Image: www.freeimages.co.uk
Jonathan Hughes, Capita Health and Safety Training and Litigation, explains how the modern health and safety professional needs to incorporate commercial awareness, business acumen, charisma and communication skills into their toolkit.
Over the years, the approach and attitude of health and safety professionals has shifted in the way they manage their clients and employers. Traditionally, the role was perceived by some as pointing out shortcomings and failings, quoting relevant laws being breached and offering little in the way of support or advice on how to overcome these challenges.
Fortunately, the sector has learned that a rounded package of skills are required, not just a high level of safety knowledge gained through a mix of qualifications and experience. This needs to be matched by the ability to clearly and effectively communicate this advice in a pragmatic and proportionate manner.
So what makes a competent safety professional? Some refer to SKATE – skills, knowledge, attitude, training and experience. These five key areas of competence can be developed and nurtured over the years, but to make an excellent safety professional a few other key attributes also need to be considered. These include commercial awareness, charisma, and being a good communicator. These soft-skills are crucial in modern business. By developing them, the modern health and safety professional will greatly improve their ability to influence and engage with others, have a better understanding of how their business functions, and improve their employability.
Commercial awareness is crucial in the business world. Whether you are employed as an in-house safety professional or as a consultant/trainer, understanding how a business operates is key. Many people at work simply don’t understand the basics of finance, budgeting, profit and loss, cost control, or the impact their advice and recommendations may have on the bottom line. For example, there have been businesses I advised who failed to understand the real cost of accidents, accepting it as a “price worth paying”, and “only a drop in the ocean” compared to income. By real cost, I am referring to the total sales that are needed to generate enough profit to cover the money set aside to compensate for accidents. Businesses can often underestimate this cost and find themselves struggling to hit revenue and profit targets after a successful compensation claim against them, or worse, a fine coupled with fees for intervention.
By having good commercial awareness and understanding, we can make a more compelling case to invest an appropriate amount of money in training and other improvements. I have seen investment in training result in the number of health and safety incidents being halved, which returned greater profit to the business, ensuring a happy client and a safer place of work.
Having charisma helps influence those you are communicating with, which aids in successfully getting a message across at the right level. The ability to build rapport and engage an audience is a key skill that a health and safety professional will benefit from when communicating how businesses can overcome shortcomings in their health and safety management.
General communication skills are also invaluable for today’s health and safety professional. Communicating clearly, in different mediums and tones, aids understanding and engagement across all stakeholders. I have encountered a number of safety professionals with excellent technical knowledge, but who struggle to articulate that knowledge to a client. Sloppy writing and error-strewn reports will not endear us to our audience.
Our key messages also risk being lost in the fog of TLAs (three letter abbreviations). Technical jargon like sifting our RIDDOR’s to find the COSHH incidents with an IOSH or IIRSM member who is a NEBOSH trained SHEQ looking at the EICR or PAT report, or checking the SWL on the FLT… Plain language is underestimated but crucial to ensuring clients and employers understand what is expected of them to comply with health and safety requirements. Merely baffling them with technicalities is a sure fire way of disengaging key stakeholders.
So, what can you do to add value to yourself? Perhaps look at updating your non-technical skills or attending a training event that focuses at some of the soft skills above. Continuing professional development is not just confined to keeping abreast of the latest Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) or best practice. Why not make a pledge to make 2016 the year that you add to your professional toolkit and explore some additional skills, such as commercial awareness, communication skills and IT skills. This will make your job easier, will make you more valuable to your employer and clients, and strengthen your CV. Once you have learned these skills, why not pass them on to others, and share the tools in your toolkit?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hi Jonathan,
A good topic you have chosen to write about. I was actually thinking about this yesterday and came across your article. I think H&S professionals need to understand a business before suggesting how to go about dealing with H&S. There is a typical generic approach to H&S and one really needs to understand the business, its people and then customise the H&S solutions. I also feel that presentation of documents and its contents is very important, as the easier to read and use a document the more likely people are to use them.
