Sarah McOnie, managing director, The McOnie Agency
As it’s a subject close to our heart and the hearts of many of our clients, we at The McOnie Agency don’t agree a rebrand is necessary for health and safety — we simply need to shout louder.
Here’s why:
It matters what the public thinks about health and safety. If more and more people perceive it as an unnecessary evil that stops them from getting their work done quickly and prevents them for having fun on the weekend, then we are in trouble. It can almost be compared to the backlash to the MMR vaccine, where growing numbers of parents refused to get their children vaccinated. The result now is that measles is making a comeback.
We have never met a health and safety professional who isn’t extremely proud of the work she or he does. From attending various safety and health conferences over the years we know the industry is very good and so it should be at recognising its own valuable contribution to the companies and organisations each individual person reports to but there are very few companies who then communicate this message publicly.
All you need to do is read the British Safety Council’s report, entitled The business benefits of health and safety– a literature review May 2014, and you will see there are no case studies since 2009 where safety and health is shown to have contributed to the bottom line. We know for a fact the latest costs of injuries and ill-health to Great Britain was estimated to be £13.8bn ut we don’t have concrete examples of how much these costs are on average for individual businesses.
It’s very unlikely that introducing appropriate health and safety measures doesn’t help to reduce insurance premiums, cut down on sick days and lead to increased productivity. It begs the question: why are large organisations, who pride themselves on their health and safety records, not getting that message out to the wider public? It’s interesting the same companies are proud to declare their efforts in sustainability, a concept I would argue the public is less familiar with, but see the health and safety message as one for internal communications only.
We should focus on the profession, shine a light on the achievements health and safety legislation and its disciples bring to the workplace. I suspect most doctors and nurses are proud of their involvement in delivering babies and mending broken legs. Health and safety officers the length and breadth of the country play no small part in ensuring their colleagues get home safely after work.
We need to invest in public education. We know from RoSPA’s extensive poster archive that safety and health messages can be delivered in an impactful and aesthetically pleasing way. Of course a poster isn’t the only communication tool at our disposal. With the explosion of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube there are a plethora of channels to broadcast the value of health and safety.
Recently we were involved in the UK’s very first Health and Safety Week. The eight official supporters were photographed holding a banner backing the campaign and others were encouraged to do the same. The photos were then uploaded on www.healthandsafetyweek.com and people were encouraged to tweet using #healthandsafetyweek.
This year it didn’t catch the eye of the national media, but we are confident in years in come, workers will want to be associated with the week as much as they want to grow a moustache to celebrate Movember.
Working in health and safety is a noble pursuit. We don’t need to rebrand — we simply need more people to hear about what we do.
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Yes sure, all of us shout about it louder and explain why it’s good for all, and how and why it saves lives and money and how none of us can afford the alternative! Poor H&S costs even more than HSE’s £13.8 billion per year as they say they haven’t included work cancers which adds at least £20 billion to the costs and those harmed by work, and us as tax payers pay 79% of that cost, while the employers who caused the risks pay 21%! Tell stories of those who have been hurt made ill or killed by poor health and safety. Talk to people about what sort of workplace they want for family members to work in. Open up the debate from our side don’t leave field open to the corporate press who have a vested interest in rubbishing health and safety. Challenge the lies and oppose deregulation and enforcement slashing- more people killed in work incidents in UK every year than armed forces killed over 13 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus those dying from work-illnesses of about 50,000, gives up to 140 dying every day from work! Ask people what is their choice : red tape or bloody bandages? Read Hazards Magazines’s manifesto for great HSE and good H&S system that would save lives, health and money in massive win win: http://www.hazards.org/votetodie/citizensane.htm The trouble at work isn’t too much red tape it’s far too many bloody bandages. Support Hazards Magazine and Hazards Campaign! And yes all of us Stand up for Health and Safety – its’s our lives and health we are fighting for.
Me thinks there’s a bit too much union vitriol here (yes I followed the link to the article). Unfortunately, too many people with political agenda’s try to blame business and corporate bodies for all the worlds ills. We have forgotten that there is always an element of risk when working within industries, but do we go backwards and not use chemicals, radiation, machines etc. The cancer rates are questionable (excluding asbestos related), as there are so many carcinogens in the wider environment, peoples lack of personal health through obesity and sedentary lifestyles. I don’t know where you get the information from regarding the case studies and the bottom line; but I know of many businesses that cite high standards of safety contributing to the bottom line (my own included!). I feel there is too much legislation, as the HASAWA is the cover-all for most industry and with the exception of some specifics; we don’t need a plethora of other laws (DSE/MH for example!). Make the business case for safety through reducing loss and waste and then shout about our achievements with a positive outlook. If we are all nay-sayers and simply quote legislation, we’ll never get business and the public on board!
I think it’s a wonderful article but misses the point. It doesn’t matter how loud you shout, if nobody is prepared to listen.
We have to make sure we can get the facts over. However as we know that to do that in simplistic terms is hard. The trouble with the ‘anti H&S’ brigade is that they can send out very simplistic messages. I.e. – ‘oh it’s Health and Safety gone mad’ and the majority of people will agree with them because they don’t understand.
Today I caught a colleague of mine standing on a plastic seated chair working on a server box located on the wall, about an arms length above him. I did the usual ‘no, no, no’, pointed out to him that as a new Dad the last thing I wanted to do was to see him off work for going through a chair that might not hold his weight. I got him an alternative (some steps).
Trouble is people don’t see the trivial as a H&S risk. When we point it out to them, we are just interfering in their job, because more than likely standing on a chair is what they do at home.
The government isn’t helping with mixed messages. Trying to appease businesses who feel restricted by perceived regulation. Yet looks what’s happened after the review. In reality nothing.
My view is that a ‘re-brand’ could be useful. As I said in a reply to the previous article, the word ‘Wellbeing’ has already been taken by the HR profession. So whether we look at the wider ‘corporate and social responsibility’ aspect, and sell H&S as saving lives, preventing injuries by simple measures that we all understand, would be my starter for ten.
I would also state that companies actually aren’t rewarded with lower premiums for excellent accident records. In my experience this is expected to be the norm. So businesses just think, well as long as it doesn’t get worse what is the point.
The article totally misses the concept of what re branding is all about. It matters not how loud you shout but what you shout about. HSE needs to be re branded and soon. It is up to those who work in the field to do so. Understand your brand essence and work outwards from there.