. It also
• There is more focus and order in how things gives very little room for mistakes, since all
are done actions are dictated by the manager, and as
• The manager is always kept in the loop, a result employees are also deprived of the
fully aware of the progress of the project benefit of learning from mistakes.
and fully apprised of the status of the work • The possibility of employee morale being
of employees. high is very low. Employees will easily feel
stifled by the amount of control they are
subjected to, and frustrations are bound to
boil to the surface. As a result, employee
dissatisfaction is likely to be very high.
• Employee enthusiasm has a tendency to
sink very low and they will lose initiative to
perform their assigned tasks. This will
ultimately result to low productivity and
poor performance.
• Managers may find this to be exhausting,
since they have to be everywhere at all
times, keeping an eye on everyone.
When to use? When not to use?
• The directive style becomes an effective • If the employees are still new or
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company is suddenly faced with a crisis. For style does not allow employees to learn,
example, if a company is suddenly faced which means their professional and
with the threat of a hostile takeover, personal growth may be hindered. The
managers will simply come up with split- automatic conclusion that most people
second decisions and tell the employees would arrive at would be underdeveloped
what to do in order to deal with the threat. employees are the best fit for the directive
• Use the coercive style in cases of style. After all, they are new, they do not
emergencies. Say there is a plan, and know much, so they should be able to follow
unforeseen circumstances demand that orders well, right? From the point of view of
they deviate from what was laid out on the the manager, that may be an advantage, but
plan. Further risk assessment shows that in the greater scheme of things, when we
these deviations could have negative are talking about the growth of the
consequences if things go wrong. This is a employees, and consequently of the
time when a manager can take on a directive company, it would actually be
style of leadership. counterproductive.
• If the employees are already highly skilled
and qualified. These are the types of
employees who become easily resentful
when they are being micromanaged. They
tend to feel easily suffocated by too much
control, and the idea that their actions are
dictated by someone else goes against their
concept of self-worth and self-belief.
Authoritative Management Style The Authoritative Manager
This style, also known as the Visionary style of • The manager sets the vision of the
management, is often touted as the most company, makes it clear to the employees,
effective out of all the six management styles, and provides clear direction towards
although it is not without its disadvantages. achieving that vision. The leader sets the
vision, and takes a step back, allowing the
Objective employees to get to work. From time to
time, she steps in to share some input and
The authoritative style has one goal: providing a reiterate the vision, if and when necessary.
long-term vision and direction for employees She does not tell them how to do things.
and subordinates. • The manager takes on a firm but fair
stance when dealing with employees and
subordinates.
• The manager motivates subordinates by
using persuasion and providing feedback on
their performance on the job.
• The manager should have a high level of
credibility in order to command the respect
and cooperation of employees in following
him and his vision.

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• This leadership style gives employees a • Some employees may become complacent,
sense of freedom. They are free to perform going about their own way, even outside the
in a way that is most comfortable to them, bounds of what is legal and proper, as long
as long as they make sure that the vision is as they arrive at the same result.
achieved. This allows them to strategize and • This may give the impression of a manager
even innovate. that does not care about how the
• Since feedback is provided, the employees employees are working, since it is far from
are aware at all times of their performance being hands on.
and the progress of work, hence the
manager does not have to be with the
employees every step of the way.
• Ensures focus and a clear direction, since
standards must be adhered to, and the
vision is there as a constant reminder of
what they are working towards.
• Lifts employees’ pride and self-esteem,
especially when they turn in good
performance and get praises or recognitions
for it.
• A business or company that does not have • This style will not be effective when the
a clear direction has a need for a manager employees are undertrained or
with an authoritative style, since he will be underdeveloped. This means that they will
the one to set that vision and steer the need more guidance than usual. This will be
business towards it. a problem when they are dealing with time-
• Authoritative management style works bound undertakings, because the manager
best in cases where we have a manager cannot waste time assisting and guiding the
who has a lot of credibility and commands underdeveloped employees every step of
great respect from employees. After all, the way.
employees will only agree to the direction • Do not use this style when the manager
given by a manager who is credible and does not have enough credibility. A leader
trustworthy. that lacks credibility will not be able to
convince subordinates and employees to
follow the organization’s vision, which
means that it will be difficult to attain the set
goals and objectives.
Affiliative Management Style The Affiliative Manager
This is the “people-come-first” style, meaning • This type of manager puts the people first,
that people are seen as more important than and the task that needs to be accomplished
their functions. second.

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• The manager focuses on avoiding

Objective conflicts and works at encouraging a good
personal and professional relationship
This management style is aimed at creating a among employees.
harmonious relationship in the workplace, • The manager motivates by seeing to it that
particularly between the manager and the everyone is happy and satisfied.
employees, and also among the employees.
• Employees will be happy, and their • There is a great likelihood that performance
relationships strong, since that is the focus of employees would be mediocre, at best.
of the manager. This is due to the fact that performance is
• This management style shows enough not the primary focus. There is a risk that, as
flexibility, allowing it to be used alongside employees work on getting to know each
other management styles. other and growing closer, they may end up
• Since the emphasis of this management not accomplishing anything.
style is not on performance, the employees • Employees may have the tendency to be
and the manager are not subjected to a lot complacent about their performance and
of pressure. output, since these are not top in the
• This style emphasizes conflict management’s list of priorities.
management, which ensures that conflicts • This management style requires more time,
are kept at a minimum, promoting harmony since the manager may have to spend some
in the workplace. time with the employees in order to bond
• Employees’ self-worth and self-esteem will with them, and to create a bond among
be high, with the knowledge that their them.
manager values them personally and • Employees who are performance-focused
professionally. and task-oriented may feel dispirited,
thinking they are wasting time focusing on
things other than the job at hand.
• This also puts the manager at risk, when top
management puts performance and results
as priority in evaluating them.
• A company that does not have the spirit of • Avoid using this management style in
teamwork in place will definitely get a boost organizations or businesses that are
from an affiliative management style. In the output-driven, where the future of the
same vein, a company that suffers from company solely depends on the
divisions and dissensions may have its performance of the employees. Otherwise,
problems fixed by a manager that exercises the business cannot grow as expected or
an affiliative management style. hoped for.
• The affiliative style works best when used • This management style will not work during
with other management styles, since it may times of crisis, where quick decisions must
be used as a balance against the coercive be made and immediate directions given to
style or the authoritative style. subordinates

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• If the tasks performed by employees are

routine and do not require top-notch
performance, an affiliative approach is
preferable.
Participative Management Style The Participative Manager
This is also known as the Democratic style of • The participative manager is inclined to have
management. a willingness to listen to everyone,
recognizing that everyone has ideas that
Objective should be considered in the company’s
decisions. They ask the employees what
More than just promoting harmony among they would like to do, and opens the floor
employees, the participative management style for voting.
aims at establishing consensus and building • The manager encourages employee
commitment among employees. participation in decision-making and other
important aspects of management.
• This manager motivates by recognizing
team effort and rewarding the employees–
and the team – for it
• Generally, it is difficult to build and maintain • Progress is often slow, since the opinion or
trust in relationships but, thanks to input of the employees is going to be asked
democratic style of management, this is at every turn.
possible. • This will demand a lot from the manager,
• This style encourages cooperation among since close supervision will be required. The
employees, so they are willing to work manager has to keep his pulse on everything
together. They will be better coordinated – the employees, the tasks at hand, the
when it comes to their tasks. vision of the organization, and its goals and
• Employees will feel more important and objectives.
morale will be high, especially when they
are consulted or asked for their opinions,
and made to take part in the decision-
making processes.
• On the part of the manager, this takes a big
burden from her shoulders, since she does
not have to make the tough decisions by
herself.
• Use the participative management style in • This management style will not work if the
an environment that requires employees do not have enough training
brainstorming or input of ideas to arrive at and experience, or if they are not
solutions to problems. This definitely comes competent enough in doing their jobs. These
in handy when managers are at a loss on employees are likely to require a lot of close

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how to go about a project, or how to solve a supervision, which will take a lot of time
problem, since they can seek employee from the manager’s schedule.
input. • During times of business crisis, this style will
• If the working environment is steady and not be applicable. Participative
not subject to upheavals or uncertainties, management style often entails conducting
participative management will be a lot of meetings among the managers and
appropriate. the employees to obtain their input, and
• This management style applies best if the these meetings will take time. Situations
employees or subordinates are where decisions must be made quickly are
experienced, qualified, and have credibility not open for the participative style.
to carry out their tasks.
Pacesetting Management Style The Pacesetting Manager

• As the term implies, the manager sets the
Another management style that can also be pace in this management style. Often, it is at
applied in different working environments is the a fast and cracking pace.
Pacesetting style. • The manager often prefers to personally do
many things himself, as a way to set an
Objective example for subordinates and employees to
follow.
Organizations have goals and objectives that • The manager expects the employees to be
they are working to achieve. With the able to pick up where they left off. He
pacesetting management style, the manager believes that, by showing how it’s done, self-
aims to accomplish these tasks to a high direction will be possible.
standard of excellence. • The manager motivates by setting high
standards of excellence. If employees are
not able to meet these standards, they
assign the task to someone else.
• This style gives employees more freedom to • Often, the managers set impossibly high
put their skills and competence to good standards that some employees may give
use. It is also a good way for employees to up before they have even started.
hone their skills. • If the employees do not possess the skills,
• Employees perform their tasks with high competence and expertise required, they
energy and engagement. They tend to be may be put under too much pressure to
highly motivated in performing their meet the high standards of excellence in the
assigned tasks because there is a target to organization.
beat. • This can be exhausting for some
• Employees will feel more inclined to face up employees, especially if the pace is so fast
to the challenge, for fear that their task may and high-speed, they have trouble keeping
be transferred to others if they are unable to up. The manager basically expects
perform as expected. employees to be on the same wavelength,

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and operate with the same level of energy,

which can put a lot of strain on the
employees. The manager, too, may feel
exhausted, having to set the pace and make
sure that employees maintain it.
• Employees may feel like they are working
for slavedrivers which, in a sense, the
pacesetting manager is. The manager may
even reach a point where she will obsess
over the smallest of details and be too
focused on the work, without caring for the
personal welfare and well-being of the
employees.
• Use the pacesetting style when the • Pacesetting style is not going to work if the
employees are experts who can easily nature of the work requires development
follow the lead and keep up with the and coaching.
pace (and expectations) of the manager. • If the workload is too heavy as to require
• The pacesetting style is most assistance from others, pacesetting might
effective when the employees are not work well, since it will call for a lot of
highly motivated and have the coordination between managers and
competence to accomplish tasks employees, and among employees.
according to the high standards of
excellence set by management.
• If the manager is an expert in the
specific area or field, she will have a lot
of credibility, and the pacesetting style
will definitely apply in this case because
employees will generally want to
become like her.
• This will work in organizations where
the work force needs very little
direction and coordination. The
manager need only show the ropes, and
the employees will do the rest.
Coaching Management Style The Coaching Manager
As the term implies, this style involves a lot of • This type of manager is often known as the
coaching and mentoring. “developmental” manager, since her focus
is on the professional development of the
Objective subordinates.
• The manager has great willingness to help
employees and encourage them to further
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The coaching style aims to contribute to the their weaknesses, and increase their
long-term professional development of performance levels.
employees • The manager motivates by providing
employees and subordinates
with opportunities for professional growth
and development. For example, when an
employee demonstrates great aptitude or
ability for the task, he will encourage that
employee to demonstrate to the others and
teach them.
• The manager is expected to be an expert
and highly experienced, in order to be
credible in performing coaching. She should
also have good interpersonal skills to be able
to relate well with subordinates and
encourage them to improve.
• This is a great way to develop a strong • This creates a high demand for highly
bond, or a relationship of respect and skilled and expert managers. Only a
cooperation between the manager and the manager with a high level of expertise will
subordinates. Subordinates will tend to look have enough credibility to perform
at managers as coaches or teachers, and coaching.
respect them as such. • This may promote unhealthy competition
• The learning experience that comes with among the employees, given that they are
this management style further encourages a presented with opportunities for
thirst for learning and development among professional development.
employees. They will then actively seek
personal and professional development
while improving on their performance to the
benefit of the company.
• Employees have a greater tendency to feel
proud of their achievements, knowing that
they learned it and will grow from it.
• This management style is ideal in settings • Do not apply this management style if the
where the employees are in need of manager himself lacks experience and
instruction and training. expertise, specifically in the tasks to be
• Apply this management style when the performed.
employees are motivated and are keen on • Avoid the coaching management style when
developing and improving their skills and the business is facing a crisis. There is no
competence levels. time to coach and train subordinates and
employees when there is a problem that
needs a quick resolution.

