From Policy to Practice: Bridging the Gap for Safer Workplaces

As a dedicated health and safety professional consultant in the construction and project management industry for 15 years, I am driven by a desire to make a significant, positive impact on people's lives.

My goal is to save lives, remove stress from business leaders, and empower middle management and the workforce to work smarter, more efficiently, and be happier and safer at work. I've known that communication is key to solving business owners' biggest concerns, and I'm confident in my ability to excel in that area. However, like many others in the industry, in the early days I soon discovered that there was a significant gap between policy and practice, leaving companies exposed to unnecessary risk and inefficiencies.

What led to the Compliance Compass and the Safety Shield series?

Over the years, I noticed that many companies I worked with had generic, forgotten documentation that was either worthless or putting them at risk of prosecution. There was a clear disconnect between the executive suite and the workers on the front lines, with middle management often giving a false impression of how well things were going. I realised that even my own consultancy, Advanced Safety, wasn't immune to these challenges.

This realisation led to a transformative shift in how we approached health and safety. We repackaged our services and launched the Compliance Compass and the Safety Shield series, designed to provide guaranteed results, a clear implementation roadmap to ensure compliance and international best practice. I personally undertook professional training in workshop facilitation, the team and I went through ISO45001 implementation training last year to better serve our clients and foster a culture of continuous improvement within the Advanced Safety team.

My journey also led me to franchise Advanced Safety in 2021, empowering emerging health and safety consulting leaders and addressing the significant shortfall of practitioners in New Zealand.

Through my experiences and growth, I've come to understand that health and safety must be kept simple and that it's a shared responsibility in the workplace. Many business leaders may not realize that they are under-resourced and unnecessarily exposed to preventable workplace incidents and reputational harm. Health and safety is more than just a folder or document – it's a daily practice that, when done well, can save companies time, energy, and money while reducing workplace injuries and downtime.

For businesses striving to meet the growing ESG requirements, health and safety is an obvious choice to begin that journey and secure some early wins. By investing in health and safety, businesses can future-proof their operations and be prepared for any changes or new requirements that may arise. As a health and safety professional consultant, I am committed to helping businesses bridge the gap between policy and practice and create safer, happier, and more efficient workplaces for all.

Visit the Advanced Safety website to discover for yourself the full benefits of the Compliance Compass and Safety Shield series.