As Safety Professionals we are at times limited on the way we can impact Safety Performance and we need to recognise this fact rather than putting too much responsibility for WHS upon our shoulders. Dependent upon the circumstances there are 3 ways we can affect Safety Performance.

Firstly, we can INFORM. That is educate those people within organisations who have direct responsibility for the Safety of their people. They must understand their Responsibilities and their WHS Due Diligence Obligations and never rest on past performance. Good Safety is having a constant sense of unease and protecting those in which we have responsibility.

Secondly, we can INFLUENCE. We can achieve this by Coaching those individuals to put actions in place to preserve life, limb and psychosocial safety at all times. In other words we must always “Walk the Talk” and never walk past sub-standard WHS performance.

And Thirdly and perhaps most importantly we can IMPACT. In my experience this needs to occur to those at the most Senior levels of Management within the organisation. Good Safety Principles must be driven from the Top down. I personally find real life experiences of when WHS goes wrong and its consequences, has the greatest impact on those individuals who need to drive Safety Leadership and Culture within their organisations. Often the most Senior Leaders are overly distracted by the needs of shareholders for Financial performance. However they need to understand that Good Safety is Good Business, and overall organisational performance can be severely impacted when safety goes wrong.

I would urge everyone who reads this post to think about how you Inform, Influence and Impact Work Health and Safety within your Workplace.