What you have written not only applies to H&S professionals but also recruitment sector as well. So many agents look for the buzz words but don’t understand the candidate and what they can offer in terms of other skills which can be transferable to any sector of work.
Hello Jonathan, My company is in the workplace drug testing sector. I do not see any resources within the Safety, HR, occupational hygiene sector where current best practices are discussed on the topic of drug use in the workplace. There seems to be little advice on the recent “drug driving” law, which is now 1 year old. In addition, next month there will be a new law covering New Psychoactive Substances. Is it just the case that employers are not concerned with these topics?
Regards,
Duncan
Hi Jonathan
Having been in OHS for more years than I care to name, I can’t say I have ever had a colleague at all like the traditional ones you referred to in your first para.
They have always provided support and advice as to how any breaches etc could be resolved or prevented.
I personally also think that charisma is an illusory and unnecessary aim-it usually requires abundant self confidence which in many cases can be severely misplaced.
When I was working In Malaysia one of my local lawyer friends often referred to Americans as ‘unnecessarily confident a bit harsh < I thought.
When it came to a lack of support and advice or appropriate response to, say an audit's findings, the biggest problem was getting the management to meet their obligations rather than the Safety guys-even so called traditional ones.
I always found that behaving in a professional manner, listening to all levels within the workforce and meeting the best practicable standards much more appropriate than assessing any business case.
We are all aware that profits need to be made for the long term benefit of the company but that's not a major concern for OHS if it's a choice between profit and harm I know where my effort goes. However, we are also aware that the most important assets of the company-the workforce-may be made redundant and discounted with little concern for the guys and girls when it 'suits the suits'.
I guess everybody sees the signs on premises saying 'safety always comes first' and then seeing what happens when the choice actually has to be made!
I have to say that it is unnecessary to understand a business before dealing with it's OHS issues.
My time as a government inspector was often spent looking into hazards which I had not seen before and without knowing the business in any detail.
There was unfortunately a great deal of ignorance or lack of commitment to managing hazards shown by company employees at all levels-all aware of business requirements apparently.
They did not appreciate having their deficiencies pointed out by a visitor who had not seen the 'bits of kit' before but was aware of OHS standards better than they.
I don't disagree with you comment about jargon [although everyone should know what COSHH and RIDDOR are] and support properly targeted CPD -some of which is currently purely box ticking and hugely bureaucratic to boot.
I wouldn't bother about improving my commercial awareness although I have always had an interest since doing a HNC in business studies-hasn't however, made a great difference to my OHS work and the standards I apply.
Regards
Mike
Rant over!
Mike, I agree with Jonathon to a large extent. If you don’t know the what EDITDA and EVA capital Investment is, but can bore for the western alliance about purely safety acronyms and legal compliance, how do you engage with senior management when trying to discuss cost benefit analysis of managing safety. What is the point of being the safest company in the world, through spending massively, which then eliminates profits and the company folds and everyone loses their jobs!
Unfortunately, too many safety professionals forget that all businesses operate to make money and in many cases, the bottom line always wins. It is our role to engage with all levels of the business and make the case for safety and quite often, does not involve huge capital investment. Where money is required, those who sign the cheques; need to justify expenditure to the board and shareholders. Not every company is family owned and can take the longer view covering many years where profits are reduced significantly, yet the family can still make enough to get by.
My philosophy has always been that safety professionals should also be trainers and mentors, delivering added value to the business through producing and delivering internal training at low costs, which are formulated to fit the business. Yes we sometimes have to spend to bring in outside resources; but simply quoting legal compliance and not making the case to improve morale, skills and efficiency is a recipe for failure.
It’s a new world out here, especially in the commercial world. It’s easy being an inspector or auditor, telling everyone what is wrong and leaving a written report before walking away. But, without understanding of the financial aspects of business, being able to engage and offer practical and pragmatic solutions to problems, bringing the management along with your thought process and generally becoming an asset and not a hindrance to the business; modern safety professionals will fail.
