Media: Effective management Management style makes or breaks a business – a good manager earns respect from staff, and is both fair and approachable.
The background There’s no magic formula to effective management skills – it’s a continual learning process and you will never reach a point when you can say you have learnt all you need to learn.
The process To build an effective management style, start as you mean to go on.
Above all, be natural – don’t try to be or become someone you are not. Put clear standards in place and ensure all staff are aware of these – people don’t like surprises and will respond more positively if set rules are in place.
Effective management skills are about ensuring that everyone knows what is expected of them.
Consider asking your staff to set out the standards they expect and then go through these with them – giving them ownership means they will have already bought into the management process.
Look back on your career and think about the managers you reported to.
What qualities did you like and can you emulate these?
Need to know Effective managers always give feedback openly – this creates an environment of trust and encourages staff to be open with you in return.
And not all feedback is critical – it’s just as important to comment when someone has done something right.
Top tips To build effective management skills, ensure that you hold regular meetings with your staff – both team and individual ones.
Set targets for the next month and examine any issues that arise – this will enable you to revisit how effective your management skills are and if you need to vary your management style.
Effective management skills also mean knowing when to admit you have made a mistake – it will ensure the rest of your staff don’t do this and will also make you more human.
David Whiting Operations Director Safety Business Services (SBS) Ltd
Media: Risk Management: Don’t Cry Hazard Thanks to the blue-chips making a hash of their risk management, smaller companies need to pay closer attention than ever to their own processes.Why are we in such a mess? As hindsight sheds light on the origins of the global financial crash, it’s obvious that large corporations such as AIG, Citibank, RBS and Goldman Sachs failed to assess their exposure to predictable outcomes of the extended credit management. In short, their risk management strategies were either inadequate, overlooked, or non-existent.
Risk management is common sense, a definition of risk management places it centre of any organisation’s strategic management. “It’s the process whereby organisations methodically address the risks attaching to their activities with the goal of achieving sustained benefit within each activity and across the portfolio of all activities,”
Why small businesses need to manage risk
- A large company can ride events in ways a small company can’t. “Risk management is a survival issue for small and medium-sized companies,”.
- “Globalisation, outsourcing, new technologies and increasing competition have all made the business environment more complex, and, therefore, riskier.
- At the same time, there has been pressure on companies to improve their financial performance.”
There are three types of risk medium-sized businesses tend to neglect:
1. Business interaction risk: “If you have a fire at your factory, the insurance may pay for it to be rebuilt, but can you recover from being unable to trade for six months?”
2. Crisis management: “When events happen, small companies often focus on fixing them, neglecting other areas that then become new crises.”
3. Intangible assets: “Many small and medium-sized companies are not aware of the value of intangibles they have – brands, reputation, human resources and the like.”
The Bank angle: More immediately, for smaller businesses the establishment of a risk management system is essential, since it affects their ability to continue to receive credit from banks, “When rating a medium-sized business, the lending bank will always assess the proper implementation of a risk management system,”
You should frame risk management around your business’ objectives and strategies, “Prioritise, but keep a broad view of what is going on elsewhere in your industry, what is happening in countries you trade with, and what is happening in parallel industries that might affect your own business,”
The Insurance angle: Your risk assessment will reveal which, out of property, engineering theft, money, credit, goods in transit, business interruption, vehicles, legal, public liability, life, pensions and so on, you might need.
Major insurance brokers cover all risk angles, but it may be worth retaining an adviser who knows your business well for tailor-made advice.
· About 70% of uninsured or under-insured small businesses that suffer a big loss fail within 12 months.
· They need a contingency plan to help minimise exposure to severe interruption in the event of a major crisis, such as fire, flooding or systems failure.
· Another business benefit from having a risk management plan is that companies can be rewarded with lower insurance premiums while still being adequately covered for a major catastrophe and loss of trading.
· Insurance relies on a tried and tested model of balancing probabilities and premiums. risk is a business tool. “Entrepreneurs place a premium on risk,”
“Risk management is about taking a balanced view between how much risk I take, how I understand the risks & how I keep these within the bounds of the risk I want to accept. Also, how do I manage the bit that I don’t want to accept?”
Consequential risks that you may not fully understand are a danger area,.
