Health and Safety Motivations

By Alan Bessell

Seeking Motivation

"Had a good day, dear?"

So how do you answer that question if you’re a safety practitioner? I’m not talking here about the social interaction with colleagues nor about the standard performance measurements, but I am interested in measuring my effectiveness, my accomplishments and achievements; the things which at the end of the day give me the motivation (or not) to go back for more.

As a practitioner now for over 33 years with 15 years of self-employment, this is still a question for which I haven’t a simple answer. In my early years in this business I thought about the matter very little; the challenges posed by work and home were motivation enough to keep me from introspection. But now, as the end of my working career is but a few years away, I find myself increasingly asking what my legacy to the safety of people at work will be. If I were an employee of one of my clients it would be easy to measure my worth. I could see the results of my labours in a completed wall or a stack of products awaiting despatch, and know the extent of my contribution. Job satisfaction could be visible. So where do I look for the motivation to continue? How do I justify my existence?

Questioning Success

I’m not alone. It has been instructive to watch the changes in approach by the HSE over the same period. As a trainee Inspector with HSE my worth was measured largely by activity. How many premises visited, how many notices issued and prosecutions taken. So long as you were busy and catching wrongdoers you could go home content. The Legal and Moral arguments to manage health and safety were enough to justify HSE’s existence. This was to change.

The very first 1991 edition of HSG65 “Successful Health and Safety Management” used Monitoring as the 5th box. In a vague, largely unquantified way, good health and safety made good business sense as well, but how to justify this was a problem put into the “too difficult for now” tray.

The emphasis on performance management grew later. Monitoring became Measuring Performance (what gets measured gets done), attempts to make a business case for H&S were made e.g. HSG 96 “Cost of Accidents at Work”, Turnbull Report, cost benefit analysis including regulatory impact assessments arrived, SMART entered our vocabulary, “Revitalising H&S” in particular challenged the regulator to prove/improve performance against a set of targets. All these topics and more became part of the Diploma syllabus and a rich source of questions for the likes of you, dear readers!

It is, I hope, stating the obvious that if these preceding topics and acronyms are not familiar to you then referral to your study materials is strongly advised. Likewise this article is not a revision session on the difficulties of measuring H&S performance, nor an exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of such tools as accident statistics.

One real difficulty with using accidents as a measure presented itself many times as I changed jobs, and that is the apparent increase in harm being suffered by the employees of my new employers consequent upon my arrival! In much the same way, HSE’s targets under Revitalising have been made more difficult simply because attention is focused upon them. Personally, I have long abandoned accident statistics as a useful measure of performance, or source of motivation, except for an analysis of any trends as a means of focussing preventative action for the next year.

Making a Difference

However, I still need the sustenance of a job well done to continue; personal motivation that I have left an employer or client in a better position than they were before I arrived. With my training/teaching activities this is relatively simple. Knowledge and skills are imparted and if I have done my job properly I’ll have obtained feedback confirmation to this effect. This is true of on the job and classroom training. Incidentally, hearing of subsequent examination success is very gratifying; failure I take, at least in part, as my failure also. Motivation is a double-edged sword! For me, reflection on my training delivery is essential. What worked, what didn’t, what can I do better next time?

In the field life is less easy. For many employers H&S is just a chore to be disposed of as quickly and cheaply as possible, some paperwork to show an Inspector, or as part of a vetting process; a hoop to jump through before work can be obtained. For others, paying me a regular sum for visits and advice is conscience money. This can be dispiriting work, which I try to relieve by looking for evidence of improvements. I once heard the phrase “catch somebody doing something right”, which hit me like a bolt of lightning. I had taken my HSE mind set as an enforcer into my subsequent work, with the net effect that my own proactive monitoring activities were always looking for something wrong. In fact, to come up with a blank or sparse list of remedial action was a disappointment.

I’m sure many of you already active in H&S will be familiar with the “Oh no, here comes the safety man” reaction, and I well remember working for a local education authority and being described by a Headmaster as “the prick of conscience”. Make of that what you will! In truth, I think as a profession we have not done ourselves any favours by often concentrating on negatives when, in fact, carrots are better motivators than sticks. Now, I always try to find positives and make a specific point of giving praise to employees and the client. Another long forgotten training course, something on performance appraisal I think, included techniques for giving feedback. Start with “What I liked was…..” always before “What I didn’t like…..”. This positive stroking is something few of us do enough of in our daily lives, yet all of us enjoy a few kind words.

Getting Involved

Another must for me when in a workplace is to challenge unsafe acts immediately and, if possible, secure remedial action. On one memorable occasion, acting in my inspectorial role, I observed a lack of eye protection. Before I had a chance to make my report the employee concerned had a minor accident. I did not feel good knowing I could have intervened and prevented that injury.

There is a second powerful reason to get involved, which is that the subsequent discussion with the “miscreant” often discloses very real reasons for the unsafe behaviour. As an example I once saw a machine operating with the guard removed. This was far from being a wilful act by the operator; the component being machined was too big for the guard provided and the root cause was a management failing. Setting yourself up as a font of all knowledge and then also making snap judgements will surely result in you also being humbled. This type of example is a compelling reason to involve people doing a job before completing a risk assessment.

A further vital reason for talking to people, not just observing, is the need to try and be seen as part of a solution rather than part of the problem. By that I mean taking any deficiencies and offering suggestions as to the remedy. In a recent job I noted traffic hazards through a loading bay door and into the car park. In the process pedestrians and a forklift were liable to collide. The solution from employees was relocation of some very heavy pot plants, ensuring that pedestrians were forced to give the entrance a wide berth, and preventing drivers from cutting a corner. Much more decorative than my fixed barrier suggestion and simpler/cheaper to implement.

Aiming High

The final motivation plank that governs my behaviour at work is simply the need to do my best for clients and students. This is more a conscience issue than some negative concern for getting sued for negligent advice. I’d like to think that my professional standards treat legal compliance as my floor, and I am looking up to the ceiling.

I have direct experience in several fatal or serious accidents on my watch. Without doubt the worst was the fatality of a 14-year-old boy on a school work experience placement. The harrowing experience of sitting through an inquest examining the minute details of the events left me with a permanent scar. I, and others involved, were constantly asking ourselves, “what did I do, what more could I have done?”. Without wishing to sound complacent, I was able to live with my own actions, indeed I could see direct evidence of my personal contributions to the system in place for ensuring that pupils were sent only to placements where reasonable efforts had been made to have them checked for health and safety standards.

The next time you find yourself going through the motions you might like to take a moment and reflect if you could say the same.

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