The Health and Safety Industry Terrific Tweetup – Are you connected?

Simply put, Twitter is a handy tool to use in the delivery of your marketing plans. Plans which should be implemented to attract and convert new business for your business.

So the question is…Veritas Consulting are interested to know how many Health and Safety Industry professionals actively use twitter.

So we thought the best way to find out is for us to develop ..The Health and Safety Industry Terrific Tweet up

The Objective

To increase the potential followers to your twitter account by attracting the Health and Safety Industry profession to join a Tweet up campaign. The aim of tweet up is to understand:

• how many Health and Safety Industry professionals use twitter
• from what backgrounds e.g. professional bodies, IOSH, MIIRSM etc.
• the locations of the twitterers – country
• Use hash tag – #hsittup so you can search on progress

The Health and Safety Industry Terrific Tweet Up

So please join us on the Health and Safety Industry Terrific Tweet Up by using the comments box below and tell us…

• Your Twitter (Handle) Name
• Your industry background – e.g. are you a member of a professional body – IOSH, IIRSM, RMaPS
• What country you are from?
• How often do you use twitter? i.e daily, weekly
• What success have you achieved with Twitter?
• Details of any Twitter marketing campaigns that you are currently undertaking – tell us about them and we can tweet about it.

Spread the word for our industry

How about spreading the word – by tweeting using the hash tag #hsittu

May we thank you and look forward to your comments and tweeting with you.

Dealing with Workplace Bullying & Creating a Positive Workplace Culture

Experience of Workplace Bullying

Since leaving employment to run my own business, I have discovered the real benefits of being my own boss.

When in employment, I was confronted by three workplace bullies, in three separate organisations and job roles, all of which were my managers. At the time, it was very distressing; it shattered my confidence, and gave me a feeling of inadequacy. I felt I had to work twice as hard to achieve just a smidgeon of what was demanded because of the dysfunction in management.

In all three cases, jealousy and insecurity drove these managers to bully. I was deemed too popular, too considerate, too conscientious, and too competent; and over time, I had successfully built up some highly effective interpersonal and behavioural skills, so I was seen as a threat to these managers because my positive qualities inadvertently attracted unfavourable comparison with their own inadequacies.

Often or not Performance Appraisals were delayed or postponed; weekly team meetings began to dissipate; workloads increased; unreasonable demands were set; all sense of work control taken away; job roles altered and often replaced with menial tasks: and all executed with a complete lack of understanding or consultation. I felt unvalued, unsupported, undermined and miserable, in work-roles, I had once enjoyed and totally achieved in!

How Significant is the Problem?

Many businesses and organisations shockingly fall short of recognising that the behaviour and culture of leaders and managers directly affect the workplace environment. Too many employers are quite unaware of the gaps existing between an employee’s experience of the workplace, and the organisational culture in which the employer strives to create.

Many talented employees leave organisations because of bullying, but employers rarely recognise that this may be because of a deeper problem in the workplace. In fact workplace bullying not only causes significant damage to an employee, it also creates damage to the employer, resulting in significantly higher sickness rates; higher stress breakdowns; lower morale; higher employee turnover; and in some cases increased suicide attempts.

The highest enquiries to my business about dealing with workplace bullying are consistently from those in the public sector – Workers in the Charity or Not-for-Profit sector; Teachers and Lecturers; Local Government Workers; Nurses and Healthcare Workers – There is little help and support from trade union officials, and some company’s personnel is ineffective because some bullying managers have many friends in the HR department who may block grievance procedures before they even begin.

The National Bullying Helpline states “80% of managers know that bullying occurs in their workplace, and despite this, 37% say they have had no proper training”.  The Andrea Adams Consultancy developed a factsheet on Bullying Statistics, which states “43.5% of employers do not even have a policy to deal with workplace bulling, and 82.2% say that weakness in management is the prime reason for bullying.”

