EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, has launched a unique course to aid health, safety and environment practitioners to communicate more effectively within companies at Board level, and to help engage whole businesses in health and safety issues.
The launch of the course comes at a time where the impact of new sentencing guidelines for health and safety offences is beginning to intensify. In 2016, nineteen companies received fines over £1m (the largest, £5m). This compares to only three in 2015 and none in 2014. As fines are based on turnover, EEF believes it is possible that a £100m fine could occur in the future.
The two-day course has been specially developed in conjunction with EEF’s management and professional development experts. In addition to helping equal high levels of health and safety competence the course will provide practitioners, who often have to work harder to get the attention of business leaders, with leadership and management skills. This will give them the ability to effectively create, influence and communicate health and safety strategy in a pragmatic and commercial way for maximum business impact.
The course includes expertise on the following:
– The characteristics of being commercially aware and how this relates to the role of a health, safety and environment practitioner
– Understanding the wider internal and external environment within which businesses operate including customers, market-dynamics, competitors, suppliers, financial drivers
– Developing business cases for health, safety and environment investment, and demonstrating the return on profits, growth and productivity
– Identifying the impact of health, safety and environment advice and the impact recommendations may have on a bottom line
Steve Jackson, health, safety and sustainability director at EEF, said: “As the impact of new sentencing guidelines begins to take effect, the price for failing to adhere to health, safety and environmental regulation is becoming an ever greater business risk, not to mention more costly, with senior individuals being held more accountable.
“In today’s challenging business environment being an expert on health, safety and environment is not enough. If those professionals are going to engage at Board level, and with the wider workforce, then a much more rounded package of business skills and competencies is required.”
