WOBO thanks SHP for the links to a variety of news items.
Human performance actions speak louder than words
Dom Cooper PhD takes a look at human performance concepts including influencing behaviour and making mistakes – is it really just human error or could it be avoided? And how should leaders respond to this?
In the spirit of learning, I recently asked people in the ‘new-view’ Human & Organisational Performance (HOP) [i] world how they translate high-level Human Performance (HP) principles into actions to improve safety.
HP might be better known as Human Factors, Human Error, or Ergonomics. It encompasses all those things, and views the human as an integral feature of any work system, adopting Rasmussen’s internal ‘inside-out’ approach to problem-solving, as opposed to an ‘outside-in’ view.
How much exposure to wood dust is dangerous?
SHP hears from consultancy Praxis42 on the exposure, control and monitoring of wood dust.
Employers have a legal responsibility to make sure their employees are not exposed to dangerous levels of wood dust, under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002.
Earlier this year, Esken Renewables Ltd were fined £160,000 because employees were exposed to harmful levels of wood dust and the company had failed to design and operate processes to minimise the spread of wood dust.
Here we talk about the dangers of wood dust exposure, what an employer’s legal responsibilities are, and what practical safety measures can be put in place to protect employees and organisations.
Commemorating Piper Alpha: 36 years of learning and progress in offshore safety
This month, as part of SHP’s editorial partnership with Fieldfisher’s Health & Safety team, Beth Thompson (Associate) and Krysteen Ormond (Solicitor) revisit the context and key learnings from the Piper Alpha disaster, underscoring the ongoing importance of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of workers across all industries.
On 6 July, the offshore oil and gas industry will commemorate the 36th anniversary of the Piper Alpha tragedy. The catastrophic platform explosion, occurring 120 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland, remains the deadliest incident in offshore history, claiming 167 lives and seriously injuring 61 survivors.
The Piper Alpha disaster is recognised as a pivotal moment in offshore health and safety. The lessons drawn from the subsequent Cullen Inquiry have profoundly influenced safety practices and continue to influence the health and safety management systems of many organisations today.
Health and safety considerations for neurodivergent employees
In the second of two articles, Robert Manson MSc NEBOSH (Dip), Neurodiversity Occupational Consultant from consultancy firm Creased Puddle, highlights areas where a ‘blanket approach’ does not work for neurodivergent employees who can, as a result, be treated unfairly in the workplace.
While many organisations have started to adopt neuroinclusive practices, this has been mainly from a Human Resources perspective mainly in devising policies and procedures in the workplace. This would be seen in the health and safety world as ‘in place but not in use’.
Scott Hassall works as one of Tribe’s Culture Change Consultants. When he’s not working for Tribe, he’s a professional sportsman. Here he reveals how health, safety and wellbeing managers can learn from athlete/coach relationship.
On entering the corporate world, the crossover between workplace management and athletic coaching really stood out to me. One of the most significant parallels was the impact of the coach/athlete relationship and the manager/worker relationship.
The performance of a business is heavily reliant on managers motivating their team to perform well. It’s the relationship they have with their team that plays a critical part in both team and individual performances.
Lessons from down under: Psychological safety enshrined in the law
Safety practitioners across the globe are familiar with ISO 45003 (psychological health and safety at work), but Western Australia’s WorkSafe has published an in depth code of practice focusing on practical steps to achieve mandatory compliance with the law – the team at Eversheds Sutherland consider the lessons that can be learned from Australia’s approach.
The introduction of Australia’s Code of Practice for Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace (“the Code”) sets a benchmark for managing psychosocial risk.
Psychosocial hazards are factors related to the interaction between work, the environment and individual wellbeing which can lead to harm – they have gained and continue to gain significant attention globally with the publication of ISO 45003 back in 2021 putting a spotlight on psychological wellbeing in the health and safety arena.
Historically, our focus as safety practitioners has concentrated on preventing people from physical injury – whether that is adding guards to a piece of machinery so a worker’s hand can’t be trapped, issuing training on the use of harnesses to people who are working at height or carrying out a workplace assessment for desk-based workers.
HSE annual workplace fatalities: Construction and falls from height deaths rise
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published its annual statistics on work-related fatalities, with 138 workers killed in work-related accidents, up from 136 last year.
The figure has fluctuated between 130 and 150 for most of the past decade.
Falls from height remain the highest kind of fatal accidents, at 50 deaths, significantly up from 40 last year, followed by being struck by a moving vehicle, 25 and struck by a moving object, 20.
Meanwhile, 87 members of the public were killed in work-related accidents in 2023/2024, according to RIDDOR.
Workers aged 60 or over accounted for 34 per cent of those killed, despite them making up only 11 per cent of the workforce.
Is it time to learn lessons from UK public inquiries?
Erin Shoesmith, Partner at Addleshaw Goddard discusses public inquiries and what impact, if any, comes from their recommendations.
Public inquiries are engrained in modern political culture. They have a prominent role in investigating major public events and tragedies.
The issues they investigate have been front and centre in recent months following the ITV’s depiction of Mr Bates v The Post Office and the publication of the report following the Infected Blood Inquiry.
But do public inquiries bring about meaningful improvements?
The Tim Marsh Blog: Gravity really is a right royal b**tard
When we talk about basic behavioural safety on a training course, we always make the blunt point that “gravity is a right royal bastard”. It’s a risk factor that you simply cannot design out. “Well, unless you live in a bungalow and never stand-up or walk about” we often joke.
I’d like to share a close to unbelievable recent experience that happened to the family of John Dillon – Anker and Marsh’s longest serving consultant. A dramatic event that proves that even staying seated in a bungalow won’t always keep you safe from gravity. This preluded by a basic training exercise and a fatal case study.