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Managing Health and Safety – our latest tip
Consultation and participation
Maximising consultation and participation of your employees in health and safety issues works.  Research has shown that when employees are involved, asked for their views and ideas and have a vested interest in solving health and safety problems, then health and safety performance improves.

Workplace Vehicles – becoming a major issue
Martin O’Halloran, CEO of HSA recently confirmed that 50% of all fatalities have a direct link with workplace transport.  So if you have vehicles coming in to your business, be they your own vehicles, or those of contract hauliers, then you must manage workplace transport.  Issues that need to be considered and risk assessed include: access, egress, interaction with pedestrians, speed limits, lighting, reversing, unloading, operation of forklifts etc.  If you have your own vehicles then proceeding to deliver or remove goods from other businesses then you need to review the health and safety of those operations even though they are off-site.

Former HP Boss in dock in India over Call Centre Murder
In India a call centre worker was murdered by a taxi driver hired to take her home after a night shift in a Bangalore Call Centre. The taxi driver had been contracted by the company.  State laws require Employers to provide safe transport for female night shift workers. As a result MD of HP GlobalSoft, Mr Som Mittal has been cleared for prosecution in connection with the murder.  He could be fined 1000 rupees and have a criminal record, if fined.

Teenager badly hurt by angle grinder
During October an Irish teenager, aged 15, was seriously injured when he played with an angle grinder (used to cut metal) in Drogheda, Co. Louth.
He played with the angle grinder in his father’s workshop with a friend.  When he was taken to hospital, the angle grinder was still embedded in his knee.

If you use dangerous power tools at home or at work, you need to ensure that young, inexperienced teenagers cannot get access to them unsupervised.
Source:  Irish Independent – 18th October 2008.

Airline Employee fined €2,000
In Ireland a Ramp Supervisor with an airline has been fined €2,000 when he broke well documented, communicated procedures and moved a set of steps during the loading of an aircraft as another employee stepped on to them. The other employee, a senior load controller, fell and suffered fractures around both ankles.  Section 13.1 (a) was the section used in this prosecution as it requires all employees to:

• comply with relevant statutory provisions, as appropriate and take reasonable care to protect own safety, health and welfare and safety, health and welfare of any other person who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work

The airline had a system of work in place and that this system was familiar to the Ramp Supervisor.
Source:  Health & Safety Review – November 08

Road Safety tip for this time of year
Driver Fatigue
Driver fatigue is an issue of concern and Employers need to consider the hours and shifts worked by employees and the length of journey times, if they drive for their employer.  Many people don’t see it as a big issue and do it without a second thought, yet driving while tired is a serious problem that results in thousands of motoring accidents every single year.

To drive a car responsibly and safely employees need to be alert, aware of what's going on around them, able to react to situations and able to concentrate on what they are doing.

HR Topic to consider
Absenteeism
A recent headline in an Irish Newspaper read” Sick leave in HSE double regular rate”.  Sick leave rates within HSE are currently running at 6.2% with porters, catering staff, carpenters and care assistants among the worst offenders.  In the private sector absenteeism is said to be running at 3.5%.

Absenteeism costs money, loses customers, causes resentment amongst other employees (who have to pick up the slack) and creates problems for Managers.  It can be reduced if you take a strategic approach which will include: having a clear policy about uncertified/certified absence, measuring the problem contact with the company, right to contact GP, return to work interviews, early intervention in certain cases, involving Occupational Health professionals, use of EAPs etc.

It can be managed just like any other aspect of Management but must be done in an atmosphere of fairness and consistency.

Darlington Consulting can advise and assist you with all of the topics deal with in this Newsletter: Safety Representative and Safety Committee training, workplace vehicle management, development of policies and procedures to ensure that safe systems of work prevail, development of driving policies and absenteeism management.

If you would like to find out more about how Darlington Consulting can help you then please visit our website:
www.darlington.ie or contact us on
096 37608 for a preliminary discussion

If you do not wish to receive this Newsletter please send a blank email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line to: info@darlington.ie and we will remove your email.

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Managing Health and Safety – our latest tip
Protecting what you have
Protect your employees, your business and your assets by managing health and safety.  You may be affected by the downturn and are having to trim back on growth or you may even have had to let staff go – either way the staff you have left are now crucial to your business.  Protecting them, enabling them to be at work every day is now more important than ever.  So what should you do?

Talk to your staff and bring health and safety out into the open, ask them what concerns they have about equipment they use, chemicals they handle, loads that they have to move of lift, hours that they work etc.  Listen, listen and then listen again.

