I recently attended the ACC HSE Business Update, here are my thoughts on the presentations.
ACC HSE Business Update: What are you?
The question around what is your identity ACC? is still ill defined. Together the team presentations were a little like a Hollywood depiction of multiple personality disorder.
- Government Insurance Provider: Talk of “products” and business value
- Medical Rehabilitation Guardian: Talk of getting people back to work faster
- Injury Prevention Specialist: Sending out occupational therapists into an operational settings to act as health and safety advisors
There were more than a few cringeworthy moments where I felt the presenter on video from Wellington needed to be told “just because you use business rhetoric it doesn’t make you a business, anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car”. I wish someone would teach team ACC about Robert K. Greenleaf’s “The Servant as Leader” paradigm, that they work out some consistent themes across all their vlaue streams and to think about connecting with the needs of the audience.
Once again, it is my belief that a levy loading system based on Lost Time Injuries and a line on a balance sheet will not impact safety on the ground. It is straight out Safety I/Compliance thinking. I wish we could somehow get into the world of Safety II and focus on resilience and capacity.
Confusion also ensued over the role of the Injury Prevention Specialist, the role of operational workplace safety has a different lense to medical injury prevention worker and I wondered how well this role would be received in the field and if it would double up on the educational work that WorksafeNZ is doing?
A key learning for me was the simple, yet effective graph on “Rehabilitation Flags”. which is based on Leerar,P. Boissonnault,W. Domholdt,E. Roddey,T. Documentation of Red Flags by Physical Therapists for Patients with Low Back Pain.J Man Manip Ther. 2007.
Basically, beyond a worker’s physiological and psychological make up factors in their community and workplace also pay a huge part in them getting back to work. Sometimes, employers need to look at the workplace as an ecosystem and see what is happening from a rostering and performance perspective to get someone back on board.
WorksafeNZ Moving in the Right Direction
John Munro, WorksafeNZ’s National Information Officer gave an engaging presentation about where WorksafeNZ is at now and where they want to be. It was a vast improvement on what I saw in June this year at the OSEA HSE Forum. Team WorksafeNZ is focusing on who their clients are and how they can make their life easier.
The terminology used in the presentation was consistently inclusive (working with, developing in partnership etc). Which gives the appearance of a government agency working hard to provide transparent data and build long term, robust relationships with key industries. Munro made it clear that he didn’t have all the answers and there were still some big challenges around privacy and injury data.
SafetyPlus (Not a Star Rating System or a replacement for WSMP)
My view is still ‘Yeah, Nah, not quite right’ on this one. Yes, it is a behavioural based, observation audit and review. Yes, it will allow organisations to look at their strengths and benchmark their performance year on year. However, I believe it is unlikely that small to medium enterprises will be able to afford the on site audits and only large organisations with an in house HSE professional and a robust existing Safety Management System will be game enough to take it on.
I would suggest that businesses use the self auditing tools when they are published next year and go for an ISO 4801 audit if they want to spend that much time and money. If you want to see the latest on this, hot off the press 26th September, go to SafePlus on the WorkSafeNZ website.
Working with an Aging Workforce: Geoff Pearman of Partners in Change
As always, I really enjoyed Geoff’s presentation and here is what I learnt this time:
- It’s now re-balancing not retirement
- We need to treat our 65 year old’s differently to our 75 year old’s and 85 year old’s, not lump everyone in together
- A reminder that there is no mandatory retirement age in New Zealand, although yes we do get a government subsidy at 65
- There are many reasons why people need to keep working and it’s not just about money
- It’s better for everyone to have a full and frank discussion, rather than skirting the subject
Last week’s blog on fire extinguishers sparked some robust discussions, as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the latest HSE Business Update.
Have a safe and productive week.
SB