Safeti School | Workplace Health and Safety: Recent Episodes

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Manual Handling TILE If you have ever taken manual handling training, it's likely you may have came across the manual handling TILE acronym.

In terms of manual handling, the TILE acronym stands for Task, Individual, Load, and Environment:

This is also often extended to TILEO (to include 'Other Factors'). Sometimes, you will also hear LITE in manual handling training - it's simply a rearranging of the letters and will usually relate to the same principles.

Before we move on to learning more about the individual elements of Manual Handling TILE principles, let's take a quick peak at why manual handling training is so important across different industries. Alternatively, just enrol in our FREE Manual Handling Awareness Training course!

Manual Handling Injuries | Why Worry? In Ireland, Manual handling injuries are the most common workplace injury (see image), with over 30% physical injuries relating to the back, arm or shoulders.

For GB, in the 2020/21 business year, there were approximately 470,000 (yes, ~0.5 Million!) work-related musculoskeletal (MSK) disorder cases. 81% of these were related to the upper limbs, neck or back.

How much lost time does this equate to for the workforce I hear you ask?!

HSA Injury Statistics 2019

The HSE (GB) estimates that 8.9 Million working days were lost due to these MSK disorders.

Manual handling, awkward or tiring positions and keyboard work (DSE) or repetitive action are regarded as the key causes of work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

What does TILE stand for in Manual Handling? The manual handling TILE acronym that aims to help you carry out a manual handling risk assessment. Using TILE or TILEO prompts you to consider each essential area of the activity in order to reduce the risk of injury.

T | Task. This means considering the manual handling activity itself, i.e. the lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing or pulling, and looking at how it may affect your health and safety.

For example, does the task involve repetitive movements, strenuous movements, long distances, or uneven weight distribution?

In most workplace manual handling scenarios, the priority should be to avoid, before assessing and reducing risk where employees are required to perform manual handling tasks.

I | Individual. This means considering the person who will be carrying out the manual handling activity, i.e. you or another colleague.

The physical attributes of an individual as also important to consider. For example, how strong, fit or able is the person? Is manual handling something they do on a daily or regular basis?

An essential aspect of assessing the individual is considering how much instruction and manual handling training they have received. Do they need more training before carrying out the task?

L | Load. This means considering the object or person that is being moved, and looking at how this may affect health and safety.

For example, is the load particularly heavy, bulky, hard to grasp or unstable? If so, have you really considered all of the mechanical options available to you? It may be worth having another look if the option has been dismissed first glance.

If no reasonable means of lifting device can be identified, then it will be also be worth considering if the load can be split up into smaller units.

Once you have reached the optimum reasonable load or unit size, how appropriate is the load for the individual/s carrying out the task?

E | Environment. This means considering the area in which the load is being moved, and looking at how this could make the manual handling task unsafe.

For example, are there any space constraints? Is the floor slippery or uneven? Is there sufficient lighting? Are there any trip hazards?

What is TILEO in Manual Handling? O | Other factors. This means considering anything else, in addition to the task, individual, load and environment, which may impact on the safety of the manual handling activity.

For example, will personal protective equipment (PPE) make movement difficult? Is more/different PPE needed?

Perhaps there are other organisational factors such as planned work to take place on the route of travel, or strict limitations on who is authorised to carry out manual handling tasks.

These are all aspects that should be considered and typically, it is about making sure you run your plans by the right people e.g. health and safety manager, production supervisors and facilities managers.

Manual Handling TILE | Ask Us Are you looking for a manual handling training course for your team? Check out our Training section for the different options that we currently provide, or start a conversation with us now and we will help you find the best fit.

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We've got to the fifth and final part of our five step risk assessment process and that is simply to record and review your risk assessment. A question we often get asked is 'When should risk assessments be reviewed?' When should Risk Assessments be reviewed? Once you have completed and recorded your risk assessment, it's time to decide and determine when your risk assessment will need a review.. There is no set frequency for when risk assessments should be reviewed.

Therefore, you should make a decision that's appropriate for the risk profile of your business. There are certain times when it's more obvious that the risk assessment should be looked at and reviewed. Examples of when risk assessments should be reviewed: Here are just a few common examples; * Changed or new process that's been introduced into your workspace * New plant, equipment or machinery that's been purchased for example there may be * New employees or contractors that have joined your workforce that need to be considered * You may have had a recent near miss, incident or accident, in which case risk assessment/s may need reviewed and/or updated

Depending on your business risk profile, industry & regulatory standards and internal management systems, it may also make sense to have a regular review of your risk assessments e.g every 12 months. Any frequency should be based on the nature of the operations and should be specific to each activity and/or organisation.

The purpose of this would be to make sure that you have not missed anything new or significant that could present a risk to employees, or others. This type of regular oversight is often complimented by other safeguards such as a management of change (MoC) process.

Now that we have tackled the 'when should risk assessments be reviewed?' question, let's learn more about recording and communicating them. Do you have to record Risk Assessments? In reality, the Health and Safety Executive in the UK clearly states that risk assessments should not be unnecessarily complicated and only focus on the significant hazards.

It makes sense, because you have to be able to effectively communicate the outcomes of them.

In the UK, your obligation as an employer is that you must risk assess the work activities for which your employees are involved.

If you have 5 or more employees, you have to keep a record of any risk assessment that you have done. But don't panic, it's not as bad as it sounds! How to communicate Risk Assessments Sharing the key risk information effectively with the people that matter is critical.

As you've put the work into the risk assessment process, we must remember the importance of communicating your findings to the people that are affected.

You should take some time to consider the best way to do this for your particular business. If your team, for example, are located locally to you then it might make sense to use the risk assessment as a discussion topic during your next meeting. It makes sense to send it out to them first to have a look at before having a group discussion around what's included in it.

In that way, it gives them an opportunity to digest the information and gives you a better chance at getting honest feedback on anything that they think has been omitted or needs to be improved on. Striving for Best Practice To make this process even better, the world is really your oyster. We like to get as creative as possible when it comes to communication, and have used anything from pub quizzes to podcasting.

Here are a few of the critical elements when thinking about risk assessment communication. Crunch it Down Crunch down the information into the key elements of risk and control using the least information possible and with the help of photos of the associated process, equipment etc.

It's widely accepted that providing employees with pages and pages of risk assessment literature is a very effective way to lose their attention completely.

One way to avoid this scenario is to succinctly summarise the risk assessment findings and communicate them via a training session. Go to Gemba

'Going to Gemba' is the act of visiting the shop floor in Lean Manufacturing and Kaizen.

Literally translated as 'The Real Place', it pushes the importance of leadership understanding what is happening at every level. Going to Gemba is also a powerful and robust strategy when it comes to communicating risk assessments.

Why not take your summarised findings and present them to those affected at the place of concern? Sounds like a great idea. Risk Communication to Remote Teams Alternatively if you have a remote team that you can't get together in one place at one time, you may want to just send out a digital version that they can read and sign off to say that they're happy with the content and the outcomes of the risk assessment.

However, we would recommend that you follow up with them either by a phone/video call or if they're in the office via a one-on-one to ask them how they feel about the outcomes of the risk assessment.

Remember, communication is key.

As a manager, it is really important to be assured that your employee's have taken the information on board. Employee Participation Hopefully some of these folks that are affected have been involved in the risk assessment process itself.

That way, it won't all be a big surprise to them once you've shared and communicated your risk assessment findings with all those stakeholders.

If you find that your employees doing the work have not been involved in the risk assessment process, it would be worth considering how you might involve in your risk assessment review process. When should Risk Assessments be Reviewed? | Ask Us

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we walk through the three step decision-making process for minimising risk when working at at height.

AVOID - PREVENT - MINIMISE.

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 require employers to do the following when assessing & planning work at height: Before Working at Height 1. Avoid work at height where it is reasonably practicable to do so 2. where work at height cannot be easily avoided, prevent falls using either an existing place of work that is already safe or the right type of equipment 3. Minimise the distance and consequences of a fall, by using the right type of equipment where the risk cannot be eliminated

Further Tactics to Reduce Work at Height Risk You should also consider the following aspects when planning work:

• do as much work as possible from the ground
• ensure workers can get safely to and from where they work at height
• ensure equipment is suitable, stable and strong enough for the job, maintained and checked regularly
• not overload or overreach when working at height
• take precautions when working on or near fragile surfaces
• provide protection from falling objects
• consider emergency evacuation and rescue procedures

Resources for Working at Height Podcast

Decision Guide - step-by-step guide from the HSE

HSE Statistics - falls from working at height are the most common cause of fatality at work

Health and Safety Templates - download Safeti's pro-forma, examples and HSE guidance.

Safeti Services - we can help you reduce risk in your business

Working at Height Podcast Transcript We're going to walk through the step-by-step decision-making process that the Health and Safety Executive here in the UK have scripted out for us.

This can help when we're deciding what sort of control measures will be necessary when we're working at height.

Obviously it is one of the major areas were fatalities occur and serious injuries as well. Hopefully this blog is something that you can come back to over and over again or share with your colleagues.

They're going through that decision-making process when they’re planning work. So really all this is doing is looking at the hierarchy of control and walking through it in a way that is appropriate for working at height. Can you eliminate Working at Height? The first thing we want to do is to consider whether we can eliminate the working at height in the first place, so therefore preventing actually getting up to any height of any significance and taking away that risk completely.

Things you want to think about here are for example; if you were doing window cleaning, can you use extendable tools from ground level to remove the need for ladders (or any other equipment to get you up to that level).

If you're installing Hardware or any sort of equipment for your buildings e.g. air conditioning.

It's a great question to ask - Do we really need to be placing them at a height?

Of course, this will also apply when people are performing maintenance, so may create an additional risk at a later stage.

Much of the time, during the design process, someone will think it is a good idea to put that an element of infrastructure at a height. But, they don't always think of the safety repercussions. And besides, it's not always really necessary.

That is something that can be considered during the design planning process. Something else to think about in terms of prevention or elimination, is whether you can pre-fabricate the work at ground level.

By doing this, you may be able to significantly reduce the amount of time required to work at height. Preventing a Fall from Height That leads us on to the second most preferable option here, which is preventing a fall from occurring.

So rather than avoiding or eliminating the work at height completely, how can you work towards minimizing the risk of a fall from actually happening?

Ways of doing this would include selecting where your work location is according to the existing, collective control measures that are in place.

For example, existing edge protection on a roof or a guarded mezzanine floor area, for example. If you're installing equipment, you'll want to prioritize using these areas because they do have existing control measures in place.

We tend to see preventative approaches e.g. guard rails, netting, in schemes such as high-rise construction projects. On these projects, there are usually high numbers of people working in the vicinity of a significant fall risk over long periods of time.

If you don't have that option, then you will looking more towards using the type of equipment that will prevent falls, such as MEWPs or mobile elevated working platforms, scissor lifts etc.

You'll also want to consider whether a fixed structure, such as a scaffold, would be appropriate. In some cases, you might want to think about using a mobile scaffold depending on the type of work that you're carrying out.

And finally, when you're looking to prevent a fall from occurring, you may consider some work restraint systems, which maybe tether a person to roofing structure.

Which then doesn't allow them to get into a position where they can fall.

That really rounds up the options when it comes to preventing a fall from occurring and then moving on from that you're looking to try and mitigate or minimize the distance and consequences of a fall. Minimising Harm from Falls at Height

When you move beyond the eliminatory or preventative of systems, we should be dealing with lower risk, short-duration activities. In these cases, the use of ladders and step-ladders can still be a sensible and practical option.

A few questions to ask when planning this type of work -

Do you have a suitable type of access frame or ladder for the job?

For example, does it reach the right height without putting anybody at risk?

Is the person competent to carry out the work using the equipment?

Have you provided a person with adequate training and do they extra need help or supervision?

Using the equipment properly and following an actual system of work (see manufacturer's/industry guidance) is really helpful when planning this type of work.

At the very least, it is advisable to record some form of method statement that includes exactly what you're planning to do and how you are going to do it.

This is especially important if you're carrying out a new activity, non-standard work, or something that's significantly different from what's been done before. Need more help with Working at Height safety?

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we drill down into common mistakes that can be made when during incident investigation. Putting our hands up, we admit to having taken a few misguided steps ourselves in the past.

We’ve teamed up with Alex Burbidge from Pro Safety Management for a few episodes to share our views on a range of topics. We hope you get bucket loads of value from these short podcasts!

Here is the breakdown of 5 common mistakes to avoid with incident investigation!

Avoid you're own Bias Be careful not to be inadvertently biased towards or against a certain outcome/s. This is something that health and safety representatives and incident investigators can get easily caught out by.

Make sure the incident investigation team is made of people with different perspectives and expertise, this will help you ensure that there is a balanced outcome to your investigation.

Remember, stick to the facts and making assumptions that are not supported by hard evidence.

