Hi Has anyone developed an effective procedure for implementing H&S procedures that support the H&S policy? Some of you may have experienced a lack of support and leadership when new procedures are being introduced. Any advice you can give will be most appreciated.

David Well-desiged short questionnaires are probably the most neglected, cost-effective tool available to safety practitioners. On the other hand, 'support' is probably the most over-used and misleading word in the whole dictionary of safety management as it can mean just about everything 'nice' short of actually doing anything useful; many of those who 'support' preventing injury, illness and fatalities at work do literally nothing to convert their 'support' into action. Compared to broadcasting 'policies' and 'presentations', in a fraction of the time required, they simply ask for replies to very, very carefully phrased questions about what exactly you wish people to 'support' (whatever that actually means in practice). For a well-designed survey amongst line managers or team leaders can be used as an effective way of identifying those who are 'runners' and distinguishing them from 'spectators. The 'runners' then become those amongst whom you can build an alliance. This works if and only if the survey is well-designed and you chose appropriate variables. Working with a smart safety adviser, I designed one that had the above effect; the questions were classified in sections based on 4 key variables - business savviness, task-co-operation, mindfulness and legal compliance/organisational citizenship; they were written in pairs that distingguished what those replying believed 'should' happen and what was being done in their company. The resulting report indicated the gaps between what was thought 'should' happen and current practice. While a well-designed questionnaire takes a lot of time to design, it only takes a few minutes for the respondents to complete; those in the survey referred to above took beween 4 minutes and 11 minutes to complete the questionnaire which was administered online through Survey Monkey (and could have been accessed using a smartphone, a laptop or desktop computer). Survey Monkey with sufficient functionality costs only about £20/month to use, with plenty of scope for questions and for scores of people replying to your questionnaire.

I feel like playing devils advocate here but i sometime feel that too much time is spent on consultation and discussion. A few years ago I drafted a H&S strategy (a short 5 page document). I sent it out to consultation and it sat moulding in various in boxes in the organisation The just I was about to declare it in force when I started getting bits of feedback, so I had to redraft the document and then send out the news drafts for more consultation which lead to more feedback more redrafts. I think we go to 16 drafts, before we all ran out of energy and said this was the strategy! On other occasions something has come up and the question has been asked “What’s the H&S policy on such and such?” I have looked at the intranet and found a document which everyone reads and nods and says” yes that is the policy we must follow it.” Only they don’t know I knocked up over a lunchtime and stuck it on the intranet without any consultation but people accept it as a fait accompli. What I am saying is that it is possible to over do the consultation thing and if you have built up a level of trust with your management and employees you can get away with somethings.

Many thanks to all who have replied. I've tried to consult with keys stake holders and there is huge oppression to introduce this and continue to manage throughout. I've even battled with the Legal team about weather we really need to introduce a "control of contractors" procedure (no I'm not joking). Starting a work shop over the next couple of weeks to iron the objections then I'll leave it to the procuring managers to implement, with independent audits by an external consultant.