“Good risk management is about spreading the risk, but that makes life difficult for an entrepreneurial business – there is little you can do about the recession, so it may be time to look at diversification,”
“Alternatively, how do you make your business model flexible enough to be able to weather downturns of the sort we’re currently experiencing”?
It all comes down to how good your risk analysis is and how much uncertainty can be removed from the process given the right tools. “A lot of current decision-making is based on best-case and worst-case scenarios, whereas a mathematical and logical process, that also acts as an ‘audit trail’, is needed to track complex variables,”
David Whiting Operations Director Safety Business Services (SBS) Ltd
Media:Companies and individuals beware! On 16 January 2009, the Health and Safety (Offences) Act (‘the Act’) came into force.
Purpose of the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 Its purpose is stated as being: “to punish the criminally negligent who put life and limb in danger in the workplace, and to deter those who are tempted to cut costs by breaking the law”.
Although this Act has received very little media attention, it makes substantial amendments to the landscape of health and safety law by introducing tougher penalties for existing health and safety offences. In particular, there is a threat of long-term imprisonment for individuals involved in a breach of health and safety law within any type of corporate organisation.
New proposals under the Act
The Act amends section 33 of the Health and Safety At Work etc Act 1974 (‘the HSWA’) in three ways:
1.Raising the maximum fine that may be imposed by magistrates’ courts to £20,000 for most offences: The previous maximum fine that magistrates could impose for certain offences was £5,000 for breach of a health and safety regulation made under the HSWA. The Act increases the maximum fine in a magistrates’ court to £20,000 for all offences and allows the Crown Court to impose unlimited fines for some breaches of health and safety regulations, and most offences under the HSWA.
2. Making a prison sentence an option for most health and safety offences in a magistrates’ court or the Crown Court: This is a major change in health and safety law. Previously only one health and safety offence could lead to a potential prison sentence for an individual. However, under the Act, all offences (with only four minor exceptions) will potentially attract a prison sentence from a magistrates’ court or the Crown Court.
3. Making certain offences triable in the magistrates’ court or the Crown Court: This change aims to increase the flexibility of the court system by allowing more offences to be heard by either court.
Implications of changes: imprisonment
The Act creates the threat of imprisonment for all employees, who may have contributed to the offence by their consent, connivance or neglect. However, it will only be in the most serious (‘public outrage’) cases that a custodial sentence will be imposed.
These will include cases where: serious neglect of an individual leads to major injury or a death
· there has been reckless disregard for health and safety requirements and/or the risk of harm
· there have been repeated breaches that cause significant risks to occur, or where there has been persistent and significant non-compliance
· false information, in regard to enforcement of health and safety, is wilfully supplied by an individual
· there have been serious risks that have been deliberately created to increase profit.
However, uncertainty remains on how this will work in practice, and there is no clear guidance as to which individuals will be particularly at risk of imprisonment by virtue of their positions in organisations. This confusion is likely to result in many individuals being prosecuted and appearing before courts with a real threat of imprisonment looming over their heads.
Armed with the threat of prison sentences, we can expect more in-depth Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and police investigations, leading to more intrusion into individual employees’ lives.
Interaction with corporate manslaughter
· Furthermore, while there is no imprisonment penalty under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, prosecutions under traditional health and safety charges can be brought alongside prosecutions under the Corporate Manslaughter Act.
· This leaves open possibility of a company being convicted of corporate manslaughter and an individual director or senior manager being convicted under a related H&S offence and subsequently imprisoned.
· However, to the untrained eye, this will appear as if the individual has been imprisoned for corporate manslaughter.
Conclusion
All businesses are affected by the new proposals, while health and safety breaches are likely to have much more serious, high-profile consequences and we are already seeing an increase in police-led & HSE-led investigations into incidents in all areas of the public sector.
Health and safety policies should be updated and these important changes communicated all employees. David Whiting Operations Director Safety Business Services (SBS) Ltd
Media: Employers and Swine Flu Contingency Plans Health service and support services are now putting into practice their plans now that is obvious that swine flu can no longer be contained and they are ramping up the treatment phase, which will concentrate on managing the outbreak. The full impact on employers is yet to be felt in the UK, with many anticipating the autumn will bring an increased number of cases.Some have suggested that in a worst-case scenario, up to 75% of the workforce could be absent. It is vital for employers to put measures in place to keep their businesses running while complying with their legal obligations and without compromising the health and safety of their employees.