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The Best Management Style
There is no right or wrong management style. The best management style will depend on several factors,
such as the nature of the business, the work involved, the personalities and capabilities of the persons
involved, their levels of experience and values, and even various circumstances prevailing at that certain
period of time.
The best leaders and managers often use more than two or three of these management styles at any one
time. There is no limit to how many styles can be employed by one manager, as long as they do it right.
Safety – Problem solving
Organizations constantly ask if I can help them solve their safety problems. Think about this: Problems are
things that already have happened. They cannot be changed or improved.
Yes, past problems, if not addressed, potentially can repeat, so preventing their repetition certainly is a
worthwhile pursuit. But trying to solve problems is like trying to prevent accidents that already have
occurred.
Herein lies the problem: Safety has a history of investigating accidents and "solving problems." We often
call these solutions "corrective actions" and assume that they will prevent future events. In truth, these
actions are designed to affect further performance, or in other words, they are "interventions."
Problems are what happened in the past. Interventions are what we do in the here and now. Planning is
what we do for the future. Mistaking one for another sub-optimizes safety improvement efforts. All these
activities work best when they are guided by an overarching strategy for safety.
Goals vs. Safety Strategy
In reality, most organizations have no such safety strategy. They have safety goals and programs they
believe will help them meet their goals, but this is a programmatic – rather than a strategic – approach to
safety. A true safety strategy begins with a vision of what the desired safety processes, culture and
performance look like. This vision becomes the standard by which every safety program is measured: Will
it help to accomplish the vision?
Programs should affect perceptions and capabilities. Perceptions and capabilities should affect
performance. Performance should affect the lagging indicators of safety ( i.e. recordable rates, severity
rates, workers' compensation offsets, direct and indirect costs of accidents, etc.). Measuring each of these
phases of safety efforts creates the balanced scorecard for safety I have described in earlier articles. Such
multiple metrics can generate what Deming called "profound knowledge" of the processes that can
produce accidents.
The idea that workplace accidents are problems that can be solved is very limited thinking. Accidents
come from workplace risks that are conditional or behavioral, or a combination of the two. Workers who
are injured either are unaware of the risks, unaware of how to deal with the risks or simply didn't do what

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they knew they should do on this occasion or on a consistent basis. The latter can be due to a number of
factors including, but not limited to: inattention, production pressure, disregard for safety rules and
procedures, lack of skills or training or simple lapses in performance.
Once an accidental injury has occurred, determining the exact cause and preventing future occurrences
is an inexact science, at best. Yet, this is what we tend to call "safety problem-solving."
So, what is wrong with this process (other than the obvious)? It is based wholly on lagging indicators and
human supposition. The accident already has happened and no longer is preventable. How it could have
been prevented almost entirely is a matter of supposition. The supposition largely is based on eyewitness
accounts and/or the memory of the accident victim, both of which are proven to be unreliable.
Organizations with camera surveillance of work areas regularly find that eyewitness accounts often
disagree with camera footage.
Another problematic issue is how accident investigations are conducted. Many of them involve rank
amateurs with little or no training, supervisors who often are fearful of personal blame, nearby co-workers
who might have seen or heard something related to the accident, workers who are fearful that the
organization will add insult to their injury through blame and/or punishment and middle managers or
safety professionals whose training varies greatly. This individual or team gathers information and writes
a report, which largely is a fill-in-the-blank form designed by others with little or no training, or copied off
the Internet.
The "corrective actions" from such investigations have an alarming similarity to each other: Send worker
to re-training, remind worker of danger, put worker on probation, direct supervisor to observe worker
while performing this certain task, etc. The whole process is suspect, and using training for punishment is
just short of criminal.
Solutions
So, what is the solution? Many organizations have trained senior managers about the differences between
the past, present and future of safety. They have developed overarching strategies for safety excellence.
They have utilized greater expertise and advanced technology to investigate accidents and determine
appropriate countermeasures. They have adopted balanced scorecards for safety to gain insight into the
effectiveness of processes on culture and capabilities; culture on performance; and performance on
lagging indicators.
As a result, they begin to understand what really prevents accidents and what does not. They continually
adjust their strategy toward what is effective, and eliminate programs and processes that no longer add
value. They divorce themselves from the pursuit of preventing accidents and strive to add measurable
value to the programs that truly contribute to safety efforts. They know and understand that zero
accidents is a by-product of their efforts and can't be controlled directly.

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Quote books are full of references to "giving up all hope of improving the past" as the definition of
forgiveness, the beginning of progress and the ultimate wisdom of effectiveness. The overutilization of
accident data to drive safety efforts has clouded that effort.
We use accident data because it is a more discrete metric than our leading indicators. But often, an
indiscrete metric of the right thing is more useful than a highly discrete metric of the wrong thing.
Measuring accident frequency and severity is necessary, but it is not prescriptive. It prompts us to try to
improve the past rather than try to shape the future. It puts us in hopelessly reactive modes of
management in which we try desperately to avoid failure while neglecting the efforts to achieve success.
We learn the hard way that the only way to improve the past is to improve the present long enough for it
to become the past.
The role of health and safety practitioners in the development, implementation, maintenance and
evaluation of health and safety management systems
Health and safety practitioners need to have the status and competence to advise management and
employees or their representatives with authority and independence. They are well placed to advise on:
• Formulating and developing health and safety policies, not just for existing activities but also with
respect to new acquisitions or processes
• How organisations can promote a positive health and safety culture and secure the effective
implementation of health and safety policy
• Planning for health and safety including the setting of realistic short- and long-term objectives,
deciding priorities and establishing adequate systems and performance standards
• Day-to-day implementation and monitoring of policy and plans including accident and incident
investigation, reporting and analysis
• Review of performance and audit of the whole health and safety management system.
To do this properly, health and safety advisers need to:
• Be properly trained and suitably qualified

• Maintain adequate information systems on topics including civil and criminal law, health and
safety management and technical advances
• Interpret the law in the context of their own organisation
• Be involved in establishing organisational arrangements, systems and risk control standards
relating to hardware and human performance, by advising line management on matters such as
legal and technical standards
• Establish and maintain procedures for reporting, investigating, recording and analysing accidents
and incidents
• Establish and maintain procedures, including monitoring and other means such as review and
auditing, to ensure senior managers get a true picture of how well health and safety is being
managed (where a benchmarking role may be especially valuable)
• Present their advice independently and effectively.

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Relationships within the organisation: Health and safety practitioners:
• Support the provision of authoritative and independent advice

• Have a direct reporting line to directors on matters of policy and the authority to stop work if it
contravenes agreed standards and puts people at risk of injury
• Have responsibility for professional standards and systems. On large sites or in a group of
companies, they may also have line management responsibility for other health and safety
professionals.
Relationships outside the organisation: Health and safety advisers liaise with a wide range of bodies and
individuals including Local authority environmental health officers and licensing officials, architects and
consultants, the Fire Service, contractors, insurance companies, clients and customers, HSE, the public,
equipment suppliers, the media, the police, general practitioners, and occupational health specialists and
services.
Why workers’ information needs to be handled confidentially?
The Health and Safety system holds a range of personal and highly sensitive data. Employee or non-
employee data such as names, job titles, home address, and phone numbers must all be securely stored.
Highly sensitive data like health records and witness statements must be stringently guarded.
Steps to take in advance
Right now, along with understanding the new regulation, it is recommended that HSE leaders should:
• Understand and document the current data processes and demonstrate they meet compliance
requirements.
• Document what personal data you hold.
• Assess the security of data stored, personal data in particular.
• Document where data is shared with 3rd party organisations.
• Review and define justifications for holding personal data.
• Categorize the risk level associated with personal data held.
• Commit to data retention policies.
However, achieving these steps may be a challenge.
As EHS professional, you may be seen as a Data Controller or Data Processor by proxy, so you should be
aware of the legal responsibilities.
Like health and safety, data and cyber security are now priority boardroom issues for business.
It’s intimidating, but taking small steps and asking the right questions will keep you compliant, achieve
best practice and lead the way.
Why workers’ information needs to be handled confidentially?

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The Health and Safety system holds a range of personal and highly sensitive data. Employee or non-
employee data such as names, job titles, home address, and phone numbers must all be securely stored.
Highly sensitive data like health records and witness statements are must be stringently guarded.
Steps to take in advance
Right now, along with understanding the new regulation, it is recommended that HSE leaders should:
• Understand and document the current data processes and demonstrate they meet compliance
requirements.
• Document what personal data you hold.
• Assess the security of data stored, personal data in particular.
• Document where data is shared with 3rd party organisations.
• Review and define justifications for holding personal data.
• Categorize the risk level associated with personal data held.
• Commit to data retention policies.
However, achieving these steps may be a challenge.
As EHS professional, you may be seen as a Data Controller or Data Processor by proxy, so you should be
aware of the legal responsibilities.
Like health and safety, data and cyber security are now priority boardroom issues for business.
It’s intimidating, but taking small steps and asking the right questions will keep you compliant, achieve
best practice and lead the way.
Sensible risk management and importance of proportionality when assessing & controlling risk
Risk management is about taking practical steps to protect people from real harm and suffering – not
bureaucratic back covering.
According to HSE, Taking a sensible approach to risk management is about:

significant risks – both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences
It is not about:

• Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising trivial risks

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managed
Adopting a risk-based approach means targeting resources commensurate with the level of risk of a
specific activity. For a regulator, this involves identifying, measuring, and evaluating different risk factors;
developing risk mitigation requirements proportionate to the risks of that specific activity; imposing
enhanced mitigation measures for higher-risk activity; and allowing simplified measures for lower-risk
activities.
For employers committed to promoting positive safety culture, a robust consultation process is essential.
The health and safety practitioner’s role in enabling work activities as part of proportionate and sensible
risk management
Health and safety at work law is about reducing death, serious injury and ill health in workplaces. It is
about taking the necessary action to reduce significant risks arising from work - it is not about banning
activities. It is important to be clear about what is a legal requirement. If you are concerned about actions
that appear disproportionate or a decision that does not make sense then H&S practitioners may
challenge that decision directly.
Understanding the basis for a decision will help you decide whether a challenge is justified.
• Legal requirement - it’s specifically detailed in health and safety at work legislation: Health and
safety law deals with risks created by a work activity or undertaking - whether a business activity,
or the activities managed or delivered by organisations like local Councils. Sensible precautions
are explained in HSE guidance, including for voluntary activities. Other legislation designed to
protect the public/consumers may require more specific precautions. If there is no work
undertaking involved, health and safety at work law does not apply.
• Internal policies or procedures: Health and safety at work legislation requires employers to do
what is reasonably practicable to manage risks, and so employers need to decide what steps to
take. Some organisations may put in place detailed rules and procedures that go beyond the
requirements of the legislation. This may be for ease of implementation, or might possibly be due
to over-zealous interpretation or being risk-averse.
• External advice – instructions or advice have been given from another organisation: Risk
management decisions are sometimes complex – and can involve balancing issues such as civil
liabilities, human rights and costs of insuring activities. Understanding this helps put decisions in
their wider risk management context. It’s also important to identify whether the advice given is
specific and relevant, or general advice that’s simply not relevant to the actual activity.

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• A local manager - introduces a new instruction or decision: Sometimes managers need to make
decisions on limited information, or following an incident. Separating proportionate decisions
from knee-jerk or ‘jobsworth’ decisions is not always easy – when local decisions are made expect
to see clear explanations about why the precautions are considered necessary and are sensible
Organisational risk profiling; its purpose, practicality and organisational context
and safety risks. Every organisation will have its own risk profile. This is the starting point for determining
the greatest health and safety issues for the organisation. In some businesses the risks will be tangible
and immediate safety hazards, whereas in other organisations the risks may be health-related and it may
be a long time before the illness becomes apparent.

• The effectiveness of controls in place to manage those risks.
minor risks will not have been given too much priority. It also informs decisions about what risk control
Key actions in effective risk profiling include:
• Identify who takes ownership of health and safety risks:

o This might be the owner, or chief executive – in larger organisations it may be a risk
committee or a senior board champion for health and safety
• Think about the consequences of the worst possible occurrence for your organisation:
o How confident are you that plans are in place to control the effects?
• Ensure that risk assessments are carried out by a competent person:
o This is someone who has the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage
health and safety effectively
• Maintain an overview of the risk-profiling process:
o Make sure you are aware of the major risks within your organisation
o Check that minor risks have not been given too much priority and that major risks have
not been overlooked.
• Identify who will be responsible for implementing risk controls and over what timescale.
• Remember to assess the effects of changing technology:
o Think about issues related to changes in asset ownership. This may increase the risk
profile if design information and knowledge haven’t been passed on
o Have the effects of ageing plant and equipment been examined?

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The contribution of the health and safety practitioner in achieving the objectives of an organisation
A number of concrete activities through which OHS objectives can be realised are given below. In
preparing these activities, attention should be paid to the needs of particular groups of employees such
as those from other cultural backgrounds or those with disabilities. H&S practitioner will be involved as
an advisory role in each activity.
• A strong and written commitment from the management in supporting the planning,
implementation and maintenance of an OHS Plan and to ensuring safety and health in the
workplace
• The OHS Plan should have the same importance as all other policies of the organization and all
policy changes should be considered in terms of their impact on workplace health and safety
• Try to ensure the active participation of all staff in OHS activities
• Communication to all staff of all information concerning health and safety in general and in
relation to the activities of the OHS Plan, including ongoing updates and reporting
• Organisational clarity and transparency in general adds to workplace health and safety not only
by reducing stress amongst staff but also assists both transfer of and the uptake of information
by employees
• A collaborative Organisational Safety Committee including representatives from management
and employees is valuable in ensuring involvement of all employees and in identifying risks and
finding practical and effective preventive strategies
• Responsibilities and accountability: the Plan should clearly define responsibilities and
accountability for management, for supervisors and employees as well as the OHS Safety
Committee if this is planned
• The OHS Plan should include as a minimum standard, those national health and safety regulations
that are applicable to a particular workplace
• Ensuring all workers are appropriately registered with the appropriate national authority
responsible for workplace accident insurance.
• Risks and Hazards assessment: identification of all hazards and risks in the workplace, some of
which may be common to many workplaces and others which will be specific for each individual
workplace and for specific tasks within the workplace. Risk assessments should be regularly
updated as work practices, equipment, staff change. As well as a detailed assessment of the
workplace, employee surveys of workplace health and safety are also valuable
• Putting prevention into practice: develop strategies, within the available resources of the
Organisation, to control, respond rapidly to and prevent accidents, illness and injury resulting
from each of these identified hazards and risks
• On the basis of the assessment and the prevention and response strategies clear and documented
rules for health and safety in the workplace help to define each employees responsibility
• As well as general workplace rules for health and safety, clear and documented safe work
procedures for each of the tasks within the Organization
• Regular inspections of the workplace using checklists based on the risks and hazards analysis and
on the identified control and preventive strategies
• Staff orientation (organisational orientation, clear introduction to the tasks required and
appropriate work practices, including written job description, awareness of the OHS Plan and their
individual responsibilities within the plan)
• Training

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o Safety Education and Training Program including induction training during orientation
and after long periods of leave or changes of work activity
o encouraging personal development of staff so that all staff are well trained for the tasks
they must undertake
• First aid: if possible, all staff should have the opportunity to undertake first aid training. However,
at least one staff member should be available during all work periods who is trained to provide
basic first aid. Readily available and regularly checked material for the provision of first aid is
essential.
• An emergency plan: a plan for responding to medical and other emergencies such as fire or
hazardous incidents will help to minimise damage to personnel, buildings, and equipment. The
plan should include easily accessible contact numbers for emergency medical care, ambulance,
fire brigade, police.
• Employee Safety Handbooks and Procedure Manuals are in valuable in clearly defining Health and
Safety responsibilities and safe work practices within an Organisation
• Property Maintenance to keep the workplace environment both clean and free from obvious risks
• Documentation and reporting: It is essential that records relevant to the OHS Plan are maintained
and reviewed regularly. Such records include:
o Incident/accident, injury and illness reporting
o Incident/accident investigations
o minutes of committee meetings
o all updates or changes to the OSH Plan
o periodic evaluation reports on the outcome of the OHS Plan
For all of these activities to remain effective, the OHS Plan must be kept up-to date and the goal of
workplace health and safety built into all aspects of the workplace.
Health and safety professional’s role in change management
Importance of a structured approach
Change management is the process of transitioning an organisation or workgroup to a planned future

state. It requires a structured approach to help align the organisation or workgroup with the change.
In its simplest form, change management involves helping stakeholder groups to understand what
the change means for them, and helping them make and sustain the transition while working to
overcome any challenges involved.
From a management perspective, it involves the organizational and behavioral adjustments that need
to be made to accommodate and maintain change. The effect on supervisory requirements also needs
to be considered before any changes are made. New risks and how they relate to the activities of
affected workgroups should be understood.
Successful change also requires workers to adapt to and work effectively in the changed environment.

