Making The Shift From Compliance To Commitment

By Author: Sara Davidson
Total Articles: 4
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How health and safety is changing in the modern working environment.

Attitudes towards health and safety compliance are shifting, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that a company-wide commitment to overall health and safety is essential for organisations looking to reduce accidents and ensure future success.

Many organisations now realise that, in order to prevent workplace accidents, it is essential that health and safety becomes an integral part of the overall business management process.
Training is an important step, with accredited qualifications like a Health and Safety diploma, which can help managers and supervisors get a practical understanding of how they can influence the health and safety performance of their organisation and move from compliance to commitment.

Many health and safety practitioners look at their responsibilities as part of their day-to-day job, but qualifications can make it a very rewarding and lucrative career. Being a Health and Safety practitioner is a career and as career choices go, it’s up there with some of the best. Firstly, look at the fundamental aspect ...
... – it’s about people’s health and safety. It’s a career that is dedicated to reducing accidents, stress, injuries and often deaths at work. HR managers advertising roles with “high risk of going out in the morning and never coming home” in their vacancy adverts are unlikely to see many high-calibre applicants come through the door. So, a good, qualified and knowledgeable Health and Safety practitioner is essential to a successfully operating business.

A role in Health and Safety requires excellent communication skills. Whether you’re talking to people on the shop floor or in the board room, you will have to be able to get your point across clearly, effectively and in a way that shows you’re helping people to operate and behave safely in everything that they do at work. 

You will need a good appreciation of the law, how to interpret the law and apply it to your company. You’ll therefore need to be one of those people who can read detailed documents and make sense of them.

Progression routes

One of the main differences between a career and a job is growth and the ability to progress, grow and earn more. Health and Safety officer roles are relatively well paid, with starting salaries around £22k, but fully qualified Health and Safety Practitioners, especially those with a Health and Safety MSc can earn £50k upwards. 

Overall, becoming a specialist in Health and Safety, instead of just bolting an additional responsibility on to another operationally focused role, can be highly rewarding. 

Compliance and commitment

Improving overall health and safety performance however does not only rest on the health and safety team. Getting commitment from the wider business is essential. Here are five top tips to help in this regard:

Providing a clear vision – where do we want to be
Ensuring that the necessary resources are made available
Providing regular feedback on performance
Ensuring employees are equipped with the skills and knowledge to do the job
Agreeing clear actions and plans to achieve the vision
Improving health & safety can also provide direct benefits to the bottom line through improved on-site efficiencies and relationships with customers. 

Potential benefits include:

Greater productivity as fewer hours are lost due to sickness and accidents
Improved company-wide safety awareness culture and appreciation for safety measures
Decreased chance of fines and legal action
Active staff involvement to improve the workplace
Enhanced reputation within the supply chain

In today’s world, it has become essential to focus on “health and safety” in any working environment. EEF helps in focussing on this through Health and Safety diploma courses which they offer.