Achieving and sustaining an injury-free workplace demands strong leadership. That is particularly the case at the moment, as we battle the impacts of COVID-19 and the not-too-distant return to work.

These are worrying times for all and employees are likely to be nervous about re-entering the workplace. As such, leadership and management commitment should be visible to employees, whose expectations and degree of engagement will be affected accordingly. Says the CIPD:

“This is the time to demonstrate integrity and fairness, building employee confidence and trust in the leadership team. Good leadership structure and practices will help to maintain trust and integrity.

“An organisation’s safety and health culture is greatly influenced by the behaviour of its leadership and management. Leadership’s response to COVID-19 will in turn help determine how effectively its safety and health teams responds to this, and potentially impact the organisation’s wider reputation as an employer.”

If employees feel that their managers care about their wellbeing, they will experience a greater degree of trust and stronger engagement. Emergent leadership (from middle managers) and engaging, supportive leadership styles may heavily influence the ability of employees to be resilient to adverse events. In all circumstances, effective health and safety performance comes from the top; members of the board have both collective and individual responsibility for health and safety. Directors and boards need to examine their own behaviours, both individually and collectively – and, where they see that they fall short, to change what they do to become more effective leaders in health and safety.

The HSE highlights why directors and board members need to act:

• Protecting the health and safety of employees is an essential part of risk management and must be led by the board.
• Failure to include health and safety as a key business risk in board decisions can have catastrophic results. Many high profile safety cases over the years have been rooted in failures of leadership.
• Health and safety law places duties on organisations and employers, and directors can be personally liable when these duties are breached.

The good
To give health and safety high priority, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service recognised that it was critical for its leadership to demonstrate to its staff that accountability for health and safety was a fundamental element in the success of its overall service delivery. The director of service policy and planning was nominated as the health and safety director in order to clearly define the importance this subject held within the organisation. The director implemented a revised health and safety framework, which included a programme of fire station visits to engage the workforce, and placed a renewed emphasis on improving incident reporting, investigation and monitoring procedures. The service has reported:

• £100,000 reduction in insurance liability premiums in one year through improved corporate strategic risk management.
• 50% reduction in sickness absence through work-related injury over a two-year period.
• 50% reduction in injury incidence rate over a three-year period.

The bad
When board members do not lead effectively on health and safety management, the consequences can be severe.

Following the fatal injury of an employee maintaining machinery at a recycling firm employing approximately 30 people, a company director received a 12-month custodial sentence for manslaughter. The machinery was not properly isolated and started up unexpectedly.

An HSE and police investigation revealed there was no safe system of work for maintenance, and instruction, training and supervision were inadequate. HSE's investigating principal inspector said:

“Evidence showed that the director chose not to follow the advice of his health and safety adviser and instead adopted a complacent attitude, allowing the standards in his business to fall.”

The ugly
In another case, a company and its officers were fined a total of £245,000 and ordered to pay costs of £75,500 at the Crown Court in relation to the removal of asbestos. The company employed ten, mostly young, temporary workers; they were not trained or equipped to safely remove the asbestos, nor warned of its risk. The directors were also disqualified from holding any company directorship for two years.

To find out more about IOSH's Safety for Executives and Directors course by elearning and virtual classroom, click here.