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10 QUESTIONS


10 QUESTIONS WITH... JAMES CLAYTON


Every issue, we ask a health and safety professional the Tomorrow’s Health & Safety 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to James Clayton, Founder of EHSRated.com, the health, safety and environmental marketplace.


Q5


WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO COMBAT NEGATIVE ATTITUDES


TOWARDS HEALTH AND SAFETY? In the workplace you have to tackle it head on; put health and safety in the business context, whether it’s financial, risk or both, and people should be more responsive. In the media, I believe the best thing health and safety professionals can do is ignore the detractors; by rising to the media stories we are only fuelling the fire. Keep doing a good job and ignore the bullies, eventually they’ll get bored and move on.


Q1


WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? I was a Projects Officer for


the Groundwork Trust. I had great fun teaching primary school age kids about waste recycling.


Q2 Q3


HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE HEALTH AND SAFETY


INDUSTRY? My boss in my second job, with a process engineering contractor, suggested I do the NEBOSH National General Certificate. Up until then I’d only been involved with environmental management and it was a great introduction to health and safety.


WHO, IN ANY OTHER INDUSTRY, DO YOU MOST


ADMIRE? No-one specifically stands out to me. I admire people who work hard then give something back when they can.


Q4 44


HOW WOULD YOU IMPROVE THE HEALTH AND SAFETY


INDUSTRY? I’d make it easier for small and medium sized enterprises to get access to good health and safety advice. It is a significant issue at the moment and that’s why I set up EHSRated.com


Q6


WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU COULD GIVE TO


SOMEONE NEW COMING INTO THE SAFETY PROFESSION? There are a lot of areas or industries you can specialise in; take your time and get involved in as many different things as possible (consultancy is a great way to do this). Be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses and pick something that suits you best.


Q7


WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR THE


HEALTH AND SAFETY INDUSTRY? Now that it looks like the government scrutiny of health and safety is finally over, I would welcome moves to further ‘professionalise’ the industry. I see no reason why health and safety professionals should not have the same status as doctors, lawyers, architects etc. Well, maybe not lawyers!


The ultimate goal of any health and safety professional should be to make themselves redundant by making good health and safety management just part of how everyone behaves. So give it about 20 years and we should all be on the dole.


Q8 Q9


IF YOU COULD HAVE A DINNER PARTY WITH ANY


THREE PEOPLE, DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD THEY BE AND WHY? My wife and my two lovely daughters; I travel a lot and coming home is always the best thing I do.


WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN A FUTURE ISSUE OF


TOMORROW’S HEALTH & SAFETY? Something practical about how


businesses can increase safe behaviour. Q10


ASKED BY CHRIS ABBEY, HEAD OF HSEQ FOR


HERTEL UK & IRELAND: WHAT SINGLE PIECE OF HEALTH & SAFETY LEGISLATION WOULD YOU CHANGE & WHY? I’d actually create a new one relating to incident investigation. Failure to learn lessons is one of the biggest problems in health and safety.


www.ehsrated.com


www.tomorrowshs.com


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