5 Things Most Safety Consultants WON'T Tell Their Clients.

We all want the secrets, an easy bullet which can be used to solve these pesky safety problems. Well, here are 5 of them, but it may be hard to hear:

Your biggest risk is leadership behaviour.
Its you, not them. Many safety issues come from mixed messages from leaders who say “safety first” but reward speed, cost-cutting, or rule-bending. No amount of paperwork fixes that.

You as a leader will only get the safety culture that you accept in your business, if you don't check and correct bad habits, if you don't focus on daily safety, your culture will struggle in a downward spiral. Take safety seriously and let it be seen! If you walk by it, you accept it.

Your documents are probably written to protect the company, not your staff.
Over the years, your safe systems of work have developed into a 50 page mess. Nobody reads them or finds them useful. How did this happen?
I see time and time again extremely long and complex safety instructions (RAMS, SSOW, SOPs). I think these have developed over time, for example; a minor update here, a change following an accident, added this requirement in because I saw a court case, or an auditor suggested we do XYZ. Over the years they develop into a liability protection document, and stop being a helpful tool for the worker. By doing this, you increase the chance of having an accident, and trust me your paperwork wont matter. In fact lengthy and complex safety instructions will work against you in court. Keep it simple, keep it relevant.

Your accident rate looks good because people don't report.
Low numbers don't mean low accidents. In fact it can indicate a very poor culture, one of blame, fear, labelling and a lack of confidence in receiving a positive response.
Companies should actively encourage incident reporting, not to blame, but to make sure that where there are significant risks, they are managed so it cant happen again. However, be sure not to pivot the other way and promote rewards for near miss reporting, this will just encourage bogus reports and drown you in false paperwork.

Training isn't the problem, the process is.
Many companies retrain staff following accidents, and although this may be needed in some circumstances, it is rarely the case. Most accidents happen because the equipment is poorly designed, not fit for purpose, unrealistic workloads or distractions during critical operations. It will add more value to critically review your process and risk assessment than point the finger toward operators and suggest its their competence which needs to improve. Design safety into your process, rather than training how to dodge it.

You already know most of your problems - you're just avoiding them.
Chronic issues like understaffing, outdated or poorly maintained equipment, lack of trust in management or lack of quality communication with staff are all internally know, but are labelled as too difficult or expensive to fix.

So there you have it, my 5 things I suspect you haven't been told, but can possibly resonate with. How will you improve safety in your business?

If you need a hand get in touch with LESH, safety is kind of our thing.

01623 239705