Tag: health-and-safety
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Egos and Leaders
The Hidden Barrier to Better H&S In H&S, you work with every layer of an organisation – from the apprentice who’s still learning where the bathrooms are, to the CEO who signs off the strategy. And somewhere in that mix, you will meet them. Leaders with giant, fragile egos. But they’re not villains. They’re people.…
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Internal Customers
How We Treat People Is the Real Safety Culture In H&S, we talk a lot about workers. We talk about leaders. We talk about “key stakeholders”. But the truth is simpler, everyone you interact with is your internal customer. Every single one of them deserves the same respect, the same attention, the same consistency, and…
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Scare tactics – do they really work?
Do They Really Work? Every H&S professional has been there. And still – blank stares. Shrugs. Resistance. So sometimes, you pull out the big guns: here’s what happens when it goes wrong. And yes – scare tactics can work. But only when they’re used carefully, proportionally, and with integrity. Why scare tactics sometimes work Humans…
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Do what I say, not what I do
The Leadership Double Standard That Destroys Safety In health and safety, leaders love to talk about expectations. Follow the rules. Wear the PPE. Use the right process. Do the right thing. But too often, those same leaders walk onto a site, skip the steps, ignore the controls, and behave as if the rules don’t apply…
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Stubborn furniture
Working With Long‑Time Workers Who Resist Change Every workplace has them. The long‑timers. The old hands. The “stubborn furniture” – the people who’ve been around so long they feel bolted to the floor. They know the job inside out. They’ve seen managers come and go. They’ve survived restructures, new systems, new rules, new consultants, new…
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Finding and fixing problems
Why NZ Workplaces Need to Dig Deeper And then we stop there – as if the explanation is complete. Most incidents are not caused by deliberate human negligence. HOP research shows that around 90% of events are linked to systemic conditions, not bad people making bad choices. So why do we keep treating symptoms as…
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Profits vs. Safety
The Choice NZ SMEs Face Every Single Day Let’s be honest about the reality for most New Zealand SMEs: Whether you’re getting product out the door, getting people back on the road, or keeping a service business afloat, the tension between profit and safety is real. Short‑term fixes often become long‑term habits. And long‑term habits…
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When H&S professionals disagree
When H&S Professionals Disagree: Confidence, Evidence, and the Line We Must Not Cross Disagreement in health and safety isn’t a problem. In fact, it’s necessary. HSWA is a thinking law. It expects judgement, interpretation, and professional debate. If every H&S professional always agreed, it would be a sign that no one is thinking deeply enough.…