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Responsibilities for H&S professionals undertaking change management include:
• identifying potentially significant change and considering related safety and health risks to
minimize the risks
• managing organisational and workplace change, and developing change management standards
• systematically inspecting and auditing workplace systems, procedures, conditions and practices
in their area of responsibility to ensure standards are met
• assisting in the management of workplace change.
The meaning of the term ‘ethics’
Derived from the Greek work ethikos (“of or for morals”), ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with
the study of values or morality. The ancient philosophers who pioneered the study of ethics were largely
concerned with the functioning of society as a whole and the individual’s role in it.
Today, ethics also relates to corporate social responsibility. What is it that we owe our employees,
customers, shareholders and the community at large, and how does our fulfillment of these obligations
ensure our long-term sustainability as a company?
Many leaders have come to see safety as the starting point for answering these questions. To them,
providing a safe workplace lays the foundation for organizational excellence and integrity in strategic,
financial and operational performance. These leaders are driven by a deep sense of commitment to ethical
principles that include:
• Honesty: That we keep our promises, take responsibility, instill confidence in our employees,
customers and other stakeholders and are clear in all communications so that we generate
assurance
• Respect: that we show consideration for one another, recognise each other’s differences,
understand the customer’s needs and expectations and go out of our way to meet these and
prevent accidents and see that no-one injures themselves in the workplace
• Integrity: That the commitment to telling the truth and keeping promises, plus applying the best
of one’s abilities, promise worker loyalty and commitment.
• Personal conflicts of interest: That excellence stems from a concern for the achievement of the
common good (as opposed to what is good just for the individual person or company).
The practical application of ethical principles (ie, honesty, respect, integrity, personal conflicts of
interest) that underpin professional health and safety practitioner codes of conduct.
Honesty
You must be honest in discharging your duties as a health and safety professional. In litigation concerning
other professionals, courts have decided that defendants have been dishonest if they knew that what
they were doing would be regarded as dishonest by honest people. Knowingly misleading anybody for
financial or other gain that could not have been made honestly is most likely to be unacceptable. Examples
include giving misleading information about qualifications and/or memberships, either to a prospective

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or current client, in order to gain or retain instructions, or to a prospective or current employer, in order
to obtain employment or to attain a promotion or enhanced benefits. Assisting others to gain from the
provision of false information is also unlikely to be acceptable. Examples include entering misleading
details on policies, procedures, risk assessments or similar documentation or records. You must be honest
when you are ‘off duty’ too.
Respect
Respect the rights and privacy of other people and organisations. As an occupational safety and health
professional, disagreements will happen from time to time. To avoid making disagreements personal, it is
important to remember that is often acceptable to criticize ideas but often unacceptable to criticize
individuals, particularly in an offensive manner. Respecting other people includes behaving in an
appropriate manner. Inappropriate behaviour includes the use of foul language or acting in an
intimidating or threatening way. Respecting an individual’s rights will include ensuring that you do not
discriminate on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership,
pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Race includes colour,
nationality and ethnic or national origin. You should not discriminate on the grounds of socio-economic
status either. You must specifically respect the privacy of the individual. Information technology may have
an adverse effect on an individual’s privacy, and advice should be sought on data protection legislation
when storing personal information.
Integrity
If you recognise a dangerous procedure but do not recommend a shutdown in case it ultimately leads to
the closure of the company and your redundancy, then that could point to a lack of integrity. Similarly, as
a consultant, if you are aware that your recommendations are not being implemented, but you continue
to advise the organisation for the fee income you derive, then that may be similarly questionable.
Personal conflicts of interest
Conflicts of interest occur where your judgment may be affected by more than one interest, meaning an
interest in the outcome: what may happen as a result of your involvement. Something that could benefit
one interest may be detrimental to the other interest. An interest may be personal or professional. You
usually have a personal interest in being able to provide for yourself and any dependents. This should not
be allowed to interfere with the professional interest of giving appropriate health and safety advice. You
are unlikely to be able to avoid having a personal interest in earning a living but should be able to put the
welfare of the workforce or others affected by your activities first. Where you are acting as an expert
witness in judicial proceedings the overriding objective will be to assist the decision-maker to deal with
the case justly. If you take on the role of giving expert witness evidence, you should disclose any previous
or continuing relationship that you have with any of the parties in the case at the time you are instructed
and, in any report, prepared for the case.
The conflicts that you are required to avoid include situations such as accepting responsibility for advising
both parties to a contract. This is because the interests of the parties are competing interests that are in

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conflict, as each wants the best outcome for them. If you advise company A on selecting an external
training provider and company B on tendering for providing training services to A, without disclosing to A
or B that you act for the other, then that is likely to lead to a breakdown in trust and the possibility of
complaint. A wants the best value it can get for its training budget and B wants to win custom at the
highest rate possible. If the full extent of your involvement becomes known, A and B are likely to doubt
that you could have at all times acted in their best interests and may resent you earning two fees. Indeed
both may regard the second fee as an inappropriate secret profit made by exploitation.
Conflicts of interest may also arise through the offer or acceptance of inducements. Inducements can
include gifts, hospitality, preferential treatment and inappropriate appeals to friendship or loyalty. An
inducement could affect your professional independence. You should not encourage any inducements
which a reasonable observer may perceive to be factors that could affect your or another member’s
objectivity, and thus the health and safety of others.
Effective communication and negotiation skills

Why effective communication is important
Workers and H&S representatives have a vital role in communication. On any normal working day we
communicate on a number of different levels. We do this by:
• Talking to other team members

• Seeking support and guidance from friends and other colleagues
• Discussing work practices and other issues with managers
• Using the internet and intranet to gain updates and information
• Using a range of social media options to stay in touch.
To ensure that communication is effective in your workplace, you should use all the available and
established channels to provide your ideas and concerns about health and safety in your workplace.
Workers can use the following suggestions as ways to ensure they are contributing to effective
communication:
• Contribute at meetings
• Access and seek information from your intranet
• Use emails to clarify, and provide a two way communication approach
• Establish an open and constructive approach to talking to your colleagues and mangers
• Consider the barriers to communication in remote and isolated work locations (e.g. shift work,
working on your own, isolated by distance or team support, working from home) make contact
daily where possible.

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Communication is the most effective tool in any face of business, and workplace safety is no exception. In
order for a truly safety-centric workplace to be in effect, safety hazards, area guidelines, rules, regulations,
warnings, goals, and progress reports must be made to employees across an array of media.
With a workforce that is more distributed and more mobile than ever before, supervisors are facing
extreme communication barriers. Relying on traditional, static poster boards stating, "x number of days
since an accident," outdated signs, and the occasional meetings can only do so much. Due to its static
nature, employees will only pay attention to a sign for so long before their attention starts to drift. It is
because of this drift that the static poster nestled in the corner for 16 years displaying all of the rules and
regulation for that particular area is seemingly meaningless.
Much like the general population, companies need to embrace the digital age when it comes to safety
communication. More and more businesses are adapting a new sense of safety culture by using digital
signage that provides them with the ability to reach their entire workforce via digital displays, desktop
communications, and handheld devices.
By embracing these digital means of communications, companies now have the ability to reach up to 100
percent of employees—whether they are in a field 100 miles away or at their desk in the corporate office.
Software exists that collects, analyzes, and prepares data to display on an array of media. This information
used in real time creates a safer and more productive workplace, keeping every employee up to date.
Due to the fact that many companies have a diverse and global workforce, an often-overlooked area of
effective safety communication is the necessity to transcend language barriers. It is imperative that
messages be highly visible, easy to read, and color coded. All employees need to be connected at any
given time for a company to truly become a safety-centric workplace.
How you communicate with, and treat your staff can affect how they undertake their work, display
resilience at times of pressure and manage any difficulties they may be experiencing. Consultation on
health and safety is a two-way process and should be seen as an opportunity to add value when making
decisions. This process involves:
• Talking about issues

• Listening to and raising concerns
• Understanding your role
• Seeking information and sharing views
• Discussing issues in a timely manner
• Considering what is being said before decisions are made
• Attending scheduled meetings.
There are number of situations when your manager and senior leaders are required to consult with
workers. They are when:
• Identifying hazards and assessing risks arising from work

• Making decisions about ways to eliminate or minimise those risks
• Making decisions about the adequacy of facilities for the welfare of workers

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• Proposing changes that may affect the health and safety of workers
• Making decisions about the procedures for resolving health and safety issues
• Monitoring the health of workers or workplace conditions, information and training or
consultation with workers
• Carrying out any other activity prescribed by the OHS related Regulations.
The need for health and safety practitioners to consult and negotiate with others when developing an
organisation’s health and safety objectives
Establishing objectives for the health and safety performance program provides a vital blueprint for
implementing and directing the organization’s resources in order to achieve desired outcomes. The most
commonly found objectives in any safety and health program include lost-time injury rate, lost workdays,
recordable injury rate, and total injury rates. Safety goals can also be vague. Some examples that fall into
this category include objectives ‘‘to achieve compliance’’ or ‘‘to provide a safe environment’’
Guidelines for setting goals and objectives are as follows:
1. Set objectives as part of the planning process

2. Word the objectives clearly
3. Objectives must be realistic
4. Accomplishing objectives must be under the responsible person’s influence or control
5. Objectives must be assigned to someone
6. Completion dates must be established for each objective.
When establishing objectives, it is important for H&S practitioner to identify those measures that are
indicative of a good program. They must emphasize activities that are needed to meet the objectives. A
common downfall is to develop broad-ranging objectives with no clear understanding of the activities that
impact the outcomes, which in turn determine whether or not the objectives are met. The following are
some examples of poorly constructed and well-constructed safety objectives:
Poorly constructed safety goal: ‘‘Improve the safety record of the organization.’’
This is considered a poorly written safety goal since it does not establish a time frame for completion. It
also does not provide a specific outcome that would be indicative of meeting the goal.
Well-constructed safety goal: ‘‘Over the next five years, the organization will reduce recordable injuries
by 10 percent.’’
This is considered a well-constructed safety goal because it establishes a fixed, long-term focus for the
safety program. The desired outcome for the goal is also measurable.
Poorly constructed safety objective: ‘‘The organization will increase employee safety training offerings.’’
This is considered a poorly written safety objective since it does not establish a time frame for completion.
It also does not provide a measure by which success or failure of meeting the objective can be ascertained.

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Well-constructed safety objective: ‘‘During this fiscal year, the organization will provide twelve monthly
safety-training programs at which 90 percent of the employees shall attend.’’
This is considered a well-constructed safety objective because it establishes a fixed, short-term focus for
the safety program. The desired outcome for the goal is measurable.
In order for health and safety practitioner to develop an effective safety metrics program, the objectives
of the organization must be clearly established. Business objectives typically state and define underlying
organizational ‘‘values’’ and quality factors such as safety, rework, environmental soundness, and
customer satisfaction. The development of these business objectives usually begins with the stated
mission for the organization. This organization’s mission statement will provide the overall guidance for
not only the safety program but also any other program developed to meet the organization’s overall
goals and objectives. While the business side of the objectives may be stated in terms of productivity,
costs, or profits, safety objectives can be stated in terms of losses, accidents, safe behaviors, or increased
costs
The balance scorecard approach:
One method of developing safety objectives is through the use of the balanced scorecard approach. The
concept ‘‘translates’’ the planning perspective of an institution (mission, strategic vision, and goals) into
a system of performance indicators that cover all-important perspectives of performance (i.e., finances,
users, internal processes, and improvement activities). The balanced scorecard management system
provides feedback concerning internal business processes and external outcomes. To improve
performance, continuous improvement strategies are incorporated into the model. The process involves
defining the mission and goals for the organization. As with other performance improvement processes,
the activities necessary to meet the goals are developed and measures indicative of that performance are
identified. Continual improvement is incorporated into the model, which balances financial and non-
financial demands of the organization with performance. What is required to develop a ‘‘balanced
scorecard’’ is a ‘‘basket’’ of measures that provide information on a range of health and safety activities.
The balanced scorecard assists organizations in overcoming two key issues: effective organizational
performance measurement and implementing strategy.
An organization can use the balanced scorecard tool as a framework for translating its vision and strategies
and clarifying its strategy through selected objectives and measures. The balanced scorecard utilizes four
perspectives:
• Financial perspective
• Customer perspective
• Internal perspective
• Innovation and learning perspective
These four perspectives are all tied to the organizational mission and vision. Within each perspective,
objectives can be developed and the appropriate metrics can be identified.

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Health and safety practitioner need to consult with relevant interested parties in developing objectives
and consult all above perspective. For example, financial perspective need to be considered to ensure that
there are enough budgets required to achieve the objective. Customer perspective need consideration in
cases when an objective is set to meet customer requirements or expectations. Internal perspective to be
considered to incorporate the goals and mission of the company health and safety. Innovation and
learning perspective becomes especially important when a particular competence/skill is required to
achieve an objective e.g. competent in sprinkler system design or distribution of hand held fire
extinguishers etc.
Influencing ownership of health and safety at all levels of an organisation
Ownership of health and safety in an organisation may be achieved via four mentioned mechanisms.
These four must be followed in parallel.
1- Participation:
Examples of how workers can be included in the safety program include:
• Incident investigations
• Procedure development
• Development and implementation of safety and health training
• Job safety analysis
• Safety and health committee/team involvement
• Recommendations for specific actions in response to employee safety suggestions
• Problem-solving techniques to seek solutions to identified safety and health problems
At a minimum, a mechanism should exist for workers to identify and report safety concerns on the
workplace without fear of reprisal or punishment. These reported issues should be addressed in a timely
fashion, which will communicate to workers that safety is a high priority for owners and managers.
Offer the necessary levels of education, training, resources, and authority so employees can take
ownership of the safety process. It’s a mistake to expect employees to take pride and be enthusiastically
involved over the long term in order to simply conform to top-down management programs, and/or
merely comply with regulations. The single most powerful source of motivation is employee ownership of
the safety process.
Ideally, everyone should be involved. In many cases safety representatives will already be involved. There
may be active involvement through health and safety committees and in other business areas too, such
as quality systems; this needs to be acknowledged and built upon.
Don't wait for it to happen. Actively search for opportunities to involve employees. Listen up. Pay
attention to what employees have to say. Respond to and resolve issues brought forth by their
involvement.