Time is of the Essence When an accident or incident occurs, it pays to collect the information and evidence as soon as possible. There are various reasons for this, not least that it's critical to preserve the scene of an incident before conditions change or can be altered.

It's also crucial to speak to/interview those involved in a timely manner to ensure that recollection of events is as accurately as possible. The longer time goes on, the more likely it will be that the quality of information deteriorates.

Don't play the Blame Game Blaming a person, persons or even a business, is not the objective of an incident investigation.

There may be inclination for some of the people involved to deflect responsibility from themselves, self-preservation.

In reality, the goal of an investigation is about preventing future recurrences and this aim should be made clear to everyone involved.

Don't go it Alone Going back to our first point on avoiding bias, a critical element of a thorough incident investigation is to pull on all of the expertise within your organisation.

As an individual incident investigator, our role is to bring the evidence and expertise together.

This helps us create a picture of what happened, and produce recommendations on how to avoid similar incidents or accidents in the future.

Take the time to find the most suitable people in your business to help with your specific investigation.

Good Work Takes Time We said at the beginning that time was of the essence.

This is true.

However, it is equally important not rush our investigation. Despite the internal and external pressures that may be facing you, it's important to ensure that you gather all of the relevant information before drawing any conclusions.

That includes any important details regarding plant, equipment etc. that you need to review against the operating standards in the workplace you are investigating.

Incident Investigation Podcast - Additional Resources

Incident and Accident Investigation Guide - check out our complete guide to incident investigation

Safeti – pay us a visit at safeti.com for more free content, learning materials and support services

Richard Collins - connect with the podcast host on Linkedin

Related Episodes: What is RIDDOR?, 5 Why's to the Root Cause

Safeti School: for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

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The law in the UK says that every business must have a policy for managing health and safety.

A health and safety policy sets out your general approach to health and safety.

It explains how you, as an employer, will manage health and safety in your business. It should clearly say who does what, when and how.

If you have five or more employees, you must write your policy down. If you have fewer than five employees you do not have to write anything down, but it is useful to do so.

You must share your Health and Safety policy, and any changes to it, with your employees.

3 Actions for Your Health and Safety Policy

Your policy should cover 3 areas.

Part 1: Statement of intent

State your general policy on health and safety at work, including your commitment to managing health and safety and your aims. As the employer or most senior person in the company, you should sign it and review it regularly.

Part 2: Responsibilities for health and safety List the names, positions and roles of the people in your business who have specific responsibility for health and safety.

Part 3: Arrangements for health and safety

Give details of the practical arrangements you have in place, showing how you will achieve your health and safety policy aims. This could include, for example, doing a risk assessment, training employees and using safety signs or equipment.

The legal requirement to write a health and safety policy is included in the Health and Safety at Work etc Act. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations explain the steps you must take to manage health and safety.

Read on for more detailed help on how to write health and safety policy.

Health and Safety Policy Template Bundle To help you get started, download our health and safety policy bundle, which provides you with editable examples of General Policy, Statement of Intent, Responsibilities & Health and Safety Arrangements. These can be easily adjusted to be specific to your business.

How to Write a Health and Safety Policy Let's break down the three elements that the health and safety executive are asking for you to include a Health and safety policy.

Statement of Intent

Number one, is your statement of intent.

In simple terms, this is just stating what your general policy on health and safety at work is. This will include your overall intent and were you want to be in terms of health and safety.

And also, what I would suggest including, is some specific aims and objectives that relate to your company.

You might want to pull out some targets for looking at a near-miss reporting or health and safety concerns, for example.

You may want to target zero accidents, something which many businesses would aim for (rightly or wrongly!). It's entirely up to you but something that's specific and achievable is really the goal here and something you can actually use to strive for.

Then base the rest of your arrangements around those goals.

Health and Safety Responsibilities

The second part of the policy expectation is outlining the responsibilities for health and safety and were they specifically lie within your organization.

You can list names but I would suggest it may be better just to leave those out and go for positions or roles within the company.

Take a look at the members of staff who are already helping you to execute health and safety measures and who's got responsibility for implementing certain activities. That could be anyone, from people on the shop floor to health and safety professionals, project managers.

Even your site directors can be involved in whichever responsibilities that are applicable, depending on how you decide to delegate responsibility.

Just make sure that it's clearly outlined and gives a good overview of where responsibilities lie.

Health and Safety Arrangements Part 3 then is to give details on the specific, practical arrangements that you have in place.

What should 'health and safety arrangements' this look like?

Normally, it is best to break these arrangements down into logical sub-sections that reflect the operation of your business.

Let's take a look at what the information for health and safety arrangements relating to 'Risk assessment for sub-contractor's' might look like.

Risk Assessment for Sub-Contractor's (Example)

Subcontractors’ site and premises specific risk assessment /method statement documentation must be supplied prior to their arrival, where appropriate e.g. specialist contractors. [Company Name] are responsible for adequately reviewing this documentation before work commences.

Should managers feel that a subcontractor’s documentation does not fully outline relevant site risks and associated control measures the subcontractor will be required to re-submit this information until its content is deemed to be of a satisfactory standard.

Hopefully that short example gives you an idea of what we are looking for here.

What else do you need to think about? Perhaps you only use a certain type of equipment that affords special protection to your staff who are carrying particular tasks - make sure those arrangements are included.

Or you have some safety systems in the buildings/facilities that you're using to reduce the level of risk that people are exposed to. It can really be anything that you feel is appropriate and specific to managing health and safety within your business.

As mentioned above, it helps to break this own into sub-categories e.g. risk assessment, training, welfare, plant and equipment etc.

It's really up to you to decide what is important.

Only include detail where there are significant actions. That is what the risk assessments and method statements for specific tasks are for.

I would suggest just keeping it at a fairly high level (not too much detail!). So that if anyone asks, they can dig further into it whilst getting a good overview of what it is you're actually doing to proactively manage health and safety in your business. Our Health and Safety Policy Template bundle includes a detailed example of Health and Safety Arrangements.

Health and Safety Policy UK

If you are working in the UK, I would recommend taking a look at the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, which gives more of a breakdown of responsibilities.

They were brought in in the 1990s and give you a criteria of steps that you should take to manage health and safety effectively.

It will help you when it comes to developing your policies that are relevant to your business.

Also keep an eye out on some of the upcoming episodes on Safeti School, where we will be covering more of the UK health and safety regulations.

Safeti School Transcipt - Health and Safety Policy

Welcome to Safeti School. Where we crunch down health safety and environment learning into simple bite-sized snippets that you can use for your business or your career.

Helping you improve your knowledge, boost your performance and maybe even providing some inspiration.

Let's get started.

You're very welcome to another episode of Safeti School with myself Richard Collins your host. And today we're going to take a very quick look at the need and requirement for a health and safety policy for businesses in the UK. Just to put it into some context as to why we would actually be concerned about this in the first place.

Going back to one of our earlier episodes on the Health and Safety at Work Act, which is obviously going back around 50 years at this point.

It does state and it is still in place to say that if you've more than five employees, you must have a written health and safety policy statement and that should be specific to your business.

That should set out your general policy for protecting the health and safety of your employees.

Also, a little bit about your arrangements for putting that into practice. So that gives us a bit of a context as to why we should be concerned.

Even if you don't have five employees, it will be good practice just to write that down.

Recording your Health & Safety Policy As I'm sure you would agree, a policy that isn't recorded anywhere isn't worth a whole lot. It’s very difficult to prove to anyone that it is the case. So just bear that in mind, if you do have a small business.

The health and safety policy as I said there, it should just set out your general approach to Health and Safety.

Fundamentally for smaller businesses, it really acts as a mini-management system outline.

As you would have with big systems like ISO 45001, which is now the the newest version of the the health and safety management standard.

This is a smaller version of it really and what the health and safety executive are wanting you to do is explain how you as an employer will manage H&S in your business and set out clearly who does what when and how they actually do it.

For larger businesses, the health and safety policy doesn't need to include as much information and as more of a position statement to outline how you approach health and safety.

You can mention, of course, your management system and the different means by which you meet your goals and objectives.

Outlining what those G’s and O’s within your particular business is very useful here. If you are a smaller company, there's certain things that the Health and Safety Executive (see above) ask you to include in your health and safety policy.

It doesn't need to be complicated though - just make sure if accurately reflects your business.

Communicating your Health and Safety Policy Once you do have that done, you must be able to communicate it properly with your employees.

Traditionally a lot of businesses would just post them on the wall in a communal area or perhaps send them out by email and so on. There are many different ways you can do that and I certainly encourage you to have a discussion with your employees and teams.

Or, if you're changing your policy or reviewing it then it might be a good time on a yearly basis to get all of your employees together.

To go through it and have a have an open chat about it and to get some feedback. It's entirely up to you, whichever way you want to approach that.

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In this episode, we expand on a really useful analogy that was used by a guest on the Safeti Podcast, Bob Cummins, about establishing employee trust in the workplace.

We break down 5 ways to help you build trust with your peers and colleagues;

1. It takes hard work and a long-term commitment
2. Get good at listening
3. Be consistent
4. Do as I do, not as I say
5. Be vulnerable, stay accountable

To add to that, treat people as you would like to be treated. Regardless of your past experiences, good or bad, you must assume that everyone is capable of great performance, and respect in a way that reflects that belief - as we found with the example as the beginning, if there is a lack of trust from the outset, then that will likely be reciprocated in the performance of the individual. Build Employee Trust in the Workplace | Additional Resources Related Episodes: Safety Communication Breakdown, Coaching For Safety with Michael Emery, Improving Internal Communications Free Risk Assessment Course - join our online risk assessment training course for free

Health and Safety Services - find out more about how Safeti can help you with Health and Safety

Safeti Shop – pay a visit to our store for professional templates and guidance

Safeti School - for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

Connect with Us - follow the Safeti page on Linkedin

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we look at some of the Do's and Don'ts when tackling your health and safety report. Hopefully some of these tips will help you have more impact with your communications when your are producing a health and safety board report or any similar summary for your business.

We’ve teamed up with Alex Burbidge from Pro Safety Management for a few episodes to share our views on a range of topics. We hope you get bucket loads of value from these short podcasts.!

Want to read? Please scroll down for the transcript version of this podcast if you’d prefer to read today or just use it as a reference when listening to the audio!

Health and Safety Report: Additional Resources

Safeti – pay us a visit at safeti.com for more free content, learning materials and support services

Richard Collins – connect with the podcast host on Linkedin

Related Episodes: Level Up - The Glass Ceiling Safeti School: for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

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In this Safeti School Episode, we look at one of the themes that's being talked about across the business world currently, that is psychological safety.

A recent book by Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School has thrust the subject into the limelight. We thought it would be useful to look at the concept and provide some actionable ways that you can start to create psychological safety in your organisation. Psychological Safety: Additional Resources

Related Episodes: Behavioural Science with Bob Cummins, Improving Internal Communications Podcasting & Media Services: find out more about how Safeti can help you with build trust by boosting engagement with kick-ass media content

Safeti – pay us a visit at safeti.com for more free content, learning materials and support services

Richard Collins – connect with the podcast host on Linkedin

Safeti School: for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page Psychological Safety - Podcast transcript (light) Hi, thanks for joining me for this short episode of safeti school - in this episode I want to quickly take a look at concept that is getting quite a bit of attention currently, and that is around the theme of psychological safety.

One of the most prominent books on the subject was recently released by Amy Edmondson (The Fearless Organisation) of the Harvard Business School.

I wanted to reflect on some of the focus from this book and look at how it might apply to you as an HSE or business leader.

What is Psychological Safety? What is psychological safety? Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.

It can be defined as “being able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career” In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected. It is also the most studied enabling condition in group dynamics and team learning research.

Amy Edmondson says psychological safety is broadly defined as a climate in which people are comfortable expressing and being themselves. Why is Psychological Safety important? What is the point of all this? We need to hear every voice – every insight, every opinion – of everyone, at work. This requires an environment of psychological safety.

What is the opposite? People operating with fear i.e. avoid doing something because one is afraid of negative consequences .

Fear, how does it show itself in the workplace? We very often protect ourselves by behaving in certain ways, for example – Don’t want to look ignorant? Don’t ask questions. Don’t want to look incompetent? Don’t admit to mistakes or weaknesses. Don’t want to be called disruptive? Don’t make suggestions.

The fear of speaking up can lead to accidents that were in fact avoidable. When it comes to safety, remaining silent due to fear of interpersonal risk to your status, job or career can make the difference between life and death. …

Many catastrophes have occurred and people have died unnecessarily because individuals were fearful of speaking up due to the cultural climate in their workplace. Can Psychological Safety be part of Corporate Culture? On the flip side then, what does it look like in an organisation with psychological safety as part of the cultural fabric?

If we hire someone on the basis of their knowledge, competence and experience - we naturally should want to get the best out of that person for the benefit of the company.

