Posted By Alison WR
I'm reviewing our consultation and governance arrangements, including the director responsible for safety.

'common sense' says the responsible director should be in the same management line as the principal H&S adviser. But, there is also value in having a more independent director.

Can anyone share their experiences of having a responsible director who is outside the management line of the senior H&S adviser.

Regards

Alison

Posted By Brian John Abbs
Many years ago, my friend joined an organisation reporting on safety to the MD. Health and safety in the organisation in general, and specifically on construction work. The organisation had a fairly good record, and was looking to achieve a 0AFR like many forward thinking companies do.

As the organisation changed and people were shuffled about my friend ended up reporting to the Ops manager...... On the Ops managers own operations.

There probably aren't too many health and safety people out there that don't know what happened next.

As much as my friend tried to lead, encourage, and foster a sense of moral responsibility in the Ops manager, health and safety was merely something to talk about to gain brownie points or a set of figures to fiddled in order to achieve his bonus at the end of the year.

-Practical and practicable advice was ignored.
-When several office staff became pregnant, my friend produced the relevant risk assessment only to be told "it isn't an issue".
-An attempt was made not to report RIDDOR accident because "I don't believe it was an accident".
-When my friend asked a member of staff to stop bring unauthorised COSHH material onto site, he told them to carry on doing it as long as my friend didn't see them doing it.
-My friend was asked to use creative techniques to demonstrate a decreasing AFR when the opposite was true.
-My friend raised the inadequacy of the induction on several times, to be told "You're not listening...leave it" 6no months later when he got a rebuke from the Group Safety Director over said inadequacies, Ops manager gave my friend a balling out in front of the entire office for not dealing with it.
-The Ops manager -although probably not deliberately- made access to the tools of the trade (software, tools, general kit, vehicles, mobile phone, PPE) very difficult.

These are just a few of the incidents that occurred while the Ops manager claimed to be “Safety focussed”.

I’m not sure my friend will be there much longer as he’s taken to CCing the MD in on every email he sends to the Ops manager.

Having heard these stories, I have had my belief that Safety Advisors/Safety Managers should report to the MD/Chief Exec/COO in the organisation, and not the people responsible on a day to day basis. The top man is ultimately responsible for safety, yet he should be distant enough from day to day operations to see things with some objectivity. That is not true of Construction managers on the career trail.

There’s my tuppence worth.

Posted By garyh
I see it differently; the Safety Manager is part of the Management team - you have to be to get co operation.

In every role I have had (in very big and very small organisations) the Safety Manager eventually reports to someone responsible for production (& lots of other things).

I have also been a Manager in charge of the whole Dept (Safety, Ops, Financial, Commercial, Training, HR). You have to MANAGE things, and make defensible cost/benefit based decisions.

This concept of being pulled in 2 (or more)directions is the essence of what management is about.

If you end up in a situation where you are being ignored / undermined/ bypassed I would recommend:-

1) Put things in writing, then move on.(Make your report sharp and focussed). Don't argue endlessly. You can only do your best and life is too short.

2) Leave

Posted By Alison WR
Thanks to all who responded.

My situation is that I have strong management support and want to develop it. My preferred outcome keeps two directors [operations and audit] strongly involved [we have comparatively complex governance arrangements] - I'll see if it floats.

Many thanks

Alison