Workplace Culture

A positive workplace culture starts from the top; therefore, there should be an effective manager’s code in all workplaces, which sets out the standards and expectations of behaviour and development. This code should be geared towards helping leaders to focus on building a three-way partnership between themselves, the workforce and the organisation. It would be better for them to step out of their offices more and essentially connect with their workforce; as this would help to create more of an atmosphere of confidence and trust, where employees actively experience their leaders:

• effectively encouraging and supporting staff in their work;
• building and sustaining openness and communication;
• valuing their employees and improving quality;
• demonstrating appropriate and effective interactions;
• showing intellectual flexibility;
• understanding and participating in health and wellbeing activities;
• contributing in building a strong mental health policy where staff are able to ask for help without fear of shame, humiliation or judgement.

When this manager’s code is embedded, it brings together a workplace culture that consistently produces outstanding results, it helps to retain and attract the best talent, and it motivates and energises staff into positive action enabling them to adapt to changes more comfortably.

Managers have a responsibility to encourage staff to feel inspired by enabling them to use their strengths, and being committed to sharing and applying learning and knowledge. Being an effective manager is not just a learned quality, it is a real gift. It brings Management to a different level and enables staff to perform at their optimum; to healthily contribute and engage with their organisation; and to develop a strong sense of professional satisfaction and fulfilment.

You can acquire essential training, knowledge and skills in dealing with Workplace Bulling through The Wellbeing Team Ltd ® – Health and Wellbeing at Work.

Construction Worker Injured – Results in Fines for Contractor

A maintenance fitter who had been contractor by Van Elle Ltd in Nottingham suffered injuries to his person when he was working on the M1 motorway.  The unnamed man was driving an excavator when he was thrown out from behind the wheel and landed on an excavator blade at the front of the vehicle. The vehicle had no front screen and the worker was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.

As a result of the injury to the workers head he was left in a coma for a fortnight and had to endure a further five months of rehabilitation.  After returning to work for the same contractors for a short time he is still trying to get back to good health and having physiotherapy for damage which has caused reduced mobility in his left arm and leg.

Once Again Lack of Training Caused the Contractors to Be Prosecuted

When the accident was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive it was discovered that the employee was not given adequate training before he began working on the motorway. If Van Elle Ltd had gone to the trouble of providing training, one of the health and safety services offered to the construction industry, the accident could have been avoided. In this case the worker was not told about safe methods of driving the excavator. He had been checked to see if he was able to perform lifting but on the day of the accident he was standing in for another employee who usually drives on the construction site on the motorway.

Health and Safety Consultants Are Ready to Help the Construction Industry

Before carrying out any new lines of work it is essential that the correct training is provided to all those involved. The employee working for Van Elle has been left with life changing injuries and is still having to go through long and painful physiotherapy after the incident which took place on 22 September 2009.

Mansfield Magistrates court were informed of the lack of training and also told about the boom of the excavator was found to be positioned at the wrong height.  The manufacturers guideline state that the boom has to be no more than four metres high whist in motion, and in this case the boom was six metres high.

When Van Elle Ltd appeared before the court they pleaded guilty for breaching Regulation 9(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations of 1998. For the lack of training and the breach of the regulation the construction firm was fined £12,750 and have been ordered to pay the court costs of £29,660.

Health and safety consultants are able to provide services to the construction industry which is considered to be high risk. If you are responsible for workers it is worth using the health and safety services aimed at construction in order to ensure you are working within the law and providing safe methods of work for your employees. Call 0800 1488 677 to find out more about the services available.

Dangers in the Cleaning Industry

While everyone knows that the construction industry is a high risk sector when it comes to health and safety, many seem to forget that cleaning is also filled with daily dangers that need to be managed.  You can find cleaners which are involved in all sectors and each one poses many dangers as the cleaners go through their daily routines which can include cleaning at height and using heavy industrial machinery.

Risk Assessments Need to Be Part of the Cleaning Routine

When carrying out any sort of job, from using a product to clean a stain on the floor or when working on a ladder to clean a window, it is essential to write a workplace risk assessment and make sure all of the workers involved are aware of the contents and how they are expected to work through the processes of the job at hand.