In her book - Amy is saying that for learning, innovation and ultimately personal and business growth - everyone needs to have a voice and behaviours by team members or leaders that try to silence or discourage that contribution, is detrimental to the entire team and the results that they can achieve. If you can achieve a

Workplace wherein everyone can speak up and is respected equally, then you are moving towards a culture of psychological safety, where innovation and growth can thrive. What's the catch?

As you can imagine, due to competition between employees within teams and also because those in power naturally try to hold on to their level of influence and control upon a group, it can be difficult to create this feeling of psychological safety if the culture is poor to begin with.

It's then up to leaders and members of the team to be conscious of this, to be self-aware and begin to practice deploying more empathy towards other people’s points of view.

Also, to observe if they or others are habitually shutting people down, ridiculing them or belittling their opinions.

It's also really important for all team members to be conscious of supporting and encouraging others in the group, who may be less vocal, to make sure their voices are heard.

Creating Workplaces without Fear In a psychologically safe workplace, people are not hindered by interpersonal fear.

They feel willing and able to take the risk to be honest and air their thoughts. They actually fear holding back their full involvement and participation more than they fear sharing a potentially sensitive, threatening, or wrong idea.

As a by-product, this leads to greater knowledge for the team and a much stronger position from which to progress.

A culture of silence can be very dangerous when it comes to safety, and that's why this concept of psychological safety is so relevant and important - we have to not only encourage participation, but also actively and genuinely listen to the information that is being fed back - this takes some humility from us as leaders and a recognition that we don't have all of the answers. Wrapping it Up - Psychological Safety Tips Let's wrap this up with some takeaways - we need to challenge the culture of fear and anything within our business that fuels or propagates it. Here's a few things you can use to guide you -

1. Do not practice keeping silent - there are times when silence is best, but when working as a team with a common goal, we should practice speaking up and getting up to speak up
2. Be aware that there always needs to be both a Speaker and Listener - actively listening is as important as speaking.
3. Every time someone withholds information, it may lead to a bad or wrong decision - in the context EHS, this can have severe consequences.
4. Always remember that the motivation for creating a fearless culture is to help the team and the business, not the individual.

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What is a Hazard? When we ask 'what is a hazard?' in relation to occupational safety and health (OSH), the most commonly used definition is -

‘A Hazard is a potential source of harm or adverse health effect on a person or persons’.

In this post, we are going to take a look at examples of workplace hazards that are common across different industries.

We'll then take a look at how you might go about identifying hazards in the workplace.

Make sure you don't miss our video which gives you pro ways to identify hazards.

If you are confused about hazard symbols, don't worry, we've covered that for you here too.

We'll wrap things up by giving you some context for then assessing the risks in your business and how it links to health and safety risk assessment.

Examples of Hazards in the Workplace Safety or health hazards can present unsafe working conditions that that can may cause injury or illness. It can be hard to identify hazards in a working environment.

They can take many different forms and include:

• Slips and Trips: single biggest cause of injury at work (29% of workplace injuries in UK, HSE 2018). Caused by poor housekeeping, unsuitable footwear, insufficient maintenance
• Manual Handling: in some sectors, the use of bodily force to move or lift object is the most common cause of injury
• Working from Height: falls from height are one of the major causes of workplace fatalities. Includes ladders, scaffolds, roofs, or any raised work area
• Lifting Operations: include being struck by a falling load, overturning or people falling from height. This is covered by LOLER regulations in the UK and includes excavators, forklifts, cranes, MEWP's, tail lifts, passenger/goods lifts etc.
• Pressure Vessels: hazard of stored energy as a result of the failure of a pressure system
• Workplace Plant and Equipment: equipment must be suitable for the intended use and maintained in a safe condition. This covered by the PUWER regulations in the UK
• Electricity: present most work environments, electricity presents high hazard potential
• Fire Safety: fire hazards exist in most workplaces and the consequences can be very severe
• Chemicals and Substances: we can identify potentially harmful chemicals or substances through the use of COSHH assessment and recognition of hazard symbols
• Workplace Transport: the risk of injury from moving vehicles is present in almost all workplace

How to Identify Hazards When you work in a place everyday it is very easy to overlook some hazards (you grow a set of blinkers!). So here are some tips to help you identify the hazards that matter:

• Check manufacturers' instructions or data sheets for chemicals and equipment as they can be very helpful in spelling out the operating risks and what precautions you should take

• Look back at your accident and ill-health records - these often help to identify the less obvious hazards or risk hotspots in your business

• Take account of non-routine operations (eg maintenance, cleaning operations or changes in production cycles)

Remember to think about long-term hazards to health (e.g. high levels of noise, exposure to harmful substances, common causes of work-related mental ill health)

If you would like more surefire ways to identify hazards in the workplace, watch our video!

https://youtu.be/wpiSpt7YyPU Free Risk Assessment Templates & Guide

Use Safeti's free, editable health and safety Risk Assessment Templates bundle (Basic, Advanced + Real Examples) to develop your own risk assessments.

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Hazard Categories Still having trouble thinking about 'what is a hazard?' hazard in your workplace?

Let's take a deeper look at some of the broader hazard categories that are used when asking 'what is a hazard?'. This should help us understand how widespread they can be across any organisation......

Physical Hazards: Physical and/or environmental hazards cover a whole range of elements and conditions within the workplace. Something to remember is that they may cause harm to the human body with or without actually touching it.

Here are just some examples.....

• Workplace Plant and Equipment: the operation of machinery can present a myriad of hazards and potential for direct physical contact
• Working at Height: conducting work at above ground level creates the potential for falls from height, and associated risk of severe or fatal injury
• Noise: loud work environments can cause irreversible damage to hearing e.g. construction sector
• Dust: silica, asbestos and wood dust can all be very harmful to the human body if not managed correctly
• Vibration: ill-health caused due the use of vibrating equipment e.g. carpal tunnel syndrome
• Radiation: including ionizing, non-ionizing (EMF’s, microwaves, radio waves, etc.)
• Environmental exposure: suitability of working environment should be considered for welfare e.g. temperature extremes, humidity, air quality

Chemical Hazards Chemical hazards are present when a worker is exposed or potentially exposed to any chemical material or preparation in the workplace in any form (solid, liquid or gas).

The level of harm that can be caused by a chemical varies widely, so you must interpret how it will interact with the work process and workers.

It is important to note that some workers may be more sensitive to certain chemicals, that's where a thorough COSHH assessment can be highly valuable. Even common solutions can cause severe illness, skin irritation, or breathing problems for specific people.

Here are some examples that would be classed as Chemical Hazards in the workplace (covered by COSHH Regulations in the UK):

• Liquids - cleaning products, paints, acids, solvents – always make sure chemicals are labelled correctly.
• Vapors and fumes - from welding, soldering or exposure to solvents, for example.
• Gases - acetylene, propane, carbon monoxide and helium - they may have very different properties e.g. be an asphyxiant, highly toxic or explosive.

Biological Hazards: Biological hazards include exposure to harm or disease associated with working with animals, people, or infectious plant materials. Workplaces with these kinds of hazards include, but are not limited to, work in schools, day care facilities, colleges and universities, hospitals, laboratories, emergency response, nursing homes, or various outdoor occupations.

Biological hazards would include the following:

• Blood and other body fluids - hepatitis, HIV etc. risk to medical staff, first responders, first aiders
• Fungi/mold
• Bacteria and viruses - legionella, leptospira, COVID-19
• Animal and bird droppings

Ergonomic Hazards

Ergonomic hazards occur when the type of work, body positions, and working conditions put a strain on your body. They are the hardest to spot since you don’t always immediately notice the strain on your body or the harm that these hazards pose.

Short-term exposure may result in “sore muscles” the next day or in the days following the exposure, but long-term exposure can result in serious long-term illness.

Ergonomic hazards in the workplace can include:

• Improperly adjusted workstations and chairs
• Frequent lifting (manual handling)
• Poor working posture
• Awkward and/or repetitive
• Requiring too much force (frequently)

Organisational Hazards

These are hazards or stressors that cause stress (short-term effects) and strain (long-term effects) to employees during the course of their work.

Organisational hazards can affect wellbeing/mental health, productivity and even physical health and are typically associated with how a company operates. Examples of such hazards include the following:

• Unreasonable workloads: causes approx. 44% of workplace mental health issues
• Workplace bullying/acts of violence: 7% of injuries in work caused by acts of violence (HSE UK, 2018)
• The intensity and/or pace of work/time pressure
• Respect (or lack thereof)
• Level of autonomy/responsibility to make decisions
• Social support or relations
• Sexual harassment

As you can see, when determining what is a hazard in the workplace, there is a lot that you may need to consider! It's important to note that although a hazard may be present, it might not present any risk.

Can you identify the Hazards? If you are new to hazard spotting, we recommend that you take a look at our Risk Assessment | Essentials Guide resource.

It may also help to watch our 'What is risk assessment?' video as an introduction…

https://youtu.be/9BJNq_f7OME Hazard Symbols and Meanings If you are dealing with substances which may be hazardous to health, it would be useful to get familiar with the globally standardised hazard symbols.

Hazard symbols or pictograms alert us to the presence of a hazardous chemical or substance. The symbols help us to recognise that the chemicals we are using might cause harm to people or the environment.

The CLP hazard pictograms are very similar to those used in the old labelling system and appear in the shape of a diamond with a distinctive red border and white background. One or more pictograms might appear on the labelling of a single chemical.

FlammableWHAT DOES IT MEAN? Extremely flammable gas, Flammable gas, Extremely flammable aerosol, Flammable aerosol, Highly flammable liquid and vapour, Flammable liquid and vapour, Flammable solid EXAMPLES: Lamp oil, petrol, nail polish remover

IrritantWHAT DOES IT MEAN? May cause OR does cause various conditions, such as, respiratory irritation, drowsiness or dizziness, allergic skin reaction, serious eye or skin irritation Harmful if swallowed, in contact with skin etc. EXAMPLES: Washing detergents, toilet cleaner, coolant fluid

ToxicWHAT DOES IT MEAN? The substance can be toxic/fatal if swallowed, in contact with skin or if inhaled EXAMPLES: Pesticide, biocide, methanol

Environmental HazardWHAT DOES IT MEAN? Very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects Toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects EXAMPLES: Pesticides, biocides, petrol, turpentine

CorrosiveWHAT DOES IT MEAN? May be corrosive to metals Causes severe skin burns and eye damage EXAMPLES: Drain cleaners, acetic acid, hydrochloric acid, ammoniac

OxidisingWHAT DOES IT MEAN? May cause or intensify fire; oxidiser. May cause fire or explosion; strong oxidiser. EXAMPLES: Bleach, oxygen for medical purposes

Serious Health HazardWHAT DOES IT MEAN? May be fatal if swallowed and enters airways, causes damage to organs, may damage fertility or the unborn child, may/suspected of cause cancer or genetic defects EXAMPLES: Turpentine, petrol, lamp oil

ExplosiveWHAT DOES IT MEAN? Substance may be any of following: an unstable explosive, mass explosion hazard, severe projection hazard, fire, blast or projection hazard, may mass explode in fire. EXAMPLES: Fireworks, ammunition

Gas Under PressureWHAT DOES IT MEAN? Contains gas under pressure; may explode if heated. Contains refrigerated gas; may cause cryogenic burns or injury. EXAMPLES: Gas containers, cylinders, air conditioning unit

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Difference between Hazard and Risk? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU1U8fdF85IThe terms hazard and risk can be used to compliment each other. However, they are often poorly applied when it comes to health and safety.

By understanding the simple relationship between hazard and risk, we can use them effectively in health and safety management.

What are the Hazards in your Business? That's it for this helpful resource on Workplace Hazards. We hope it has helped you answer the question 'what is a hazard?', grasp the importance of identifying what may cause harm and then deciding whether or not the hazards pose a risk.

Let us know which hazards you would like to learn more about by leaving us a comment below!

Workplace Hazards | H&S Support Services

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In this guide, we break down RIDDOR NI, GB and Ireland accident reporting into bitesize chunks to help you understand what needs to be done for your business.

It can be a confusing subject to tackle, and the requirements vary slightly depending on what part of the UK you are in. Firstly then, what is RIDDOR? What is RIDDOR? The RIDDOR Regulations in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) & Northern Ireland require employers, the self-employed and those in control of premises to report specified workplace incidents.

Incident and accident reports generated as part of the RIDDOR reporting requirements are sent to the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) or HSENI. Do You Know what RIDDOR Stands for?

RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (2013).

The regulations form an important aspect of health and safety management for those responsible for reporting.

Now you know what RIDDOR stands for, for more must-know information for the RIDDOR Regulations, such as, who should report, how to report and when to report - keep reading... Accident Reporting Support Bundle Download our editable Accident Report Form template bundle to keep an accurate record of accidents/incidents & investigations in your workplace.

