To help businesses get more out of occupational safety and health, we must first get to know what they want.
That simple idea was the reason why IOSH for Business launched the Business Leader Forum (BLF), bringing together senior representatives from some of the world’s biggest companies.
And following on from the group’s recent meetings, we’ve since set up another two forums to give us an clearer picture of what organisations like yours need today and tomorrow.
The BLF (UK) will serve as a more localised version of the Business Leader Forum, featuring OSH leaders from businesses such as Fleur Ltd, Sellafield Ltd, Ibstock Group, Virgin Active, Commercial Estates Group and Murphy Group.
In its inaugural get-together, we explored topics like the recruitment of OSH professionals, good leadership behaviours to influence positive safety cultures and metrics as issues to focus on in the near future.
Meanwhile, we’ve established the Training Network Forum (TNF) with leaders from Grow Training, Make UK, Phoenix HSC, International Workplace Ltd, 3B Training, the Hereford and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce and the British Safety Council.
In that group’s first meeting, we again discussed the challenges of the recruitment of good OSH professionals into training roles, as well as how IOSH’s digital platforms and course literature provision can help improve health and safety training.
We’re excited to work with all three forums, and it’s been so interesting to hear from those on the front line about where their employers are with all things OSH and social sustainability.
That’s important for every business, too.
When you live and breathe safety and people-led culture, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture.
But understanding just where exactly your organisation sits in terms of its OSH maturity can really help you get to grips with your mission.
To help with that, you can use the IOSH model of safety, a handy reference point if you want to gauge how mature your business is in six key areas.
Covering factors like your leadership’s behaviour and the prevailing attitude to OSH in your organisation, it serves as something of a cheat sheet for you to chart your progress against.
Best of all, the model is especially useful if you want to explain to your Board or senior leadership team how OSH adds value and persuade key stakeholders to join you in your journey to going beyond compliance.
That’s especially beneficial in the current climate, with such intense levels of scrutiny on OSH performance from investors, customers, regulators and others.
We covered the IOSH model of safety in more detail in a recent webinar series, which is now available to watch back – and if you’re an IOSH member, they do count towards your CPD.So, if you’re finding it a challenge to measure your performance under this pressure, or if you just want a helping hand in developing your OSH strategy, take a look at the model and why not see if IOSH for Business could help you meet your objectives, too?
To learn more and watch the IOSH model of safety webinars, search IOSH for Business or email [email protected].
Also, follow the IOSH for Business LinkedIn Page to keep up-to-date with all our latest webinars, news and views.
Angela Gray CMIOSH is Technical Lead at IOSH.
The Safety Conversation with SHP (previously the Safety and Health Podcast) aims to bring you the latest news, insights and legislation updates in the form of interviews, discussions and panel debates from leading figures within the profession.
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