Articles

Getting Emotional about Health and Safety

Health and safety is not a topic that you would usually get emotional about, but one gets to a point when enough is enough. A couple of years ago a friend gave me the book “Tragedy at Pike River Mine: How and Why 29 Men Died” by Rebecca Macfie. He said to...

Significant Hazard

What is a significant hazard or risk? Where and how does the term significant hazard fit into hazard management and the risk rating of hazards, and is it still relevant? This is a question I was asked recently and there still exists some confusion as to its application,  and is it or...

Business Planning – planning for the next big idea!

Spotted - an advert on TVNZ 1 for gardening gloves with a difference - some clever person had come up with idea of attaching moulded claws to one of the gloves for digging in the garden, to assist with planting - how clever! Consider this: How often do we see something...

Working with Chemicals Safely

The prosecution of a Tauranga mussel processing company in 2018 for an industrial accident must certainly make all businesses  - using chemicals in any part of their operations - sit up and take note. When you read the following, the incident could easily have been avoided with a few practical and...

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"...

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...