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Why is RIDDOR important? It's not valuable just to know the answer to the question 'What is RIDDOR?', you need to be able to understand why it is important!

In 2017/18, an estimated 555,000 injuries occurred at work and 1.4 million working people were suffering from a new or ongoing work-related illness. For more in-depth stats, check out our post on UK Health and Safety Statistics.

The RIDDOR regulations are in place to help keep you and your colleagues safe at work. The legislation is also important because it helps to keep employers accountable to what goes on under their watch.

In theory, this should also encourage people to follow health and safety procedures in the workplace, which helps to reduce the number of accidents. At least, that is the aim!

When you follow the RIDDOR reporting requirements, it helps the HSE to gather important data on work-related illness and injury. The information allows them to monitor and track trends, allowing them to invest resource towards education and prevention strategies in future.

As you can see from the chart above, slips & trips and manual handling are the cause of >50% of the non-fatal RIDDOR accidents.

When it comes to fatalities, we can also see that the trend is that over 50% of fatalities are caused by either falls from height or being struck by a vehicle or moving object.

If employers ignore the RIDDOR regulations and fail to report incidents, they are breaking the law.

In 2011, Tesco admitted to not following essential procedures for reporting staff injuries at two of its stores. As a result, the company was fined £34,000 for RIDDOR reporting failures.

By following procedure and reporting any incidents as required, employers ensure that these risks are addressed and kept to a minimum.

This keeps everyone safe in the workplace and ensures that the image or reputation of the company is not tarnished. What is RIDDOR reportable? As an employer, it is a legal requirement to report all 'RIDDOR reportable' incidents, no matter how bi

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The risk Hierarchy of Controls or risk hierarchy is a system used in workplace environments to minimize or eliminate exposure to hazards. It is a widely accepted system promoted by safety organizations.

As discussed in the podcast, we recommend you check our Health and Safety Risk Assessment - Complete Beginner's Guide resource.

The risk control concept is taught to managers in industry, to be promoted as standard practice in the workplace. Various illustrations are used to depict this system, most commonly a triangle. Let's take look at what it looks like...

Hierarchy of Control: The Triangle The levels in the risk hierarchy of control measures are, in order of decreasing effectiveness:

• Elimination
• Substitution
• Engineering controls
• Administrative controls
• Personal protective equipment

Hierarchy of Controls Explained | Part 1 As you see above the risk Hierarchy of Controls is often represented by a triangular diagram that depicts the different controls in order of how effective they might be in controlling risk.

Our 2-part video series below looks at these options in much more detail...

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Hierarchy of Controls Explained | Part 2 Of course, as we move further down the pyramid, our control measures become less effective. Once we have exhausted the 'engineering' options, we are then becoming much more dependent on human behaviours to reduce the risk.

Let's take a look at what the risk hierarchy of controls looks like in practice...

https://youtu.be/n8vQn0neXV4 HSE Hierarchy of Controls 5 Steps | Recap Hopefully our video has given you a valuable overview of the hierarchy of controls - now, let's recap on those different levels of control available once we assess the risk. At the top of the Hierarchy of Controls, we start with the most effective option - Elimination.

1. Elimination Physical removal of the hazard — this is the most effective hazard control.

For example, if employees must work high above the ground, the hazard can be eliminated by moving the piece they are working on to ground level to eliminate the need to work at heights.

1. Substitution Substitution, the second most effective hazard control, involves replacing something that produces a hazard (similar to elimination) with something that does not produce a hazard - for example, replacing lead-based paint with titanium white.

To be an effective control, the new product must not produce another hazard.

As airborne dust can be hazardous, if a product can be purchased with a larger particle size, the smaller product may effectively be substituted with the larger product.

Substituting the material may result in a reduction of r

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What is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974? When it comes to the crunch, most things Health and Safety in the UK link back to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA).

It remains the main piece of law that relates to workplace health and safety in Great Britain.

There are also regulations which support the Health and Safety at Work Act. These provide more specific detail of what businesses should do to keep their workplaces safe and healthy.

In this guide, we'll provide you with some context around what HSWA is, how it is applied and why it affects your business.

OK, let's delve deeper into the Health and Safety at Work Act....

Is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 important? We are big fans of keeping things simple. With that in mind, almost any workplace situation can be looked at in the context of HSWA 1974 to quickly give us an idea of whether we are doing things right.

To give some real context to the importance of the HSWA and those regulations we mentioned, you only have to look at recent prosecutions by the Health and Safety Executive (UK).

Don't take our word for it, have a look at the latest cases on the HSE press page here....

As you can see, many of the issues relate directly to the Health and Safety at Work Act. It's also clear that the supporting regulations e.g. Work at Height, play a pivotal part when it comes to employer's responsibility.

Putting in place safe working practices does not always have to be a daunting, time consuming or costly affair. Any investment towards good health and safety should be proportionate to the level of risk in your business.

Let's look into the HASWA in some more depth....

What does the HSWA say? The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 sets out the legal framework for managing workplace health and safety in the UK.

The act outlines the general duties of everyone from employers and employees to owners, managers and operators of work premises for maintaining health and safety within most workplaces.

There is, however, more specific guidance for certain activities and business sectors that operate within a higher risk environment. Such as the construction industry, chemical manufacturing, mining etc.

The HASWA itself is a primary piece of legislation that serves to guide the more specific stuff that falls underneath it. These other regulations which compliment the HSWA 1974 are simply secondary, or supporting pieces of legislation.

The secondary parts make it easier for small changes, updates or additions to be made to existing law.

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 - Employers Responsibilities The employer's duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) is to ensure as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety & welfare of all employees. More specifically, employers must:

• provide plant, equipment and systems of work that don't present a risk to health or safety
• facilitate the safe use, handling & storage of substances and materials
• develop and maintain a

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In this podcast & video, we take a quick look at a few of the most common, but easily fixed, mistakes that are made when carrying out HSE Risk Assessment.

As discussed in the podcast, we recommend you check our Health and Safety Risk Assessment – Complete Beginner’s Guide resource and you can try the free module of our online course here. Risk Assessment Mistakes - Video https://youtu.be/ndfoKBSvMPE HSE Risk Assessment - Avoid the 3 Common Mistakes Here's an overview of the 3 common mistakes we see being made in HSE Risk Assessment.

Luckily, they are all very easy to remedy, and by resolving each of them, you will be one step closer to implementing an effective risk assessment for your business.

Plus, they be much easier to manage!

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Duplication Don't repeat the same information over and over again - who wants to read the same repeatedly - that’s a surefire way to lose someone's attention!?

Seriously, stop sounding like a broken record, it doesn't help you get your message across! (printing press)

Copy & Paste

Ok, the whole point of a risk assessment is that it's supposed to relate to the actual work being done.

Why do think it would make sense to take a generic piece of information from a completely different job, context or location and feel that it's going to slot in, no questions asked!?

That's not to say existing information isn't useful. Of course it is, but make sure it's directly relevant to what you are doing, enough specific detail!

Chapter and Verse

What do I mean by writing chapter and verse?

Well, let' say you give someone a 20-page risk assessment that relates to a fairly simple operation or activity.

Do you really think they are going read it, consume it and act upon it!?

The likelihood is that they won't - you have to make it as concise, non-technical and actionable as possible - so that it's easy to interpret and can be used by anyone - most of the time we find that risk assessment are the complete opposite of this - here's a quick tip!

I often ask the question, would a 4 year old child understand it if you read it to them? If the answers yes, then you're on the money!!

Thanks for watching & listening to this episode on HSE Risk Assessment mistakes, part of our Safeti School series and brought to you by Safeti.com. HSE Risk Assessment Templates

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First off, let's answer that question - What is a near miss? The Health & Safety Executive in the UK defines a near miss as an 'event that doesn't cause harm but has the potential to cause injury or ill health'.

Near misses are not classed as accidents.

Rather, they are a recognition that a specific incident or event could have easily caused an injury or illness.

Let's take a simple example - a pallet load falls from a forklift and hits the ground. The area within which it fell is shared with warehouse workers and other pedestrians. Nobody is injured.

Do we leave it and do nothing?

Or was it a Near Miss?

Is it a Near Miss? Yes, an event like this should be classed as an 'incident' and would most likely be a identified as a near miss.

Why? If someone had been standing where the object fell, they would almost definitely have been injured or killed. Unless the area is completely out of bounds to other staff or visitors, then there is a significant risk that someone could been struck by the object.

If this was the case, it would be considered a near miss. It's a potential accident that was narrowly avoided, through chance or luck.

Near misses are often unintentional but can be powerful learning opportunities. They should not be ignored but used as a positive tool to help reduce risk in future.

How common is a Near Miss?

We have all experienced near misses in our daily lives, both inside and outside of the workplace. They happen more often than you might think.

If you ever felt like you had a lucky escape or a close call, something could have hurt you, but luckily it didn't, then that was probably a near miss.

• Have you ever went to cross the road but had to take a step back because there was an oncoming, speeding vehicle?

• Have you ever stepped outside in the winter and slipped on ice but got away with it?

• Have you ever tried to lift something up off the ground without realising how heavy it was?

• Risk Assessment (Basic Version)

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Risk assessment is one of the core features of any health, safety or environmental management system.

Download Safeti's free Risk Assessment Template (Basic) to start developing your own risk assessments and stay legally compliant.

All of the scenarios listed above could potentially result in an injury, and there are usually certain actions that we take to try to avoid them from happening. Of course, because an injury didn't occur, the simplest thing to do is to carry on with what you were doing.

If we have experienced a near miss outside of work, it is likely that we will have taken a mental note of what happened and try to make sure it doesn't happen in future.

Let's face it, most of us don't want to intentionally injure ourselves!

We usually reduce future risk by adjusting our own thought processes or actions. Also, we may decide that the way we carried out an activity wasn't suitable and try another approach.

In the workplace, however, we should take a slightly more formal approach to these events.

It is good practice to investigate such

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we reflect on a point made about stakeholder engagement by our Safeti Podcast guest, James Pomeroy.

We ask the question, is engaging your stakeholders useful? It's something that is often forgotten about, both internally and externally. But we are missing a trick as James explains...

• The importance of getting to know your stakeholders on a first name basis.

• Recognising how much can be learned if we listen intently to our stakeholders and use the learning to inform our strategy.

• Take the opportunity when your have engaged your stakeholders, to show that HSE is not just a cost-centre.

For this and more, listen to our 5 minutes Safeti School podcast on stakeholder engagement! The full Safeti Podcast episode with James Pomeroy can be found in the resource section below.

We like to make communication easier for you! If you found this podcast helpful, make sure to share it with your workforce or your team as a toolbox talk or safety moment ;-)

Stakeholder Engagement: is it useful? : Additional Resources Related Episodes: Leveraging Workplace Relationships with James Pomeroy, Improving Internal Communications

Free Risk Assessment Course - join our online risk assessment training course for free

Health and Safety Services - find out more about how Safeti can help you with Health and Safety

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we take a look at some tactics to help when you are starting a new job or project challenge that you are confronted with.

It's often a very daunting time, especially if you have been forced to move jobs or are doing something completely new. In any case, career change is always hard, and it makes sense to mentally prepare.

Our tips will help you navigate the process more easily!

As we like to make communication easier for you, so if you found this podcast helpful make sure, to share it with your workforce or your team as a toolbox talk or safety moment!

8 Tactics for Starting a New Job or Project: Additional Resources Related Episodes: Secret Sauce for HSE Jobs, Improving Internal Communications

Free Risk Assessment Course - join our online risk assessment training course for free

Health and Safety Services - find out more about how Safeti can help you with Health and Safety

Safeti Shop – pay a visit to our store for professional templates and guidance

Safeti School - for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

Connect with Us - follow the Safeti page on Linkedin

8 Tactics for Starting a New Job or Project - Summary Take your Time

Give yourself time - be strategic about which battles you fight.

If you are starting a new job, you'll need at least a at least a 3 to 6 month window, if not longer, to grasp how the business really operates under different circumstances.

Use this early opportunity wisely and be cautious about getting dragged into too many dogfights over issues that are deeply embedded - these may waste your precious time.

Despite what people in the organisation might think, you don't have all of the answers.

Providing you make that clear from Day 1, you will create enough breathing space to get up to speed with how things work within the business. Time will also allow you to build specific human and organisational context around the questions being asked.

Ask Questions Ask questions - ask, ask, ask - listen closely to what's happening on the ground & build a picture of the current state of play - adopt a learners mindset.

Don't try to be the expert, you probably don't know the business as well as you might like to think, so avoid jumping to conclusions. There's usually good reason why people do things the way they do - you just have to figure out what those reasons are.

Be Confident Give your opinion with confidence - it's important to establish your authority on relevant subjects but it's equally important to embrace vulnerability when you don't have any answers (yet) amongst the workforce.