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Ask employees how they would like to be involved. All this may be simpler than we think. We train people
on specifics — way more than these smart people need to be told. Let’s get out of the way, and begin
asking more questions about how they want to create their safety system and account for their results.
Let’s do this instead of telling them what to do. Ask more questions about how your people want to
manage safety.
Ask yourself, “How do I get employees involved in the rest of our organization’s activities?” Getting
involvement in safety is not likely to happen unless there is also a climate of involvement in other
objectives of your organization. Trying to manage safety by involvement, and other activities in other
ways, is not likely to work, at least not consistently.
Get everyone on the same page. Executives, supervisors, employees and the safety and health team must
have the same vision for safety and health. Everyone must understand that safety and health really are
important to each level of the organization, and that the employees’ well-being is what it is all about.
There can be no hidden agendas, no “gotchas.” Employees’ concerns and their ideas and suggestions are
to be taken seriously, sometimes implemented, and rewarded. This is not a difficult mission, but it does
take discipline to keep on track
2- Management accountability:
Accountability may be defined as an activity, practice or issue for which a person(s) can legitimately be
held responsible and called on to justify or change. In a workplace, there are three types of accountability:
personal accountability, peer accountability and management accountability. In an ideal environment,
each party can and should hold each other accountable. Accountability is an obligation or willingness to
accept responsibility that managers should embrace. It goes beyond performing the tasks assigned to
given roles and involves ensuring that everyone is also performing those roles safely. In a workplace with
high safety accountability, employees and managers are more vigilant in seeking opportunities to improve
processes in order to increase safety
Get managers at the top to realize the need for excellence in safety. To get their attention, it’s often better
to have some type of objective assessment that comes from the corporate level or from outsiders. This
could involve employee sensing sessions, climate surveys and programmatic reviews. As we all know,
prophets are not often heard in their own land, and so it is with safety professionals. An outside
perspective can provide leaders with a new perspective regarding other organizations that are pursuing
safety excellence.
Show management commitment in small and multiple ways. This is critical. Involve management at all
levels in audits and inspections. Be sure managers are visible and engaged in training. Include safety and
health issues in all management presentations. Be sure that follow-up on safety and health issues and
audit items is part of the management review process. There must be consequences at all levels for non-
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Reinforce managers in regular staff meetings for what they personally did about safety this month. This
moves safety from a set of boring statistics that include luck to an aspect of management that can be a
source of pride.
Ambiguous accountability damages morale and leads workers to seek unacceptable solutions instead of
effective business solutions. Accountability is a fundamental principle of business success and must be
designed into the management structure. When accountability is clear, productivity and efficiency follow.
Accountability should be the aim of all good managers. Holding managers and workers accountable for
safety performance is no exception.
3- Consultation:
Enhance your relationship skills. Be recognized as trustworthy and display confidence in the ideas you
want promoted. Management and employees will not eagerly support merely an idea or program, but
they will support someone they like and trust. It takes a leader, in the true sense of the term, to bring
along followers and supporters.
Ask senior line management this question: “How can safety help you meet your important business
objectives?” When asked with sincerity, this question can change management’s perspective of safety.
Rather than a staff cost necessity, safety is seen as a business-building asset, a new business partner. To
get senior line managers involved, play in their sandbox; don’t expect them to play in yours.
Give people the feeling that they will have an impact. Listen well. Workers who complain about workplace
safety or health hazards are frequently the targets of reprisals by their employers. An independent voice
is essential because health and safety involves issues of economics and control — issues that management
and the workforce may each view very differently. Those who bear the risks should have a significant voice
in decisions regarding those risks.
Workers input into safety procedures, selection of PPE, and other decisions that affect their own personal
safety is paramount. This team is guided by the H&S practitioner and top manager in the company, but it
is not directed by them. Team decisions can be overruled, but you need a good reason and a full
explanation.
Ask for insight. Managers often ask people to conduct safety tours or to do behavioral observation counts,
but they rarely ask about what people found when they looked. This says safety is not interesting. Make
a point to ask for trends, patterns, and overall conclusions such as, “We take care of guards on equipment
but we often miss problems related to the condition of the floor.” People like to be reinforced for being
perceptive.
4- Feedback:
Provide positive consequences for desired behaviors and actions. People only work to receive positive
consequences or avoid negative ones. Safety programs typically motivate people to avoid negative
consequences, such as injury or discipline. A new way to define and measure desired safety performance
is needed. These new expectations must be clearly communicated and understood by all. Then, positive

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reinforcement must be provided when those desired behaviors occur. This does not mean trinkets or
giveaways, but sincere acknowledgement from peers, supervision and management. When this happens,
employees will be motivated to be involved in any safety program.
If they know feedback is designed to improve processes and add to knowledge, employees be will
generally be receptive to it. Use multiple forms/mechanisms of feedback.
The benefits of health and safety professionals engaging with stakeholders
“Stakeholder engagement” became a buzzword as the sustainability movement gained visibility and
momentum in the 1990s, and today, every sustainability program has stakeholder engagement as a key
part of the strategy.
But recently, stakeholder engagement has become a key strategy for managing EHS as well, especially in
lower-risk environments like offices and retail stores. EHS risks exist in these environments – think
slip/trip/fall hazards, indoor air quality, and emergency response – but don’t warrant a full-time on-site
EHS manager.
If you are an EHS manager for a lower risk environment, you are probably already practicing stakeholder
engagement strategies but may not realize it. By recognizing that this can be an important factor in your
success, you can incorporate intentional stakeholder engagement activities into your EHS programs and
allocate the necessary time and resources.
So what is stakeholder engagement? Who are stakeholders? What is engagement? What is the best way
to do it? (Hint, you don’t have to buy a ring.)
Who are stakeholders?
There are many definitions for “stakeholder,” but I think of it as the people who are going to be affected
by what you are doing, and the people who can influence the success of your initiatives. For lower-risk
environments, the critical stakeholders might be:
Employees, customers, and visitors (people affected by what you are doing.)
Facilities Management, Human Resources, and Security (people who can influence your success.)
To identify your critical stakeholders, think back on who has helped you, who has made things difficult,
and who has responsibilities that overlap with EHS. (This can be a great exercise to conduct with your
team to identify critical stakeholders and make sure you’re not missing any.)
What is engagement?
Once you identify your critical stakeholders, your next step is to identify your engagement goal and then
develop an engagement strategy.

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The engagement strategy for each stakeholder will be different depending on your goal, the stakeholder,
and your company operations and culture. Consider the following factors in developing the specific
engagement strategies:
• Content and Goal – what is the information to be communicated and what is the action expected
or desired when the information is communicated?
• Channel – meetings, e-mail, newsletters, postings are the usual channels. Be creative– consider
holding brainstorming meetings to get input or use gamification platforms to engage the broader
employee population.
• Frequency – could be ad hoc, scheduled, continuous. Don’t forget to consider whether ongoing
engagement is needed to measure whether your program or initiative is truly effective.
• Drivers – factor in timing with other company activities (for example budgeting time and the end
of the fiscal year are usually very busy times) and other initiatives going on, such as new programs
or changes in the organization.
For example, if you want to get buy-in from security on how they can help implement a new emergency
response program, you may want to engage near the beginning of developing your program, and an in-
person meeting is probably the best channel.
For a new EHS awareness training program, you may want to get input from HR on how your new training
program will align with or augment existing HR training requirements. Timing may be critical to avoid the
annual employee review process, when HR is likely to be very busy.
You may need to engage directly with employees to communicate the importance of proper ergonomic
workstation set-up to minimize injuries. A newsletter, online reference guide, or electronic posting might
be the best channel for communicating this information, with a follow-up survey or contest to see if
employees received the information and found it useful.
Tips for Success
Although the concept of EHS stakeholder engagement is simple to understand, it takes time and can be
hard work. As an engineer by training, I didn’t learn this in school. But by watching and working with some
great companies, here are some tips from my experiences based on what I have learned through trial and
error:
Identify key stakeholders for your particular initiative – they won’t always be the same ones!
• Plan and allow adequate time for the engagement process, especially in the beginning.
• Think about your goals for engaging with a particular stakeholder and think about their
perspective – what would be a win-win for both parties?
• Be purposeful in your engagement. People are busy, so be respectful of their time.
• Be genuine and passionate. If you believe in what you are doing, your enthusiasm will be
contagious, and people will want to be part of your team.
• Recognize their efforts. Give credit where credit is due.

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In the end, you are aiming to build a mutually respectful relationship in which participation benefits both
parties.
Many EHS managers focus on the technical aspects of EHS – regulatory compliance, incident
investigations, and reporting. While these are important, stakeholder engagement can be a powerful
strategy to achieve success in your EHS programs.
Engage other parts of the organization, such as facilities, security, and human resources to help build and
support EHS programs and leverage limited EHS resources to create a safer and more productive
workplace, build employee engagement, and enhance EHS culture.
The importance of receiving, and acting on feedback from all stakeholders on health and safety
performance
Clearly, a number of parties will have critical information and knowledge about an organisation’s needs
and priorities. Their input is essential to the process of reviewing the effectiveness of existing workplace
arrangements for OHS – including for OHS consultation and communication.
Key stakeholders may include senior management, frontline managers and supervisors, employees, safety
and health representatives and committees and OHS specialists. In addition, an organisation may identify
some external stakeholders whose input they consider important; for example, the regulatory authority
or the relevant industry or employer association.
There is an increasing need to demonstrate to external stakeholders (regulators, insurance companies,

shareholders, suppliers, contractors, members of the public etc) that arrangements to control health and
safety risks are in place, operating correctly and effective.
Examples of the types of OHS Information that may be required include:
• OHS statistics
• OHS rules
• Safe working procedures
• Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)
• Maintenance manuals
• Legislation and codes of practice
• Copies of incident reports
• Minutes of OHS meetings
• Planned inspection outcomes
• Audit results
• Statutory inspection reports
• Action plan registers
• OHS plans and targets
• Copies of memos or letters or communication from management.

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In order to ascertain whether an organisation is performing in accordance with its OHS plan and objectives
laid out, it is necessary to have an evaluation and measurement process in place. All details – both positive
and negative – need to be recorded and made available for all stakeholders to see. Audits, either internal
or external, should be conducted periodically and used by management for review purposes. Accident
investigations provide opportunities to examine the effectiveness of an organisations SMS. Remember
that investigations need to be approached in identifying deficiencies in the system rather than
apportioning blame.
There is usually an initial phase of planning which allows an organisation to answer four key questions:
• Who are all of our stakeholders in OHS management?

• Where are we now in terms of the effectiveness of existing workplace arrangements for OHS
consultation and communication?
• Where do we want to be?
• How are we going to get there?
To start answering these questions you can assist an organisation by doing the following:
• Review the organisation’s OHS performance history (e.g., in dealing with OHS incidents,
achievement of past goals and objectives, results of any previous reviews or inspections by
Government authorities)
• Consult with key stakeholders − consult with stakeholders through formal and informal
mechanisms (e.g., workshops, surveys, interviews and feedback through regular meetings)
• Identify OHS legislative requirements and compare with current performance
• Identify any other suitable benchmarks and compare with current performance
• Assess the level of resources committed to OHS consultation and communication – are they being
used efficiently and effectively and are they sufficient (e.g., to achieve objectives)?
Under a planned and systematic approach to OHS there will be a range of OHS activity generally grouped
under a series of headings (often the OHS ‘Standards’ for an organisation). For example:
• Leadership and commitment

• Planning and organizing
• Consultation and communication
• Hazard management
• Recruitment, induction and training
• Contractor management
• Procurement
• Incident reporting
• Emergency preparedness and response
• Fitness for work
Each of these areas of OHS activities will involve specific roles and groups of people and these roles and
groups will have various information and consultation needs. In particular, there will important

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requirements in relation to information and consultation about high-risk activities or equipment and how
they are to be controlled or managed.
While the higher hazard industries may have recognised that they have in effect been granted ‘license to
operate’ by their local community and society, pressure for accountability is reaching other sectors
through routes such as corporate social responsibility. The challenge for organisations is to communicate
their performance in ways which are meaningful to their various stakeholders.
The use of different types of communication media available to promote the health and safety message
There are many barriers to how we communicate and consult with each other in the workplace. Finding
the right time and delivering messages in the right way can be a challenge. Workers and H&S
representatives should establish a relationship with their manager that encourages open and honest
discussion and mutual trust. Consultation often fails due to:
• Attitude: When a worker is abrupt due to time limits, not having enough resources or their mood,
the person they are speaking to may feel intimidated or frustrated and not want to communicate
• Limited use of technology: When the technological aids known to be the best way for someone
to communicate are not available
• Body positioning: Sitting too close could be intimidating and would make an individual feel
uncomfortable. Sitting too far away could show lack of interest or concern
• Emotions: When someone is depressed, angry, embarrassed or upset their emotions may affect
their ability to think and communicate in a sensible way.
• Physical: When someone has physical conditions that create communication difficulties, for
example, being breathless, not having any teeth or being in pain.
• Not enough time: Not giving individuals time to say what they want may make them feel rushed
and reluctant to express their true wishes.
• Poor or negative body language: Crossed arms or legs, poor facial expressions, poor body
positioning, constant fidgeting or looking at a watch or mobile phone can all make someone less
likely to communicate.
• Lack of privacy: Think carefully about where and when private and confidential conversations
should take place.
• Stereotyping: Generalisations about a group of people that are wrong and misleading. An
example would be that ‘all older people are hard of hearing’. Other barriers include sensory
impairments, culture, language, noise, lighting or substance misuse.
To reduce barriers through communication:
• Engage people on an emotional level

• Provide clear messages with concrete examples to help people focus their energies
• Think about what you say and how you say it (is what you are saying aligned with what you are
feeling and thinking?)
• Written material should be backed up by verbal communication
• Check the tone of the communication (edit, edit and edit again)
• Some news is better than no news
• Let people know the status of what is happening, you are the key in communicating change,
workers look to you to see if there is real acceptance.

