What’s the question?

The number 42 invokes different memories for each of us: The Broadway musical 42nd Street; playing a game of Risk and battling for the 42 territories; reading Alice in Wonderland, Rule 42 ‘All person’s more than a mile high to leave the court’...or as the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy...except no-one knows what the question is!

We know that accidents don’t need to happen and that each of us should return home unharmed every day....yet every day people are damaged physically and psychologically in the course of earning a living.

If you could create a workplace from scratch what would you do to ensure that accidents didn’t happen? The rules of this game are quite simple: effective communication, good working relationships, a working environment that reflects legislative requirements, an employer that recognises the importance of managing workload and understands that people face challenges outside work that impact on their performance.  Sounds easy...so why is it so difficult to get right?

Each of us has a role to play in getting health and safety ‘right’, the UK average number of days lost to sickness absence has fluctuated around 5 days per employee for the last 5 years, what does that look like in your organisation? Is it perhaps a mix of back problems, musculoskeletal disorders, stress and mental health problems, alongside the associated medical tests, investigations and surgery?

The burden of work related ill-health falls on the NHS, I heard recently of a Dr in A&E actually visiting the employer of a worker who had sustained a nail gun injury, the third employee from this organisation presenting with a similar injury! He needed to ask the questions ‘why is this happening’ and ‘what can be done differently’....do you know the answer?