Playing it safe
1 min read
We need to forge a more collaborative partnership with the Health and Safety Executive as a raft of regulatory changes head our way says WM editor Max Gosney.
Inspire your people to embrace the safety cause and watch standards soar. That's the take home message from WM's health and safety special issue.
You can issue edicts until the ink cartridge runs dry, but win over the hearts of the workforce if you really want to see extraordinary results.
It's a sentiment that seems sadly lost on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) right now. The regulator's 'gotcha' approach is leaving many manufacturers feeling alienated. Glance at the HSE website and you'll see a back catalogue of press releases proclaiming hefty fines for those guilty of safety flaws.
Of course the regulator has a duty to shame the cowboys. Those who flout the law and put lives at risk are an embarrassment to the manufacturing community. But please don't infantilise the vast majority of proud professionals revolted by the thought of a serious incident on their site.
As a sector, our safety record does have room for improvement. No one can be proud that you're 100 times more likely to die going to work in a factory than flying on a jet plane. But let's learn a lesson from how the air industry has achieved such high standards: through strong collaboration between safety watchdogs and stakeholders.
The HSE should do more to celebrate manufacturing safety leaders. Let's champion the businesses that have gone years without a lost time injury and profile those sites which have driven up safety standards.
Just look at our heartbreaking stories of manufacturers who've suffered a fatality (p18). Wherever the fault lay, all had the courage to use the tragic loss as a force for
improvement. Their stories offer a more powerful way to convert others to the cause than preaching with a list of punishments.
For our part, we must have the confidence to speak out on safety and answer HSE chief Judith Hackitt's call for manufacturing to put forward safety champions (p14).
Building a collaborative partnership with HSE has never been more important ahead of its cost recovery plan and other sweeping changes to health and safety heading our way.