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Talking is often seen as the most common method or type of communication but most communication is
silent. Gestures, tone of voice, grins, grimaces, shrugs, nods, moving away or closer, crossing arms and
legs all tell us far more than words. Learning to take account of these reactions is all part of developing
your communication skills to achieve the best outcomes for individuals. Communication can be harder
when we can’t see these signs such as when we use the phone, texts or email.
Communication may be formal or informal.
• Formal: Formal communication is likely to be used in the working environment, particularly

between you and other workers.
• Informal: Informal communication is likely to be used with friends and family, using familiar words
or slang. You should always use the communication method that is appropriate for the person
and situation
Following methods (in different combinations) may be used to ensure effective communications:
Verbal
Verbal communication involves the usage of words while the delivery of the intended message is being
made. It can be one-on-one, over the phone or in group settings, etc. it is a methods of effective
communication that is personal and has to be used more than only phone calls and emails whenever
possible. The medium of the message in case of verbal communication is oral. Simple speaking is verbal
communication. Seeing the person with whom face-to-face communication is taking place helps in
gauging the response of that person by understanding their body language and also assists in active
participation of the dialogue.
Some of the important oral methods of communication include –
• Face-to-Face Communication: This is usually preferred methods of communication although it is

not realistic all the time, especially in organisations that are based in several locations around the
globe. However, tools like videoconferencing make approximate face-to-face communication
possible and help even the large organisations in creating personal connections between the
management and the staff.
• Meetings: Meetings are common in almost all the business settings and now it has become
possible to augment them via use of the tools of technology which allow the participants in the
remote locations to participate in the discussions, although they are not present physically on the
meeting site.
While using verbal communication, the person needs to be aware of his tone of voice, inflection as well
as speed. Use of sarcasm and angry tones should be avoided otherwise the person with whom you are
communicating will go on the defensive. While speaking to your team or to a group of people, you should
ensure that you speak loudly as well as clearly so that everyone is able to understand what you are saying.
Use of the microphone should be made if a group in is being addressed in a large room. Verbal
communication is best used when something has to be discussed in detail or when someone has to be

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complimented or reprimanded. Verbal communication makes the conveying of thoughts faster and easier
and is the most successful methods of communication.
Electronic
The email communication in organisations has become very common and is a highly essential tool for
sharing of information with one, hundreds as well as thousands of employees. It is usually a significant
component of the communication plan and even though it may not be a replacement for face-to-face or
other methods of communication, it is easily accessible and inexpensive.
Business E-mail Do’s and Don’ts
• DON’T send or forward chain e-mails

• DON’T put anything in an e-mail that you don’t want the world to see
• DON’T write a message in capital letters—this is the equivalent of SHOUTING
• DON’T routinely CC everyone. Reducing inbox clutter is a great way to increase communication
• DON’T hit send until you’ve spell-checked your e-mail
• DO use a subject line that summarizes your message, adjusting it as the message changes over
time
• DO make your request in the first line of your e-mail. (And if that’s all you need to say, stop there!)
• DO end your e-mail with a brief sign-off such as, “Thank you,” followed by your name and contact
information
• DO think of a work e-mail as a binding communication
• DO let others know if you’ve received an e-mail in error.
Printed
Printed communication cannot be avoided in the workplace. It is present everywhere and consists of
traditional paper and pen documents and letters, text chats, emails, typed electronic documents, reports,
SMS and anything else that might be conveyed by the use of written symbols like language which includes
any documents that are a part of the day to day business life. Such methods of communication is
indispensable for any formal business communication and also for the issue of legal instructions.
The methods of communication that mainly make use of written communication consist of formal
business proposals, press releases, memos, contracts, brochures, handbooks and the like. How effective
the printed communication is will depend on the style of writing, vocabulary, grammar along with clarity.
Printed/Written communication is most suitable in cases that require detailed instructions, when
something has to be documented or in situations where the person is too far away to speak in person or
over the phone.
In order to effectively communicate more with fewer words:
• Picture the receiver in your mind before you begin to write. After all, a written communication is
a link between people.
• Choose simple words. When in doubt, choose the shorter word (“Automobile or car? Car!”)

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• Be polite and clear. Your message will make a strong, clear impact.
• Make your message brief and direct by trimming redundant words or phrases. “Having thus
explored our first option, I would now like to begin to explore the second option that may be open
to us.” versus “After considering Option 1, I would like to look at Option 2.”
• Choose strong, active verbs. “I suggest…” instead of “It would seem to me that we might…”
Pictorial / Visual
Pictorial communication methods of communication takes place through the help of visual aids like colour,
illustration, graphic design, drawing, typography, signs and other electronic resources.
This type of communication comprising charts and graphs generally reinforces written methods of
communication and in majority of the situations replaces written communication completely. “A picture
is worth a thousand words” is an adage which shows that verbal communication can on several occasions
be more powerful than verbal as well as nonverbal communication. The developments in technology have
made expression of pictorial communication easier than what it was before.
Social
Tools of the social media such as LinkedIn, whatsapp or Facebook can be used in an effective way in the
organisations for the purpose of communicating between locations, divisions, departments and
employees. Certain tools such as Yammer are specifically designed for creating social media networks in
the confines of a particular domain of business.
There is no one correct way of communicating but you need to have awareness about what is appropriate
and in which situation. The chosen methods of communication depends on the situation. Put yourself in
the shoes of the employees. If there is a need to communicate a certain message to you, then you should
first think of the way you are going to receive it. By using your good judgment regarding the situation and
being considerate of your employees will make you an effective communicator. A better understanding
of the various methods of communication along with the different communication styles will help in
knowing as well as dealing with people in a better way, clear any misconceptions or misunderstandings
that may exist and thus contribute to the organisation’s success.
Why an organisations top management should be media trained?
CEOs and other top-level executives understand their businesses better than anyone else. That’s because
they have the requisite education and experience. At one time, the ability to present well in the media
was not a job qualification, but now it is necessity. Performing well in a high stakes media interview can
boost corporate and personal reputations. Consequently, a bad performance does a disservice to both
that person and his or her company. That’s why media training today is critical and more and more
companies see it as vital and are investing their time and people.
I’d like to say when I made the transition from television news to public relations, I wish I was stunned to
see so many top-level executives ill-prepared to be interviewed, but I wasn’t. I once interviewed a high-
ranking executive, and all I wanted was an explanation of what his company did. He threw out a lot of big

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words and tried to impress me with a lot of jargon but what he didn’t do was give me a quote. To
paraphrase a line from the movie Cool Hand Luke, “He failed to communicate,” and his interview ended
up—as they say—on the cutting room floor. Words matter, and how they are used matters even more.
Speaking to journalists is a developed skill vastly different from addressing board members, colleagues
and clients. An interview is not a conversation but rather a transaction. The journalist wants information
and you want to provide specific messages in a succinct manner that gets YOUR point, and more
importantly your company’s point of view, across to resonate with the audience.
A carefully crafted media training conducted by an experienced facilitator can provide the necessary tools
to navigate through the potential landmines of an interview, whether it is print or broadcast. The biggest
concern or fear I hear from my clients is, “What happens if my interview starts going ‘sideways’”? It is a
fair question and knowing how to take back control is essential. These are techniques that can be learned.
To communicate effectively, learn from those who do it best—the journalists. Play their game, learn their
methods and think like they do. A journalist craves that wonderful story with that fantastic quote that
paints a vivid picture. Be a great storyteller, bring emotion, give examples and anecdotes and provide
that special quote. Come across both as knowledgeable and personable. How you act during an interview
is every bit as important as what you say, in fact it accentuates it.
I applaud companies that want to train their executives but it can’t be just ‘checking the box’, doing it
once and moving on. Speaking to the media is a skill that must be developed and cultivated. The media
landscape is constantly changing, especially in the world of social media where the story changes by the
minute, so refresher sessions are a must.
Though ‘training’ is the widely-accepted term for preparing for media encounters, C-suiters don’t like that
word and neither do I. I prefer effective executive communication or a simpler term ‘coaching’ and
everyone, even the best can use a little coaching. Michael Jordan was arguably the greatest basketball
player to ever grace the court, but he not only accepted coaching, he demanded it because he knew it
would make him even better and more effective at his job. Then he practiced and refined his talent.
And when it was game time, MJ was prepared. If Michael Jordan saw the need for coaching,
practicing and preparation then we should all take his lead and demand it as well. A little ‘training’—make
that ‘coaching’—can make us all more effective executive communicators when it is game time.
Procedures for resolving conflict and introducing change
Conflict resolution in the workplace can be broken down into steps to simplify the process. By doing so,
H&S professionals and managers can ensure more effective communication and a more effective conflict
resolution process. Here are six steps to the conflict resolution process:
1. Clarify what the disagreement is: Clarifying involves getting to the heart of the conflict. The goal
of this step is to get both sides to agree on what the disagreement is. To do this, you need to
discuss what needs are not being met on both sides of the conflict and ensure mutual
understanding. During the process, obtain as much information as possible on each side's point

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of view. Continue to ask questions until you are certain that all parties involved (you and those on
either side of the conflict) understand the issue.
2. Establish a common goal for both parties: In this step of the process, both sides agree on the
desired outcome of the conflict. When people know that they're working towards the same goal,
then they're more apt to participate truthfully to make sure that they reach that end goal
together. To accomplish this, discuss what each party would like to see happen and find a
commonality in both sides as a starting point for a shared outcome. That commonality can be as
simple as "both sides want to end the conflict."
3. Discuss ways to meet the common goal: This involves listening, communicating, and
brainstorming together. Continue with both sides working together to discuss ways that they can
meet the goal they agreed on in step 2. Keep going until all the options are exhausted.
4. Determine the barriers to the common goal: In this step of the process, the two parties
acknowledge what has brought them into the conflict and talk about what problems may prevent
a resolution. Understanding the possible problems that may be encountered along the way lets
you proactively find solutions and have plans in place to handle issues. Define what can and
cannot be changed about the situation. For the items that cannot be changed, discuss ways of
getting around those road blocks.
5. Agree on the best way to resolve the conflict: Both parties need to come to a conclusion on the
best resolution. Start by identifying solutions that both sides can live with. Ask both sides and see
where there is common ground. Then start to discuss the responsibility each party has in
maintaining the solution. It's also important to use this opportunity to get to the root cause to
ensure this conflict will not come up again. A lot of times when we try to fix problems, we get so
caught up in fixing it that we do not identify what we need to do so it doesn't happen.
6. Acknowledge the agreed upon solution and determine the responsibilities each party has in the
resolution: Both sides need to own their responsibility in the resolution of the conflict and express
aloud what they have agreed to. After both parties have acknowledged a win-win situation, ask
both parties to use phrases such as "I agree to…" and "I acknowledge that I have responsibility
for…"
7. Agree a transition period: To ensure that any change in working conditions, or enviroment or
SOPs etc. can be implemented in phases in a safe manner. A Management of Change procedure
may also be agreed and developed.
Ensuring roles and responsibilities are clear, understood by all workers and implemented
Developing job descriptions is essential to the success and efficiency of safety management system and
creating a positive healthy culture. They create clarity. Clarity is one of the biggest reasons every role in a
workplace should be defined via a job description. One of the biggest motivating factors is clarity within
the employee’s role. That is, they know what they’re supposed to do and how to do it. There’s no
ambiguity, there’s no anxiety that “I think I should be doing something, or I’ve missed something”, and
there’s no getting into trouble for not doing something that wasn’t made clear in the first place.
A job description, or position description, is a written statement explaining why a job exists, what the job
holder actually does, how they do it and under what conditions the job is performed. One of the most
important sets of documents that a business can have is a current and clearly expressed set of job/position
descriptions. Job descriptions improve an organisation's ability to manage people and roles in the
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• Clarifies employer expectations for employee

• Provides basis of measuring job performance
• Provides clear description of role for job candidates
• Provides a structure and discipline for company to understand and structure all jobs and ensure
necessary activities, duties and responsibilities are covered by one job or another
• Provides continuity of role parameters irrespective of manager interpretation
• Enables pay and grading systems to be structured fairly and logically
• Prevents arbitrary interpretation of role content and limit by employee and employer and
manager
• Essential reference tool in issues of employee/employer dispute
• Essential reference tool for discipline issues
• Provides important reference points for training and development areas
• Provides neutral and objective (as opposed to subjective or arbitrary) reference points for
appraisals, performance reviews and counselling
• Enables formulation of skill set and behaviour set requirements per role
• Enables organisation to structure and manage roles in a uniform way, thus increasing efficiency
and effectiveness of recruitment, training and development, organisational structure, work flow
and activities, customer service, etc.
• Enables factual view (as opposed to instinctual) to be taken by employees and managers in career
progression and succession planning
• Used in the recruitment process to assist employees and the applicants to understand the role
and what is required, ensuring that the selected person can properly commit to the job.
After a person has been selected, this job description must be communicated and explained to him and
the person would be required to sign the same for record purposes.
Keep in mind that just asking staff to confirm they have read the job descriptions will not usually be
enough to ensure understanding. There is a need to ensure staff have understood what is required by
them. Setting a test to be passed when the audience reads the description is a good way to achieve this.
Job description must be clear and be written in plain language. Account must be taken of for workers for
whom English is not the primary language. They must have their job descriptions in the language the easily
understand.
A manager can take several approaches to helping employees craft their job descriptions. Depending on
your department and your management style, you may choose any of the following methods:
• Talk with employees about their work, soliciting their input to incorporate into your ideas about
how to describe the position
• Ask employees to develop their own position descriptions, that you may later discuss with them
and modify as required
• Draft position descriptions for your employees’ jobs and then discuss your drafts with them to
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In the spirit of continuous improvement and process review, position descriptions should constantly
evolve based on emerging priorities or shifts in organizational and departmental needs. Be sure to
constantly update and assess position descriptions in the following ways:
• Let employees know that their job descriptions are always subject to change
• Review job descriptions when you discuss the performance expectations and development plans
for the coming year with employees
• If changes identified in your annual plan involve fundamental additions or deletions to the existing
functions, you may need to incorporate those changes into your employees' job descriptions
The health and safety professional’s use of financial justification to aid decision making
The significance of budgetary responsibility, including profit, loss and payback analysis
Every person who leaves for work in the morning should expect to return home at night in good health.
Can you imagine the knock on the door to tell you your loved one will never be returning home? Or the
phone call to say he’s in the hospital and may never walk again? Ensuring that husbands return to their
wives, wives to their husbands, parents to their children, and friends to their friends — that is the most
important reason to create a safe and healthy work environment.
But it isn’t the only reason. A serious workplace injury or death changes lives forever – for families, friends,
communities, and coworkers too. Human loss and suffering is immeasurable. Occupational injuries and
illnesses can provoke major crises for the families in which they occur.
• Reducing injuries reduces cost to the business: If a worker is injured on the job, it costs the
company in lost work hours, increased insurance rates, workers’ compensation premiums and
possible litigation. Productivity is lost when other workers have to stop work to deal with the
injury. Even after the injured employee has been sent home or taken to the hospital, other
employees may be distracted or need to take time off from work in the aftermath of the incident.
Even a single injury can have far-reaching and debilitating effects on your business.
• Safe workers are loyal workers: Any business knows that employee attrition and absenteeism
can be major obstacles. When you create a healthy and safe workplace, you reduce those issues
in several ways. By budgeting for safety improvements and making safety part of your operational
plan, you engender trust. By involving employees in safety decisions—through reporting,
committees, walk-throughs and meetings—you show that their opinion matters to you. By
following through on their input and improving safety, you prove quite tangibly that you care
about their well-being. Workers typically respond by working harder, showing more pride in their
jobs and remaining loyal.
• Safety improved quality: Time and again, companies that put safety first turn out higher quality
products. In some cases, that’s because a safe workplace tends to be a more efficient one, free of
debris and tangles of cords. In other cases, it’s a matter of focus. By working in a clean, efficient
environment, workers are able to reduce distractions and truly focus on the quality of what they
do. The results? Better products that create customer loyalty, bigger margins and increased sales.

