How HSE savvy are your Leaders?

The role of Health and Safety in Leadership is fundamental to the operational effectiveness of your company. Regardless of the discipline, department, or the industry that a leader works in, the safety of their team should be the first consideration in all decisions. Whilst HSE Departments exist in many medium to large organisations, they are not responsible or accountable for the welfare of the leaders team. Health and Safety is ultimately everyone’s responsibility. Every employee has to ensure that they operate in a safe manner and are healthy when they are at work. They should also look out for their colleagues which engenders a sense of belonging and trust within the team. However, the leader is the person who creates an environment for this to exist. Sets the culture. They ensure that the workplace has the facilities and processes to work safely. Beyond that, creating a culture of psychosocial safety can enable the employees to thrive and innovate to look for improvements in the work and feel a sense of purpose. This can have massive effects on the business performance. As a leader, ensure that you can make your team safe, in a physical, mental and emotional way. Do you, as a leader:

• Ensure that the workplace is safe and your team has the right equipment for their work. Is the work station ergonometrically effective? Do people have the right PPE for the work?

• Ensure that HSE features as part of the design of the work before it is allocated. Consider the impact on the employee when doing this. Fatigue? Repetition of tasks? Noisy environment? Environmental/Climate conditions? Isolation? Does the work involve lifting and twisting?

• Encourage incident reporting and ensure that everyone learns when things go wrong. Include near misses as these are your free gift to learn when things haven’t actually impacted the business, but could have.

• Hold Pre-start and Toolbox meetings regularly and include HSE as a standard agenda item.

• Check in with each member of your team to ensure that they are feeling safe in the workplace. Encourage them to look for improvements and provide feedback.

• Encourage openness and trust so that your team sees that you are part of the team and share a common purpose.

• Demonstrate safety with your actions. Be vulnerable and show trust to your team.

Getting these things right can make a massive difference to your staff and consequently to your business. If you need any help in addressing safety at work, and feel that you, or some of your leaders would benefit by discussing People Focussed Leadership, please contact InteChange.