Although it may be counterintuitive, being honest about what we know and what we don't know won't only avoid you looking silly, but your transparency will help you build trust amongst peers.

Don't be a Hoarder

Don't hesitate to remove anything that does not add value, before you consider adding more on - if you are new to a business, you are a fresh set of eyes that can see things differently to those who are in auto pilot.

With the caveat that, of course

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we take a look at some tactics to help you manage hazardous substances at work safely. We've extracted the five points and expanded on them for you to reference.

We like to make communication easier for you - if you found this podcast helpful be sure to share it with your workforce or your team as a toolbox talk or safety moment!

Assessing your Hazardous Substances

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• Stay Legally Compliant
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In the UK, COSHH stands for ‘Control of Substances Hazardous to Health’.

Under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, employers need to either prevent or reduce their workers’ exposure to substances that are hazardous to their health.

Hazardous Substances Podcast: Additional Resources Related Episodes: COSHH Guide, Improving Internal Communications

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COSHH - Top 5 Things to Remember

SAFETY DATA SHEETS Read the SDS or MSDS thoroughly – all of your information from the manufacturer – sometimes this information can be quite broad in terms of the application of the substance and will usually relate to intense use of the product or worse-case scenario – so, if you can’t, get someone who can interpret it.

COMPATIBILITY Separate incompatible chemicals risk of harm to health or fire hazards – This is often overlooked and not given enough priority- it’s part of the reason COSHH assessments can be so useful – because it gives you the chance to look at all of the haz substances you are using across an entire site or project – why is this important? – well, mixing Ammonia & Bleach, for example.

One of the most common hazards occurs when chlorine bleach is mixed with ammonia or acids. The combination of ammonia and bleach produces dangerous chlorine gas, which in small doses can cause irritation to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract. In large doses, it can kill.

LABELLING Make sure they are well labelled – ok, so this maybe seems obvious but its very easy for materials to be decanting or transferred to different container – what issue does this present – well firstly, it presents a risk to people of course, as they could confuse a hazardous material for something harmless and put themselves at risk.

Also, when it comes to environmental aspect, you need to be able to proper

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Yes, we know. Podcasting is all the rage. It happened before and fizzled out. 'It's just a fad', we hear you say. Well, we don't agree.

Technology, smartphones and sharing platforms have become so accessible now that we reckon podcasting is here to stay. Let's face it, it's just voice. The human voice has been around for a while, but sometimes we underestimate it's power.

Voice connects you with the listener. It's human, plus it takes very little effort to consume.

If you are the one doing the recording, you have the added benefit of not having to sit in front of a camera (eek!).

But, have you thought seriously about How to make a Podcast for business?

Should you make a Podcast for Business?

If you are running a business and want to plan, create and deliver consistent, high-quality communications (without the risk of poor streaming connections, people not showing up or you fluffing your lines), then podcasting is an incredibly obvious option.

Is there much to know about how to make a podcast?

Well, here's the rub.

There's a little problem with podcasting compared to blogging. Though many make it out to be easiest thing since sliced bread, it's not quite that straightforward.

Especially if you want to produce something of high quality and value.

Yes, most people can have a go at it. I wouldn't dispute that due to the availability of many different platforms and technology that can streamline the process.

However, it doesn't mean that they are immediately going to be good at it. Let's face it, most people can kick a football, it doesn't mean they will derive as much value from it as Cristiano Ronaldo.

Like most things in life, it takes hard work and practice. Lots of it.

But don't fret, we're going to walk you through a simple process to get up and running to test the water. Before we do that though, let's talk a little about why you should spend the time to how to make a podcast in the first place....

Why learn how to make a Podcast? Maybe you've looked at how to make a podcast for business, but been scared off!

Here's a short video on why I think you should consider using podcasting as part of your business communications strategy (internally or externally)...

https://youtu.be/86VS16B2wRMMost online tutorials go into depth about hosting platforms, podcast feeds, creating websites, album artwork, complex editing processes, digital marketing etc. etc...

That's enough to put most people off.

Particularly if you were only seeking to use podcasting for internal business communications, for which it can be an excellently efficient and powerful medium.

How to make a Podcast for business - what next? Now, we don't think the process needs to be quite as complicated as some are making it out to be.

That's why we crunched down how to make a podcast for business into a simple 6 Step Process for you to try out. Assuming you have a short (5-15 minute) communication ready to record for your audience and some basic equipment, this should only be a few short hours of work.

Let's begin!

Something to Record into - grab your Mic! OK, so when it comes to microphones, there is lots of choice, almost too much.

The important thing here is getting one that provides good enough quality for your needs.

Listen to our sample below to hear what the different options can provide in terms of sound quality. 

Notice any difference in the sound quality?? Yep, thought so :-)

For most people, a USB microphone that connects directly into a PC or laptop should be sufficient to get going. 

Although we like RODE equipment, the Blue Yeti (we are not an affiliate) is a popular choice for many beginner's and

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What is Health Safety and Environment? Health Safety and Environment (HSE or EHS) is the department in a company or an organization tasked with ensuring that the work done by the company does not cause undue environmental damage, put the workers' health and safety at high risk, complies with applicable legislation, and follows best practices.

As discussed in the podcast, we recommend you check our Health and Safety Risk Assessment – Complete Beginner’s Guide resource and you can try the free module of our online course here. Now then, moving on to look at Health Safety and Environment...

'HSE' management aims to prevent and reduce accidents, emergencies, and health issues at work, along with any environmental damage that could result from work practices.

Managing the risk to people and the environment is a very important part of long-term, sustainable business success. It helps companies retain employees, optimise productivity and to meet client expectations. Why would you be interested in Health Safety and Environment? Firstly, look at the 'Why'. Why are you wanting to get into the HSE market by applying to be a Health, Safety and Environment Officer or a similar associated position? Is it for the money?

The reality is that many do go into this area of work due to the attractive salaries on offer. Hopefully this isn't your primary motivator, as that’s not a good reason to start in any career and will unlikely lead you toward happiness!

If you are seriously considering going in the direction of applying for a Health and Safety position, I wanted to share some thoughts & useful information to help you along the way.

For myself, I have always had an interest in the protection of people and our environment. Since childhood, I have been captivated by the interconnection of human health and the state of our natural environment.

My personal experience has developed through a variety of roles, some where Health, Safety and Environment only made up a part of the responsibility. Depending on the size of the business, this can be a good thing.

The thing that strikes me as an HSE professional, for many, it is a vocation.

You are a steward for the protection of people and the environment. We are equally affected by health, safety and environmental issues within the workplace as we are outside of it.

If you don't already, it may help for you to start thinking about how HSE affects what you are doing right now.

If you want to build a successful HSE career, its time to embrace that mindset. Who would want to work in Health Safety and Environment!? Well, you may be surprised. Let's not beat around the bush, there is some competition. Don't be afraid, competition is good. It means there is a market!

Lots of people have went into the career path from many different directions and previous careers. This leads some naysayers to argue that it is simply a fallback or 'second' career choice.

I would dispute that strongly....

5 key reasons Why people want to work in Health Safety and Environment

1. People can pick up relevant experience along their career path. If they enjoy the HSE aspect of their work, it makes sense to transition to be a full-time Health and Safety Officer.
2. There is a very strong business case for it, all companies require competent advice. This is a legal requirement and the consequences of non-compliance can be severe for individuals and companies.
3. It is relatively well-rewarded with growth opportunity & health and safety jobs are plentiful. As the risk-profile of an industry increases, the rewards increase proportionately.
4. Defined career path; you can go from being a Health and Safety Officer to an Advisor, Ma

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In Episode, we reflect on a point made by one of Safeti Podcast guests around moving from looking for the absence of negatives towards the presence of positives. What does that mean for a HSE professional?

The question we ask here is - Are you recognising and using the positive actions that happen currently to help you move forward, or are you waiting for the next negative event?

Thinking about the principle of 'what you seek, ye shall find', we wonder is all of that looking for negatives resulting affecting our decision-making.

Is the presence of 'zero accidents' leading us to feel like everything is OK, when in fact it's not. In the same way, does the presence of a negative indicate that things must be bad?

The inherent confirmation bias could be leading us to miss the bigger picture.

We shouldn't look at either in isolation, and lean into the presence of positives to sustain performance and create a robust, innovative work environment.

What is confirmation bias? Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that affirms one's prior beliefs or hypotheses.

Is it Confirmation Bias?: Additional Resources

Related Episodes: Behavioural Science with Bob Cummins, Improving Internal Communications

Podcasting & Media Services: find out more about how Safeti can help you with build trust by boosting engagement with kick-ass media content

Safeti – pay us a visit at safeti.com for more free content, learning materials and support services

Richard Collins – connect with the podcast host on Linkedin

Safeti School: for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

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In Episode, we continue the theme of how to build trust in the workplace. In this one, we do a little experimentation with our content and tie the common theme of workplace trust that was highlighted in two very different ways across two recent Safeti podcast.

What might be the positive outcomes of trusting your team?

I'll give you 3 that spring to mind for me:

1. It allows the team to bond better by making members feel like that they respect amongst their peers
2. Transparency - by demonstrating that you trust someone, in taking that risk, they are much more likely to take the risk to tell you the truth about what is happening on the ground operationally
3. When you can establish truth, that gives you a much more powerful position from which to truly improve and innovate, leading to much better outcomes for everyone involved, including the business.

Trust in the Workplace : Additional Resources Related Episodes: Behavioural Science with Bob Cummins, Health and Safety at Events with Mark Breen, 5 Ways to Build Employee Trust in the Workplace Free Risk Assessment Course - join our online risk assessment training course for free

Health and Safety Services - find out more about how Safeti can help you with Health and Safety

Safeti Shop – pay a visit to our store for professional templates and guidance

Safeti School - for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

Connect with Us - follow the Safeti page on Linkedin

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In this episode of Safeti School, we look at the broader benefits of focusing on achieving effective communication within your business.

The key reasons we outline in this episode interwine to create an environment where the 5th and most important outcome can be achieved.

Take action now to start becoming the communicator you strive to be, and see the results come in!

Effective Communication : Additional Resources Related Episodes: Safety Communication Breakdown, Coaching For Safety with Michael Emery, Improving Internal Communications

Free Risk Assessment Course - join our online risk assessment training course for free

Health and Safety Services - find out more about how Safeti can help you with Health and Safety

Safeti Shop – pay a visit to our store for professional templates and guidance

Safeti School - for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

Connect with Us - follow the Safeti page on Linkedin

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we look at the importance of developing a bias towards action. Whether it's for your career or your business, it is critical to be action-orientated if you want to achieve better outcomes.

Join us for this short episode for a little inspiration for the week ahead!

Bias Towards Action: Additional Resources

Podcasting & Media Services: find out more about how Safeti can help you with your internal communications strategy

Safeti – pay us a visit at safeti.com for more free content, learning materials and support services

Richard Collins – connect with the podcast host on Linkedin

Related Episodes: 'Become the solution' with Brendan Maloney, 5 Whys to the Root Cause

Safeti School: for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

If you would like to read the transcript, you can watch our video below or read on further down the page!

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we look at the problems around internal communications and some tactics to improve on the status quo! These tips will help you think about how you can have more impact with your internal communications strategy. Improving Internal Communications | Additional Resources

Podcasting & Media Services: find out more about how Safeti can help you with your internal communications strategy

Safeti – pay us a visit at safeti.com for more free content, learning materials and support services

Pro Safety Management – home of Alex Burbidge’s health and safety consultancy, based in York, England.

Richard Collins – connect with the podcast host on Linkedin

Related Episodes: Safety Communication Breakdown, Coaching For Safety with Michael Emery Safeti School: for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

If you would like to read the transcript, you can watch our video below or read on further down the page! Improving Internal Communications | Podcast Transcript

Welcome to Safeti School where we crunch down health safety and environment learning into simple bite-size snippets that you can use for your business or your career helping you improve your knowledge boost your performance and maybe even providing some inspiration. Let's get started.

In this episode we're going to look at some strategies that you can adopt to improve your internal Communications. Our first step is to stop using email so much. This is a real bugbear of my own to be honest is just the incessant use of email.

I used to call it email tennis within a business. Where people are just going back and forward not really adding value, getting into silly debates and arguments over small stuff. Really just relying on email as a means of internal correspondence between their colleagues and themselves. Rather than do that, because it doesn't really help you nurture real relationships and discourages you know face-to-face meetings and so on.

When you are communicating externally, sometimes it is easier to use email but something I would suggest is just think about when you're internally communicating each time, you're sending an email, your writing a big script.

Do you really need to be doing that? Can you pick up the phone and speak to the person directly or indeed can you go and actually see them in person?

And once you start consciously thinking about how often you're doing that you'll find that there's a lot more opportunity to have face-to-face engagements with people and therefore build relationships that are much stronger.