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In these ways and others workplace safety is about much more than legislation. It’s about creating the
kind of productive, efficient, happy and inspiring workplace we all want to be part of. It’s about creating
a highly profitable company. And that’s why it’s important.
Health and safety legislation is very clear in the requirement to manage hazards and risks and meet
obligations. Whilst taking action for health and safety is essential, it’s naive to think employers will spend
money on anything that is not justified. Every business manages its health and safety differently – some
invest in management, some integrate OHS into quality, environment or wider business management,
some go beyond compliance and promote health and wellness, whilst some do very little and then react
when accidents happen.
Any money spent in a business is an investment and OHS must be treated the same. That’s not to say that
money shouldn’t be spent, just that the purpose must be understood and budget allocated accordingly.
This is particularly relevant in today’s competitive economic climate. This must be seen as an investment
and, like any investment, it must have a return. The budget holder is entrusted to manage the budget
and spend according to what has been agreed. The return on investment is the fulfilment of the goals and
aims that were set down during the budget planning, along with any wider benefits that may be realised
such as a good morale, a productive workforce, a positive safety culture along with trust and respect
between the organisation and its workers.
In its simplest form, budgeting means deciding what outcomes are needed, the actions that will be taken
and allocating money for this. This ideally happens in an organisation’s business planning and budget
cycle and includes costs such as personnel, personal protective equipment, training courses, fire and
emergency equipment, servicing of equipment etc. Contingency may also be allocated to deal with issues
that may arise.
Also companies compare the budget spent in terms of benefits gained so it’s always useful and easy for a
health and safety practitioner to install control measures that give collective protection as they are easy
to negotiate with management. Also try to quantify as much as possible the indirect costs. This way you
can have more chances to convince management to allocate the required budget when they have a clearer
picture of what may go wrong and how much they might have to pay directly or indirectly after an accident
at workplace.
Importance of recognising who is the responsible budget holder and how they can be influenced to
make appropriate health and safety decisions
Dealing with one of safety’s toughest challenges is funding projects on worksites that senior managers
never see. OHS professionals tend to be idealistic, as they should. Capital expenditure decision makers,
on the other hand, are often a tad more hard-nosed. Both find the other’s approach immensely frustrating
and that can be a big problem when it comes to funding safety related capital intensive projects.
Surprisingly, the secret to finding common ground lies in the OHS professional’s stock in trade – the
risk assessment. The pure logic of combining probability with consequences to assign a risk rating is
something that resonates with many senior company officers, who are increasingly attuned to risk

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management in an uncertain global business environment. The key is to present the information in a
format that very clearly reflects the organisation’s objectives, whether they are prudent corporate
governance, reputation management or sheer compliance.
With a risk assessment and a budgeted list of priorities, the business case for OHS capital expenditure now
simply needs a rationale. In most cases, compliance with safety obligations alone is sufficient but
not always. In the name of flexibility, most work health and safety laws are open to interpretation and
sometimes even conflict with other mandates.
It is also true that many substantial safety gains are made beyond mere compliance in terms of
productivity, lower insurance costs, improved morale and fewer lost time injuries. The most compelling
call to action is the one that best mirrors the goals of your organisation. Meeting health and safety
obligations is a moral as well as legal obligation; however there can be differences in values and beliefs
for health and safety between organisations and within organisations. Decisions made by employers
and business managers can be influenced by what they think and how they feel – and this can make the
difference between resourcing health and safety, or not.
To find money for health and safety means looking beneath the line and establishing the
organisation’s value base for health and safety. It is difficult to do so, but there are times when below the
line aspects of health and safety management have to be challenged, to ensure that those making
decisions are aware of the implications – personally as well as for the wider organisation.
Management of the devolved budget is achieved by delegating responsibility for specific functions or
activities to Budget Holders. A budget holder is a member of staff who has been assigned a budget for a
particular activity and is accountable to their Senior Manager for it.
Budget Holders must manage the budget in a prudent manner. They must:
• Ensure that no-one commits or incurs financial transactions that are not within budget, or not on
agreed types of expenditure or for purposes other than those for which the funds were allocated
• Manage the budget in a prudent manner and ensure that value for money is achieved in any
purchases
• Regularly monitor expenditures
• Provide such financial information for Senior Managers as may be required from time to time
• Adhere to financial procedures laid down
• Only approve transactions in accordance with their authorisation limits
Budget Holders must be permanent members of staff and be a person from top management.
Cost-benefit analysis in relation to risk control decisions (organisational, design, planning, operational)
Step 1-The perspective: The intention of any CBA should be to ensure that the best possible result is
obtained for everyone in the organisation, not just particular groups. You need to start by getting the
perspective right — think through the issues from many different perspectives. You may need to consult
with others in the organisation to do this effectively. For example, you would want to avoid a change in

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the production process that would reduce the risk to one group of workers only by increasing the risk to
another group. This might occur, for example, if a chemical or physical hazard is removed from one site
only to be released at a similar concentration in another.
Step 2-Identifying the costs and the benefits: Start by making two lists. The first list is of all the non-trivial
costs and savings associated with the intervention. Costs and savings refer to resource uses. Here is a brief
example:
Costs Benefits
• Modification of machinery and/or worksite • More efficiency from a new machine
• Training personnel in safe operation of new • Improved quality of product from new
equipment machine
• New safety kits for staff in area • Reduced risk of death
• Slower cycle time because of new guarding • Reduced risk of non-fatal injury or ill-health
• Better relationship with customer because
of improved quality and service
• Avoiding the costs associated with
noncompliance (e.g. legal costs, prohibition
notices disrupting production)
In an actual situation, these lists may be considerably longer. You will need to talk to others, especially
those who will work in the changed areas, those who manage that area and any specialised staff. For
example, if you can see that quality and productivity might change, then it will be important to get the
views of the Quality Manager and the Operations Manager as well as those who work in the area. Often,
preparing two well-developed lists of costs and benefits will be sufficient to make the argument you want.
It may not be necessary to go further by quantifying the costs and benefits and then expressing their value
in dollars. The best course of action may be plain for all to see.
Step 3-Quantifying the costs and benefits: Now each of the costs and benefits you have identified needs
to be expressed in the units that are natural to them in your organisation. For example, how much
reconstruction of the worksite? How much modification of how much machinery? How many new safety
kits? How many health and safety incidents avoided? Some of this will be obvious to you, but other items
may need specialist knowledge, so you may need to get advice from other people in your organisation or
outside it.
Step 4-Valuing in dollars: Now you can work out the value of each of the costs and benefits in dollars. For
each:
Total value = quantity x price
This is usually straightforward where resources have a well-recognised price. It is much more difficult to
express the value of lives saved or the value of good or bad health changes in dollars. The UK HSE provides
a guide to quantifying injury costs that could be used to quantify some of the benefits of reducing injuries:

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http://www.hse.gov.uk/businessbenefits/index.htm. However, this method does not tell the whole

story. You will also need to account for the uninsured costs of workplace illness and injury (the so-called
intangible costs). The injured worker is likely to put a higher value on what they have lost.
Step 5-Refining the CBA: To round off your CBA you will need to consider:
• That there will be a point at which increasing the resources for an intervention will make
increasingly less difference, thus you will need to find a balance between the investment required
and the benefits reaped.
• An assessment of how reliable your estimates were in calculating the costs and benefits.
Some benefits and costs may occur in the future, in this case, you may need to calculate the net present
value of these costs to make your estimates more accurate in today’s money terms. You may also wish to
conduct a sensitivity analysis. This analysis is where you replace your base figures with best case and worst
case figures to see how this would affect your decision.
Step 6-Interpreting the Cost-Benefit Analysis: The results of your CBA can be expressed in either of two
ways:
The net benefit = total benefit minus total cost
OR
The benefit-cost ratio = total benefits divided by total costs
Each of these two expressions has their proponents and their relevance. The more straightforward is the
net benefit: if after adding up all the costs and benefits, the sum is greater than zero, then this is an
argument for going ahead with the planned intervention - but keep in mind that there may be another
use of these resources which has an even greater net benefit. If, on the other hand, the sum is negative,
this suggests that, overall, people will be worse off if the change is implemented – and so, back to the
drawing-board.
Always remember that CBA is a method for helping decision makers to make better choices, but it can
never provide just one final number that automatically makes the choice for you. In making a decision
about an intervention you will need to consider the other drivers of change in your organisation and in
the wider society, as well as who will influence the decision and how they might do this.
There are costs related to the following areas:
Organisational cost: This may include costs related to hiring new staff with additional skills, hiring of OHS
consultants, providing training to existing staff,
Design costs: Related to installation of new engineering control measures e.g. sprinkler system design
and installation, change in the layout of area etc.
Planning: Time spent in training need analysis, developing new SSoW, implementation of permit to work
system, drafting approval and implementation of new SOPs etc.

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Operational: i.e. costs to maintain the control measure. For example any lubrication and greasing,
preventive maintenance of fork lift trucks, refilling of fire extinguishers etc.
The internal and external sources of information that should be considered when determining costs
The costs head required in CBA comes from a range of internal and external sources including:
• Hazard and incident reports together with details of corrective actions

• First aid records
• Injury and illness reports including details of days-off work
• Workers’ compensation claims records and other compensation details
• Trends in absenteeism or sick leave records
• Health surveillance and exposure records
• Equipment maintenance records
• Minutes of meetings including management meetings, staff and workgroup meetings and OHS
committee meetings
• Enforcement notices and actions
• Collated information such as trend analyses of incident and injury reports
• Documentation related to registered plant
• Performance appraisal records
• Training records
• Costs related to re-hiring of staff
• Staff salary and wages
• Time spent in risk assessments, SSoW and accident investigations
• Insurance premium rates
• Downtime including lost production and sales
While calculating the benefits, always estimate the projected reductions in the costs heads listed above.
The necessity of both short and long term budgetary planning when seeking approval for new
initiatives, projects and campaigns
The basis of CBA is that business will save money when investment is named on OHS aspects. However,
this savings is difficult to calculate as benefits of OHS management system appear in the long run.
For example, benefits of replacing a broken electric wire in terms of cost and energy saving may be
calculated by calculating the energy losses in that wire and combining it with the cost of electricity. This
cost then be compared with the cost of replacing the wire. However, this is not always that easy as other
aspects associated with such scenarios like increase in staff morale, reduction in downtime etc. are
difficult to calculate.
Also in many cases, enough data might not be available to support the cost benefit analysis and come up
with a concrete figure.

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7.1 Societal factors

Economic climate, government policy and initiatives
The economic climate of the country and the company may result in downsizing production, changing
working-time patterns and/or increasing job demands simply to stay in business may have a negative
impact. In some cases, we might expect a reduction in resources allocated to safety and health.
Enforcement agencies, labour inspectorates and occupational safety and health services may also have to
operate with limited resources. The restructuring and downsizing of companies throws up new challenges
in relation to OSH and this becomes the time for companies to be distracted away from OSH concerns.
No workplace is immune or free from occupational diseases and accidents. But some are more at risk than
others. Micro enterprises in the informal sector – where economic survival is the first priority – tend to
lack resources and know-how on OSH management. If they weren’t thinking about OSH issues before the
crisis, it’s unlikely they will start doing so now. If more workers take on precarious work and jobs in the
informal economy, it stands to reason that there may be more exposures to occupational hazards and
risks. It is worth pointing out here that the potential impact on the health of workers goes beyond the
victims of downsizing or the remaining workers. It also affects workers’ families and the communities
where restructuring occurs.
Also different government policies effect how a business manages its operations. The laws set by
government authorities can impact the business in either a negative or positive way and can impact the
opportunities a business can have. They also impact the processes and practices of the business.
Government policies can change from time to time, a good operations manager will be fully aware of all
modern policies and will be able to change easily to adapt to new laws.
Business owners have responsibilities regarding the safety and health in their workplace. The OH&S policy
insures that all employees, visitors and contractors behave properly on their business site or at business
related activities. The business needs to ensure that they don’t contribute to or create health or safety
problems for the community, their employees and their customers. This will also impact the business as
the health risks that are avoided will result in prevention of unnecessary costs and damage to the business
and its operations.
Industry/business risk profile

and safety risks.
Every organisation will have its own risk profile. This is the starting point for determining the greatest
health and safety issues for the organisation. In some businesses the risks will be tangible and immediate
safety hazards, whereas in other organisations the risks may be health-related and it may be a long time
before the illness becomes apparent.

