A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing

The post A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing appeared first on Bill Fitzgerald & Associates.

Client A is a high tech, local, small enterprise that really gets safety and risk.  The in house Safety Champion has pulled together a de facto working party of three disparately skilled people that has brought up to date and are addressing the hazards in an existing but previously idle risk register at a great rate.  As well as dealing with their risks they are starting to build a policy framework and have created a training schedule with training of all staff to occur in February as well as assessments of all workstations.   BFA, sub-contracting to Work Safety Hub, has a role here to mentor, second opinion, nudge and also seek out best practice information such as lone worker safety devices.  We are oiling their wheels but they are driving.  They are a joy to work with.

Client B is a large enterprise subsidiary of an international organisation.  BFA role here has been to help this firm try to build its risk register, create a training matrix and a calendar of actions to create a WHS system applicable across Australia.  This firm has allocated a one-person link through a Quality professional who seems not to be trying to resolve safety issues but to meet budget and complete task boxes.  We know Client B will not succeed until they pick the right person and engender some momentum addressing risk.  Here we have provided training and our expertise but the getting of the advice seems to be the outcome – not the acting on it.  We have provided wheels, oil, engine and road but no-one is driving.  They have been “disappointing” to deal with.

Client A – nimble, enthusiastic, achieving rapid risk reduction.

Client B – ponderous, tick-the-box compliance, achieving nothing

As consultants we wish all clients could be like Client A.  The crucial difference – not size, not history, not level of risk, the crucial difference is the mindset of the internal champion.  rarely if ever described in safety research or blogs, the internal practitioner or champion is one of the keys to the success or failure of a safety transformation.

The post Risk drives Safety but more so the Safety Champiion appeared first on Bill Fitzgerald & Associates.

I have delivered a Government training product that reinforces all the negative perceptions about OHS and, in contrast, continued to participate in a Government program fostering grassroots safety support for small business.  Guess which one is more widely known and has more traction in Exhibition St?

And rounding out the year I have lowered my blood pressure by raising my blood pressure.  Yes, 10 years later I finally returned to the dojo and have begun the long road back to healthiness.  It is not just the weight loss (down 7 and counting), the blood pressure improvement, the increased stamina and reducing breathlessness – it is the euphoric natural uppers my body is producing.  Wow, how good can life be.  Learn to fight and feel so peaceful.

BFA has had a mixed year in workflow but at the time of writing has an almost unhealthy supply of work in this normally sparse time of the consultancy calendar, and a good looking order book in pipeline.  I am looking forward to 2016 – may it be another year of contrasts – but maybe  I’ll avoid the slow payers this year!

The post A year of contrasts appeared first on Bill Fitzgerald & Associates.

20 – 25 years ago – hire them and let them do their thing – check work quality at job end, pay them.  A few businesses check for insurance cover.

15-20 years ago – councils, some corporations demand insurances, safety management systems (SMS) – check at tender, check work at job end, pay.

10 -15 years ago – many large businesses demand insurances, SMS, Job Safety Analyses (JSA) – check existence at tender, check work at job end and pay.

Now – Many large businesses demand insurances, check quality of SMS and Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS) at tender, check work quality at job end and pay them.  Many smaller and medium businesses are buying off-the-shelf SMS and SWMS to submit at tender or before jobs.  A very few know how to create a SWMS for a job.  Some sectors are very good – mining, unionised construction, government (parts).  Unlike big business, most small and medium businesses are doing nothing when they engage contractors or, if anything, are asking for but not checking their SWMS.

Many organisations still do not monitor the compliance of their contractors with the SWMS they submit before work.  If they did they might be surprised what little protection they are actually getting by asking for the SWMS.  Don’t be another one of the businesses that are stuck in the unfinished evolution of contractor safety management.

Of course I may have just been unlucky in my dealings but I know when I walk into a small or medium business I can almost guarantee there is inadequate contractor management.  There may well be poor safety in their business operations but there will be poor contractor safety management.

Any ideas on effecting some widespread societal change Safety Institute Members?

The post Unfinished evolution of contractor safety management appeared first on Bill Fitzgerald & Associates.

Bill Fitzgerald has been certified by the Safety Institute of Australia under their new certification regime as a “Certified Generalist OHS Professional” replacing the previous CPMSIA status.

BFA has also been pleased to be an associate over the past several years with Work Safety Hub – performing client reviews and assessments.  In the recent past the volume of that work has increased and in the near future we will be involved in a further development of that relationship –  implementing some of the change recommendations from recent reports with Work Safety Hub clients.  A prized relationship we know that Work Safety Hub are credible and professional – just the sort of people with whom we want to be doing business.

The post New Associate, new certification and our strategic association appeared first on Bill Fitzgerald & Associates.

Small and medium businesses want to do the right thing but no-one will tell them what they need to do – in practical terms – they want solutions but not the process or the theory behind the solutions (although they do need these).   Only some want, or need, safety systems.  We have seen some high cost and high complexity safety systems sold to small businesses that do not need them or who were not shown how to use them.  Generally, there is very little knowledge of chemical safety, plant and equipment safety and emergency procedures.  Most get licenses for forklift drivers but do not engage in workplace traffic management.  None use risk assessments to determine plant, chemical or manual handling safety.  Most have some unguarded machinery, none have HR policies to deal with fatigue, chronic illness or disability.  Most do have copied OHS and bullying policies.  Many have some copied documents to show companies that demand them – things like SWMS, JSA’s or “safety management systems,” but do not actually use these documents well or at all.  Most do not record inspections – if they do them.

What we are also now seeing are businesses with a notice issued by a WorkSafe inspector and no idea what to do. So they contact WorkSafe and are referred to us.  We are happy to help them get past the notice and to then help with their entire safety program, remembering that most want solutions not systems.  Recently I was disappointed to see a franchisee of a national brand who had received no safety guidance – they now have it – free – courtesy of WorkSafe.  A pity it was not provided by the franchise.

The post Small business safety – Essentials program appeared first on Bill Fitzgerald & Associates.

The post Confined Space Fatality Risk Being Widely Ignored appeared first on Bill Fitzgerald & Associates.

What they face is what faces many such evolving and growing organizations – learning what they need to do, deciding how to do it and when to invest the money on the new “larger” infrastructure things such as going from Excel records to platforms with wider functionality in multi-site incident reporting, learning management systems or libraries of Safe Work Instructions (SWI)s or Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)s.  And moving from person to person service contract reliance with trusted tradies to contractor management systems with documentary evidence.  They are on the right path.

There are many consultants making good livings from building safety management systems – and not all are doing it for the best price for the purchaser.  BFA aims to provide a reasonably priced alternative to organizations undergoing transition.

The post Evolving safety systems appeared first on Bill Fitzgerald & Associates.