Risk assessments are there to protect people from any harm which could arise from the job. Work can become safer by identifying the problems and providing solutions before any work has begun. It is important to consider the risk assessments as a way of trying to prevent harm to others rather than some of the red tape involved in the legalities of health and safety.

Health and safety consultants can help you by producing risk assessments and providing training in this area. However there are five points to remember when you are working on these assessments:

1. Identify hazards by checking out the area where the work will be conducted and discuss the risks with the health and safety consultants about risks as well as the cleaning staff who will be carrying out the work. Looking online is often useful too and can help you to follow the specific guidance set out for the cleaning industry.

2. Write down the hazards and show how they pose risks and to whom they pose risks.

3. Each of the hazards then needs to have controls written down which are there to help manage them, if applicable. The controls need to be checked for adequacy and if they fail more controls need to be added.

4. Once the controls and hazards have been recorded the information needs to be shared with the staff. It is important to make sure everyone knows what is expected of them and how to carry out the controls designed to manage the risks.

5. A review of the finished risk assessment should be carried out at a regular basis, yearly for example, or when new methods of carrying out the job are introduced.

Common Accidents and Health Risks Found in the Cleaning Industry

Risk assessments help to prevent all sorts of problems for cleaners and therefore are essential. Some of the most frequent problems which happen in this industry include:

• Falls from height
• Manual Handling
• Slips and trips
• Injuries to the body especially the back and arms
• Dermatitis

To discuss workplace risk assessments, training and health and safety services that are available from Veritas Consulting call 0800 1488 677.

Legislation – Quantity over Quality

Legislation Review – Do the Numbers Really Matter?

About ten years ago I recall having to draw up a register of health and safety legislation for a manufacturing site.  Despite it being quite a long list, the thing that struck me about it was how boring and generic most of the legislation sounded.  I recall the pre-6 pack, pre-COSHH days of the 1980s when there were scores of very specific and rather elderly bits of legislation, particularly for welfare arrangements in certain industries and this got me to thinking, is it really relevant how many bits of legislation there are, or is it better to concentrate on the intent behind the legislation – sort of “never mind the length, feel the width”?  Quality not quantity if you like to think of it that way.

With the recent publication of the Löfstedt Report – an independent review of health and safety legislation – the spotlight has once again been on how many pieces of legislation we now have on the statute book and the Department for Work and Pensions has seized on the idea that sweeping away 50% of this legislation will make a dramatic difference to small business.  I’m not so convinced.

When the Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992 came in as part of the “6-pack”, they revoked a myriad of old Welfare Orders, most of which had been around since the early twentieth century and were intended for specific industries.  Let’s examine one of them – the gloriously named “Herring Curing (Norfolk and Suffolk) Welfare Order 1920”.  Apparently during the autumn herring season some one hundred years ago, the population of Great Yarmouth could be increased by around 10,000 people, many of whom were women working 12-15 hours a day out in the open on the quayside, gutting and packing up to 800,000 fish daily.  Sadly I cannot find a copy of the text of this venerable Order but I vaguely recall it had requirements like the provision of open fronted shelters (possibly with wooden seats) for the workers to take their breaks in.  It might have been this Order or another similar one that required the employers to provide wooden clogs for the workers – anyway you get the idea!

The 1992 Welfare Regulations swept away over 30 Orders like this one.  Did this revolutionise small business?  Did all those East Anglian herring curers (assuming there were any left!) say “thank goodness, now we can rip down all those wooden shelters we had to put up at huge expense and for goodness sake cancel next week’s clog order!”  Of course not, because this isn’t about the numbers of rules and regulations, it’s about the intent behind them.

So back to the present day then and the Government’s rather lop-sided focus on the amount of legislation we have.  They seem to have got stuck on this 50% reduction figure, most recently mentioned by the Minister for work and pensions Chris Grayling in DWP Parliamentary questions this week.  In contrast, Professor Löfstedt in his report suggested that the number of regulations might be reduced by about 35%.  How is this reduction – whatever figure it actually is – to be achieved then, since apparently it’s such a significant issue for business?

