On the face of it, this might sound like a no-brainer with an obvious answer: “Yes, of course”. So, a second question — should it? Or rather: Should the job be thought of differently and hence the title need to be adjusted? Here’s why — Language is a key part of culture so how an organisation chooses to label particular functions can give us a significant clue to the culture of…
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There’s a lot of talk about improving safety cultures, and organisational cultures in general, by ‘empowering’ staff. After all, they are at the front line, they know what’s working and what isn’t, what would work and how to be safer, if only they could do something about it. “Empower them” … sounds great but what does this really mean? In reality it means different things to different people, be the…
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I visit a lot of different organisations and therefore repeatedly face this kitchen dilemma. That is, without even opening the Pandora’s box of teabag clubs and milk moneys; the challenge of finding and selecting a clean mug? The typical kitchen contains a range of options. There are the old Company branded ones, the new rebranded ones, those from the suppliers or reps, the boardroom china set from a bygone era, “World’s Best…
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As we know, employee engagement is nothing new and when I present on the benefits to organisations, based on my own and clients experiences, along with research from the National Centre for Strategic leadership/ Engage for success taskforce, I tend to get the feedback saying “We know all this” or “We do all of this”. Surprising then that the engagement feedback surveys or Cultural assessments say something quite different. I…
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Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has many different facets that can aide in the implementation of a successful Behavioural Safety or Cultural Safety® Initiative. Let’s start with the main principles of the theory, known as the “Pillars of NLP” which are : Know your outcome: Start with the end in mind, know what you want to achieve.Commitment: Commit to take some action.Take action: Put your plans in to action, “walk the talk”.Have sensory…
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The OCAID Group is proud to announce that all our courses are as of January 2019 officially approved by the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM). This approval took place after a very successful launch of Corporate Partnership with IIRSM in September 2018. About IISRM IIRSM is the Risk Institute for industry organisations and those that provide products and services to them. It offers practical education, training, advice, networking…
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Organisations need to assess the risk for wellbeing in the same manner as they currently assess the risk to safety, according to Dr Carolyn Yeoman, Operations Director at OCAID Wellbeing. Speaking at the Safety & Health Expo, Dr Yeoman said firms need to “demystify stress” and instead take an approach to wellbeing “that we know already works for safety”. “Stress is to wellbeing what accidents are to safety,” said Dr…
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Wellbeing is an overused term which means all things to all people and it tends to be ill-defined and misunderstood. It’s often the ‘soft and fluffy’ side of wellbeing which is the focus of interventions and whilst such interventions are beneficial to individuals, they’re unlikely to result in long-term sustainable organisational effects. Organisations need to address wellbeing in the same way as they address safety, by identifying and eliminating the…
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In the SMP #018 podcast with Dr Carolyn Yeoman and Sonni Gopal discuss how Organisations can address and improve well-being at work to take it “beyond the fruit bowl”. But, what does that mean? Carolyn and Sonni put forward 5 tips that can be easily incorporated within the existing management systems framework (based upon the Plan-Do-Check-Act approach). There is nothing fancy here but really practical advice based upon expertise but…
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Scale of the issue Latest figures (published October 2018) indicate that stress, anxiety and depression related absenteeism equates on average to 25.8 days per employee per year, 11.6% of a full time equivalent. Professional occupations were the area that was the most badly affected. Given that the UK is already well down the list of nations for employee output this potentially avoidable loss has significant impact on employees, organisations and…
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