Setting an H&S strategy

This Issue This is a part of the Safety at work feature

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Having a clear roadmap for health and safety for your business will help you to be more efficient and targeted in your activities and keep you focused on what matters.

Figure 1: Example of a strategy outline.

A HEALTH AND SAFETY STRATEGY is an improvement roadmap, with sustainability, profitability and safe outcomes being the intended destination.

Whether you are a small or large business, there are several secrets to developing a great health and safety strategy:

  • Make it personal.
  • Make it practical.
  • Make it possible.

A great strategy is one that is relevant to your organisation, to your people and to your current level of maturity in health and safety.

Where you are and where you’re going

Start by painting a picture of the future – outline what good health and safety means to you. Make this inspiring and describe it in a way that reflects how you and your people communicate.

When you’re getting started with your strategy, consider where you are at the moment. Think about what you do well and what needs some work. You might have had an audit or sent out some surveys – use these to help you to describe your current state of health and safety performance.

This is also an opportunity to think about the future – the challenges and opportunities that could impact your ability to provide a safe and healthy place of work. These are things like changing the type of work you do, growing as a business and taking on different clients.

Involve your people

Involving your workers, your board (if you have one) and your contractors is the key to getting your strategy right from the start. Your strategy may mean some changes have to be made to the way you work, and the drive and motivation to change needs to outweigh the discomfort and effort required.

You can create this motivation through strong involvement of all relevant people and groups in the development of your strategy. Not only does this increase engagement, but there may be a difference between the work as you imagine it to be and the work as it is actually done by your workers.

Keep it simple

A common pitfall in developing an effective strategy is to make the journey more complex than it needs to be. To keep it practical, break things down to bite-sized chunks.

Start with where you are going – your destination – and work backwards to identify smaller achievable goals in support of your destination. Most organisations structure the smaller goals around what will drive the most health and safety performance improvement.

The way you do this needs to be suitable for your business. As an example, think about setting goals in risk management, relationship management and health and safety resourcing (see Figure 1).

For each small goal, identify the key actions you need to take to achieve them. Think about the challenges you face and opportunities you have when you are doing this, and maximise these as much as you can. That is it – you now have a simple strategy.

Figure 1: Example of a strategy outline.

Communicate effectively

A strategy is not a document. It it is a way to get from where you are to where you want to be, recognising and planning for the challenges and opportunities you will face.

Some of the best strategies developed have been written on the backs of envelopes. Keeping things simple will make the journey easier for you and for those you work with. A one-page strategy is perfectly possible, or you could develop a short video or a drawing – whatever works for you and your business.

Making it possible

Be realistic about how long it is going to take you to get from your current state to where you want to be. Some strategies take 3 years, others 10, some longer. Your ability to understand the challenges and opportunities reduces the further out you plan. However, sometimes it can be helpful to have a long-term strategy as it recognises you will be focused on improving over a period of time. It also helps you to allocate resources in the best way.

Constantly check in with progress against your strategy. Make sure it is still taking you in the right direction. Sometimes even the best strategies don’t work quite as you intended because of a variety of changes to your internal and external business environment.

If you find yourself doing lots of activities and spending lots of time doing things that do not support your strategy, you may need to stop doing them or change your strategy. This keeps you on track and makes you very efficient and focused with your resources.

Resource the strategy

Now you need to action your strategy. To make sure you are working in support of it, develop an annual plan. One way to do this is to look at the actions you have identified in your strategy and break these down to the tasks you will complete in the next 12 months.

Allocate responsibilities and timeframes to each action and consider any other resources that might be required such as skills, knowledge, time and budget. You can use these as your programme of work in health and safety for the year. Because you have allocated responsibilities, everyone will know their part and what is expected of them.

Health and safety representatives will have clear direction and good involvement, your staff will have clear expectations and involvement and your leaders will know what they are expected to deliver. If you have a board, they will have better oversight of progress.

Gives a clear picture of the future

By following this broad method, you will have a clear picture of the future and simple steps to get you there over time. You will also be able to understand what is required, why it’s required and how to do it, as well as how much time, money and effort will be required.

Ultimately, developing a strategy helps make health and safety improvement easier and clearer for you and your workers.

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Articles are correct at the time of publication but may have since become outdated.

Figure 1: Example of a strategy outline.

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