Team building ban blasted

President of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Ray Hurst, said that by denying people the opportunity to experience challenging team-building exercises could hinder your employees from working together to solve a common problem: “There’s very much a parallel with health and safety at work, which is also a team task on an everyday basis.” And, Hurst has pointed out, using the new Corporate Manslaughter Act to justify a ban on activities like skydiving, white water rafting or paintballing, is mis-use of legislation designed to make it easier to hold organisations who kill to account. He added: “Health and safety legislation is about allowing an activity to go ahead, and under health and safety law there is nothing that says team-building should be risk-free. In fact, risk is a necessity for many team-building exercises. “Sky diving might have more risk to it than cookery, but all employers need to do is identify the hazards, what harm might occur and what controls they can put in place. To sky dive, this would involve a parachute, and training on how to jump out of an aircraft, how to open the parachute and how to take up the correct position for landing. It’s always about being a responsible employer and meeting legal requirements in a balanced way. “The introduction of the new Corporate Manslaughter Act should not be seen as an excuse for gutless executives to ban team building activities. The Corporate Manslaughter Act is here to deal with those companies that show blatant disregard for the safety of their employees – sending staff on team-building exercises is actually a sign your company cares for its employees! It certainly wasn’t introduced to ban team-building exercises. “So let’s not be silly and let unrealistic fears curtail our corporate team building events. By all means make your staff risk aware and take steps to combat the most dangerous hazards in your workplace, but let’s give staff something to look forward to every now and then.”