Our second tip here is to ensure that whatever way you're communicating to your employees, to make sure that they have a means to share their opinion and their voice.So essentially that you're promoting a two-way communication rather than a one-way communication. Sometimes companies focus their efforts on pushing lots of information out to employees.

We're all I'm sure very aware of when that happens,but it's obviously very important that you provide a means for those employees to share their opinions and get their voice out to give feedback with any questions or concerns that may be valuable to the business.

And going side by side with that need for giving employees a channel where they can

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we chat about some of the common pitfalls that we fall into with your health and safety training delivery. Don't make the same mistakes that we did!

We’ve teamed up with Alex Burbidge from Pro Safety Management for a few episodes to share our views on a range of topics. We hope you get bucket loads of value from these short podcasts.

Want to read? Please scroll down for the transcript version of this podcast if you’d prefer to read today or just use it as a reference when listening to the audio! Training Delivery; Additional Resources Related Episodes: Planning Training? Don't forget to do this....., 3 Essentials for Effective Training Free Risk Assessment Course - join our online risk assessment training course for free

Health and Safety Services - find out more about how Safeti can help you with Health and Safety

Safeti Shop – pay a visit to our store for professional templates and guidance

Safeti School - for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

Connect with Us - follow the Safeti page on Linkedin

If you would like to read the transcript, you can watch our video below or read on further down the page!

Training Delivery Episode Transcript

Welcome to Safeti School. Where we break down health safety and environment learning into simple bite-sized snippets that you can use for your business or your career. Helping you improve your knowledge boost your performance and maybe even providing some inspiration.

Let's get started.

RICHARD Let's look at how we can avoid the pitfalls when we're delivering training Alex.

We're going to talk through you are sort of favourite little points that we reckon people can think about. Through experiences of her own and areas where we've maybe had a mishap in the past ourselves. Do you want to kick us off?

ALEX Yeah for me. It's always about your own nerves and you know you overthinking what you're delivering and sometimes the information that you're presenting is just got to be told. It's got to be delivered but it's just your style and personality.

I think people want to see rather than just trying to be either too corporate and too kind of like into the business buzzwords. Just be yourself, deliver something that you know,you would be happy to sit through yourself.

That's the test.

I think.

RICHARD That's the acid test to make sure to keep your audience engaged.

It's a real pertinent point to try and be as natural as possible and I guess we chatted with this in the past that once you start overthinking everything that you're saying then automatically it becomes unnatural and then that in itself is damaging to your engagement.

Something that I'd been thrown in this initially was just to make sure that you have a defined outcome. It goes back to what we're discussing about planning training. To make sure that whatever goals and objectives that you want the learner to achieve are clearly laid out so that whatever direction you're training goes in that you can always bring it back to that objective and make sure that whatever content your delivering or whatever discussions that you're having.You can always make them relevant to that end goal. Would you have any thoughts on t

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we look at the challenge of trying to build a safety team when the budget just isn't there. Check out this episode for some inspiration!

We’ve teamed up with Alex Burbidge from Pro Safety Management for a few episodes to share our views on a range of topics. We hope you get bucket loads of value from these short podcasts!

Build a Safety Team with No Budget : Additional Resources Related Episodes: 5 Takeaways on 'How to Sell Safety'

Free Risk Assessment Course - join our online risk assessment training course for free

Health and Safety Services - find out more about how Safeti can help you with Health and Safety

Safeti Shop – pay a visit to our store for professional templates and guidance

Safeti School - for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

Connect with Us - follow the Safeti page on Linkedin

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we take a look at some of the most important and under-leveraged aspects of planning training for your employees.

We've teamed up with Alex Burbidge from Pro Safety Management for a few episodes to share our views on a range of topics. We hope you get bucket loads of value from these short podcasts!

Want to read? Please scroll down for the transcript version of this podcast if you’d prefer to read today or just use it as a reference when listening to the audio! Planning Training? Don't forget to do this... | Additional Resources Related Episodes: 3 Essentials for Effective Health and Safety Training Free Risk Assessment Course - join our online risk assessment training course for free

Health and Safety Services - find out more about how Safeti can help you with Health and Safety

Safeti Shop – pay a visit to our store for professional templates and guidance

Safeti School - for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

Connect with Us - follow the Safeti page on Linkedin

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Simple Steps to prevent Slips Trips and Falls The main non-fatal injury (31%) to employees as reported in 2017/18 was a Slip, Trip or Fall on the same level i.e. not from height.

So, that equates to more than 170,000 Slips Trip and Falls injuries reported by Employer's in Great Britain for the year. WOW!!

Yes, there's still quite a lot of room for improvement.

Helpful Hints to Prevent Slips Trips and Falls

There are many simple ways to control the risks of slips trips and falls in your workplace. Let's look at some them of the most important aspects that can help you make progress.

Planning and Design

• Plan pedestrian routes to avoid contaminated areas
• Use entrance matting at entrances/exits
• Design processes & task to minimise spill risk
• Use protective bunding for potential leak sources
• Floors likely to get wet or have spillages should be a suitable non-slip material
• Make sure lighting is sufficient and that slopes or steps are clearly visible.

Cleaning and Maintenance

• Fix leaks from machinery or buildings
• Make sure that your cleaning method is effective for the type of floor you have
• Minimise risk during cleaning process e.g. use wet/dry cleaner

• Remove spillages promptly

• Use the appropriate detergent mix to avoid residue

• Check for loose, damaged and worn flooring and replace as needed
• Keep walkways and work areas clear of obstructions

What can you do as an Employer/Employee?

• Report any slip/trip accident or near miss to prevent future incidents
• If you see a hazard i.e. spillage, obstruction - remove it, if safe to do so
• Keep your workspace tidy as reasonably possible
• Wear appropriate PPE e.g. non-slip footwear
• Encourage others to be proactive

For useful insights into the Health, Safety & Environment profession, check out the Safeti Podcast!

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we follow from the previous show with another method of problem-solving, the Fishbone Diagram. This is another way to get your team together to use your combined knowledge of your business and it processes, to find the root causes of an event.

As mentioned in the last episode, the Fishbone Diagram, otherwise known as Cause and Effect Analysis or the Ishikawa Diagram, can be used as a bolt-on to the 5 Whys method. It can help you identify specific areas of focus that are relevant to your business, enabling you to find the root causes of an accident or incident.

Want to read? Please scroll down for the transcript version of this podcast if you’d prefer to read today or just use it as a reference when listening to the audio!

Additional Resources

Fishbone Diagram Example: download this simple example below to help you understand the Fishbone investigation process.

Similar Episodes: 5 Whys to the Root Cause, Hierarchy of Control – 5 key pillars to manage risk, What is Risk Assessment?

Safeti School: for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

How to do a Fishbone Diagram - Transcript

Welcome to Safeti school where we crunch down health safety and environment learning into simple bite-size snippets that you can use for your business or your career. Helping you improve your knowledge, boost your performance and maybe even providing some inspiration.Let's get started. In this episode of Safeti School.

We're going to take a look at another method that’s used for root cause analysis following on from a previous episode on the five ways tool.We're going to take a look at the fishbone diagram method. Otherwise known as cause and effect, Ishikawa or sometimes known as the 6m methodology.

So as I was saying in the five whys episode, this tool can actually be used if you're finding that there's not enough detail in the five whys method. You can use this tool as a bit of a bolt on and actually to add on top of the five whys to give you more structure around trying to find that root cause and to help you instigate ideas within your team as to what alternatives for causation there might be.

How to Structure a Fishbone Diagram

You'll see as we talk through it and put I’ll put a resource in the links for you to look at just as a visual representation as to how this thing is structured. Or how you can structure it can be done in slight variations.

It sort of follows the same set of rules as you're using it.It's more structured maybe than the five whys process would be in helping you identify underlying factors or causes of an adverse event or a near-miss if you want to investigate those as well. Understanding the contributing factors or the causes of the failure.

As I said in the last episode of five whys, helps you develop the actions that sustain an ongoing, improvement or correction to risk within your business.

It can be really useful and this cause and effect or fishbone diagram can really help with you brainstorming to identify the possible causes of the problem. Sometimes more so than the 5 whys method might as I was saying before regarding the 5 whys you really need to know that the people that are doing it understand the processes and the procedures and they activities in depth. So they can really pull out the relevant data.

The fishbone diagram is useful for this because it gives you a visual way to look at the potent

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In this Episode of Safeti School, we provide an overview of the 5 Whys method of problem-solving. The method, originally created by Toyota, is widely used in a range industrial applications. It can be used as a simple way to help you identify the root causes of your health and safety issues.

Want to read? Please scroll down for the transcript version of this podcast if you'd prefer to read today or just use it as a reference when listening to the audio! '5 Whys to the Root Cause' Additional Resources 5 Whys Example: download this simple example below to help you understand the 5 Whys investigation process.

5-Whys-Method- Download

Similar Episodes: Hierarchy of Control - 5 key pillars to manage risk, What is Risk Assessment? Safeti School: for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page '5 Whys to the Root Cause' Podcast Transcript Welcome to Safeti School - We crunch down health safety and environment learning into simple bite-sized snippets that you can use for your business or your career. Helping you improve your knowledge boost your performance and maybe even providing some inspiration. Let's get started....

One of the most simple and well known ways of investigating an incident or an accident to find the root cause is by using what's known as the 5 why analysis method. If you're not familiar with the five whys method at all.

I would suggest that you look at resource section of the podcast page where I've included an example of a 5 whys diagram. It'll give you an idea of what it looks like as we discuss how it's done. What is the 5 Whys Method?

The 5 Whys method is really a simple but powerful tool that can be used for any problem-solving activity and we do use it in health and safety. It's a technique that will help you get past the immediate causes and symptoms of a problem down to the the underlying issues.

This will allow you to come up with solutions that will hopefully help you avoid the same scenarios happening over and over again. Why is it called 5 Whys?

Well, very simply the method requires you to ask 'why?' five times. Generally, whenever you start with a problem statement and ask why over and over again by the fifth time that you do it, you usually get to roundabout the root cause of the issue. Sometimes it might only take you three whys or it may take you a lot more whys before you actually get to the root cause of the problem. Also, there may be more than one root cause.

So it might be multiple root causes that you then have to go and investigate. Let's take a look at a quick example of one. As with any health and safety accident or incident, we begin with a problem statement, which you always must agree on whether you're working by yourself or in a group.

Let's look at a 5 Whys Example.....

We're going to use the case of someone falling over and breaking their wrist i.e. a slip or trip accident. Something that often happens in workplaces. We start with our problem statement, which is that someone fell and broke their wrist.

Of course, the first thing we must do is ask 'why?'. Typically when we answer the first question within the 5 whys process we are usually looking at the obvious aspects of a problem. The methodology encourages you to go deeper and deeper as you repeat that question to look into the underlying reasons as to why something happened.

In this case, if we asked 'Why did someone fall and break their wrist?' You may come up with an answer such as. 'there was ice on the ground'. As well as that, it's worth pointing out that there may be mult

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Manual Handling Principles | Intro Why are we concerned with Manual Handling principles?

In Ireland, Manual handling injuries are the most common workplace injury (see image), with over 30% physical injuries relating to the back, arm or shoulders.

For GB, in the 2020/21 business year, there were approximately 470,000 (yes, ~0.5 Million!) work-related musculoskeletal (MSK) disorder cases. 81% of these were related to the upper limbs, neck or back.

Health and Safety Authority (2019) The HSE (GB) estimates that 8.9 Million working days were lost due to these MSK disorders.

Manual handling, awkward or tiring positions and keyboard work (DSE) or repetitive action are regarded as the key causes of work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

Source: HSE GB Free Manual Handling Awareness Training Need a little more than the blog? You can learn the 5 Manual Handling principles by video and more, including achieving a learning certificate, just enrol in our FREE Manual Handling Awareness course!

Enrol Now

Manual Handling Regulations NI and GB Due to the scale of the issue, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 were implemented to outline the legal requirements for businesses in the UK.

For NI, these are known as the Manual Handling Operations Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992

Manual Handling Regulations Ireland In Ireland, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work, (General Applications) Regulations 2007, Chapter 4 of Part 2, outline the requirements that must be adhered to in relation to manual handling.

In summary, employer's must endeavour to do the following; * Carry out a manual handling risk assessment of existing tasks * Organise tasks to reduce need for manual handling, including rotation, layout and mechanical aids * Provide instruction and training to staff

As with any health and safety management, the approach and resource required should be proportionate the risk involved.

HSA Manual Handling Statistics 2019 Manual handling and lowering the risk of injury is not an exact science. Every lift and every environment requires unique consideration.

However, to avoid manual handling or musculo-skeletal injuries, performing a sufficient manual handling risk assessment and applying a few simple manual handling principles can help reduce risk to workers.