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• The effectiveness of controls in place to manage those risks
minor risks will not have been given too much priority. It also informs decisions about what risk controls
Globalisation of business
Globalization has brought major changes to workplaces worldwide. Privatization, industrial restructuring,
new forms of work organization, the break-up of larger state enterprises and the proliferation of small
enterprises – to name just a few of these changes – directly affected employment, industrial relations
and, consequently, occupational safety and health (OSH) standards.
Migrant workers
For migrant workers in jobs and sectors with poor psychosocial working conditions, it is plausible that the
aspects that cause migrants to be more affected by safety risks, have to do with aspects like lack of safety
knowledge, values about work, and communication. Factors that can contribute to these include:
• Language barriers, e.g. understanding safety regulations

• Risk perception
• Knowledge and understanding of local habits and standards
• Cultural values like obedience, for example some may be more reluctant to challenge authority
and raise safety issues
• Context factors, like eagerness to earn money quickly.
Language problems and cultural differences often cause problems with respect to understanding safety
regulations. E.g. next to understanding regulations, they may have different perceptions on the
importance of obeying safety regulations and, probably as a result, feel less committed to these
regulations. In addition, they are less acquainted by local safety standards.
It is also shown that a higher risk involvement may partly be explained by characteristics of the low skilled
jobs. Both characteristics of migrants (e.g., language comprehension, knowledge and understanding of
local habits and risk perception) as well as their working conditions (e.g. temporary, unskilled and risky
work) places the occupational safety of the worker at risk. Language problems and cultural differences
often cause problems with respect to understanding safety regulations. E.g. next to understanding
regulations, they may have different perceptions on the importance of complying with safety regulations
and may be less acquainted by local safety standards.
Actually, since migrants predominantly have access to work that is characterized by high job insecurity,
poor working conditions, part-time jobs and low wages (work is more often physically demanding and
monotonous, working hours are longer, wages lower and migrant workers tend to do more often shift
work than native workers), it can be concluded that overall, migrants do seem to be more often involved
in occupational accidents.

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National level of sickness absence

Sickness absence has numerous impacts on businesses and other organisations, both direct and indirect.
These include:
• Reduction in productivity due to less workers

• Obligations to pay the salary or sick pay of absent workers
• Having to find, train and pay for temporary cover
• The possibility of reduced customer satisfaction
• Reduction in motivation and morale from the other staff
• Other employees having to bear the extra workload, which has the potential to lead to overwork,
stress, and further sickness absence.
Sickness absence has an enormous impact on the productivity of businesses. Not only long term absences
(in weeks and months) can be extremely disruptive; but short term absence (in days) can also be difficult
to manage, particularly where there is frequent short term sickness.
Societal expectations of equality

Some people with disabilities can face barriers at work because of how their work situation is organised.
In many cases, these barriers can be removed by changing some feature of the workplace environment.
Making these changes is commonly referred to as ‘reasonable adjustment’. Employers have a

responsibility to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace so that an employee with a disability can
do their job effectively. Failure to do so may amount to discrimination.
Adjustments should respond to the particular needs or concerns of the worker (including contract
workers, trainees, apprentices and business partners). Employers must ensure that these groups of people
aren’t seriously disadvantaged when doing their jobs.
This includes:
• Making reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process

• Doing things another way – e.g. allowing someone with social anxiety disorder to have their own
desk instead of hot-desking
• Making physical changes – e.g. installing a ramp for a wheelchair user or an audio-visual fire alarm
for a deaf person
• Letting a disabled person work somewhere else – e.g. on the ground floor for a wheelchair user
• Changing their equipment – e.g. providing a special keyboard if they have arthritis
• Allowing employees who become disabled to make a phased return to work – e.g. working flexible
hours or part-time
• Offering employees training opportunities, recreation and refreshment facilities

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7.2 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

What is CSR
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a type of business self-regulation with the aim of being socially
accountable. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to strategies that companies put into action as
part of corporate governance that are designed to ensure the company’s operations are ethical and
beneficial for society.
There is no one "right" way companies can practice CSR; many corporate CSR initiatives strive to positively
contribute to the public, the economy or the environment. In today's socially conscious environment,
employees and customers place a premium on working for and spending their money with businesses
that prioritize CSR. A robust CSR program is an opportunity for companies to demonstrate their good
corporate citizenship … and protect the company from outsized risk by looking at the whole social and
environmental sphere that surrounds the company.
It was found that more than 60% of people hope businesses will drive social and environmental change in
the absence of government regulation. Nearly 90% of the consumers surveyed said they would purchase
a product because a company supported an issue they care about. More importantly, nearly 75% said
they would refuse to buy from a company if they learned the company supported an issue contrary to
their own beliefs.
The four types of CSR

Recognizing how important socially responsible efforts are to their customers, employees and
stakeholders, many companies focus on a few broad CSR categories, including:
Environmental efforts - One primary focus of CSR is the environment. Businesses, regardless of size, have
large carbon footprints. Any steps a company can take to reduce its footprint is considered good for both
the company and society.
Philanthropy - Businesses can practice social responsibility by donating money, products or services to
social causes and nonprofits. Larger companies tend to have plentiful resources that can benefit charities
and local community programs; however, as a small business, your efforts can make a big difference. If
there is a specific charity or program you have in mind, reach out to the organization and ask them about
their specific needs and whether a donation of money, time or perhaps your company's products would
best help them.
Organisation diversity - By treating employees fairly and ethically, companies can demonstrate CSR. This
is especially true of businesses that operate across international locations.
Volunteering - Participating in local causes or volunteering your time (and your staff's time) in community
events says a lot about a company's sincerity. By doing good deeds without expecting anything in return,
companies can express their concern (and support) for specific issues and social causes.

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The benefits for organisations from CSR

In a way, corporate social responsibility can be seen as a public relations effort. However, it goes beyond
that, as corporate social responsibility can also boost a firm’s competitiveness. The business benefits of
corporate social responsibility include the following:
• Stronger brand image, recognition, and reputation - CSR adds value to firms by establishing and
maintaining a good corporate reputation and/or brand equity.
• Increased customer loyalty and sales - Customers of a firm that practices CSR feel that they are
helping the firm support good causes.
• Operational cost savings - Investing in operational efficiencies results in operational cost savings
as well as reduced environmental impact.
• Retaining key and talented employees - Employees often stay longer and are more committed to
their firm knowing that they are working for a business that practices CSR.
• Easier access to funding - Many investors are more willing to support a business that practices
CSR.
• Reduced regulatory burden - Strong relationships with regulatory bodies can help to reduce a
firm’s regulatory burden.
7.3 Organisation change

Why organisational change needs to be effectively managed
Many organisations face continuous pressure to change in order to meet their business objectives in a
competitive market place. Industry is undergoing increasing change and there has been, and continues
to be, pressure for organisational change and staff reductions.
Organisational changes such as reducing staffing levels, using contractors or outsourcing, combining
departments, or changes to roles & responsibilities are usually not analysed and controlled as thoroughly
as plant or process changes. Such changes can, if inadequately conceived or implemented, have a
detrimental effect on safety. Even subtle changes to organisations can have significant impacts on the
management of hazards.
Rapid or continuous change can also have a detrimental effect on health and poorly managed
organisational change can increase the workforce's experience of stress.
The impacts of organisational change include:
• changes of responsibility without adequate arrangements to ensure capability or competence;

• reduction in supervision;
• team-working deficiencies;
• conflicting priorities;
• loss of key skills or knowledge;
• overwork leading to inefficiency and lack of appropriate control;
• lack of clarity about, or complete loss of, important functions and responsibilities;
• change of priority away from safety related tasks;

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• reduction in available resources for maintenance;

• inadequate staffing for handling upsets, crises, or peak workloads;
• reduction in morale, motivation and organisational “citizenship behaviours”.
The above impacts of change will have consequences for any safety-critical or complex organisation.
Use of the Kubler-Ross Change Curve to manage the change process

The Kubler-Ross Change Curve which is also known as the 5 stages of grief is a model consisting of the
various levels or stages of emotions which are experienced by a person who is soon going to approach
death or is a survivor of an intimate death. The 5 stages included in this model are denial, anger,
bargaining, depression and acceptance. This model was introduced by and is named after Elisabeth
Kubler-Ross in a book called ‘Death and Dying’ which came out in the year 1969. This book, as well as the
model, was inspired by her association and work with patients who were terminally ill. The psychiatrist
Kubler-Ross got inclined towards this subject because of lack of research and information on the subject
of death and experience of dying. She began her research by analyzing and evaluating those who were
faced with death, but the examination took the form of a series of seminars and then patient interviews,
etc. later on.
After the book ‘Death and Dying’ was published, the concept or the model was widely accepted, and it
was found that it was valid in a majority of cases and situations relating to change. This model and her
research also improved the overall understanding as well as the procedures followed in medical care. The
5 stages, according to her are transferable to different ways and degrees and may vary from person to
person. Besides those who are faced by intimate death, this model also holds true in the case of others
who may be faced by less serious physical conditions or trauma. Some of these situations or cases include
injury, disability, work issues, relationship problems and financial problems, etc.
Relevance of Kubler-Ross Change Curve in Business:
The Kubler-Ross Model also holds true when it comes to business, work or employment. Every
organization needs to bring about changes in its management and policies. But besides the improvement
of systems, there must be a change in the people or employees as well. If even in bringing about several
changes in the systems and processes, the employees of your company persist in their old ways, and then
the thousands of dollars invested will go to waste. This is why it is important for the employees too to
adapt and change accordingly. Only when the workforce of an organization makes personal changes, or
transitions can the company move ahead and reap the benefits.
Every organization needs to support the employees in the process of making transitions or changes. These
individual transformations can be traumatic and may involve a lot of power loss and prestige issues. The
easier it is for the employees to move along on their journey, the easier will it be for the organization to
move towards success. Thus, this impacts the success rate and overall profits experienced by the
company. The Change Curve in business is thus a powerful model that can help one understand and deal
with changes and personal transitions. It helps to fathom how one will react to change and how to provide
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It is essential to understand that we do not move along the stages in a linear direction or step by step. A
person tends to move into stages in a random order and may sometimes even return back to a previous
stage after a certain point in time. Each stage can last for a different time period, and it is possible for a
person to get stuck in a particular stage and not move on from there. The following are brief descriptions
of each of the 5 stages of grief:
Denial:
The Stage of shock or denial is usually the first stage in the Kubler-Ross Model and is mostly short-lived.
This is a phase during which one puts on a temporary defense mechanism and takes time to process
certain disturbing news or reality. One may not want to believe what is happening and that it is happening
to him/her. It can bring about a dip in productivity and the ability to think and act. After the initial shock
subsides, one may experience denial and may remain focused on the past. Some people tend to remain
in the state of denial for a long time and may lose touch with reality.
At Stage 1 – This is the stage at which the employees or employee may be in a position of shock or denial.
He or she may not be able to digest the fact that he/she has to undergo change and adapt to something
new. They may need time to adjust to the changes and for a long time, they may deny that they need any.
Here, as a manager or employer, the role should be to help employees understand why this is happening
and how it can be helpful. This stage demands communication so that employees can have full knowledge
and can have their questions answered. Employers must make it a point to avoid overwhelming the
employees with a lot of information in one go and give it slowly and gradually.
Anger:
When the realization finally hits, and one understands the gravity of the situation, he/she may become
angry and may look for someone to blame. Anger can be manifested or expressed in many ways. While
some take out the anger on themselves, others may direct it towards others around them. While some
may be angry at life in general, others may blame the economy. One always tends to remain irritable,
frustrated and short tempered during this stage.
At stage 2 – When finally the gravity of the situation settles in, and reality becomes clear, employees or
workers may begin to feel fear from what lies ahead, and this may also turn into anger and resentment.
They have been in a comfort zone for so long and knowing that they need to learn, change and adapt may
make them angry. This stage has to be managed very sensibly by managements and organizations because
some employees tend to vent their anger a little too harshly. This could create chaos and to avoid it,
careful planning must be done in advance. Clear communication and support should still be the focus for
organizations at this level as well. Organizations must understand that this is just a natural reaction and
with time, it shall pass away and make way for acceptance.
Bargaining:
When the stage of anger passes away, one may start thinking about ways to postpone the inevitable and
try to find out the best thing left in the situation. Those who are not faced by death but by another trauma

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may try to negotiate in the situation and come to a point of compromise. Bargaining may help to come to
a sustainable solution and might bring some relief to those who are moving close to what they wish to
avoid altogether. The search for a different outcome or a less traumatic one may remain on during this
stage.
At stage 3 – When employees finally understand the change and realize how they must adapt to new
situations and circumstances, they may try to find the best possible scenario for them to fit in and adapt
to. They may try to bargain with the management so that not a lot is compromised. They may try to learn
only what they think is important but as an employer or part of management, your role should be to
ensure that everyone gets the best of training so that the change incorporated can run successfully. The
training stage may take time and for employees, figuring out their best options for a comfortable tenure
ahead will be the focus. A company cannot rush employees to learn quickly or adapt to changes fast. It
cannot expect 100% productivity during this phase.
Depression:
Depression is a stage in which the person tends to feel sadness, fear, regret, guilt and other negative
emotions. He/she may have completely given up by now and may now reach a dead end from where the
road only seems dark. One may display signs or indifference, reclusiveness, pushing others away and zero
excitement towards anything in life. This may seem like a lowest point in life with no way ahead. Some
common signs of depression include sadness, low energy, feeling demotivated, losing trust in god, etc.
At Stage 4 – Learning phase may not always be a very happy and comfortable zone for most employees
of a workplace. This phase could result in low energies at the workplace due to low morale and
excitement. It is important for the management to understand that this phase is not easy for the
workforce as well. Hence, the more exciting the training can be made, the better would it be for the
employees to move ahead and give their best. Employees may have realized by now that there is no way
out of the situation, and this may prove difficult for some of them to handle.
Acceptance:
When people realize that fighting the change that is coming into their life is not going to make the grief
go away, they resign to the situation and accept it completely. The resigned attitude may not be a happy
space but is one in which the person may stop resisting change and move ahead with it.
While some people totally resign and go into a deep state of low energy, others may try to make the most
of the time left on their hand and explore new opportunities. One has come to a point of peace and is
prepared to take one whatever has to follow next.
At Stage 5 – This is the stage that managers or workplaces wait for after introducing a new change into an
enterprise. People finally begin to embrace the change, accept the situation and start building new hopes
and aspirations. They realize and understand the importance of the change and resign towards it. While
some may resign because of lack of any other option, others may resign to the reality in a positive way.
The managers of the workplace will finally begin to see the benefits of the hard work put in by them so

