Workplace Monitoring

The recent prosecution and fine of the safety officer on duty at the time of the April 1989 Hillsborough football stadium disaster was unusual in that more often than not, courts tend to prosecute line managers rather than their advisors. Nonetheless the prosecution hopefully reminds the health & safety profession of the need to perform duties impartially and accurately. It can be a tough call though, and on more than one occasion I have been asked by hard-pressed team leaders to “give permission” for safeguards to be overridden – for example when sophisticated computer-controlled machine guards failed with replacement parts several days away. In the decade before Hillsborough, UK PLC woke up to the realisation that overseas companies – especially Japanese – were greatly surpassing our manufacturing quality standards.  In the same way that some UK companies responded to the challenge by appointing armies of quality inspectors to try and filter out defective products at the end of the assembly line, factories also appointed so-called “safety officers” to address the 1974 Health & Safety at Work Act.  The ethos in those days was to in some way hand “ownership” to the safety specialist, leaving line staff free to get on with the serious business of moving the metal, unencumbered by any H&S responsibilities.

A litany of high-profile fires, explosions, capsizing’s, train crashes, and lesser workplace accidents exposed the flaws in this approach and taught us that working free from quality or safety defects is the responsibility of line staff, and cannot be delegated to outside specialists.

How then to get managers visibly demonstrating ownership by “walking the talk”?

Senior managers

One of the powerful tools in my arsenal has been to teach directors/senior managers to carry out their own workplace monitoring – say every 6 months. They will be testing the safety attitudes, beliefs and culture within their department (as opposed to checking purely hardware problems, which is dealt with lower down the chain). He/she will simply talk to employees, guided by a checklist of “soft” questions such as:

• Have staff been briefed about the safety plan?
• Do staff understand how the departmental risk assessment affects them?
• Are staff happy with their team leader’s H&S commitment?
• Are H&S representatives adequately supported?
• Is the workplace conducive to wellbeing?
• (And other questions – the above is not an exhaustive list).

The first question should always be: “Has the middle manager conducted their quarterly inspections?”.

Middle managers

At least once per quarter, middle managers should monitor workplace standards – again following a predetermined checklist – by asking a series of “procedural” questions such as:

• Have any incidents been reported and adequately investigated?
• Are there sufficient fire marshals and first aiders?
• Is housekeeping of a high standard?
• Is the hazard/defect procedure working satisfactorily?
• Does the Management H&S Champion have any concerns?
• Have new starters been adequately inducted?
• Has a fire evacuation drill been held within the last 6 months?

The first question should always be: “Has the junior manager conducted their monthly inspections?”.

Junior managers

At least once per months, junior managers (or administrators, H&S representatives, team leaders, etc) should monitor workplace standards – again following a predetermined checklist – largely looking at “hard” issues such as:

• Are fire points, escape routes etc kept clear?
• Are first aider locations/desks signposted and known by staff?
• Are noticeboards up to date with relevant information?
• Is portable electrical appliance testing up to date?
• Have all users completed their display screen equipment assessments, with any problems actioned?
• Are DSE users aware of eyesight-testing procedures, the need to take breaks and how to recognise signs of repetitive strain injuries?

How can the Board be confident that standards are being monitored?

With a little creativity, the checklists above can carry a scoring system – say marks out of ten.  This score should then feed through to the Board’s dashboard of H&S key performance indicators. At the very least, an annual audit will check that workplace monitoring is being diligently carried out by those who own the risks. Remember: what gets measured gets improved!

Contact us

Arinite clients appreciate we provide practical, no-nonsense advice about what you need to do to establish and maintain a safe and healthy working environment. Our team of health and safety consultants take pride in keeping health and safety simple. If you need to call upon our expert assistance, or just for an informal chat, please call our office 0207 947 9581, or type an enquiry to: https://www.arinite.com/contact-us/. Jan Mirkowski