Let's look at 5 Steps of Manual Handling that you can use to achieve safer lifting practices in your workplace... 5 Manual Handling Principles | Lifting 1. Plan The thing we all forget to do, which is perhaps most important, make a PLAN!

Before you lift the object, you should trace the entire path of travel to the final location to make sure the entire way is clear for the load. Tripping over obstacles or having to put down the load midway are hazards that can easily be avoided.

Just looking at an object can give you some idea of whether another team member or mechanical assistance will be needed to get the object from “point a” to “point b.”

Many packing labels will specify weight, and the size and shape of the package can indicate if a truck or dolly will be necessary.

Usually it's wise not to lift cumbersome or objects heavier than around 25kgs/55lbs (or less depending on your strength) without help. Use the Weight Guide opposite to help determine an acceptable weight distribution.

Lifting and Lowering Weight Guide: HSE (UK) If there is no easy way to ascertain the weight of a load, a quick shove or nudge can indicate whether outside help will be needed. Know your limits, and don’t hesitate to ask for help when needed.

It is always preferable to lift and put down a heavy object close to the height at which it will be carried. Appropriately stage/prepare materials that must be moved, where possible to do so.

You can check out our Manual Handling TILE post for more details on assessing your lift. 2. Position

Approach the load evenly, with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Move the center of your body as close as possible to its center before lowering yourself to lift the object.

Get a Grip: Whenever possible, use handholds or handles to maximize the power of the worker.

Use two hands whenever possible and encircle the object). Manual Handling Tool Kit | Free Download We've crunched together the 5 top HSE Manual Handling guidance documents and created a Manual Handling Assessment Tool Kit - these tools will help you assess and manage the risk for all sorts of work involving manual lifting, carrying, pushing/pulling and repetitive work.

1. Pick As you move the object upward, maintain a natural motion, keeping the load as close as possible to your spine.

Engage the muscles of your torso to stabilize your spine and maintain steady breathing while your legs and buttocks perform most of the lifting work.

Your feet should only move to keep the load and your torso aligned and neutral.

Power Zone: The “power zone” or preferred work zone is the area of your body horizontally between your shoulders and vertically between the middle of your thighs and center of your chest. Keeping heavy loads in this area helps ensure your limbs and trunk are not forced into awkward postures and an increased likelihood of injury. 4. Proceed (with caution) As you carry the load, keep the spine upright and avoid twisting, bending and reaching. Rather than twisting at the waist or along the spine, step with one foot in the new direction. Then, allow the rest of your body and the load to follow.

Avoid carrying loads that interfere with a clear view of your travel path or have a spotter make sure no obstacles present a tripping hazard while the object is in motion. 5. Place When you reach the destination, lower the object in the reverse of how you lifted it. Never drop a heavy load, shove it into place or jerk it around.

Smooth, steady, deliberate motions protect you from unnecessary strain and injury.

Lifting, carrying and putting down a load with care and consideration helps prevent unnecessary musculoskeletal injuries. Manual Handling Principles | That's all folks! Hopefully, this short post and podcast on manual handling TILE and the 5 P's has been helpful for you and your team. Now you can think about how to reduce manual handling risk in your operations....the next time you go to lift an object, think about the 5 P's - PLAN (TILE) - POSITION - PICK - PROCEED - PLACE

If you have a question on workplace manual handling or manual handling training, drop our H&S professionals a message via the Live Chat tool (bottom right) or by using the contact form below. We have some fantastic options for both online and classroom manual handling training.

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Does your business require Health and Safety support?

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Having actively used Linkedin for a couple of years now, I have seen first-hand the value of real networking.

However, from what I can see, most Linkedin groups are low value with minimal active engagement. I think it's mostly a management issue ?

Connect HSE will be different.

I'm creating a group for HSE professionals and business managers to genuinely connect, network and problem-solve.

The issue I see in groups is too much content being shared for self-promotion purposes (yes, guilty as charged!)

Whilst this is expected on your own profile, it doesn't work in groups.

As a result, the rules will include:

No sales pitches or directly promotional content

No direct, obvious self-promotion (aside from offering highly relevant, contextual solutions)

No recruiting or job ads (or requests for jobs)

The 'content' will solely be through the creation of conversations and contributions to them.

The value will be in the real relationships that are created.

An active discussion between 10 people is much more valuable than silence amongst 10,000.

The group will be inclusive, but by invite only.

If you would like to join us and are in my direct network, please like or comment and I'll send you a personal invite.

Connect HSE - Podcast Resources

Connect with Richard Collins - join me on Linkedin to request access to our group

Linkedin Post - I announced the group formation on Linkedin!

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A recent Linkedin post that I made which asked my network 'Do Safety people need sales skills?' drew quite a lot of attention.

It's interesting how some things just take off like a rocket, and others more like a damp squib.

Clearly people in the HSE industry had strong opinions on this, you can see my post here.

Do we need to know how to sell safety?

The opinion of my network was pretty conclusive and I think it provides an interesting insight into the HSE profession.

Whilst it is not something we are directly trained in, it is consensus among HSE professionals that we need to know how to sell safety.

'Some people use research like a drunkard uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination' - David Ogilvy

+50,000 views and 225 comments later, I thought I would review what people had said.

Firstly, of the Yes/No respondents - 82% Yes 18% No

The Top 5 Takeaways.....

1. We generally have to sell 'upwards' and influence 'downwards'

2. Developing our soft skills is critical e.g. relationship-building, empathy, communication, negotiation etc.

3. Our focus should be on understanding 'why', not on saying 'no'.

4. We need to better demonstrate how good H&S benefits people & productivity

5. Listening is more important than talking

Here's a little infographic to summarise what I found....

[ddownload id="2768" text="Do safety people need sales skills?"]

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Workplace Health and Safety responsibilities for employers have grown consistently over the course of the last 50 years.

Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what your employer is obligated to provide for you in respect to health and safety. Equally, if you employ people, it can feel like a bit of a minefield trying to figure out what you need to do.

At it's most basic level, the Health and Safety at Work Act (UK) gives us a general idea of the minimum expectations in the workplace.

Health and Safety Responsibilities for Employers - Recap Your duty as an employer under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA) and the associated Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations is to provide you with a safe and healthy workplace, and this includes:

• Providing safe plant and systems of work - enabling work to be carried out with lowest reasonable practicable risk
• Safe use, handling and transport of substances and materials
• Safe place of work - a working environment that minimises risk to health and safety, including adequate welfare facilities
• Carrying out risk assessments - as set out in regulations, and taking steps to eliminate or control these risks;
• Instruction, training and supervision - inform workers fully about all potential hazards & risk controls associated with any work process, chemical substance or activity, including;
• 'Competent advice' available for health and safety - appoint someone suitably competent to manage H&S arrangements
• Consult the workforce on H&S issues
• Report and investigate relevant accident, diseases and dangerous occurrences - under RIDDOR regulations

This is just a summary of the main requirements relevant to the UK but it does not cover everything! For the latest specific & detailed information on Health and Safety legislation, always consult the UK government website at legislation.gov.uk

Now that you know the key health and safety responsibilities for employers, why not find out the responsibilities of employee's?

Health and Safety for Managers & Supervisors Bundle

• H&S Policy & Arrangements Bundle
• Risk Assessment Bundle (Fillable & Editable)
• Includes COVID-19 Assessment Examples
• Accident Report, COSHH & Method Statement
• Produced by Chartered H&S Professionals

Our Essentials Pack for Managers and Supervisors template package includes 16 management templates, how-to-guides & real examples.

Developed by H&S professionals, our essentials bundle has everything you need to set out your H&S policy, arrangements, risk assessments and accident/incident reports.

Health and Safety Responsibilities for Employers - in more detail!

We're going to look at the eight key health and safety responsibilities for employers, specifically in the United Kingdom (UK).

And because it all relates back to the Health and Safety at Work Act and the associated regulations, sometimes it's hard to know exactly what you are expected to do, as an employer, in respect to health and safety.

That's something that we're going to shed some light on here with some o

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In this Episode, we outline 10 Ways to Identify Hazards in your workplace. If you are being asked to identify hazard or risk in your place of work, it can seem like a daunting task. Here on Safeti School, we give you 10 easy ways that you can do it!

We're that nice over here at safeti.com, that we even done a video version for you (below), if you prefer to watch! Ways to Identify Hazards in your Workplace - Video https://youtu.be/wpiSpt7YyPU Ways to Identify Hazards - Extra Resources

Risk Assessment Beginners Guide - Check out our comprehensive free resource

Risk Assessment Online Course - try out our FREE risk assessment course

Connect with the Host - join Richard's community on Linkedin 10 Easy Ways to Identify Hazards

Welcome to Safeti School where we crunch down health, safety and environment learning in the simple bite-sized snippets that you can use for your business.

Helping you improve your knowledge, boost your performance and maybe even providing some inspiration. Let's get started.

In this post, we're going to discuss 10 ways to identify hazards in your workplace just to give you a few ideas. Sometimes when we go hazard spotting and we're thinking about that ways of identifying risk. We sort of come up against a blank and hit a wall in terms of how you actually go about it?

So expanding on what we discussed in an earlier podcast around what a hazard was, I did introduce some ways that you can actually start looking at relevant items in your business. We're just going to explore that and rattle through 10 ways that you can do it in more depth. 1. Walk around

First of all, a very obvious one, just walk around. Go out and identify activities, processes & substances that can actually cause injury or ill health to employees. That's a useful starting point. You gotta get out there and get your hands dirty, so to speak. It will give you a good idea of the scope and how much detail you're going to need to get into.

You will have to bear in mind that you're only really taking a snapshot at a certain point in time. So you may miss things that aren't happening on an ongoing basis. Make sure to have a good rummage around. Look in places that aren't so obvious.

People have a very good knack of putting equipment, especially that which maybe isn't used often, in places where you can't see it.

And even stuff that shouldn't be used as well!

Give yourself enough time to look in the places that are normally blind to you. Those are often the places where hidden risks can exist. 2. Observe the Work

The second is simply observation of specific work activities. This is something that may take some time depending on what you're dealing with.

You will want to make sure that you're watching a full cycle of work or even multiple cycles of work, if necessary.

You might want to look at different people doing the same task, for example, because that can be really useful to see the variation of how the work is actually performed and undertaken. From that, you can use it to help you identify any hazards that might exist.

Either from the way it is meant to be done or the way it is being done (might not be the same thing!). 3. Actively Engage

So thirdly, part and parcel of the observation process should be, and it's absolutely essential, to speak to your employees. Get engaged with your employees, ask them to explain after you've you've observed how they do their work.

Why they're actually doing it that way?

What sort of things are they being asked to do?

Have they enough support and resources to do the work?

Whether they actually think or feel as if there's any danger to them as they're carrying it out? Do they

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Welcome to Safeti School, were we crunch down Environment, Health and Safety learning into simple, bite-size snippets that you can use for your business.

In this Episode, we outline how to get more engagement from your HSE communications. Do you feel like you are talking into an echo chamber? Or that your not getting enough feedback to help you push forward? Listen to this one for a quick example of what good looks like.

Resources

Create a Story - 5 steps to create a compelling narrative for your communication

You might also like: 3 Essentials for Effective Training

Safety Communication Breakdown Transcript

[00:00:04] Welcome to Safeti school where we crunch down health safety and the environment learning into simple bitesize snippets that you can use for your business. Helping you improve your knowledge, boost your performance and maybe even providing some inspiration. Let's get started.

[00:00:22] Hi there, in this episode we're gonna look at a little example as to how you can go about increasing and improving your engagement with your communications to your team.

When we learn something new whether that be an improvement to safety practice, how to improve sustainability in our operations or if we've come across a new well-being hack for our workforce that we want to share. We naturally feel motivated and excited about communicating with people and sharing it because we care about them and we want to improve our performance and make a positive difference. Whether you be an HSE professional or a manager/supervisor, it doesn't really matter.

Most of the time whenever we deliver or implement a communication piece we're not really sure how impactful or effective it's actually been.

Have you ever delivered a message or sent the communication out and felt like it's been ignored or that you're talking into an echo chamber. There's been no feedback and you're just really heading and hoping without knowing how effective it actually is.

Most of us have an experience of this and of course that's not the outcome we want or doesn't give us any reassurance that what we're doing actually has a positive impact. So let's take a look at an example of how we can improve our levels of engagement with our messaging.

Imagine you're a site manager and you're delivering an important safety communications to your team. There's recently been a serious near miss where someone could have been severely injured or killed on your site involving a crane. The next morning after the event you want to make sure that your workers know that you've taken the incident seriously and you pulled some information from the internet on crane safety that you want to communicate to them.

So you start into your chat about the 10 Rules of crane safety. Talking and reading from the information that you got online. As you're doing it you start realizing that people are looking at the floor, their eyes are glazed over and they are turning their heads & checking their phones. Some of them are even starting to chat amongst themselves.

