Time to go home

pivotal | 27 January, 2009 10:12

The TUC’s Work Your Proper Hours Day is fast approaching (it’s on the 27th February), and this year the organisation has decided not to take a light hearted approach.


It has decided that the recession is going to make people want to work longer and harder to protect their job.


Of course. It’s human nature to do whatever we can to protect ourselves, especially our income. The TUC is absolutely correct that we must also place as much importance on our health.


It’s fine to work a few extra hours now and again, we all do it.


But it is the constant “let’s see who can stay the longest” competition in offices that is damaging, and actually makes teams less productive over time.


Good working practices in the workplace always spring from effective management training.


And with that, I’m off home – on time for once!


Paul Darby

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IOSH cracks down on poor practice

pivotal | 26 January, 2009 11:32

The Institution of Occupational Health & Safety – IOSH – has appointed its first ethical practice manager.

Simon Buckler’s role will be to maintain standards and ensure that members whose actions fall below the required standard are placed under the spotlight.

He will investigate allegations of sub-standard health and safety practice. Simon has a legal background, and did a similar role at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

This is an excellent initiative from IOSH that will help it continue to maintain the high standards needed from such an organisation.

As you continue your professional development, Pivotal Performance offers a range of IOSH courses.

Paul Darby

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High profile cases will eventually make a difference

pivotal | 26 January, 2009 11:29

So the new Health and Safety (Offences) Act is finally here, becoming law last week (Friday 16th January).

There is no change to the law as such, rather an increase in the penalties that directors and managers face if they allow a health and safety breach to happen on their watch.

I don’t think the increased penalties will make an immediate difference, but they should over time.

When a director opens their newspaper and sees someone at another company has been jailed, that’s going to stick in their mind.

They will think hard about how health and safety is handled in their business.

It’s one thing for your business to be fined. It’s another to be sent to jail.

And that’s the difference that’s going to spur action from those managers who don’t take the responsibilities seriously at the moment.

Pivotal Performance believes in prevention not cure as an approach to health and safety, and is expecting the new laws to trigger higher demand for its NEBOSH courses. 

Paul Darby

 

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Unwanted HSE inspections just don’t happen

pivotal | 19 January, 2009 14:21

Another month, another myth busted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).


This time it point out that if you call the HSE for some advice, you WON’T get an unwanted inspection.


The HSE information line is actually run by an external contractor, meaning the executive itself is unlikely to even see your information.


And if the HSE does need to be consulted to answer your query, you will always be asked first.


I think this is a fantastic free resource which businesses should use more often to ensure they are meeting all relevant legislation and fully protecting their employees.


Pivotal Performance runs a series of highly regarded IOSH courses.



Paul Darby

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Reducing absence is all about the prevention

pivotal | 19 January, 2009 14:16

When people take unscheduled time off work, there is always a story to be told. 


Sometimes it is their lifestyle interrupting their work (such as a sickie caused by a hangover); and other times their work clashing with their lifestyle. 


This is particularly relevant for those who become stressed at work and find themselves unable to cope with it. 


It is a real problem for businesses, as highlighted by the new Mercer survey which shows employees are absent on average 7.4 days a year http://www.pivotal-performance.com/news.php?id=150. 


Uncontrolled absenteeism damages productivity, profits and morale.  


At Pivotal Performance we are always stress that prevention is better than cure. It is normally cheaper and much more effective to stop a problem from developing or even starting in the first place.  


Our comprehensive three day bullying and stress management course provides a total stress management solution, aimed at preventing problems before they occur.

Paul Darby

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Office work is more dangerous than you think

pivotal | 12 January, 2009 10:51

I’ve always been an active person and for much of my career worked in the military, including time as a military diver.

Now of course I spend my time training, travelling and sat in the office.

Is this as dangerous as doing military diving?

Well, some of the travelling is a bit hairy thanks to the state of our roads.But the recent 40th birthday of the computer mouse http://www.pivotal-performance.com/news.php?id=147 has come with a warning about Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).

Apparently it now costs the UK economy an estimated £300 million a year in lost working time and sick pay.

That’s a lot of money. Clearly RSI represents a real danger in the workplace.

We’ve known for some time about the dangers of not providing staff who use a computer all day with an adequate chair and desk, to allow them to sit properly.

Responsible employers anticipate risks at work and remove them – not just to protect themselves, but to ensure their workforce doesn’t get hurt.

Pivotal Performance runs a Display Screen Equipment assessor course, which provides delegates with the information and skills to conduct effective assessments which conform to the requirements of regulations.~

Paul Darby

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Let’s see a promise from everyone in 2009

pivotal | 02 January, 2009 09:48

So farmers are being asked to make a special promise in 2009 to come home safely http://www.pivotal-performance.com/news.php?id=146.

I think actually all industries should make a promise in 2009 – to do whatever it takes to stop anyone being hurt at work.


It feels like 2009 could be a very significant year for health and safety.


The knowledge, tools and training available to managers and directors are better than ever before. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reducing the burden of admin . And there are harsher more personal penalties for health and safety breaches starting in January.


Could we be on the edge of a year where we see significant health and safety increases? I hope so – I have always argued that prevention is better than cure.


Pivotal Performance specialises in IOSH training courses.


Paul Darby

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Simplicity plan isn’t so simple after all

pivotal | 23 December, 2008 09:40

I was very amused to see the launch of the latest Simplification Plan by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). 

And that’s because the plan is 63 pages long and far from simple! 

I’m joking – this is another welcome step towards making health and safety easier for businesses and organisations. 

If everything goes to plan in 2009, HSE will have reduced the admin burden by 25 per cent over the last three years. 

