As I see it the initial aim and objective of H&S professionals is to market and sell the subject to employers etc and more and more as I read various postings I have come to the conclusion that many of my peers do not appear to have, in my personal and humble opinion, enough competence re marketing and sales so can I suggest that people take up these subjects and learn what can be learnt and add such learning to their tool box e.g. spending a day or 2 on a market stall in the middle of winter trying direct selling to the public will soon give you an insight into people's personal wants, needs, attitudes and ways and help you make the nature & nuture arguement more clear

For my part I spent many years as a marketing person and a sales person [You will find that many have done one or the other as against having experience of both] in tough business environments i.e. you only got paif if you made the sale! Such knowledge and experience has helped me with selling etc good H&S management to employers e.g. how RA can be used to save money by changing procurement patterns, ways of working etc and how managers can gain 'one upmanship' over their colleagues by having fewer accidents than in other areas and how good H&S can save their back should there be problems

As for moral issues; I hate to admit it but in my personal experience it is money and personal wants that top the list so these areas should be worked on to help the moral areas

Thoughts would be welcome

Ray
What triggered my thread was the reading of other threads which made me realise even more that many people fall into the trap that the press want us to fall into and it seemed obvious that many have not used marketing and sales as a string to their bow

As for some of my comments; Its a case of the 'end justifies the means' in many cases and that you should use all the tools that are available to you to achieve your aims

I studied for Sales and Marketing before Health and Safety. At that time I'm sure I was one of the youngest Fellows on the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management. Because I had all kinds of letters after my name I thought the "FISSM" may frighten clients off eg if I was carrying out health and safety work at a client's site then for any proposed extended work they may see this as a sales and marketing initiative. Shame really, so I left the ISSM for the reason that I was not maximising it's benefits.

It's certainly not a bad idea to include this in a basic curriculum and into the requirement for continuing education. It may be useful, and sometimes invaluable, in order to 'sell' an idea and further safety training and awareness as well as the more obvious value to commercial endeavours of those in private practice.

I would suggest a real need also for more extensive teacher training to compliment those basic technical skills and again to 'get the message across'. This too needs to be subject to a continuing education requirement. This needs to extend beyond the basic train the trainer program to include the various training and education skills that should be - are - an integral part of safety training and management.

And for some, an option for additional training in presentation skills, in case they ever find themselves dealing with a hostile audience including the press and TV crews.