The question I ask of myself is the following, have I been a good Health and Safety officer, manager or director this year?
Did I really put in 8 hours a day as per my employment contract, service contract or whatever it may be?
Did I sell my skills and once sold, did I deliver using my Health and Safety skills to the advantage of my employer or client? Must I send a Christmas card? Take someone out to lunch? Maybe the Department of Labour or that big client of mine?
Did I contribute to the industrial community, or even the Health and Safety community at large?
Lets first separate what I call the Health and Safety officer, the Health and Safety manager and the Health and Safety director.
Yes we have a problem here…
I will start with the big bucks, the Director in the ivory tower, who meets every week with the Board, talks first and says nothing, presents the stats, and provides simple answers to the MD and others, ‘yes we have a problem there, it is currently being addressed’, who comes out of the meeting and phones his Health and Safety manager, who will then relay the message to the Health and Safety officer.
Health and Safety director job done, will get feedback the day before the next meeting, ready to close out that item.
The Health and Safety manager, manages, lets not be fooled, he also goes to meetings, gives directives to his staff, mostly 2-weekers, to solve the problem at grass roots level. He gets the answers the day before he must give them to the Director, job done. I cannot do everything so I must delegate, that is why I’m a manager.
The Health and Safety officer, normally with limited Health and Safety education and experience, is out in the field. Now I must admit, I’m personally not a good Health and Safety officer for reasons I will explain later.
It might be that we are expecting to much
This Health and Safety officer now needs to make sure his job is not in jeopardy, so he cannot go back to the manager and ask for too much advice, so he speaks to other 2-weekers, and may put in a good or weak intervention, just prior to the deadline. Job done.
The Director (Leader), gave an instruction but did not lead. The Manager (who should manage the leaders directives after leading), farmed out the work (delegated), to the Health and Safety officer (executor?) of the work, with the least amount of experience and expertise.
Have I been a good Health and Safety officer this year?
Back to the original question – have I been a good Health and Safety officer this year?
My view is the following, and remember, where I am in the organisation will definitely skew my answer.
If I am the Director, I should know the work would be farmed out to the Health and Safety officer. Leadership thus dictates that I needed to visit the site together with the Health and Safety manager and the allocated Health and Safety officer in order to facilitate and lead initially the process of change or intervention.
Doing it remotely, can I really answer the MD truthfully at the next Board meeting. If I have done so, then yes I have been a good Health and Safety officer and leader.
If I am the Health and Safety manager, did I ensure that I acted effectively as the go-between, between the Director and the Health and Safety officer? Did I ensure that I provided all the necessary resources enabling and encouraging and directing the Health and Safety officer as needed. If I have done so, then I have been a good Health and Safety officer.
As the local Health and Safety officer... judge for yourself.
The point being, we all come from the basics of being a Health and Safety officer by heart. It is what we put into it that counts. Have I personally been a good Health and Safety officer this year? I think I could have done better.
Now judge yourself.
