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mikeeeeeboy  
#1 Posted : 10 March 2015 22:36:21(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
mikeeeeeboy

Good Evening All , I have been tasked with revamping my companies HSE Quaterly Board Reports , would anyone be willing to share there board report with myself to give me some ideas to change the format of the report ? Any information always grateful Mike
A Kurdziel  
#2 Posted : 11 March 2015 09:28:56(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
A Kurdziel

I am sorry but this is one of those how long is that piece of string questions! It depends on what sector you are in and more importantly what you and the board actually want. • Specifics v generalities • Lagging indicator v leading indicators • Internal audits v benchmarking across industry • Happy upbeat positive stories or the grim untarnished truth • Lots of words and pictures v graphs, numbers and pie charts It goes on…
aud  
#3 Posted : 11 March 2015 16:09:05(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
aud

You can find at least one such (annual) report online. Nearly 30 pages, a lot of large colour pages (nice), and a surplus of relatively unsurprising and disappointingly presented graphs (not so nice) all about accident numbers (or rather, how many forms have been filled in). Too large for what they have to say - hence the high page count. However, at the end of the multiple graphs, the really key points are in the narrative where the figures (repeatedly pie & bar charted) are acknowledged to say little, and the key priorities are those high risk areas where any accident could be a killer, and this cannot be gleaned from the data so boldly presented. So - what IS useful to present to board level? I like one page, two at most, for quarterly summaries, but could go to 10 for annual report, including objectives and progress etc. Attractive & clean appearance, simple, meaningful data, and purposeful recommendations. What the board want is overview, big picture, how are we doing? Useful data means trends and 'ratings' helping to tell the story of direction of travel. Imagine the sort of questions which could be asked as a result of the presentation, and try to get the data to provide the answers. Minimal focus on accidents as numbers, more interpretation - what is this telling us? "We are weak in the areas of . . . Performance on . . . has improved".etc. Numbers of forms filled in is not the same as performance rating. Without rates, (ie employee numbers, hours / days worked) accident form counting is pointless anyway. Riddor - these are (usually) so random and low there is no point in minutely comparing. Just give a number - 'this many' as a factual. Now on a personal rant, prompted by looking at yet another standard safety report. If using Excel to produce graphs or charts, please learn to change the default settings! Even in colour, dark print on dark colours is unclear. A good test is to print in monochrome as well, to check that your (paler, distinct) colours work. Remove clutter (backgrounds, lines, boxes). Pie charts rarely work well especially if more than 5 items. If all the slices are pretty much the same in size, what's the story? Find a better way. Bar charts - try putting the items in an order which makes sense: Often biggest first. Don't just use whatever order the system defaults to (alphabetical) unless this makes reader-sense. Trend line graphs are good (3 years max). Unfortunately nearly all such reports default to the 'numbers' of accidents, presented in numerous creative but unhelpful ways. Then there is a tendency to home in on 'pro-activities' such as numbers of audits, training events etc. very rarely answering the 'so what?' question. Dare to be different. Then share your success with us all!
jay  
#4 Posted : 11 March 2015 16:39:49(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jay

Ideally, you need what the "objectives" or targets for the period (that were led and agreed by the board) i.e. current year and then have a traffic light "dashboard" about actual performance to date /rolling year basis of the KPIs' that should include both leading & Lagging indicators. Each item on the dashboard can be supplemented by a chart, if required. One can have a dashboard in a single or two slides
mikeeeeeboy  
#5 Posted : 12 March 2015 16:05:16(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
mikeeeeeboy

Thanks guys , Your advice is much appreciated , I am still none the wiser though !! Maybe be the time of day and having brain freeze has done it !
A Kurdziel  
#6 Posted : 12 March 2015 16:14:18(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
A Kurdziel

You ask the chair for advice…what would they like. I they don’t know or won’t tell you, then one (not very efficient!) approach is put in EVERYTHING you can think of: graphs, stories, tables, pictures and submit it. Hopeful they will then give you some guidance on how long and what they want to see. You can trim it down to what they want. As a general rule the higher up the less detail they expect (as per aud’s post) but sometimes they want to be seen to be hands on and demand details. As I said this is not an easy one.
mikeeeeeboy  
#7 Posted : 13 March 2015 13:50:11(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
mikeeeeeboy

No you are right this is not an easy one , think i am going to brain dump everything and let the managin g director decide how he wants it structured Mike
hopeful  
#8 Posted : 13 March 2015 16:45:53(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
hopeful

Be careful about giving everything and asking what they want - they are paying you to tell them and often are not exactly sure what they want, you could end up having to provide so much information it is painful and then not read or effective. I would consider what should they be kept awake at night about - I call it a living risk register (not the corporate risk register but issues that are potentially major) - examples would be very poor quality of work of contractor, actions from improvement notice not complied with in time or similar. Then I would include some metrics such as statutory inspections compliance, with a RAG status and then H&S performance such as RIDDOR, training, fire incidents. To compliment this I would include some commentary on progress on major projects such as new procedures, campaigns etc. Hope this inspires - it is not easy as it depends on the company, sector MD etc
jay  
#9 Posted : 13 March 2015 17:03:33(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jay

The fact that yoiu are offshore based implies that there could be aspects of process safety and safety critical equipment/asset integrity risks etc. I did not elaborate on the critical KPI--especially leading ones such as how may higher risk rated actions as outputs from your HSE management system, routine and breakdown maintainance, statutory and manufacturer recommended inspections are open and what proportion are open beyond its action date and similar.
chris42  
#10 Posted : 13 March 2015 17:05:35(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
chris42

You have an ideal opportunity to decide what information you feel they need and should be looking at. As they say sometimes less is more. Then if they want anything else they can ask. I used to report significant accident information, stats for minor injury, and a one liner on anything more ( I could always talk about each if they wanted more in the meeting itself. A bit about anything significant with our Environmental, safety and QA system or from audits. Then a general anything else of interest that may be happening. All in all one page only. Current company - slightly different as I'm not sure they care, that much. So I give then some basic accident type info and tell them about anything else I want them to know about. They are not overly keen on anything written down (what fun). Chris
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