Put your contingency plans in place now: The most likely problem will be the high levels of employee absence for a variety of reasons, including illness, caring for others, or travel restrictions. In anticipation of this, have you made plans for:
- Will IT be able to support home working so as many key employees work from home (Risk Assessments)
- Communication rather than face-to-face meetings, e.g. video-conferencing, webcams, tele-conferences (Cost)
- Ensure IT systems can cope with large numbers working remotely (Do you have capacity to deal with it – ask IT)
- Key Staff skills are they interchangeable/back-up/external sources (Pre planning – who are core to your survival)
- Ensure iff required to carry out unfamiliar jobs are given training (Get them to shadow others to what is required)
- Emergency contact details and information is up to date and circulated (Conduct a senior management drill)
- Employees working longer hours as a result of absences (Ensure adequate rest breaks & montor for stress)
- Availability and cost of medical schemes and occupational support (keep remaining employees fit for work)
Review and policies and procedures: Have you reviewed and update employment policies and procedures which may be affected and monitor any changes to official advice.
- Risk Assessments and Safe Working Procedures are updated (Do they include swine flu planning)
- Absence and sickness (Are staff aware of the correct process and what to do)
- Dependant leave (It may not be employee but a close member of family with flu requiring to be looked after)
- Flexible working/home-working (Homes may not be suitable or safe for sensitive materials)
- Travel.(Accident while driving on work related business and suffering from swine flue will you be covered)
- Ensure there is no discrimination in the way in which any of these policies and procedures are implemented.
Put in place measures to protect health & safety of your employees: You are under a duty of care which are reasonably necessary to ensure safety of employees, not subject them to unnecessary risks of injury. As part of this duty, you should:
- Consider whether employees are particularly vulnerable to infection - e.g., level of contact between people, or travel
- Inform & update employees on latest position and provide them with awareness training on the facts and the risks
- Ensure training is given on hygiene issues to minimise the risk of spreading the disease.
- Encourage good hygiene practices* Consider other hygiene measures
- e.g., installation of antiseptic hand-gel dispensers, encouraging hand-washing, encouraging use of tissues,
ensuring thorough cleaning of all work surfaces, and put up signs to remind everyone of their responsibilities.
Plan for and manage absence effectively: Dealing with high levels of staff absence, combined with health and safety obligations, means employers should try to reduce or prevent the spread of infection in the workplace by:
- Encourage staff who feel unwell are not afraid to inform you and go home until they are well
- Ensuring any absence/sickness policy explains how you will deal with someone who has flu-like symptoms at work or who has been exposed to someone who has or may have those symptoms.
- Also, decide how any such absence will be treated (paid or unpaid), and review any return-to-work procedures
- Considering how to treat 'worried well' employees who refuse to come to work as they are anxious about the risks; raising awareness of the facts should minimise scaremongering.
- This may be a difficult to handle and should only be treated as a disciplinary issue where it is reasonable to do so
- Consider impact on staff with dependents, and being sensitive to staff needs while caring for family members
- Consider vulnerable staff, such as pregnant employees, or those who have underlying medical conditions.
Ensure good communication with staff: Effective communication between management and employees about what the business is doing to prepare and why, as well as providing training and raising awareness, is very important. And you should:
- Keep employees/employee representatives informed about any changes to policies and procedures
- Keep employees updated covering the main issues and detailing where they can get further information.
David Whiting Operations Director Safety Business Services (SBS) Ltd
Media: SME Confusion A government report has acknowledged the cost and confusion felt by SMEs across the country over health and safety laws.
The report, from government agency the Risk and Regulatory Advisory Council (RRAC), said that millions of pounds are wasted each year due to small organisations' uncertainty on health and safety-related issues and concludes that many small organisations, including small businesses, are "uncertain and confused" about their health and safety responsibilities under the law.
It blames the situation on three key factors, including the often contradictory messages that small organisations receive on the subject from the Government, insurers and the media and criticises "risk-mongers", such as unscrupulous health and safety consultants, who the RRAC say play on small businesses' fears in order to make money.
The RRAC's report can be viewed at www.berr.gov.uk/files/file52348.pdf.
IOSH Register of Health and Safety Consultants
When specialist advice is needed, it is not always possible to manage with your in-house personnel alone.
This is where the Register of Health and Safety Consultants can help.
It means anyone can contact IOSH to obtain a list of registered consultants who can provide health and safety advice.
The key value of the Register is that it provides verification of individuals who meet the requirements for registration.
The aims of our Consultancy Services are:
To make it easier for organisations, large & small, to gain access to professional advice on health & safety issues.
To help clients by providing information to assist in their choise of consultant.
To help members who are consultants by enabling them to demonstrate membership of a professional register.
Members work to a code of conduct which all IOSH members agree to adhere to and provide a guide Getting help with safety that helps you ask the right questions and matches your requirments. A competent consutant will always say no, this is not for me "But I know where you can find the right person for you".
David Whiting Operations Director Safety Business Services (SBS) Ltd
Media: Worker Involvement the HSE has recently published guidance on the importance of worker involvement in successful implementation of health and safety in the workplace.
Dialogue is fundamental to success; you and your employees should:
- Talk to one another;
- Listen to one another's concerns;
- Raise concerns and solve problems together;
- Seek and share views and information;
- Discuss issues in good time;
- Consider what everyone has to say; and
- Make decisions together.
Worker involvement does not have to be complicated and should be about trust, respect and joint problem solving. It also brings with it business benefits for the organisation, including improving performance, making your workplace healthier and safe and raising standards.
The key message is that although there is an increasing focus on health and safety and substantial corporate risk for organisations that flout the law, there is nothing to fear to good organisations that manage health and safety risk well
With leadership and worker involvement being cornerstones of the new HSE strategy this is the ideal time for HR to take the lead as the obvious link between directors and employees, driving up health and safety awareness, improving attitudes and fully involving colleagues, all vital elements of the right sore of health and safety culture.
David Whiting Operations Director Safety Business Services (SBS) Ltd
Media: Government Takes Steps to Deal with Long Term Absenteeism "Long-term absence is disruptive and costly to any business so it is vital to get people back to work - particularly in a tight labour market. Replacement of current ‘sick note’ system by a new ‘fit note’ system.
The ‘fit note’ is designed to help employees remain at work rather than resort to long term absence due to sickness and It will advise people about how they can manage to stay at work despite illness, and if they cannot then, it will suggest ways in which the company can help them join work sooner.
The advice mechanism means that if an employee is unable to perform his or her regular task due to illness, then for a temporary period the nature of work should be changed accordingly to accommodate them and to keep the business from suffering absence related losses.
This system is being developed with help from trade unions, business representatives, and experts from the healthcare industry.
The new ‘fit note’ will be out by early 2010, and it would replace the current practice of using hand written notes with using computer generated ones.
The Work and Pension Minister, Lord Bill McKenzie, also spoke in support of the new system. "Given the growing sense of urgency about the need to get employees back to work, the government intends to provide a national rehabilitation service that, it hopes, will signal a "step change" in public policy.
Rehabilitation, when undertaken, is successful - resulting in the return of employees to their previous jobs in most cases. There must be closer collaboration between health professionals and employers, if workers are to get back to their jobs as quickly as possible."
At SBS we have long held the belief that sickness has always been a bigger issue than accidents and that sick leave is one of the biggest expenses organisations face. It leads to lower productivity levels, increased overtime costs and reduced morale.
Ten tips for dealing with long-term absence
1) Do you have clear policies.
2) Understand your legal requirements for managing absence.
3) Promote a positive attendance culture.
- Positively promote good attendance rather than place emphasis only on controlling absenteeism.
- Create a good working environment - Comunicate - Comunicate - Comunicate.
- Train managers and supervisors on best practices in managing attendance.
4) Accurate employee time keeping.
- Keep accurate time keeping system that allows you to record and analyse employee attendance.
- Absenteeism etc. build a clear picture of employee time. and follow up on all non-attendance
- Encourage line managers to monitor both long-term and short-term absences.
- Take responsibility for managing and promoting attendance as well.
5) Keep the communication channels open.
- When an employee is out sick for a long period of time, they may feel isolated.
- Regular phone calls keep employees in the loop and motivate them to return to work as quickly as possible.
6) Arrange for regular meetings.
- By arranging regular meetings with the employee it allows you to determine the nature of illness.
- Plan for a return to work and time they expect to take before returning to work.
- Do not arrive unannounced as employees may feel it is a "check up" visit.
- Keep a record of the conversation or send a letter to the employee outlining the discussion.
- Always keep a copy for their personnel file.
7) Hold a return to work interview.
- This is one of the most effective ways of dealing with long-term absences.
- Sit down with your employee and his/her line manager in order to establish reasons for the absence.
- Put positive steps in place to ensure the employee settles back into their position as seamlessly as possible.
8) Introduce Occupational Health Professionals.
- They carry out pre-employment health checks, sickness absence referrals and rehabilitation programmes.
- And can also get involved in stress counselling, health promotion schemes and physiotherapy services.
9) Raise your health and safety standards.
- Ensure all are trained in best practices to avoid long-term injuries caused by carelessness at work.
- Occupational incidents account for a large number of employees to take time off to recover.
10 Promote stress free environments.
- With stress related illness rising, introduce incentives such as yoga, meditation, advisory sessions etc.
- To help employees deal with day-to-day events that might contribute to more serious stress related issues.
- Encourage your employees to participate in company sport clubs and activities.
David Whiting Operations Director Safety Business Services (SBS) Ltd
Daily Mail 24hrs a day By Steve Doughty on 7th March 2008
Now health & safety experts wilt under pressure and take time off with stress
Stress or Good Management - The Problem that will not go away:
He mentions that they are the ones who lecture us on stress and quotes the Federation of Small Businesses that, "They have been hoisted by their own petard and he quotes that In total, sickness among the 3,500 HSE staff cost the taxpayer £3.9million.
Tim Beaumont, an adviser at the HSE, warned its directors in December that managers did not want to have "difficult discussions" with staff over poor attendance. The agency risked damaging its reputation if it did not deal with absent staff, he said.
Stress is now accepted by some doctors as a serious condition that can be a major factor in a variety of illnesses with varying causes and symptoms and is believed to weaken the immune system, leaving the sufferer vulnerable to all kinds of infection.
Employers have a legal duty toward their employees to ensure they do not face serious risks to their health in the course of their work, and that includes stress.
According to the Health and Safety Executive, prevention is better than cure and they encourage employers to assess the risks and discuss how to address them with their workforce.
The Issue as I see it is:
Whatever our personal opinion about stress, the government, medical establishment & courts all recognise it as a real issue that needs to be addressed by us all.
Tackling stress has to be good for everyone – for the wellbeing of your employees and the profitability of your company their your most valuable assets you employ them.
HSE Resources for Managing Stress
HSE have produced free leaflet’s and provide help with your company in creating its own strategy’s and also provide a toolkit to help you with ‘Tackling Stress’ a tool we have used to good effect.
If you know you have a problem with stress but don’t know what to do about it, and want that personal touch we can help. Call us and together we will tackle that attendance rate with "Good Management"
David Whiting Operations Director Safety Business Services (SBS) Ltd
What’s the point of managing your risks?
A potential client the other day had concerns over the new corporate manslaughter act that comes into force in April this year, and was asking for advice, they had back up plans and were able to demonstrate that they could work out there risks to a 1 in 4000 ratio.
This was impressive and after a review of their systems, we agreed that there were only a few areas that had room for continual Improvement and I would follow up with my observations.
But that's not the point: Work isn't about taking risks; it's about managing them.
Employer knows that there is a risk in every decision made and a back up plan may be required.If there is a risk and know they may have trouble; you manage that 1-in-4000 risk away by taking alternative options, changing the ratio to 1-in-4-million.
That's not the point either.
The point is:
"We have to accept that we all have the weaknesses and deal with the issues."
Never assume risk is bad, and to be veered away from instead of dealt with.
At Safety Business Services (SBS) we believe that some companies are putting profit before safety due to other external pressures and in meeting ever incresing demands placed on them.
Health and Safety must avoid falling into the same bad practices - and show that Best Practice and by adding value and managing business risk is a first step in giving our industry a higher profile.
We can never legislate away risk, this make us less capable in being able in dealing with it and we have to learn how to manage them and work SMART.
There is no crises; simply alternative points of action required in managing your risks.
Have you had a comptent review of your management systems to-date and are they fit-for-purpose?
- Call us and together we will tackle the Points together of "SMART Managing Risk"
David Whiting Operations Director Safety Business Services (SBS) Ltd