Ahead of next month’s special vox pop, SHP asks a few select safety professionals how health and safety can be better embedded into this important agenda.
“Many companies have already been successful in embedding health and safety within their corporate social responsibility (CSR)/sustainability agenda. When they do, it is clear that health and safety becomes part of the culture of the organisation – a true core value.
“Paradoxically, at these places there is likely to be much less talk about health and safety or compliance with legal requirements. No one feels the need to assert that it’s a top priority or that it’s first on the board agenda, because they already have the confidence to deal with the right priorities in the right order, and everyone understands doing it safely is integral to doing every job well.
“Employees at every level know the part they play in maintaining the business’ core values and it becomes second nature.
“The benefits to this are manifold in that root causes get addressed and real solutions are found to real problems; people can focus on the really big safety issues, not the trivia, and ultimately health and safety priorities will be part of the overall risk register – not a separate list owned by someone else in the organisation.
“To ensure this approach becomes more widespread health and safety training needs to be embedded in every management training course – especially programmes like MBAs for future leaders. The key to embedding health and safety in every business agenda is leadership from the top. We need leaders who say, and do, the right things because the behaviour they exhibit is ultimately what the organisation delivers.”
Judith Hackitt, HSE chair
“CSR is about an organisation considering and taking account of the present and future impacts of its decisions on society and the environment. This value drives its ethical behaviour. Health and safety has to be a part of this. Serious accidents can have a devastating effect on individuals, families and communities. They are a cause of social exclusion.
“There are many organisations that absolutely ‘get it’. They know that ethical behaviour is not just the right thing to do; it has business benefits. What would make a difference is these companies including their health and safety achievements within their CSR reporting, in the context that it is not a ‘burden’; it has economic benefits. I’d like them to share their pride in championing health and safety.
“I would also like to see more organisations driving safety improvements down their supply chain, not by imposing arm’s-length pre-qualification schemes, but by sharing expertise and good practice. Even if suppliers have their own qualified safety practitioner, learning from those practitioners who are getting great results in their workplaces can help both individual development and the standing of the profession.”
Teresa Budworth, chief executive, NEBOSH
“I don’t think we should be embedding health and safety into CSR. For me, CSR is becoming more about basic compliance, whereas I see sustainability being more about doing business.
“If you take the pillars of sustainability – social, environmental and economic – I think health and safety is already embedded here. It’s our approach to the management of risk-related topics: health and safety, environmental protection, social responsibility, etc. that makes us think and believe it’s not. So a good place to start then is to integrate.
“Step one; remove the silos. Have a single, accountable executive, not two or three functional directors; an inspirational leader driving integration and collaboration on all risk topics. Second, take a bold stand; transform your specialists in health and safety into sustainability generalists with subject matter expertise.
“What would make the biggest difference? For me it’s got to be talent. Invest heavily in your people so that they really can understand that a stronger linkage of company values and non-financial impacts delivers far more to the organisation’s overall risk management than technical /functional specialisms.”
Kevin Furniss, vice president, HSSE, AP Moller Maersk Terminals
“Sustainability is most often thought of as the interaction of environmental, social and economic factors. However, if a business is to be sustainable, it has to enhance and protect its human resource – therefore, occupational health and safety must be viewed as integral to sustainability.
“CSR /sustainability needs to move away from being focused on environmental issues and discussed as a mainstream subject in all areas of business – health and safety included. After all, sustainability is about resource conservation, waste (effort and cost) reduction, efficient and safe operation – and legal compliance.
“By promoting health and safety as part of the ethical agenda, it increases the chances of engagement at all levels – from individual employees through to the boardroom.”
Mike Taylor, technical director – health, safety and environmental, Santia Consulting
SHP would be interested to hear your views on how health and safety could be better embedded into the CSR/sustainability agenda.
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