Welcome to the next episode of The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast! In today’s episode, your host Colin Nottage discusses how it’s great when Health & Safety is going right in your business. However, it is easy to become complacent and relaxed and you may be letting your business down.
Colin argues this is when you should challenge things when they are going well. This is when you should take the time to look more closely at how your employees are operating to make sure you are keeping them accountable, but also that they are not letting you down by risking their health or others wellbeing.
Colin recalls anecdotal evidence from his time at an industrial plant in Wales to drive this point home, and encourages you to take the burden away from employees reporting dangers to yourself and ask your business and team
“How do you ‘do’ your job?”
and then listen to the answers. You may confirm that everything is as it should be, above board and compliant (which is great!). However, you may also find there are previously missed hazards or dangers that your employees are just ‘coping’ with. Colin says you need to find these and challenge yourself to stop them happening
“It gives you a fantastic opportunity … to just challenge it… If the downside is you discover what one of these people does, then it gives you an opportunity to stop it happening. You don’t want to be looking at it after…Hindsight is 20:20, actually have that foresight”-Colin Nottage
ABOUT HOSTColin Nottage
‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’
This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry.
Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions.
He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation.
Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses.
Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, -an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive.
He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought after health and safety speaker and trainer.
He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
