The OHS consultant's challenge
Occupational health and safety (OHS) seems to fluctuate between being simple and complex depending on who you talk to. The principles and values of safety are simple to understand, but can be complex to apply. Safety processes may seem complex, but their purpose and outcome appear simple and are widely understood.
Often our OHS conversations build from the simple. What do you want? What outcome are you looking for? Why do you want this? Has something happened to require change? Have you tried to improve OHS previously? Why did it fail or not proceed?
Such questions build a scope of works, a profile of the client and a context for the services and advice that you will be providing. Honest conversations make the rest of the process fairly simple to identify and write out.
Complexity does not often come from OHS, but from how a company must change to accommodate whatever level of safety and health the employer decides is appropriate. Here lies the challenge, the disruption and, yes, the cost.
Your advice may tell the client what they should do to meet their OHS aims, but not often tell them how to do. The “How” is the responsibility of the employer in consultation with the employees (and perhaps an OHS specialist, if necessary). We may help, but we should not do.
It is particularly useful to think about this as we enter the Christmas and holiday periods where unusual work-related activities occur, when people are often thinking about things other than work and when the usual level of resources can be lower.
Kevin Jones https://safetyatworkblog.com/
