Articles

Continuously Improving the PDCA Cycle

The PDCA cycle is a well-established continuous improvement tool that's long been used to structure employee involvement in health and safety. This is not a new concept – it's a process that's been used to train first line managers for decades. What is the PDCA improvement cycle? It’s a process that came...

How to make Contractor Prequalification easier

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...

The Prescribed Person – the 2021 edition

The day of the tradie is here...

Torque or Talk? The Importance of Communication in the Workplace

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...

Temporary workers and chemicals

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...

The importance of a JSA

A job assessment prior to the start of a task or contract is not a new thing, but it's increasingly important. Take 5 steps back and 5 minutes to review and consider the way the work is to be done, as well as the actual or potential hazards and risks associated...

Protecting your feet and back

I have a flat foot - but why is this important? This is a common condition for many New Zealanders, with a simple solution (one that has a direct link to the workplace). Why bring this topic up? I was talking to my granddaughter, who along with her partner, is a sharemilker. She...

Standards, Guarding, Training, and Employees’ Actions

The below headline caught my attention recently, and after reading the court notes, I can’t understand why this can still happen in this day and age (29 years since health and safety laws were introduced into New Zealand), or are there other factors involved that have not been made known? Don’t...

Engaging new employees

For many small businesses, now is an uncertain time.  However, with the government's strategies for job creation, for many businesses, this is a positive time and will give them opportunity to help people gain employment, and develop new skills. Earlier this week (August 2020), we attended a Govt work/job creation and...