Lecture over (insert smiley face here)
Hi Bob
Did you mean EBITDA?
I have had absolutely no problems in discussing appropriate strategies with Director level individuals [as an inspector or consultant] without even using the CBA Cost Benefit analysis. Many of them don’t understand it anyway or certainly are not aware of its major deficiencies-ie you can make it work either way if you assume certain values eg PFI hospital projects which rip-off the NHS hugely based purely on fallacious [assumed] costs when comparing the public and private sector..
Could you give me an example of a company which overspent so heavily on safety it went bust? Jarvis went bust because they didn’t.
I also think that many of our colleagues can give really clear and sensible guidance/advice/instructions/etc even if they have only a passing interest in economics/accounting.
Your comment about companies not taking the long view is apposite as short termism is a particular deficiency of UK/US business-poor R&D too.
Yes to training and mentoring, of course, having spent many years doing just that at an appropriate rate-although even if the company is given a a properly costed breakdown of the training costs they still push to reduce it further using force majeure or similar-often they will pay only for delivery hours not preparation and research which can be 2-4 times as long depending on the degree of difficulty.
Giving a complete explanation of why particular work is required should and usually does involve a consideration of legal, moral and financial aspects and always has for professionals over many years and one does not need to be a business ‘expert’ to do this
None of the issues you raised are new.Its certainly is now with poor pay, zero hours contracts and a precarious economy, decimated Trade Unions and a grasping government and you think the business world should be lauded-no thanks.
I think most HSE Inspectors/auditors might take issue with your opinion on it being easy as they usually DO provide guidance/recommendations on how to resolve the problems, I certainly did, but the decision on how, is down to the company-some of whom ignore it completely-not all of course
Since when has pointing up problems and how to fix them been a hindrance-to compare with a head in the sand employer like Jarvis/Union Carbide, Piper Alpha, Transco etc etc etc for instance
Lecture not completely rejected but still a smiley face!!
Regards
Mike
Mike – damn that typo and yes, I did mean EBITDA (doh!!). None of what I said was aimed at you and I can see now how it could be interpreted that way, so I apologise. I was generalising about many safety professionals I’ve known who could quote regulations and sections from ACOP’s, but couldn’t engage with management or workers.
My personal experiences with HSE inspectors was negative and positive, with the better one’s giving advice and others simply saying get it sorted with no comprehension of what it entailed compared to the risk.
I agree about the flagrant disregards shown by larger companies which lead to disasters, but these are few and far between. the majority want to do the right thing and that is where understanding the business and economic factors helps.
I can’t agree with the left wing rhetoric and believe some of the things the government are doing are good, wish we could reduce the nanny state attitudes of some OHS personnel, can’t stand some of the hard-line union personnel who forget that not every member is as pure as the driven snow and simply refuse to live in the 21st century; plus the UK needs to stay competitive in this modern world and keep abreast of technological advances and changes to working practices.
Let’s leave it there and agree to disagree on some aspects, but broadly agree that we all want a safe and healthy workplace, where all can earn a decent wage.
Hi Bob,
Absolutely up for a world of decent jobs. But I don’t see it happening it’s mostly going the other way as I said above about precarious work.
I spotted you on Linked In and interestingly I worked in southern Africa on a Foreign Aid job which involved inspection etc of South African run firms in Asbestos and other mining, construction and sugar.
They were generally a real pain and poor safety performance was wide spread..
Mind you the CDC [Commonwealth Development Corporation] were not much better-lots of fatals to investigate.
So, yes, I am an unreconstructed left winger. However, as I say to many you need left wingers in society as much as on an aircraft.
A leaving shot ‘what did the Tories ever do for us?
Good to chat with you
Regards
Mike
Im really frustrated around my area, where a training school is enticing people to attend training just to get a certificate, even not attending the training, just to pay and get certificate.
I wonder how that training company got their certificate to train people.
And those people , hoping that a certificate will give them better salary and job offer, are grabbing the opportunity.
Health and safety are a serious issue, i hope training providers would take them seriously too