The four reasons that UK manufacturing loses £1.04 billion per year through Health & Safety failure.

In this article, we will examine the true cost to the UK manufacturing sector of unsafe working practices. We'll consider the business case for taking positive, simple steps to ensure the safety of your people, your premises and equipment, and your bottom-line. We'll also identify the four key areas where organisations fail.

UK manufacturing has one of the best workplace safety records in Europe. However taking too much comfort from this fact risks ignoring some startling statistics that have far-reaching consequences for the sector:

• Between April 2009 and March 2010, manufacturing accounted for about 9% of the British workforce, but for 16% of reported injuries to employees
• The total cost to the manufacturing sector was £1.04 billion

But it's the impact of accidents for individual businesses which is the most worrying… in the one incident, although the resulting compensation award was less than £5000; the total cost to the business concerned once loss of production, wages to cover injury time, overtime payments, investigation time, legal expenses, the increase in employer's liability insurance were factored in was over £45,000. As a result, two employees (who weren't involved in the accident) were made redundant in order to save the business from bankruptcy.

In addition, the HSE calculates that the real cost of uninsured losses as a result of workplace injury and illness to UK manufacturing is up to 10 times the amount paid out in insurance premiums for the same period.

So where does it all go wrong? What are the four reasons that the UK manufacturing sector loses so much of its hard-earned profit every year?

1. Ineffective policies and processes
   All organisations within the manufacturing sector should have policies and procedures in place which govern Health and Safety in the workplace. Some of these are defined by legislation, others may be industry 'good practice', yet others may be the result of experience in a specific business.
   
   Sometimes however, policies and processes can be reactive and therefore, by definition, be born out of an incident that has already taken place rather than as a result of anticipating potential hazards and the risks that they pose and taking appropriate action.
   
   Some organisations implement the very minimum amount, or standard of processes into their operations simply to ensure that they are compliant with the law. The reality is that there are a whole host of proactive strategies that organisations can implement, in order to ensure a culture of safety excellence. Crucially, staff must feel that they have some ownership of, or influence over such strategies; that they are part of what is happening rather than simply at the end of the chain of command.
2. Inadequate training and equipment
   It seems self evident that any person being asked to perform a safety critical task should have been adequately trained before engaging in such an operation. Sadly, it remains the case that this is not always so. Sometimes the training may have been given, but in a cursory fashion, simply to ensure compliance with a legal duty of care. In other instances, productivity pressures may lead to operatives being 'forced' to perform a task in which they are not proficient.
   
   Of course, the best organisations realise the importance of a robust training strategy, but even then a lack of investment in appropriate equipment, or a failure to maintain such equipment once in situ can lead to injury or loss further down the line. The key is making it as easy as possible for staff to work safely by using the right equipment; even where appropriate equipment exists. If it is has to be fetched from the other side of the factory from where it is needed, human beings will tend to take the path of least resistance i.e. they'll carry on without it!
3. Uncommitted or disjointed leadership
   In any business critical area, positive, visible leadership is the key-stone for success. Any Health and Safety strategy that is not clearly and demonstrably advocated by the leadership of the organisation will FAIL, or at the very least not realise its full potential. Yet many organisations leave the agenda to be driven purely by a Health & Safety Manger, who can often find themselves swimming against the tide of productivity and profitability.
   
   Leadership is not just about those at Board level either; there must be effective leaders at all levels of the organisation who consistently set a positive example for all employees. The communication from these leaders must be open and honest; they must be excellent listeners; they must be open to being challenged when they themselves get things wrong.
   
   Ultimately, they must model the behaviours that they wish their staff to adopt… 'As leaders, the lowest standards of behaviour we display are the highest standards we can expect from those we lead.'
4. Unsafe behaviours of workforce
   The safe behaviour of employees is often the most difficult area to address. Policies & Processes; Training & Equipment; Leadership… these are all under the direct control of an organisation, but we cannot control the behaviour of our staff. They are human beings; adults with free-will and they may act how they wish, in any given circumstance.
   
   As such, this is the area often most neglected by organisations when it comes to Health & Safety, even though it is arguably the most critical. For any safety critical task to be completed without loss or injury, three key elements have to be present; the person performing the task has to have the knowledge to perform it safely, the skills to perform it safely, and the attitude to perform it safely. Take any one of these away and we rely on luck to play its part.
   
   So even if an organisation has committed leadership, effective policies & processes, and appropriate training and equipment, all can be utterly worthless if the employees of that company don't have the right attitude and choose not to work safely i.e. they choose to ignore the leadership, not follow the correct procedures, and not to use the training they have had or equipment with which they are supplied.
   
   It is critical therefore that organisations seek to positively influence their employees to adopt behaviours such that they work safely because they want to rather than simply because they have to.

Taken together, these four critical areas form the foundation of a positive, effective Health and Safety culture, and an organisation should focus on all four if it is to take all reasonable steps to keep its people safe and minimise losses.

To see this approach in practice and the positive difference its application can make to an organisation take a look at the Nampak Plastics case study.

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