Articles

The Consequences of Getting Health and Safety Wrong

This is a warning to all businesses after a 2018 High Court judgement that has given guidelines to sentence employers who fail to protect the health and safety of workers. The judgement stems from the 2015 Health and Safety at Work Act and gives guidelines to sentencing people found guilty under...

Has health and safety gone mad?

Has red tape bureaucracy been taken to the extreme? Spotted - at a DOC hut recently.  Three signs surrounding the one and only door to the hut. “In case of fire, go outside and call out FIRE, FIRE, FIRE to the others in the hut"...

Using a Yellow Card System

One of the key changes to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 was the requirement that businesses must involve their employees in health and safety. I have made the comment before, but it is an indictment on New Zealand businesses when legislation must be enacted that requires employers to...

Working on the right contracts

Are you chasing the great white whale? If you are a contractor or a self-employed tradesman, and your business is a one-man band or small to medium business (SME), this parallel to business is something to think about. In Herman Melville's fictional novel Moby Dick, Captain Ahab, the monomaniacal captain, was obsessed...

Is Health and Safety Strangling Your Business?

Have you read about the Opua dog swimming races? Is this just another case of red tape, blue-tape or bureaucracy gone raving mad? I contacted the principal of Opua School and gave him a few health and safety pointers - but what was interesting was his comments about leaving the UK, to...

The Value of Institutional Knowledge

With the current cost-cutting and reduction of staff in the public services, this is a topic (that if not considered) could have delivery consequences for public services. Add to this, the issue that New Zealand is in a recession, and many companies are also downsizing and reducing staff. How many businesses...

Challenging the Status Quo

How often do you or your management team challenge the status quo to see if there is a better and smarter way to improve your work methods, to improve quality, safety, and to increase your profit? There is an adage that states “If you look after the pennies, the pounds will...

Managing workplace noise

Does high definition sound and the "boom boom" of heavy sound or rock speakers at a concert make your chest feel uncomfortable, give you a headache and assault your eardrums? The same effect can apply in employment, and sustained noise level in a workplace can increase stress to employees, leading to...

Safety and Employee Involvement

We trained hard but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of...

Employment and Health & Safety

Getting it right the first time! It was Abraham Lincoln who said, “if I had nine hours to cut down a tree, I would spend six hours sharpening my axe”. When it comes to the employment systems in your business, have you planned for this or is it something that just happens...