Firstly, Professor Löfstedt suggested that five (yes just five) piece of legislation could be done away with altogether as they were either no longer needed or were duplicated elsewhere.  All those small businesses using tower cranes or celluloid and cinematograph film can cheer right now.

Secondly, he suggested that some sector specific legislation could be combined and simplified.  Annex D to his report lists over 75 pieces of legislation that could be subject to this process.  The sectors and areas involved?  Mining, Explosives, Biocidal Products, Genetically Modified Organisms and Petroleum Spirit.  Not exactly earth-shaking for most small businesses is it?

Finally HSE has recently started a consultation on the removal of seven out-dated statutory instruments.  All good stuff but will revoking the 1971 Anthrax Prevention Order really have that much effect on small business?

Despite all this the Government continues to trumpet the 50% reduction figure as though it will in one fell swoop remove 50% of the health and safety “burden” on business.  Well it won’t.  Certainly Löfstedt has also recommended a review of “the core set of health & safety regulations” to see if consolidation would provide “clarity and savings for businesses”.  However he does point out that “Any consolidation would not reduce health and safety outcomes because there would be no change in the duties.”  So it’s not about removing the burden of legislation at all, it’s about helping business to understand what they have to do.  Why doesn’t the Government just say so instead of peddling meaningless figures?

Last week Professor Löfstedt himself commented that he was concerned his review could be mis-used and said that he had not called for a significant change in legal policy.  Meanwhile in the House of Commons, the Minister was saying “The Löfstedt report, —  recommends significant changes to our regulatory regime”.  Well they can’t both be right!  So looking back at the Löfstedt report itself, here’s what the Professor said in the foreword; “I have concluded that, in general, there is no case for radically altering current health and safety legislation. There is a view across the board that the existing regulatory requirements are broadly right.”  Seems pretty clear to me, so why does the Government persist in spinning the report’s recommendations to suit what they want them to say?

The truth is that it’s not the actual burden of health and safety that is the issue, but rather the perception of that burden, which is magnified and propagated by any number of silly stories about “elf’n’safety” that you can read in the popular press just about every day.  Sadly, people really do believe the tosh they read in the papers and see on the TV.  Work at Height Regulations?  Oh yeah, the ones that banned ladders, right?  Makes you want to weep sometimes doesn’t it?  No wonder David Cameron thinks he has to deal with a “health and safety monster”.

How do we go about tackling this problem?  In the end it’s down to those of us who work in the health and safety profession to keep on telling people that ladders aren’t banned, that children can play conkers and climb trees and that risk assessment really isn’t all that difficult if you put your mind to it.  We may not change the DWP’s viewpoint, or their obsession with figures, but we can help our clients and our employers to make their way through the so-called maze of health and safety red tape and come out on the other side with an actual understanding of how to manage and control their own risk.  Perhaps then we can get people to see that health & safety can be an enabler for better business and not just a burden to overcome.

Guest Blog provided by Heather Collins CMIOSH at  HC Safety Services – Practical H&S risk assessment for business

Health and Safety Risk to Social Workers

One of the problems which are faced by health care workers is being exposed to violence. In order to help minimise the dangers to employees in this sector it is essential to have management systems in place. These need to be created in order to reduce this risks of being physically harmed while working and also to help try and control the dangers of health care workers from becoming stressed and depressed due to their daily duties.

Attacked on the Job

Health and safety inspectors have recently prosecuted the non-profit organisation Dimensions UK after one of their employees was attacked on the job. Dimensions UK works with those with learning difficulties offering support and therefore need to have adequate procedures in order to reduce the risks that clients pose to the employees.

In December 2009 one of the workers at Dimensions was attacked by an unnamed client. The employee was kicked in the eye and this incident started an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive. The inspectors discovered that this was not the only incident and some other employees had also come into danger at the hands of the same client.

