20 Things Need Improved. Where Would I Actually Start?

That isn't about trying to get people into trouble. It's about working together and putting a bit of accountability around what has been agreed. In my experience, putting the action plan together isn't normally the difficult part. Keeping it moving is.

A business has the meeting, everybody agrees what needs done, the actions are written down and everyone goes back to work. Then the day-to-day pressures take over. Three months later somebody opens the spreadsheet and half the same things are still sitting there because they've fallen off the radar.

That's why I like having a clear person against every action, a realistic date and some way of checking progress. It doesn't need to be complicated, but there needs to be enough accountability to make sure things continue to move.

Business Owners Need Visibility, Not Another Job

This is something I think we don't talk about enough. The business owner or MD doesn't need to personally manage every training record, inspection, risk assessment and action. They've already got a business to run. What they do need is visibility.

They need to know where the main risks are, what is being done about them, who's responsible, what has already been completed and where something has started to stall. How the business provides that visibility can be quite simple. It might be a regular meeting, a shared action tracker, a WhatsApp group or whatever works for that particular company.

I've seen the difference this makes. There's a point where you can nearly see an owner start to settle. Not because every issue has suddenly disappeared. Usually there is still plenty to do. The difference is that they can now say, 'Right, we know what the issues are, we've got a plan in place, people are responsible for it and I can see that things are actually moving.'

That's a much better position than simply knowing in your gut something isn't right and hoping nothing happens. Leadership still has to drive it. If you're running the business, people need to see that you're interested in health and safety. Walk the floor, get onto site, ask questions and check in on things. You don't need to personally do everybody's job for them, but if the leaders aren't seen to care about it, it's very difficult to expect everybody else to.

Take The RAMS Out Onto The Ground

Once we've identified the higher-risk activities, this is another area I'd look at closely. What's actually in the risk assessment? What's in the RAMS? What's in the SOP? First of all, is there something suitable there covering the work? Then there's another question which, in many ways, is even more important: is that actually how the job is being done?

There is no point having a method statement saying, "This is how we carry out this job, these are the steps and these are the controls," if I can walk onto site and watch people doing something completely different. A lot of businesses think that because everybody has signed the risk assessment or the SOP, they're covered. They're not.

If your own procedure says the work should be carried out one way and the business isn't actually following it, there are going to be questions if something serious happens. Why weren't the controls being followed? Was anybody checking? Was the work properly supervised? Was the procedure realistic in the first place? Had the way the job was being done changed over time without anybody updating the documentation?

Signing the piece of paper isn't the end of it. You have to get onto the ground and see what is actually happening. That's where supervision, inspections and managers being visible around the work become important.

Most Businesses Already Know When Something Isn't Right

This is another thing I've noticed over the years. Quite often the owner already knows. They've got that sixth sense that something isn't quite right. There might have been a few accidents or incidents. A client might have started asking harder questions. The same issues might keep appearing during inspections, or health and safety has simply become a headache because nobody really feels in control of it.

They know it isn't where it needs to be, but the business keeps moving and other things keep taking priority. The problem is that the cost of leaving these things unresolved isn't just another outstanding action on a spreadsheet.

At the serious end, it's somebody being badly injured or killed. Then you've potentially got the regulator involved, claims, insurance companies, lost time, clients losing confidence and senior management spending huge amounts of time dealing with the aftermath. That's why I believe in dealing with these things before something forces the conversation.

You don't need to make the business perfect overnight. You need to take a reset, understand where you're exposed, prioritise the higher-risk areas and start getting some of the straightforward things moving alongside them. Then put names and dates against the actions, give management visibility and keep checking that what you said should happen on paper is actually happening on the ground.