Author Bio ▼

Andrew is the CEO of the International Institute of Leadership & Safety Culture (IILSC). Owned by the executive education club CEDEP, the Institute is a global hub for leaders to meet, talk, learn, and create safety excellence. Through executive education, consulting, prestigious events, and digital learning, IILSC is creating a worldwide network of leaders from the C-suite, the OSH profession, and beyond that will turbo-charge advances in safety and health at work. Find out more at https://iilsc.com/Andrew is a Chartered Fellow and Past President of the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH); a Fellow of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management; and a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management. Far from being risk-averse, he loves adventure sports including climbing, free flying, sea kayaking and swimming with sharks. He uses these pursuits to re-energise the language, perceptions and functions of safety and risk management and align the disciplines with broader organisational issues driving positive impact and enhancing the performance of individuals, teams and businesses.Andrew’s book From Accidents to Zero is one of the fastest-selling books on safety culture of the 21st century. Find out more at https://iilsc.com/shop/
October 10, 2024

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Leading the way

Dr Andrew Sharman on why leaders are now getting the safety message and leading the way for change.

I am seeing more evidence this year that leaders are recognising an undeniable truth about business: that how you care for your people is the difference between success and failure.

In many industries, of course, how you care for your people is the difference between life and death. Yet, even in those lower risk work environments, the damage done by a lack of care can be costly, on a human and a financial level.

Leading among the C-suite

Now, we are seeing consensus on this issue like never before. Take this report by insurance company WTW, of its 2024 Global Directors and Officers Survey. Here we see the rise of ‘health and safety’ to the top of the corporate risk table, surpassing its previous ranking of fifth.

What we are witnessing quite clearly here is a growing concern among C-suite and their management teams of the mental and physical harm their organisations’ activities can cause their people.

Replacing cyber risks as number one concern, health and safety was identified as the top risk category in more than 50 countries represented in the survey. That’s quite astonishing by historical standards, but a welcome finding, all the same.

Alongside health and safety, we see other people metrics rise in the minds of senior executives, such as human rights and supplier business practices. For advocates of the United Nations’ (UN) SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), this is about the social element of sustainability coming to the fore, and more specifically the impact on people of work.

Various factors have sharpened this focus. Thanks to customers, investors, regulators, potential talent and global agencies, such as the UN, the impact of people-related risks is more clearly understood and quantified in today’s world of business.

How are boards and executive teams responding to this challenge? I’m seeing a number of elements here, such as:

Measuring attitudes and behaviours to gauge culture

Perhaps the most important development at board level is in how we measure how we look after our teams. I am a huge advocate for performance measurement focusing on the culture of an organisation – before harm is done – rather than ‘lagging indicators’ that measure only when things go wrong. By focusing on culture, we can create safety.

Identifying the link between health and safety and business performance

This is hugely important. Yes, we get the moral argument for safety, but the business case is also compelling. To speak to board and win investment in health and safety, we must still speak the language of the board and the bottom line. Put another way, leaders are recognising the materiality of health and safety in areas such as reputation risk management and productivity.

Leading on a holistic view

Leaders are now joining the dots and getting a better understanding about how managing health and safety also helps to mitigate other risks, such as cyber, environmental and reputational.

Prioritising human capital management

The human capital management lens is a focus on how an organisation attracts, recruits, develops, manages and retains talent to achieve its overall goals. This is about the central importance of people in an organisation, and it leads naturally to more attention paid to how their safety, health and wellbeing are looked after.

Leadership focus

These are just a few thoughts on how leaders are grasping the importance of health and safety as central to organisational culture.

Its emergence at leadership level underpins the creation of a new organisation, of which I am CEO. The International Institute of Leadership & Safety Culture (IILSC) is part of the Paris-based executive education club, CEDEP, and it aims to provide a home for leaders who want to create safety.

The aforementioned report’s top recommendation was for organisations to prioritise evolving their risk management practices to address emerging threats, particularly around health and safety.

SHP readers will say the leadership focus is long overdue. I say now is the time for our profession to make its mark at the highest levels of organisations worldwide.

Dr Andrew Sharman will be chairing the IILSC’s EHS Congress, co-located with Anticipate London, at ExCel London on 3-4 December. For more information, visit the IILSC website here.

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