A frustrating Argument about Cost versus Value relating to OSH NZ

During the 32 years that I have really been on the front lines in health and safety probably the most annoying thing people can say to me now is that it is too expensive!! (its even been named - ‘The Cost of Compliance’).



If I was to start on the operation of creating a plastic-type injection moulding business, it would not be the business itself that could cost too much, it would be the mistakes I would make along the way. Why? - because I am aware nothing about precisely how to build such a business. I am totally ignorant of the procedures involved.



The same fact applies to health and safety. For some strange reason people who have no schooling in safety and health (and not much inclination to learn in my opinion) expect you'll find their way through a maze without a map and contemplate why they go missing. I have met countless employers who've made countless false starts, with bits of different approaches (and paperwork) splattered all over the interior of their company, but who never manage to achieve a state where they can say "yep, that’s done and dusted". And i am really saddened by what isn’t achieved and the money that's lost on the way. Each time they fight to have it going again they meet more opposition. You’ve noticed it; "we all tried that a year ago and yes it didn’t work!"



And don’t rely on the government for much assistance either. Even though they do produce good quality literature that’s not the problem. Their main point here is "we’ll provide the drinking water - it’s your horse,you have to pursuade to drink it!"



What exactly is missing is often a essential comprehension of the significance that doing health and safety will provide a business with. Not that I expect you to study his works, but a guy called Abraham Mazlow developed a helpful small idea called a ‘Hierarchy of Needs’.



(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs#4._Safety_needs).



Some tips i take from Abe is the fact that he believes that UNLESS we deal with the many needs we now have as humans in roughly the order in which he recommends, we can’t truly develop and excel at what we want from life. This idea has been applied to business many times and I take that to show that if businesses usually do not tackle their health and safety needs (in the broadest sense of these words) then it'll eventually not attain its full potential. If the reason people go into business is to make as much as possible from everything they do then these people won't need Mazlow. They will also not be around long. They'll either die an organic death, strangled by their very own lack of knowledge and management ability, or the Government or someone else will eliminate them. Similar will be the life and death of most UNVIABLE Devices.



So, what of value? or Our worthiness? The significance of health and safety to a enterprise is the value that truly engaged, loyal and motivated employees provide for it. Anyone who still believes in slavery not only hasn’t learned the lessons of historical past but additionally hasn’t felt the lash! ("the beating will continue till the screaming stops" - yeah right, that’ll work!!). You cannot get truly engaged, loyal, motivated employees willing to produce till they drop in case you don’t value their fundamental individual right to not be ruined by the work you get them to do. Won’t work, never will, never has; end of story. Sure you might become wealthy but eventually it all crumbles, due to the fact it isn’t lasting. As people we won't give our commitment or put our shoulder to the wheel for those who don’t respect us in return. Get this right and anything else you need to achieve starts becoming a good deal easier.

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