Articles

If your business has implemented a quality management system, then you will, or should, be on top of your game, as this requirement is an important part of any quality management system. When it comes to health and safety, it’s my experience that document reviews are infrequent or non-existent, as one...

(Written in mid 2021 - but still appropriate!) The last twelve months has been, and still are, a challenging time for all countries with the COVID-19 pandemic. New Zealand has not escaped the heartache, fear, stress, and anguish that has been associated with this horrible event. From a business viewpoint, the pandemic resulted...

If humans could fly, they would have been born with wings - but because they are not, preventing falls is a responsibility of employers , especially if their employees are working at heights. There was recently a case where a contractor had been engaged to assist in a re-roofing job for...

If you don’t encourage brainstorming with your employees, you just might be missing an opportunity to take your business from zero to hero! No one person, business owner, manager, or supervisor has a mortgage on knowledge. A business may have 25 employees - what an opportunity with 25 fantastic, creative, qualified,...

A few years ago, we attended a health and safety forum, where WorkSafe NZ presented a program for employee involvement, via what is known as the PDCA cycle.  This is not a new concept - in fact, Gordon has been teaching this process to first line managers for over 30...

With contractor prequalification part of the New Zealand health and safety scene, this process can still be frustrating and time consuming for many smaller business operations. For many small businesses, whomever does the administration of the business, is also in charge of HR, and thus ends up the health and safety...

When was the last time you reviewed the effectiveness of your customer and visitor safety procedures? In July 2013, Briscoes Ltd were fined an eye watering $75,000, when an elderly customer tripped over a cardboard box in an aisle. At the time, there was much consternation from the public about the...

Communication in the workplace is so important. Here is some linguistic gymnastics to get your tongue around: While you are promulgating your esoteric cogitations and promulgating your esoteric cogitations, articulating your superficial sentimentalities, your amicable philosophical or physiological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your extemporaneous verbal evaporations and expatiations have lucidity, intelligibility...

With the impact of COVID-19, the shortage of skilled and reliable employees  and the reminder of having to do things differently, the hiring of temporary workers has increased. For work where chemicals are involved, effective health and safety management is always important, but making sure temporary workers are informed about the...