Understandably you're starting to get really frustrated at their lack of attention toward something that's really serious. Should you accept that? Maybe you're thinking it's just the way they are. They don't care. Can you change that outcome.? Why don't you challenge them?

Maybe you don't feel confident in what you're trying to communicate to them. How does that make you feel? You know the message isn't getting through. That you failed in your task and you had good intentions at the start but you've lost all engagement with your audience.

Not to be outdone and still

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Welcome to Safeti School, were we crunch down Environment, Health and Safety learning into simple, bite-size snippets that you can use for your business.

In this Episode we outline 3 of our favourite tips to help you boost the impact of your workplace health and safety training. Check out a couple of related resources below from the episode and the transcript if you would like to read the content.

Workplace Health and Safety Training: Additional Resources Generational Learning Preferences - find out more about the preferences of a baby boomer, millenial or Gen Z'er when it comes to learning delivery.

More Health and Safety Training Tips - check out our guest blog from my buddy Alex Burbidge of Pro Safety Management

Free Risk Assessment Course - join our online workplace health and safety training course for free

Health and Safety Services - find out more about how Safeti can help you with Health and Safety

Safeti Shop – pay a visit to our store for professional templates and guidance

Safeti School - for more free, educational HSE content visit the Safeti School podcast page

Connect with Us - follow the Safeti page on Linkedin

Effective Workplace Health and Safety Training - Transcript Welcome to Safeti school where we crunch down health safety and environment learning in this simple bite-size Snippets that you can use for your business helping you improve your knowledge boost your performance and maybe even providing some inspiration. Let's get started.

Hi there, and thanks for joining us in this episode. We're going to give you three of our top tips to help you deliver better workplace health and safety training for your employees. You'll have to excuse me if I cough or splutter during this during this session due to my current head cold or allergies, which it can't seem to get rid of but will crack on.

So firstly in terms of looking at the planning of your training session, make sure that your content is pitched at a suitable technical level for your whole audience. This is quite key. Otherwise, you can lose either sections of your audience or your whole audience completely when it comes to delivery.

Existing Knowledge Make sure that the learning is developed according to their existing knowledge. It's also equally important to understand that if you put groups of people into your training room that have a huge variance in terms of their existing knowledge.

Then the chances are that you're going to either pitch your training too high or too low and lose one of those groups completely from your engagement.

Whenever you're planning who is to receive the training, just be aware of that as well, I would say.

Make sure you're not, for example, putting HSE professionals with you know, interns that have just come through the door and have no background knowledge or appreciation of the subject matter. This does happen quite a bit and it's something that can be easily missed. Try not to fall into that trap would be my advice.

Learning Styles Secondly, whenever you're considering your audience, I would pay some attention to the actual age of your audience.

And without wanting to sound ageist here, it's well known that different generations have different learning preferences. It is a li

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Welcome to Safeti School, were we crunch down Environment, Health and Safety learning into simple, bite-size snippets that you can use for your business.

In this Episode we crunch down our top 3 HSE career hacks for those in or seeking to join the Health, Safety & Environment profession. For more help, check out the Safeti Podcast Episodes that we have selected below for deep insights into how you can boost your career prospects.

'Evolution of HSE' with Anna Keen - In Episode 23 of The Safeti Podcast, we catch up with Anna Keen, Founder and Director of Acre Frameworks. Anna and her team focus on helping organisations build high-performance teams and assisting individuals in their personal development, focusing primarily on non-technical skills.

'Boost your career using Linkedin' with Richard Collins - Linkedin is the foremost social media platform for professionals and businesses across the globe. It has a steadily growing user base of circa 600 million people - here's our Top 10 tip to use it effectively.

'Get Social' with Laura Aucott - Are you trying to move your HSE career forward but feel like you are getting nowhere? Listen to this Episode with Laura Aucott to find out what employer’s are looking for and how you can take action to get the attention of those that are hiring

Top 3 HSE Career Hacks Episode Transcript

[00:00:04] Welcome to safeti school where we crunch down health safety and environment learning into bitesize snippets that you can use for your business or your career. Helping you improve your knowledge, boost your performance and maybe even providing some inspiration. Let's get started.

[00:00:22] In this episode I'm going to share three top hacks to get your career moving forward faster than it is the moment. If you're finding that your career isn't moving forward in the right way., take these three elements, start putting them into action and see what happens. The first one is to actually engage with the recruiters. Believe it or not recruiters are actually human too. I know lots of people have bad opinions of them and maybe have had bad experiences. We do find a lot of people sharing, that I've been engaging with, a lot of recruiters in the HSE space and taking their feedback to see what we can do better to try and help them do their job and also help us develop our careers. So, just remember there are humans too.

[00:01:04] You need to be able to build personal relationships with them and that means you need to put in the effort i.e. Arranging to meet up for a coffee, getting on the phone, doing a video chat etc. And getting to know them as a person. To let them know what you can offer them so that whenever they meet the right client that they can say 'oh my friends such and such' and can actually deliver what you're looking for in this job.

[00:01:27] Recruiters aren't just another person looking to take your money from you and you need to get rid of that attitude if that's the way you think about it at the moment. So put in that extra effort start developing those relationships and see what transpires.

[00:01:41] Number two then is developing your personal brand. We went over and over this with different people on the safety podcast and it keeps coming up again and again. If you haven't taken any action nice the time to do it you're not too late. There's still a huge opportunity out there and I posted somethi

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We have created some learning content to give you a taste of how of simple Health, Safety & Environmental management can be! Where does 'Reasonably Practicable' come from?

The term 'Reasonably Practicable' is fundamental in UK Health and Safety law.

It allows those responsible for health and safety to balance the benefits of risk reduction against the time, money and effort required to achieve it.

We've put together various resources for you to help you determine 'what is reasonably practicable'. First off, you can listen to our podcast (top of the page) from Safeti School. Once you've done that, we have a short animation (below) to make sure you have grasped the concept.

Then, if you like, you can read our post for an in-depth example. To wrap us up, we also take a look at some myths around the term 'reasonably practicable'.

Don't forget to share this free resource if you find it valuable! What is Reasonably Practicable? | Animated Tutorial Still confused about the term reasonably practicable?

Watch our animation video for an overview of the concept of reasonably practicable, before we dive deeper into some real-life examples of how it can be applied.

https://youtu.be/ZUv1kYATYcY

Let's take a look at the term 'Reasonably Practicable' - it forms an integral part of the UK's Health and Safety at Work Act. Let's investigate the legal context of the term first.

In the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 it simply states that it is the duty of employer's to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employee's.

The good news is that because this term is implied into UK legislation, UK employer's are enabled to apply common sense and risk-based approaches toward health and safety management. How do we decide what is Reasonable?

We need to look at our options and balance the time, cost and effort against the level of risk reduction that we foresee being achieved.

If we can strike the right balance, we can truly add value for both the employee's and for the business.

If we have a low risk, low frequency task. It wouldn't be reasonable to have to spend lots of money on plant and equipment to further reduce what is already a low risk.

On the other hand, if we have a high frequency task that presents a significant risk to our employee/s. It starts to make sense to apply resources toward mitigating that risk.

The expectation is that we try our best to get the risk as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP). OK, but what does this look like in practice? Reasonably Practicable Example

Let's look at an example to put this theory into some practical context:

Joe, a newly appointed maintenance technician, was getting stuck into a few tasks on his first week at work.

The offices that he was looking after had been without a maintenance or facilities technician for a number of months. As a result, he was asked to go around every air conditioning unit in the building to clean the filters.

As he normally would, he got his stepladder out and started going about removing and cleaning the filters on the air conditioning units.

It was getting near lunchtime and Joe was up the ladder trying to remove a filter on a unit that had been placed a bit higher than the rest. As he couldn't quite get a could grip of it from the level he was working from, he decided to step onto the top plate of the stepladder.

As Joe went to reach toward the unit to get access to the filter, the stepladder wobbled causing Joe to lose his balance. Joe crashed to the ground along with the ladder, res

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We have created some podcasts and learning videos to help you with key Health, Safety & Environmental concepts. They aim to give you a basic understanding of core health and safety practices. In this post, we address the difference between hazard and risk.

When we're dealing about risk of any kind in the workplace, we need to first understand the hazards that exist in our surrounding environment.

In many countries, including the UK, there is a legal obligation in place for employer's to ensure the health and safety of their employees. The Health and Safety at Work Act (HASWA) underpins the requirements here in the UK.

The difference between hazard and risk is very often confused. It is important to understand the relationship between the two terms and how they should be applied. Once you've grasped the concepts of hazard and risk, make sure to check out our beginner's guide to risk assessment.

Firstly, we explain the difference between Hazard and Risk further in our video below.... Difference between Hazard and Risk - Animated Video https://youtu.be/oU1U8fdF85I

The terms hazard and risk can be used to compliment each other. However, they are often poorly applied when it comes to health and safety. By understanding the simple relationship between hazard and risk, we can use them effectively in health and safety management.

To understand the difference between hazard and risk, it's best to start by looking at the definition of hazard and risk individually. Firstly, let's look at the definition of hazard.... What is a Hazard?

Simply, it is something with the potential to cause harm. A hazard can take many forms. It could be a substance, an energy source or an existing work practice or process.

If you'd like more help on hazards and loads of examples, listen to our podcast below!

Examples of hazards could such thing as Substances e.g. chemicals, Energy Sources e.g. machinery with moving parts, Work Practices e.g. working at height from a ladder or moving materials with a forklift truck.

OK then, so if a hazard has the potential to cause harm. What is a risk?

What is Risk? Risk is the chance of that harm actually being caused. In other words, the probability or chance that someone may suffer injury or illness due to an existing hazard.

It is important to know that when we perform a risk assessment, we need to consider two aspects of risk; the likelihood of the harm occurring and the severity of the harm that could be caused.

Difference between hazard and risk - let's look at an example....

A water cooler on the shopfloor has a leak. This has created a puddle on the floor which is now a slip hazard. If we do not do anything to remove or control this hazard, there is a significant risk that someone could slip and injure themselves.

On the other hand, if we had identified the potential for harm (hazard) and put suitable and simple control measures in place, such as barriers.

The chances of someone coming to harm (risk) would now be low.

So although the hazard still exists, the actual risk would be reduced to an acceptable level.

Now that you know what a hazard is, how do you go about identifying them? Keep reading (and listening) for 10 practical ways to identify hazards...

Try our Risk Assessment Course We've created an Approved Trainer-led, online course for Risk Assessment. The course takes you through a step-by-step, interactive tutorial & activities to give your team the confidence to carry out Risk Assessment. Yo

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Welcome to Safeti School - Home of Health and Safety Learning

Thanks for coming along to this introduction class for Safeti School, I just wanted to make the first episode a quick introduction to both myself and to let you know what Safeti School is all about.

First of all, my name is Richard Collins, you may already know me from the Safeti Podcast, I'm a Chartered Health and Safety & Environmental professional with, let's say well over a decade's experience working across different sectors, including with the public sector, the waste industry.

I then moved into construction and civil engineering and the last few years I have spent working with a blue-chip, global-brand in the electronics manufacturing sector.

I have to say, it's too easy after having worked in the space for such a long time to fall into the trap of talking in jargon and forgetting how much you learn over time, and therefore not giving enough emphasise to those who are only just getting involved or just beginning to take responsibility for health, safety, and environment.

Whether that be if you've started your own business, you are taking a course in health and safety and need more help or if you have been nominated by your employer to take on the responsibility, whether you wanted to or not.

Regardless of your situation, the aim of Safeti school is to help you through whichever muddle you find yourself in.

Of course, the direction of this podcast may change and meander slightly as it develops but it's something I've been meaning to do for quite some time.

Whereas I have the Safeti Podcast which is aimed at seasoned HSE professionals or those that are full-time in the profession or heading that way, I wanted to make something that would help the complete beginner, starting from scratch.

So this podcast is really directed toward people who have very little knowledge of Health, safety or environment in the workplace and aims to help you get up to speed quickly.

Then as we move forward, I want to provide you with ongoing tips and guidance in short form - usually 5-10 mins that you can use to maintain your knowledge, communicate to your teams and use to improve performance wherever in the world it is that you are working.

I will say that as I am based in Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, most of the legal references will stem from here.

But we may touch on similar legislation across the world to use as examples.

So it's important that you bring yourself up to date on what your local legal framework is and also be aware on any specific industry standards that exist in your local area to put what I am saying into context.

The UK has a strong record from a global perspective when it comes to HSE performance and therefore I think it is a good benchmark to from to share knowledge and learning.

Well, that's it from me for this one, as I promised, these are going to be very short and focused on providing specific information that you can come back to over and over again if necessary, and I really hope that it helps you in your own journey to improving health, safety and environment performance in your own business.

Thanks for joining us, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn!