On the front line

摘要

As a safety consultant, I am usually called in to support a business because the business is growing and the directors have typically brought with them safety management arrangements from previous organisations which do not reflect the personality of their current business. They are keen for their new organisation to manage smarter and they see safety and sustainability as being part of this modern growth. Recently I was asked to review a successful SME, a local business with multiple branches which has grown through the recession and employs around 50 staff. The MD had made a positive move in asking me to review where they were, but what I discovered was an organisation which had no framework for safety management - not even a Health & Safety Policy. The MD was aware of asbestos in one of the branches, but there were no arrangements in place for managing it. Another branch had serious fire safety issues. He could not grasp what a fire risk assessment was, or why I was suggesting immediate measures be taken concerning secondary means of escape which had been drastically altered (ie. blocked!).