Take their concerns on board and try to do something about them.  If they are convinced that you are serious about protecting them, that will deliver higher morale, improved productivity, better customer service and probably your company’s survival.  It won’t cost the earth and is the finest investment you can make.

The meaning of work generates stress or well-being

Bullying article reveals interesting views
Writing in Irish times in November, Alison Healy reported on a piece of Bullying research carried out by
Torunn Dahl, business psychologist at consultancy firm Pearn Kandola which  made interesting reading.  The research analysed the responses of 108 young professionals when faced with a fictional bullying scenario and some of the findings were surprising for instance:
Victims of workplace bullying are often blamed by colleagues for bringing it upon themselves
Almost half of respondents blamed the victim's personality for the bullying.

People frequently described bullying as "just a personality conflict". However, academic research had "rarely found" that the victim's personality was to blame in a bullying situation.
"Hence employees may not get involved in supporting a colleague when they believe the situation is the colleague's fault for 'being difficult'," she said.
More than 70 % laid some of the blame on weak management for allowing the conflict to escalate. Only one respondent suggested the employees had allowed the situation to escalate by not intervening.
Some 59 % of people said they had witnessed bullying scenarios at work and one-quarter did nothing about it.

Road Safety tip for this time of year
Drinking and driving after Christmas Parties
If you are planning an employee night out for Christmas, please think about how your people are going to get home. One of the Employee duties contained with Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 is “ensure that he/she is not under the influence of an intoxicant to the extent that they endanger their own or others safety, health and welfare at work” so having a night out mid week and expecting employees to come to work “sober” the following morning may not be realistic.

Consider when your party is on, week-ends are generally a better bet, make plans to get employees home, or at least discuss what plans they have to get home.  If you are supplying alcohol it is best to limit the number of drinks an, if you are having drinks in the office, put an end time to the drinks reception – e.g. Reception starts at 5.30 ends 8pm, limit of 3 drinks per person etc.

HR Topic to consider
Leadership - needed now more than ever
With financial markets in turmoil, Government tax revenues plummeting and economies in free fall, there is a real need for leadership in politics, banking and business to get us through this difficult trading period.  So what is leadership?  Have we any examples of good leadership to follow?

I believe we have, in President-Elect Barak Obama
who succeeded in winning the US Presidency by taking the  time to focus on the grass roots which resulted in many more apathetic voters voting than ever before. Good leaders, in either politics or business, create a vision for where they want to go, they inspire others with this vision and then unite people to move forward with that common vision. Obama won office on the basis of change, and trust.  He engaged with all of those around him and found something that they wanted that could be part of his campaign.

So what are the key attributes of good leaders?  They include: general intelligence, listening skills, sharing knowledge skills, ability to delegate, ability to inspire others to act, respect for others and some technical knowledge in the relevant area.  Leaders are a combination of coach, teacher, counsellor and general driver of the team’s work.  Different leadership styles suit different circumstances but in all situations they need to show honesty, integrity and fairness in order to succeed. Leaders don’t lead by results, they lead to results. 

You can and need to do the same thing in your own business or department, particularly when employees are worried about their jobs, their incomes and their ability to look after their families.  You have to want to lead in order to begin.

We all need to talk optimism up, talk opportunities up and talk less about downturns, recessions and cutbacks.  Leadership is a rare commodity, it is in short supply so please do your bit in “leading” your people by empathising with them and working alongside them as you survive 2009.  I wish you every success.

Darlington Consulting can advise and assist you with all of the issues topics deal with in this Newsletter.  Please feel free to call Mary Darlington on 096 37608 or 086 2437677 for an informal chat so we can discuss how our services can help you to manage your employees, keep them safe and ultimately add value to your business.

May I take this opportunity to wish all of you a very safe and happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

If you would like to find out more about how Darlington Consulting can help you then please visit our website:
www.darlington.ie or contact us on
096 37608 for a preliminary discussion

If you do not wish to receive this Newsletter please send a blank email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line to: info@darlington.ie and we will remove your email.

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Managing Health and Safety – our latest tip
Keep relevant records to prove what you are doing
Doing the right thing with regard to managing health and safety is no longer enough – you have to be able to prove that you did it.  Let us look at an example of what I mean.  Let us imagine that you provided training for your employees in Manual Handling.  You went to the bother of releasing them from work, you brought in a competent Manual Handling Instructor and you paid for the training to be given, lasting over 3 hours.  Did you keep a record of date, who provided the training and most important of all, the signatures of those who received the training?  If you did not then the training never happened in law at all and your good intentions might come to nothing.  If one of your employees, who you know received the training, hurts themselves six months later while lifting something they could make a claim against you for compensation and you have no defence as you have no written record that they ever received training in lifting safely.

