When more bosses train, workplace accidents will fall

The most common question workers ask during our health and safety training programmes is: ‘How do I persuade my boss to implement these safety measures?’ If more bosses did the training, workers wouldn’t have to ask that question.

Apathy from some senior leaders may be a significant reason why deaths and accidents on New Zealand worksites have not reduced appreciably in the last few years, despite strict legislation.

Safety legislation passed in 2015 has not made a big difference. We still had one person dying a week in 2020, and that’s because legislation is a blunt instrument. A good health and safety culture starts at the top, but in our experience, there isn’t very much engagement from business leaders.

Participation in our senior leadership and management health and safety programmes – targeting SME business owners, general managers and directors – remains at less than five per cent and workers frequently worry about the lack of senior leadership engagement.

What can we as an industry do about it?

1. Boss awareness

There are many health and safety awareness and communication programmes across worksites, but almost all target workers and health and safety representatives instead of their bosses.

A government health and safety communications campaign targeting bosses might make a difference.

2. Make it law

Whilst the Health and Safety At Work Act 2015 stipulates training requirements for Health and safety representatives, there is no legal requirement for senior leadership and decision-makers to participate in specified health and safety training, but there should be.

Legislation is a blunt instrument, but maybe it is needed until the bosses can see for themselves the value of better understanding worksite health and safety. Some leaders must stop seeing health and safety as a cost and an inconvenience.

3. Step-up 

I personally would like senior leaders – business owners, general managers and directors – who take health and safety seriously enough to do the training, also act to influence other leaders to do the same.

I am a business leader. I know how hard and stressful it is at the top, but we are talking about making sure more people go home to their families at the end of the day. Of all your stresses, the last thing you want is an injury or fatality on your site – better understanding can make a difference.

Health and safety is high stakes for senior leadership these days. Recent New Zealand Police action targeting company earnings – using the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 (CPRA) where a health and safety conviction has occurred – demonstrates that health and safety is also a bottom-line issue with severe consequences. The police did not succeed, but that doesn’t mean this risk will go away.

Protect your people, yourself and your business. Get more engaged with health and safety. Do the training. Your staff should not have to be the ones trying to convince you about what safety measures to take.

By Jason Braithwaite, General Manager BeSafe Training Ltd

How to get to Covid compliance in your workplace

Employers are obliged to make every effort to bring employees along on the journey

How do you overcome resistance to Covid-19 protocols on a construction site or manufacturing facility when they are not a normal part of your workplace culture and mindset, and when there is so much controversy around the subject?

Overcoming resistance and embedding Covid-19 protocols is made easier with BeSafe’s new health and safety training programme designed to give workers a formal set of skills around managing Covid risk – which is increasingly important as management grapples with a growing menu of workplace risks. How do you prioritise?

Managing a range of tasks in addition to existing health and safety processes means new Covid safety protocols are just one more worry. As a result, it is either a distraction that puts workers at risk from other hazards or the Covid protocols get neglected, and that’s not a great outcome either.

The Covid training programme from BeSafe Training is designed to help workers efficiently integrate the new pandemic protocols into their current suite of workplace health and safety skills and processes.

The modern workplace is overwhelmed with mandates from clients, the Government, insurance companies, and employees themselves. Not only does this causes safety and efficiency issues, but it also adds costs and time delays to a project.

Part of the Government mandates, indeed around Covid, is to demonstrate that you have done everything reasonable to bring your employee along on the journey, and that includes training employees and educating management.

If employees understand Covid better, what it does, how it is transmitted and best how to avoid it – which is needed to counter all the fake news and information overload – we will be in a better position to keep our workplaces safe.

Here are some suggestions on how bosses can better prepare staff for the pandemic affected worksite:

1. Counter the misinformation

Facebook and other social media are riddled with misleading information. However, employers are in a position of trust and are therefore better positioned to inform their staff of the facts.

2. Overcome information filters

Workers are at risk of information overwhelm, so the tendency is to filter out messages that are not deemed necessary.

Consider all the information that you need to communicate to staff and then balance the delivery of that information so that it is acknowledged and understood. A planned and deliberate programme of education can help ensure better engagement.

3. Maintain awareness

Formal training and regular awareness activities – meetings, slogans, posters etc. – that communicate good quality information in a way that is relatable and meaningful is needed to ensure that Covid safety and awareness becomes an integral part of workplace culture.

Four tips on how to balance Covid-19 protocols in your H&S

By Jason Braithwaite

Now that Auckland’s construction sector is back in action under Level 3, managing the risk of Covid-19 in the workplace adds another layer of complexity to any organisation’s health and safety measures – it may distract firms from their usual health and safety protocols.

As well as the usual stringent health and safety measures the construction sector has in place for heavy machinery use or for employees working at heights or in confined spaces, the concern is that Covid-19 protocols could split the safety focus in a workplace.