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far. The team is showing improvements now, and the overall productivity begins to improve. The road
may have been rocky, but it is now time to celebrate, move towards a brighter future and expect more
profits around the corner.
Dead Car Battery example
One of the best examples of the Kubler-Ross Change Curve is the Dead Car Battery example. The following
given example clearly demonstrates the transition process from one stage to another.
It’s a chilly winter morning, and it is dark outdoors. There is a thin layer of frost on the ground but you are
late for work and hence have to rush out to the car parked outside. As you place the key in the ignition
and turn the car on, you realize that the battery is dead. What follows is a clear demonstration of the
Kubler-Ross transition stages:
• Shock and denial – Your first reaction is of absolute shock and denial. You cannot believe this
happening to you when you are already running late, and you thus try to start the car again and
again.
• Anger – Now that you realize the car cannot be started, you begin to feel angry and very mad at
the situation.
• Bargaining – Even on knowing it won’t help, you start asking the car to start, just for once. You
promise it in your mind that you will keep it maintained and get the battery charged as soon as
possible.
• Depression – All the negative thoughts start rushing to your mind. You begin to feel depressed,
sad and hopeless. You fear your job will be taken away and see now way out of the situation.
• Acceptance – Now you figure out what you should do next. You take a cab and decide to deal with
the situation later on.
Key principles of managing organisational change

• The key issue is that the direct and indirect effects of a proposed change on the control of hazards
should be identified and assessed.
• Due to the greater potential consequences of an accident, major accident hazard sites should aim
for higher reliability in their planning and decision making.
• Avoid too many simultaneous changes which may result in inadequate attention to some or all.
Phase changes whenever possible.
• Organisational change should be planned in a thorough, systematic, and realistic way; similar to
the processes for managing plant change.
• Two aspects of the change need risk assessment: risks and opportunities resulting from the
change (where you want to get to) and risks arising from the process of change (how you get
there).
• Consult with staff (including contractors) before, during and after the change - don't miss serious
issues hidden among all the natural concerns.
• Ensure that all key tasks and responsibilities are identified and successfully transferred to the new
organisation.

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• Provide training and experienced support/supervision for staff with new or changed roles.
• Consider reviews of plans and assessments by independent internal or external experts - be
prepared to challenge.
• Remember that change can happen even to apparently static organisations e.g. the effects of an
ageing workforce.
8.1 Contractors Supply chains

Selection of contractors
In today's global and national economies, businesses increasingly rely on the outsourcing of parts of their
activities and processes. Companies function and compete thus more and more on a supply-chain level,
in specific networks with their suppliers and service providers. This outsourcing trend and growing
importance of supply chains has its implications for the working conditions and health and safety of
workers of supplier and contracting companies.
It’s absolutely vital to select competent contractors, regardless of the size or urgency of the project.
Workplace health and safety requirements don’t start once the contractor is on site; they need to be in
place through the whole engagement process.
When selecting contractors, you should consider the following:
• Level of industry/business-relevant experience

• Familiarity with the hazards of your industry
• Previous health and safety performance records
• Safety policies, risk assessments and training records
• Insurance cover – Professional Indemnity, Public Liability, Workers Compensation
• Communication methods before and during the work
• Subcontractors and their competence
• Any enforcement actions that have been taken
• Supervision requirements
• Notifications process for problems and incidents
The above is not a definitive list of every consideration for contractor selection, but certainly a starting
point that covers your bases.
There are two main supply chain networks or relationships between companies and the members of their
supply chain: the primary network (a company and its suppliers of certain goods and materials) and the
secondary network (a company and its contractors and subcontractors providing specific services such as
maintenance, construction, cleaning or catering activities.
Additional arrangements when selecting a specialist contractor, e.g. Occupational hygienists
• Evidence of relevant competency, i.e., qualifications, member of a trade or professional body at

a relevant level that will include completion of continuing professional development.

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• Confirmation to relevant code(s) of ethics and/or demonstration of independence, impartiality

and integrity
• Ask contractor to demonstrate why they are competent to do the work
• Evidence that good practice/industry standards are followed
Procedures in place for ensuring co-ordination between organisation and contractor of
• Information sharing, e.g. site rules

• Hazard reporting
• Control of access to hazardous areas
• Emergency procedures
• Safe systems of work (including permits-to-work)
• The assessment of exposure to hazardous substances
• Sign in/ sign out
• Active monitoring
• Assessing number of incidents and special arrangements.
Managing health and safety within supply chains

Many OSH challenges require actions well beyond the boundaries of a single company. This is because
many companies work in supply chains. A supply chain is most often ruled or governed by one company
or organisation, the so called ‘focal’ company. The focal company forms the centre of the supply chain. It
is provided with goods/materials from suppliers and concludes contracts with companies who act as
service or production providers. An example is a construction or maintenance project which frequently
involves a prime contractor who makes use of sub-contractors (contracting chain). These sub-contractors,
in turn, can engage other subcontractors resulting in a complex chain of companies and responsibilities in
order to work safely. Another example is the identification of substances usage throughout the supply
chain, or the presence of substances from the Candidate List in products and articles as part of REACH
(Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of Chemicals). The aforementioned examples
show that a single company can take proactive action, but would not be able to ‘solve’ the OSH problem(s)
alone.
Two main types of supply chain networks of organisations have to be considered in terms of OSH
• Companies and their suppliers (supply chain) - the primary network: Within this network there is
primarily a flow of goods and materials. Companies are linked through information, knowledge,
materials and capital flows. A chain suggests that companies are linked in a straight line. This is
often seen as a primary network of companies, in which production, distribution and sales of
goods occur. A focal company can use a diversity of instruments to influence the members of its
supply chain to apply sustainable OSH practices, such as economic pressure or incentives, or
policies to deal with suppliers, retailers and purchasers. This network is further explored in
chapter 3 of this report.
• Companies linked together by contracting bonds (contracting chain) - the secondary or supporting
network: The secondary network comprises a flow of people and their services (contracting and

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sub-contracting). Companies are linked through information, knowledge, people and capital
flows. It is getting more and more common for construction work, maintenance projects and
other work (ICT, cleaning, catering) to be performed by contractors. Often this work is of a
sporadic nature which implies that employees are needed only temporarily. Specialized
companies and their employees are hired to perform the work better, faster and usually cheaper.
Not only do employers hire contractors, but these contractors can also hire sub-contractors and
a chain of companies emerges. The work takes place mostly at the premises of the focal
company/organisation.
Both networks are affected by stakeholders such as the government, non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) and customers. The government is an important stakeholder which can bring in regulations,
economic incentives and procurement and recognition policies to ensure primary and secondary networks
apply sustainable OSH practices. As part of the primary and secondary networks, and as a response to
pressures and incentives, more and more focal companies are moving to a strategic OSH policy, starting
internally (internal policy, operations and culture) and extending it to the whole chain of suppliers, clients,
subcontractors and stakeholders.
Definitions and general aspects of OSH in the supply chain
A supplier is a party that supplies goods or

services. A supplier may be distinguished
from a contractor or subcontractor, who
commonly adds specialized input to
deliverables. The terms ‘supply chain’ has
been defined by Handfield and Ernest (1999)
as encompassing ‘all activities associated
with the flow and transformation of goods
from raw materials stage (extraction),
through to the end user, as well as the
associated information flows. Material and
information flow both up and down the
supply chain.’ They define Supply chain
management (SCM) as ‘the integration of
Supply chain cycle
these activities through improved supply
chain relationships to achieve a sustainable
competitive advantage’. Walters (2009) addresses the increased complexity of supply chains: ‘the supply
covers simple transactions between buyers and suppliers as well as complex arrangements in which there
may be multiple links in supply chains’ (p. 49). For example, a paint supply chain consists of substances
manufacturers, paint producers or formulators, and ultimately, application of the paint. These are the
links of the supply chain. It is quite possible that this paint supply chain consists of more links, such as the
distributor of raw materials to the paint industry. See Figure 1 for the relationships between the
companies in the supply chain. Current business and organisational practices have led to the increased
importance of supply chains to business strategy as well as within national and global economies (Walters,

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2009). Increasing globalization and continued outsourcing cause companies to function and compete on
a supply chain level. Hence, focal companies of supply chains might be held responsible for the
environmental and social performance of their suppliers. Focal companies, according to Seuring and
Müller (2008) are those companies that usually:
(1) rule or govern the supply chain;
(2) provide the direct contact to the customer; and
(3) design the product or service offered.
This is especially the case for brand-owning companies, as they are likely to come under pressure from
stakeholders, such as NGOs (Carter and Jennings, 2002). For example, focal companies such as C&A and
H&M were held responsible for occupational health issues at their suppliers in India (Graafland, 2002,
Volkskrant, 2010) and Nokia was criticised about the labour conditions in its factories in Asia (Wilde and
de Haan, 2006). Generally inhuman working conditions (Graafland, 2002, Preuss, 2001), contaminations
of the (local) environment (Seuring, 2001) or use of hazardous substances (Wilde and de Haan, 2006) were
frequently mentioned as problems. Therefore, focal companies are taking proactive actions to promote
better environmental and social conditions, including OSH performance at their suppliers.
Focal Company:
This section gives an overview, analysis, conclusions and recommendations on how OSH can be promoted
through the above-mentioned supply chain networks. The review examines and discusses the drivers and
instruments for so-called ‘focal’ companies to promote OSH practices in those networks. Furthermore,
the governmental influence (national and EU) on both networks is investigated. The second network,
which describes the relationship between the company and its (sub-) contractors, appeared to be a critical
issue for. Therefore, this report does not aim to be exhaustive in terms of OSH problems and tools, but to
give a general overview of the relationships between the actors in the different networks and the
framework in which OSH is promoted.
Why modern slavery must be managed within supply chains

Modern slavery is everywhere. From the construction of FIFA World Cup stadiums in Qatar to the cotton
farms of Uzbekistan, from cattle ranches in Paraguay to fisheries in Thailand and the Philippines to
agriculture in Italy, from sweatshops in Brazil and Argentina to berry pickers in Sweden. The production
chains of clothes, food and services consumed globally are tainted with forced labor. The world is three
times richer in terms of global GDP than it was 30 years ago yet we have historic levels of inequality. Eighty
percent of the world’s people say that the minimum wage is not enough to live on, work is more insecure
with a predominance of short-term contracts or other non-standard forms of employment and both
informal work and modern slavery are not only growing but increasingly prevalent in the supply chains of
large corporations.
In the global private economy, the ILO calculates forced labor generates $150 billion each year but it could
be even higher. In all countries, unscrupulous employers and recruiters are increasingly exploiting gaps in

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Green World Group
international labor and migration law and enforcement. After drugs and arms, human trafficking is now
the world’s third biggest crime business. Cleaning it up is possible. No corporation or investor would
blindly sign a contract, enter into a merger or risk large sums of capital without doing due diligence.
Assessing risk is a corner stone of successful business practice and corporations expect the rule of law to
protect their interests. Yet when it comes to the very people companies rely on to produce their profits,
few respect the rights of or take responsibility for decent work for workers. Up to 94 percent of the global
workforce of 50 major corporations is a hidden workforce because responsibility has been simply
outsourced many times over.
Due diligence and transparency are the key to ending modern slavery in supply chains. Where
corporations take responsibility for due diligence and consequently make their supply chains transparent
then it is possible to establish grievance procedures that can facilitate remedy of any violations of rights
at work from forced labor to paying below the minimum wage. The Business Human Rights Resource
Centre report, Modern Slavery in Company Operations and Supply Chains: Mandatory Transparency,
Mandatory Due Diligence, and Public Procurement Due Diligence, commissioned by the International
Trade Union Confederation with support from Friedrich Ebert Stiftung gives an insight into the growing
body of law and practice from international standards to emerging national legislation. The critical
ingredient to end slavery is political will. G20 Labor Ministers accept that the global economy cannot be
built on oppression and rights violations, now we need government leaders to stare down corporate
greed. Everybody’s sons and daughters must be afforded the same rights, wages and decent work we
want for our own.

284
Green World Group
HEAD OFFICE INDIA

Green World Management Consultants & Training Institute
249/2, P Block MMDA Main Road, Arumbakkam, Chennai – 600 106
Tel: 044 48561333
Email: info.india@greenworldsafety.com
CORPORATE OFFICE UAE

Green World Safety and Security Consultancies LLC
Suite # 102 First Floor, Sapphire Tower, Near Dnata, Deira, Dubai Po Box: 83127
Tel: +971-4-2698807
Email: info@greenwgroup.com
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International Diploma for Occupational Health

and Safety Management Professionals

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and

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Green World Safety & Security Consultancies LLC

GWG - NEBOSH IDIP Textbook - Version 1 (June 2021)

Specification Date: July 2020

NEBOSH Syllabus Publication Date: April 2021

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer

• Health and Safety Executive HSE-UK

We’d like to express a gratitude of thanks to the authors of this book.

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

Issue Date Summary of Review and Modifications Version

1st June 2021 First Issue 00

1.1 Socio-legal models .............................................................................................................................. 6

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

1.5 Third parties ...................................................................................................................................... 43

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

4.1 Hazard identification techniques .................................................................................................... 157

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

1.1 Socio-legal models

Different States therefore take different approaches to

In the European Union, Member States have enforcing

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

Advantages of goal-setting Legislation

Disadvantages of goal-setting legislation

A prescriptive approach ‘prescribes’ exactly what a duty-holder must do in relation to a particular

• Every part of transmission machinery shall be securely fenced

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

Advantages of prescriptive legislation

Disadvantages of prescriptive legislation

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

The Hierarchy of Laws

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

• Enforcement of codes of conduct depends on whether they are considered

Non-pecuniary loss looks at other losses less easy to quantify.

A system of "no-fault" liability would be likely to offer:

• More consistency in damages

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

Surprisingly enough, there are some disadvantages;

• Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

• There has been oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional actions by the servants of

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

There are three types of notices that can be served:

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

1.3 The International Labour Organization and its conventions and

1. People's Republic of China (which replaced the Republic of China).

The organisation is divided into administrative bodies, including

• The General Assembly

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)

1. Standards and fundamental principles and rights at work

International Labour Conference

Unit ID1: Know – Workplace Health and Safety Principles (International)