When things go wrong, records count. If things go very badly and you end up in court either defending a compensation claim or worse, defending a Health and Safety Authority prosecution, the records become crucial.
The records that you should keep include: training records, maintenance of machines records, absenteeism records, records of any disciplinary action taken against any employee, purchasing decisions, safety committee minutes, management meeting minutes etc.  All of them can be called for as evidence and can get you out of trouble.  Without them you cannot prove that you did something even though you know that you did it.  

Saying “I love you” helps lower stress
This wonderful piece of news came from a Blog by Kristi Gustafson who quotes from research carried out by two researches from Arizona State University.  They followed 20 married couples and asked them to report on their levels of affectionate communication with each other. Spouses indicated how often they expressed three different kinds of affectionate communication: verbal statements (saying ‘I love you’); direct nonverbal gestures (such as kissing, holding hands), and social support behaviors (listening to each other, helping with problems).

The more often people received expressions of affection from their loved ones, the healthier their stress hormones were. Increasing affectionate behaviour in close relationships may be able to improve health conditions exacerbated by stress, such as elevated blood sugar or high cholesterol. 

So in this time of recession, depression, winter weather and increasing stress, we should take stock of who we care about, how lucky we are to have them and begin to tell them that we love them.  They would include spouses, partners, parents, children, other relatives and beloved friends.
http://blogs.timesunion.com/kristi/4962/saying-%e2%80%98i-love-you%e2%80%99-helps-lower-stress.

Road Safety tip for this time of year
Don’t drive anywhere unless you absolutely have to.
Until end of March we can expect to have cold nights, frost, possibly snow and lots of rain.  We don’t live in Barbados so this is our wonderful winter weather in Ireland.  We should of course all wrap up if we are walking and that means wearing a good winter coat, boots or shoes, a scarf, gloves and even a hat.  Never mind the hair style, saving your body heat is more important (and we lose a great deal of heat from our heads).

But what about driving in frost, snow or heavy rain?  It is tricky and dangerous and we need to plan our journeys accordingly.  If we need to go on a 3 or 4 hour journey for work the following day, then if frost is forecast, we need to set off early the day before rather than leave it until late at night. Equally if we have done a day’s work and have a 3 or 4 hour journey home, we should consider staying an extra night and travelling home the following morning after the frost and in daylight.  If we ask our employees to drive for the company then we should be seriously considering their safety with regard to the weather conditions, distance, time it will take them etc.  Better that they get there and back in one piece with the work done and the customer happy than they end up in the ditch, out of work for weeks or possibly worse. 

A recent fact released from Road Safety Authority revealed that the most dangerous time to be one the road (because of the possibility of a fatal crash) is Sunday night at 10pm.  Plan to be at your destination by 8pm and get an early night.  Ultimately if you don’t have to go by car, then simply don’t, either don’t go at all or consider public transport if that suits.

HR Topic to consider
You are what you eat, encourage your employees to eat healthily
So times are tough and buying a lunch and a latte at the local cafe every day is now out of the question.  Maybe that is a good thing. Why not consider bringing your own lunch, made at home with brown bread filled with yesterday’s roast beef or chicken, a little salad and a flask of home made hot chocolate?  It will be tastier, healthier and cheaper.

As an Employer you too can play an active part in encouraging your employees to eat healthily.  If you provide food at work review the menu to include healthy options and cut back on the fried foods and chips.  If you don’t supply food, could you consider buying in fruit to have in the staff tea room?  Providing small bowls of nuts, dried fruit and seeds can also be a great alternative to chocolate and other sugar-filled snacks. Almonds, peanuts and sunflower seeds are good examples of foods that boost the immune system.  If you have a vending machine dispensing chocolate then consider getting rid of it, similarly with the fizzy drinks machines.  There may be a company near you who supply boxed vegetables every week so invite them in to showcase their produce and encourage your employees to buy from them.  Then weekly deliveries can come directly to the company for staff to bring home. You are not buying fruit and vegetables for employee but simply making it easier for them to do so.

It is true that we are what we eat.  So encouraging and facilitating your employees in eating a more balanced, healthy diet will benefit them (as they will feel better) and you (as they will probably work better and be more productive).  It is a win/win situation.  Good luck with it.
May I take this opportunity to wish all of you a very happy, safe and prosperous New Year.  

If you would like to find out more about how Darlington Consulting can help you then please visit our website:
www.darlington.ie or contact us on
096 37608 for a preliminary discussion

If you do not wish to receive this Newsletter please send a blank email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line to: info@darlington.ie and we will remove your email.