Risk of Violence Not Managed Effectively

Although it is common for health care workers to be put into risky situations Dimensions had not put into place an effective management system and as a result of this their employees were put in danger.  The client had a history of violence and therefore ways to manage this particular client needed to be put in place to reduce the risks.  There were many indicators which made it clear that this client was a possible threat and these were not acted upon.

The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted Dimensions Ltd for their breach of Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Section 2(1) relates to the stated duties of each employer to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees, so far as is reasonably practical. Section 3(1) says that employers need to conduct his undertaking in a way which is practical to ensure people who are not in his employment are not exposed to risks to their own health and safety.

Fined for Failing their Employees

Newcastle Magistrates Court fined Reading based organisation Dimensions Ltd the sum of £14,000 and was also ordered to pay costs of £30,000. In addition to these fines which were related to their employees and the agency workers affected by the violent client Dimensions also were charged a £15 surcharge for the victim. This money is to be spent on providing services to the victims and those who witnessed the violence.

Management Systems Can Reduce Risks

Health and safety consultants are able to help you with your management systems to check that everything possible is being done to ensure the safety of your employees. Two of the useful health and safety services are the audit and the training which can be used to spot areas which are failing and also ensure the health and safety is being addressed and implemented into everyday work life.

Call 0800 1488 677 today and find out how health and safety consultants can help you and your employees.

Slips and Trips – Can You Prevent Them?

Sometimes people slip over by complete accident, it happens every day. However, when it comes to the workplace many owners think that slips and trips cannot be prevented but this is not the case. It your duty to make sure everything is done to reduce the likelihood of trips such as these, and by ignoring the problem you are opening yourself up to prosecution at the hands of the health and safety executive.

During 2009 there were a recorded 10,000 serious injuries caused by slipping over in the workplace and a tragic 4 fatalities.  This loss of lives could have been avoided and has resulted in the loves of their friends and families being affected forever. The injuries also can cause problems for families and the injured person, it also can cost the economy die to all of the extra days off work at a cost of approximately £800,000 000 per year.

Are Slips Mentioned in the Law?

There are a few Acts and Regulations which are relating to slips and trips in the workplace. By failing to meet these you are breaking the law and can be fined in a court of law. The relating regulations are named in the:

• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
• The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
• The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

What Causes Slips?

There are several ways that slips can be triggered in the workplace. The most common of these are caused by:

• Inadequate footwear

When you employee people it is important that your employees where suitable footwear. You can also help to reduce the risks of others falling in your premises by making sure the floors are keep clean and dry. In situations where it is difficult to maintain a dry or clean floor anti slip footwear should be worn.

• People

Encouraging a positive reaction to health and safety in the workplace is a great way of keeping the environment safe. Try and promote your employees to sort out any problems they may see such as spillages and obstacles.

• The environment

When it comes to workplace slips and trips you need to think of the environment. Do you have good enough lighting? Does the weather cause problems, does the area have high condensation risks or are the noise levels safe?

• The type of floor

Flooring plays a big part in preventing trips.  The flooring needs to be properly laid and then well maintained to make sure it doesn’t pose any risks. The floor needs to be kept clean and dry were possible and in areas of wetness suitable flooring needs to be laid combined with suitable shoes.

• Cleaning

When it comes to cleaning you need to have a good management in system to prevent accidents. A suitable method of cleaning, the correct use of products and equipment need to be used and the process should be supervised and carried out at a suitable time. Signs are not able to prevent accidents but should be used to warn others of the possible dangers

• Obstacles

Obstacles are a common cause of slips and are responsible for approximately 50% of all these types of accidents. Poor housekeeping is a high contributing factor and therefore needs to be well managed to reduce the risks. Encouraging your workers to be responsible for their own areas is also advised and act when noticing problems in any area of the workplace.

Find out more about slips and falls and how to maintain a safe workplace by contacting health and safety consultants. Call 0800 1488 677 to find out how health and safety services can help you to prevent accidents such as slips and trips.