With all the emphasis on managing Covid-19 in the workplace, I do wonder how that is impacting on the other workplace risks that still haven’t gone away.

While larger building firms are likely to have the resources to ensure both the Covid-19 restrictions and the other workplace safety protocols are being adhered to, smaller firms may be finding it more difficult.

These businesses may already be under pressure due to the time lost during the Level 4 lockdown. On top of this they are grappling with issues around the supply of building materials along with the well-documented labour shortage. 

Some firms may also have had to reduce the number of workers on site under the Covid restrictions, so won’t be back to 100 percent productivity, adding yet another pressure.’

Here are some practical steps your organisation could take to help manage the Covid-19 risks while ensuring the usual health and safety protocols are being adhered to:

1. Plan and prepare effective controls throughout the workplace including having a plan if Covid-19 raises its head in your business. How will you organise the work to occur with the controls in place? How will you respond if an employee does test positive for Covid-19?

2. Mitigate the Covid-19 risks by separating your teams. Don’t have all your digger operators working together because if one of them tests positive you may lose all those specialists. Essentially don’t put all your key people in one place but have them working in separate teams so if one team has to stop work, others can carry on.

3. Audit and review all your usual protocols as well as the Covid-19 measures you have in place. And monitor closely to see if all protocols are being adhered to by staff members. 

4. If protocols are not adhered to, find out why. Perhaps the masks in use are hot and uncomfortable whilst they are working on a task, meaning your employees pull them down to let themselves breathe more freely. Take any necessary measures to ensure they will be used correctly in the future.

By ensuring your team members understand the major ramifications of not following the Covid-19 safety measures means that they personally will be safer as will their families and communities and your business will be safer and more productive too.

Online health and safety training reduces time offsite by up to 1.5 days 

By Jason Braithwaite, General Manager BeSafe Training Ltd

Perhaps the labour shortages are giving you a headache because you’re struggling to find the time to spare to send your people to health and safety training. But did you know that blend of digital and vastly reduced classroom learning could save you money and time while keeping your people safer?By Jason Braithwaite, General Manager BeSafe Training Ltd

Most business will be aware of their duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to provide information, training, instruction, or supervision to protect all persons from risks within the workplace. Putting this off makes staff vulnerable and puts the business at risk of WorkSafe taking action to make the workplace safe.

Weekend training is not the answer

There isn’t the capacity to send people offsite for long periods at a time. It is now increasingly common for clients to request weekend training, but it is counterproductive when staff have already worked a 40 or 60 hour week. It is also not a good idea because it takes away family and resting time, and people come into the classroom with the wrong attitude because they resent using up their weekends.

Understandably it’s happening because you don’t want to take staff out of operations for two, three or four days as this makes you short-staffed and that, in itself, is hazardous. It’s a rock and a hard place.

Some employers are deferring training they are legally required to do or required to have in place within the terms of their contract. As a result, one company we know of was recently shut down at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars a day for several weeks.

It’s a problem digital learning can help solve, but some employers are resistant.

The Covid-19 pandemic lockdown – past and present – is helping overcome the lack of trust some have in digital learning, mainly since a blend of online and classroom can reduce time spent offsite from two days to just four hours.

We understand that many employers have concerns around how effective the health and safety training will be when an employee – some of whom may have literacy challenges – is left to learn independently of a classroom setting.

Apart from being better than nothing, digital learning is more effective because learners cannot lean on others in the class. They learn as individuals and are assessed as individuals. There is always a tutor available via email or on the other end of the phone. 

I would urge employers to embrace digital learning for health and safety because it helps keep staff and the business safer and improves productivity and profits.

A blend of digital and classroom learning can be done over time, particularly if an employer schedules an hour a day, on a roster basis, for staff to do digital learning. On rainy days, employees can get online instead of hanging around and still keep their weekends free.

The current Covid-19 lockdown will only add to the time pressure by putting you under the pump, creating more significant staff risks and putting the business in danger of non-compliance.

Keeping your workers safer, (more) aware and productive onsite is a delicate balancing act, but it can be done by taking action on the following steps:”

1. Conduct a training needs analysis

Do a training needs analysis to identify significant risks and gaps in health and safety training and compliance.

2. Set aside time and facilities 

All employers need to do is set aside a dedicated space and some computers to get started.

You could have a group of staff sit down together for a toolbox session and group discussion. Put it on the roster. They will have completed the theory component in just an hour or so a day over eight days, and practical offsite training should only take them out for four or so hours.

3. Appoint an internal person as a support

An internal support person or programme leader, along with your training provider’s tutor, will achieve significantly enhanced learning outcomes compared to onsite classroom learning at a training facility.

The eLearning material is the same as the classroom resource. It is less disruptive, and that will become even more important as the current Covid-19 lock time puts construction companies and manufacturers under increased pressure, particularly as the busiest time of year – the summer season – approaches.

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