Seeing as its own research shows that extra admin burden actually means less adherence to health and safety policy, this can only be a good thing. 



Pivotal Performance runs the IOSH Safety for Senior Executives Course, which helps build a clear understanding or personal and corporate responsibilities for health and safety management.



Paul Darby

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How can the construction industry copy the oil operators?

pivotal | 17 December, 2008 15:08

You would think there’s no more dangerous job than working in the offshore oil industry (short of firefighting perhaps).

New figures reveal that over the last 12 months no-one was killed and 44 people were seriously hurt working in offshore oil.


That’s 44 too many. But the industry should be encouraged by the fact this is the second lowest total in the last decade.


It’s time other industries took serious action to improve their figures.


I saw some stats the other day which showed 2,800 people have died from injuries received working in the construction industry in the last 25 years.


I appreciate there are many more people working in construction than oil. But 2,800… that’s a stunning number of people.


Building projects are so well planned and managed these days, surely it would be possible to drop that figure to zero within a few years?


 

Pivotal Performance runs a construction safety management course for companies that need to stay within the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. 


Paul Darby

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New health and safety strategy must stop the jokes

pivotal | 17 December, 2008 15:06

We will know that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has succeeded with its proposed new strategy if it manages to stop the jokes within a decade.


It is doing a three month consultation on a new direction for health and safety in this country, and one of the objectives is to take back the brand.
 

Yes, health and safety has a comedic killjoy reputation in this country, not helped by the likes of the recent Channel Four programme The Fun Police. Despite being a health and safety trainer, I can see why these kinds of things are funny (!)
But every time someone rolls their eyes at the phrase “health and safety” there is a danger that it is not taken seriously.  And that means someone down the line could get hurt.
 

One person injured at work is one person too many. I think we can all agree on that. Health and safety rules and training are there to stop that happening.
 

If the HSE can successfully destroy the myths and stop the comedy, we may reach a situation where it is a rare occurrence for someone to be hurt at work in the UK. We have an opportunity to lead the world here.

Pivotal Performance specialises in courses to build the competence of those responsible for delivering health & safety in workplaces. 

Paul Darby

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More confidence means a better risk assessment

pivotal | 11 December, 2008 16:30

There’s nothing to fear when doing a risk assessment.

In fact there’s more to fear by not doing one. Identifying the things that could go wrong in your business and tackling them is a great way to ensure you can sleep soundly at night.

I’m impressed with what the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has done, placing sample risk assessments online.

They have covered a wide range of businesses already, and there are more to come from what I can see.

I just hope that managers and business owners use them properly. Copying someone else’s risk assessment and sticking your business name at the top is as good as doing no risk assessment at all.

The right way to use these is as a tool to guide your own assessment. If you have more confidence that you are doing the right thing, that can only help you.

Pivotal Performance runs a number of courses aimed at giving people greater risk awareness skills, allowing them to identify and deal with potential workplace hazards before anyone is hurt.

Paul Darby

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The NHS examples should be applauded

pivotal | 11 December, 2008 16:15

I didn’t know the NHS was the biggest employer in Britain until I read our latest news story http://www.pivotal-performance.com/news.php?id=140. 

And as the biggest employer, they should be praised for running pilot programmes to make their workplaces safer. 

This is a fantastic example to set to all businesses. Health and safety is about prevention not cure, and more businesses should run programmes to look at safety without waiting for an incident first. 

The key to making these programmes work will be listening to what the staff themselves have to say. The front line workers quite often have the answers; it just takes someone to listen to them. 


This is a principle covered during Institution of Occupational Safety Health (IOSH) courses.

Paul Darby

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Don’t make the recession a self-fulfilling prophecy

pivotal | 26 November, 2008 09:22

The worst thing about the credit crunch and impending recession is how we have talked ourselves into it, to a certain extent. 

Companies that are doing well hear that bad times are on the way, so they cut their marketing budgets. Guess what happens… they stop attracting so many customers and don’t do so well! 

Now businesses are being warned not to cut spending on health and safety, by the new president of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, Nattasha Freeman. 

She’s totally right. It only takes one workplace accident to put a company at immense risk. 

Not only is the effect of an accident severe on the people in a business, but it’s hard for the directors to focus on steering the ship while their minds are on what has happened to an employee. 

229 people died at work in the UK last year. That’s 229 too many in my book. And it’s only through continued health and safety education and training that we will bring that number down. 

Pivotal Performance runs a comprehensive series of health and safety training courses.

Paul Darby

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Another week, another awareness campaign

pivotal | 26 November, 2008 09:17

It seems like there is a health & safety-related awareness campaign every week at the moment. 

This week it’s the issue of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which kills 30,000 people a year in the UK. 

Because 4,000 of those deaths are caused by breathing something in at work, we as employers must be aware of this and take preventative steps (can’t help the other 26,000 who are affected by smoking). 

Protecting people from breathing in fumes, chemicals and dusts is as easy as installing better exhaust ventilation systems. 

They will remove the contaminants from the workplace before they can be breathed in. 

Pivotal Performance runs courses for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations, including COSHH Assessor and COSHH Awareness.

 

Paul Darby

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Who says the HSE hasn’t got a sense of humour?

pivotal | 14 November, 2008 09:58

As a health and safety professional, I have to put up with a lot of jokes at dinner parties. A lot of people have totally the wrong idea about the rules and the way they are enforced.

The Health & Safety Executive knows this, and that’s why it runs the very entertaining Myth of the Month campaign.

Well here’s the perfect Christmas present for someone you know who is very safety aware: The 2009 HSE myths calendar.

A bargain at just £4 each, but they are limited edition so don’t take too long before getting one. I’d like to see one in my stocking this Christmas please.

Paul Darby

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