Compliance and culture, women’s PPE and counterfeit products are key areas of focus according to the professionals
RS’s second industry report is based on findings from its annual survey, which aims to gain a snapshot of the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) profession and explore its challenges and priorities.
The survey, completed by more than 890 respondents working in health and safety (H&S) roles in the UK and Ireland, came from a wide variety of sectors. This included manufacturing, covering markets from food and beverage, automotive and pharmaceuticals through to industrial machinery, plastics and chemicals, energy and utilities, public services, logistics and retail.
This year’s findings uncovered several key areas of focus, including managing EHS, compliance, women’s PPE, sustainability and factors affecting the future of health and safety.
Ryan Plummer, director of RS Safety Solutions, said: “After the success of last year’s survey and resulting report, we wanted to follow up to see how things may have changed and also provide a focus on key areas like sustainability and fit-for-purpose PPE.”
It’s apparent from this year’s Striving for Excellence report that women’s PPE is a growing area of concern. 82 per cent of survey participants agreed more needs to be done to provide better fitting workwear and PPE for women. Yet, only one per cent cited it as an important factor for making a purchase.
Plummer said: “There’s still a way to go within the industry to stress the importance of PPE that is fit-for-purpose and developed for women. Organisations working closely with manufacturers and trusted distributers to understand the risks that ill-fitting PPE poses to women is a good start.
“RS Safety Solutions is helping to tackle this by holding regular events for customers and suppliers to share challenges, knowledge and insights. It’s also worth noting that having the right culture within an organisation is incredibly important to encourage this type of conversation to happen.”
In the report, compliance and culture features heavily and reveals nine in 10 of the respondents are positive about their health and safety capabilities within their organisation. However, it’s important a culture of complacency does not creep in.
Plummer said: “If you’re 100 per cent confident, then complacency can set in, and that doesn’t consider issues such as staff turnover or new equipment, which means you have to change processes or the type of PPE that you use. It’s clear that, for most organisations, there’s a high level of compliance and that it’s a topic that is taken seriously.”
The report also highlighted more than a third (37 per cent) of respondents cite counterfeit or substandard PPE as a genuine issue in the industry.
Dr Karen McDonnell, Occupational Health and Safety Policy adviser at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), said: “The British Safety Industry Federation is very clear on standards for personal protective equipment. Getting PPE procurement right the first time is fundamentally important, and businesses should take advantage of the available support and guidance from recognised suppliers. They must ensure the PPE they are issuing has been correctly tested and certified to the appropriate standard. Failing to do so puts workers’ lives at risk.”
However, the biggest PPE procurement challenge highlighted within this year’s report was finding suppliers who have the right stock, services or solutions, chosen by 31 per cent or respondents versus 23 per cent in 2023.
Plummer said: “This highlights more than ever the need for suppliers and solutions providers to step-up collaborative working with customers, to support them in making the right product choices in accordance with their business objectives . . . whether they be budget, environmental or staff-centred requirements.”
The survey respondents were predominantly men, at 71 per cent, and included those in job roles like H&S manager, EHS manager and H&S adviser. More than half (53%) of participants were from large businesses with between 250 and 10,000 employees, with 29 per cent working within medium-sized organisations (50-249 head count) and 18 per cent from small businesses with 49 or fewer staff.
You can read the full RS Striving for Excellence report by following this link: https://uk.rs-online.com/hs-industry-report
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