NAILED IT! Are words I’d used to describe Mike O’Donnell’s (MOD’s) Opinion piece about what it is like to be a professional director and meet your health and safety duties as an ‘Officer’. His article ‘When keeping safe is not as easy as moving a few wheelie bins’ was published on Stuff.co.nz on June 30th 2018.
What is an Officer under Health and Safety at Work Act 2015?
In simple terms an officer is either a:
- Director of a company
- Partner in a partnership
- A Person in any other entity who holds a position similar to a company director (such as a board member)
What are an Officer’s Duties?
Under the HSAW 2015 an Officer must make sure that the organisation has appropriate systems of work. Let’s be clear, a Director is not expected to be an HSE expert, any more than they are expected to be an insurance broker. However, they are expected to ask appropriate questions such as “Show me how we are being safe,” and “show me that we are appropriately insured.”
This means that to be being an effective director you need too:
- Understand the work that the organisation does
- Know the risks that workers and volunteers may face
- Check that the organisation has appropriate resources and processes to manage these risks
- Check that the organisation has processes to communicate and consider information about work health and safety
- Check that the organisation is complying with any duties and requirements under work health and safety legislation.
- Continuously learn about, and keeping up to date with, work health and safety issues
What does MOD do that is so exceptional?
- Site Visit
MOD talks about getting out on site and effectively doing a ‘Management By Walkabout’ exercise. He actually pays attention to what was happening and knew enough about the workplace (an IT Company) to identify the following risks:
- Cable trip hazards
- Overloaded power boxes
- Furniture and shelves need to be fixed to the walls in case of earthquakes
- Blocking a fire exit with wheelie bins is not ideal
- He’s Human (A little Paranoid Rather than Smug)
MOD’s words suggest that he wants the team to succeed. He talks about ‘his people’ and how he doesn’t want them to get hurt any more than he wants to get criminally prosecuted.
- Continuous Improvement is Good Business
MOD describes how after reviewing a worksite, giving feedback to the other directors is just part of doing good business.
- Safety is more than physical risks in the workplace
MOD openly discusses psychological risks (depression and other mental health disorders) and how they are a part of the IT world.
Long hours, high-pressure deadlines and tight deadlines need to be managed so people aren’t broken in the process. He even quotes a 2015 study from University of California, San Francisco:
“49 per cent of tech founders reported having mental health conditions, and 27 per cent of tech staff experienced some anxiety problems.’”
He then goes on to suggest how psychological risks can be managed:
1. Provide supervisor training so they are able to recognise the signs of mental illness.
2. Sign up for an employee assistance counselling programmes. These provide a no-judgement, anonymous avenue for staff to sit down with a trained counsellor. Importantly this needs to be publicised across the workplace, so everyone knows it’s available.
3.Encourage leaders to disclose their weaknesses. It also means zero tolerance for discrimination based on mental health status.
4. Jointly create a support plan with workers who are struggling. “A plan that is flexible enough to deal with the specifics of the issue but will also still allow the person to deliver value to the organisation”.
What else did I like about the Article?
I feel that if you look at the Health and Safety profession as a whole, it’s just too easy for us to slip into “I’m the technical expert and I’ve got the answer… let me be your guru” mode. This inevitably leads to Karpman’s Victim/ Persecutor/ Rescuer Model. This leads to safety Practitioners very quickly becoming a destructive force where either:
- They feel no one is listening to them as they have no connection with the audience
- Their role is dictatorial, policelike and fear based; or
- They are so busy rescuing everyone they don’t let their audience learn valuable lessons.
MOD does not claim to be an expert, instead, he is curious about what is going on and genuinely wants the organisation that he is working with to succeed. Ultimately, I agree that curiosity is a good thing and it’s better to be a champion for ‘even betterness’ then a harbinger of doom.
Please let me know if you know of any examples of Director/Officer greatness worth sharing and have a safe and productive week.
SB
Resources
IOD Health and Safety Guide: Good Governance for Directors
WorksafeNZ Officers’ due diligence