This April, the Health & Safety at Work Act 2015 will have been live for twelve months. I find myself mulling over the impact this has had so far. With the increased responsibilities on officers of PCBUs (read – Managers and Directors of Companies), the race to obtain and absorb information has been frantic. I say has, as there appears to have been a bit of a cooling off period. I put this down to the fact that it’s been a whole year and no one has been hung, drawn and quartered yet.

It is human nature to revert to their fight or flight instincts in the face of danger (hence the flurry of activity early last year). Now the perceived danged has passed, adrenaline levels have returned to normal and we have resumed grazing. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. In fact, this is the preferred state of any creature, no predators, no stress and full tummies.

However, we can only maintain this state providing we have security. Comfortable in the knowledge that should the wolves raise their heads we can fend them off or get out of their way. This means we need to be keeping one eye on the grass and one on the horizon.

This is where your systems and processes come in.

Remember the seminar you attended in November 2015, where the presenter was boring and the coffee cold. How many of you went back to your organizations and set about developing your systems, your people and your processes to meet the requirements?

And if you did, how many of you actually know whether the steps you took before Christmas 2015 have actually been maintained?

The Failed Experiment

As we all know the ACC WSMP scheme has now dissolved. The reason for its demise after 16 years or so has been attributed to its lack of impact on the injury rate here in New Zealand. Let’s analyse this for a second.
There are approximately 500,000 registered businesses in New Zealand, employing around 2.1 million humans. Around 2500 of these businesses employs more than 100 staff. The rest are considered small to medium enterprises.

Conservatively, and I can only estimate this, the number of organization that entered the scheme and effectively maintained ACC WSMP certification at one level or another was around 3500. Barely one percent of the total number of companies registered. A paltry sum given that the scheme was free and levy discounts were offered.

Now, given these figures and the fact that the scheme was voluntary, one can only surmise that the lack of uptake was down to the expense of time and effort required to develop, implement and manage the systems. This, and the hassle of having to participate in an audit appears to have outweighed the 10, 15 or 20 percent discounts offered by ACC. It was inevitable that with such low engagement figures, the impact on the country’s injury rate would negligible. I personally feel that the ACC WSMP standard was exceptional. Clearly laid out and easy to follow, it deserved more.

So Where Are We Now?

The carrot incentive did not work. Instead, the stick was produced and we were left with tougher legislation and greater penalties. With which I have absolutely no issue. However, and I believe it was Plato who said – “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”

My concern is that in order to send a message to the “bad people”, a successful prosecution must take place and in order for this to happen something has to first go wrong. That is, someone will probably have to be injured or killed before the law is applied. Stable doors and bolting horses come to mind.

Looking at the legislation and the duties detailed under the Act, there is an implied need for health and safety systems and processes. There is no denying it. There is a need for Officers to ensure these systems and processes are operating effectively and woe betide anyone falling short of these requirements. However, the legislation does not indicate in any way how we should so this. It gives us the bones but none of the meat.

Health and safety management system standards flesh out the skeletal requirements of legislation. We cannot have one without the other, else we are left with either inanimate bones or a quivering mass of meat. Muscle and tissue allow the skeleton to move and the skeleton provides the necessary support.

Legislation is our baseline, we cannot drop below that, that would be illegal. Applying the requirements of a structured standard lifts us above the datum line of legality and into the realms of pro-activity.

Please note, I am in no way indicating that an organization requires certification to a particular standard. That is a topic for a whole new rant.

I am however trying to encourage organizations to raise their own bar and use the tools available. It is interesting to note that most published management system standards indicate that they “can be used for certification / registration purposes”. It is not mandated.

Having a proactive health and safety management system not only aids in your legal compliance, it sends a message to your employees. It tells them you care about their well-being. It encourages open dialogue and improves communication of key issues. It saves lives.

I urge you to do your own research. Take a look at some of the published standards available (AS/NZS 4801, OHSAS 18001, Worksafe Warranty or ISO 45001-when they finally get around to publishing it). In fact, there is absolutely no reason why the old ACC WSMP standard could not be applied, adjusting of course for some of the elements of the new Act.

The content of these standards looks daunting, I know. But, if you can get passed the normative references and definitions without nodding off, they are a veritable treasure trove. All you have to do is put them into the context of your organization.

Structured health and safety management systems work, if we allow them to.

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