Zero Appetite for Zero
Stuart Hughes
Health and Safety Leader: Focused on Human and Organisational Performance
The problem with zero is it has a hole in it… Fact! And yes, I did feel a little bit smug when I came up with this. In the world of OSH, zero has a few holes in it. Whilst I’m convinced there isn’t an organisation who is actively seeking fatalities, life changing accidents and debilitating ill health, I do wonder why zero is so prevalent. What is it that’s captured the imagination, that makes internal and external announcements of zero as an aspiration so enticing to organisations?
I don’t believe that zero fatalities is aspirational, I feel like it should be a given. I worry about the behaviours that zero drives and the pressures it places within organisations. I recently heard of an organisation announcing in their new strategy that they were aiming to achieve zero fatalities. Great, but immediately I wonder: How many life changing or debilitating injuries are acceptable? Will that organisation consider its safety strategy to be successful if they achieve zero fatalities but have employees suffer life changing injuries because of a workplace accident?
Better still, I heard a site proudly trumpeting their safety record, that they had not had an accident for two years. When digging a little further, it turned out they hadn’t sent anyone to hospital because of an accident in that time. That doesn’t have quite the same gloss now, does it?
All of this and we haven’t even discussed occupational illness. If zero is so aspirational, why does it always fail to address health? When occupational causes of ill health are without doubt causing a greater impact on the working population than safety failings.
The desperation for zero is flawed. Our obsession with marking success by the absence of failure events, just isn’t realistic. The fact that we haven’t killed anyone for x number of days/weeks/months/years, really shouldn’t be our yardstick of success. It also doesn’t mean that we have created safety. ?As a wise woman said to me recently “let’s focus on what is present”.
This isn’t to write off campaigns such as Vision Zero. Because anything that is intentionally driving to an overall creation of a safer world of work, is positive. I’m not one for dismissing something based on what it’s called, it’s like dismissing a book because it’s cover is unattractive or a podcast because it has a dodgy strapline. In fact, I’m proud to be contributing to this year’s Vision Zero Summit Japan 2022, where I’ll be discussing how to create sustainable resilience in OSH. Although disappointed it’s a virtual event (who doesn't want to go to Japan?), I can certainly get behind the logic of the Vision Zero campaign:
·??????Demonstrating commitment
·??????Controlling risks
·??????Developing programs
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·??????Being well-organised
·??????Focusing on safety and health in machines, equipment, and workplaces
·??????Developing competence
·??????Investing in and engaging with people.
Of course, there is more to making Occupational Safety and Health successful including alignment across the organisation, collaboration, listening to employees concerns and taking action to address them. Naturally, there are many factors to consider and these need to go beyond a snappy slogan. We need to drive the buy in, to what we as a profession are trying to achieve, and sell the benefits of OSH into organisations, especially at the leadership level. Beyond that there is a need to increase the societal understanding of the value of OSH and its impact on the ecosystem of work and life.
I talk to these ideals with my dear friend Dr David Gold on the Interesting Health and Safety Podcast, with the wonderful Colin Nottage hosting us. The three part podcast covers the value of the relationship David and I have, discusses the paper we published alongside Dr David Thomas on the impacts of COVID-19 on the OSH profession and culminates in a discussion about the future of the OSH profession and the opportunities we have in driving the social sustainability agenda.
It is in this sphere of social sustainability, with people at the heart of what we do, that I believe we have the greatest opportunity of moving the OSH profession forward, of breaking the plateau in OSH statistics and taking us away from working towards a target for the sake of a target, rather than creating working environments that are healthy and safe.
It’s safe to say, I have zero appetite for zero as an effective measure of success.?
Senior Consultant
2 年This is a humble point of view. Honestly, we will never achieve ZERO HARM. True ZERO HARM does not exist, and that is why it is used.?Let me explain. The problem with humans is that we need to be conditioned into safe behavior. Unfortunately, things tend to fall into disorder, even safety procedures and practices.?If a company ever achieves ZERO HARM, they will eventually lose the discipline required to maintain ZERO HARM. ZERO HARM is used to cudgel dissenting people into compliance with safety standards (or anything you can attach ZERO HARM to). It is the un-achievable goal we all strive towards to maintain and even grow our level of safety. It is a handy tool that will forever be useful, and that is why it is used.
A senior leader with extensive industrial and commercial HSE management experience contributing to major projects within the engineering, construction, and energy sectors.
2 年Said this for many, many years, Stuart! Great article.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HSE NEOM
2 年Stuart Hughes thought provoking but zero is not only about zero fatallities its a vision of zero harm! Slightly different and an ambitious vision agreed, but without a vision theres no motivation to suceed in my humble opinion!
Safety Professional
2 年True zero is fine as an aspiration so long as it’s achieved genuinely. A bit like a teenager pushing everything under their bed and telling you their room is tidy.
Never trusting triangles, pyramids and curves above the knowledge of the people actually doing the work. | Never apologizing for empathy, genuine care or doing the right thing.
2 年The point of perfection is unattainable and clouds the reality of risk. Workers weaving in and out of the hazards all day long don’t believe in Zero sentiments and I find it to be dangerous if leaders do.