EXPERTS' VIEW How to ensure directors’ duties are met

Office manager SafetyAide WHEN THE HEALTH and Safety Executive (HSE) comes across serious breaches of health and safety legislation it will look to see where the buck stops. What type of evidence will persuade it that directors and senior managers are fulfilling their responsibilities?

Whilst most senior personnel don’t deliberately act irresponsibly, they’ll often struggle to prove they’ve done the right thing when a health and safety inspector is in front of them asking difficult questions. This is therefore an area which is worth some forward planning. You should begin by considering the contents of your health and safety policy. It should have three parts: (1) a statement of intent; (2) details of roles and responsibilities, known as your 'organisation'; and (3) a description of your arrangements for implementing the policy. Your organisation statement should show how the board will oversee health and safety and allocate responsibilities to each level of management and staffing.

It’s good practice to nominate a director with responsibility for health and safety. However, ensure that there’s a proper understanding that this individual is simply overseeing the work of

the board, not taking away from its collective responsibility. Include health and safety as a standing item on meeting agendas, including those for the board and senior management team.

To fulfil their health and safety duties, directors need a reasonable level of understanding of the issues. Having a briefing for directors on health and safety responsibilities is a good way of boosting competency and recording that they’ve been INCLUDE trained. You could pick from HEALTH AND one of the off-the-peg training SAFETY AS courses or ask a health and safeA STANDING ty trainer to update the board ITEM ON on the topic. MEETING One aspect of the briefing AGENDAS should be a reminder of the rules to be followed on site such as restricted areas, personal protective equipment, signing in and out, hygiene measures, etc. Directors must lead by example, being aware of the damage caused to safety culture if they are not seen to be following the rules themselves.Arrange for regular updates to the board on the latest external developments of interest such as legislative changes and key cases.

It’s too easy for senior personnel to make incorrect assumptions about what’s happening on the ground. Directors should therefore receive regular reports as well as take steps to get direct and truthful feedback from staff.

Ensure that your accident reporting procedure includes the need to escalate reports of serious incidents very quickly to a high level. The same should happen where bad publicity is likely, even if there were no serious injuries.

By ensuring that staff are consulted on health and safety matters, such as during team meetings or in a dedicated health and safety committee meeting, you’ll have a better chance of understanding what the real problems are. Directors should receive reports from these meetings.

It’s good practice to have a regular audit undertaken to understand whether the commitments contained in the health and safety policy are being delivered.

Your health and safety policy should include clear responsibilities for directors and they should be briefed to ensure they understand them. Health and safety should be a regular agenda item and include reports of accidents, audits, staff consultations and changes to legislation.

Owner ME Marketing and Events WHEN YOU ARE flicking through a magazine and see an advert for Apple or McDonald's, you know straight away who it is without necessarily seeing their logo. Branding is so much more than just a logo; this is just a starting point in your journey to consistent branding.

As a business you will undoubtedly have a logo but have you defined a colour palette? Do you have a particular font that you use? Do you have consistent header and footer designs in your materials? These simple starting points will allow your customers to begin to recognise any marketing touch points that you create and use.

Whether it is a print advertisement or a digitally designed advert, try and keep your look consistent to create a unified experience for existing and potential customers. There are some great platforms that you can use to start creating, such as Canva which can be used on their free account or pay monthly for access to more features, this platform is a great place to start and super easy to use. Adobe Photoshop – which can be paid for monthly – may require more experience but there are also lots of online tutorials to help get you started.

In a world full of competition, ensuring that your brand is instantly recognisable will mean a higher chance that your ideal customers will start to notice you and stop to look at your marketing messages.

Making the moves to your very own brand guidelines doesn’t have to mean investing in an expensive branding package, you can simply start today. Answer the questions that I wrote above, define your look and your brand feel. Then simply ensure that it is implemented across your marketing. Why not create a document simply detailing your branding guidelines; the fonts, the colour palette etc. and share it with your team to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Be the Apple in your industry. What are you waiting for?

Stability on Slopes Tracks distribute weight to minimise ground disturbance

Increased productivity The agility of a zero-turn mower with the stability, traction and safety of a tracked machine