10 QUESTIONS
10 QUESTIONS WITH... KATE LANGWICK
Every issue, we ask a health and safety professional the Tomorrow’s Health & Safety 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to Kate Langwick, office manager at Height Lift & Shift.
Q1
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? Interestingly, my first full-time
job was working in a bookie’s. There’s nothing like a betting office to open your eyes to the real world – and it certainly did!
Q2
HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE HEALTH AND SAFETY
INDUSTRY? When I moved back to Yorkshire a few years after I graduated I was looking for a new challenge and I stumbled upon the powered access industry. The company I was working for had a mainstay product which probably dictated 90% of what we did. It was a lovely introduction for me as it gave me the opportunity to learn about the health and safety impact of that product in so much detail. It was an excellent grounding in understanding how to communicate health and safety messages to often sceptical audiences.
Q3
WHO, IN ANY OTHER INDUSTRY, DO YOU MOST
ADMIRE? I have a lot of time for Sheryl Sandberg sticking her head above the parapet to provide a strong voice for women in business.
Q4
HOW WOULD YOU IMPROVE THE HEALTH AND SAFETY
INDUSTRY? I think sometimes we are our own worst enemy. If we continue to treat H&S as a separate process to the job someone is doing then we attract negative feeling from the people just trying to get their job done. We have to make H&S integral to the work people are doing and that means not adopting a one-size-fits all philosophy and no box-ticking mentalities!
We have to empower people to combine their knowledge of their work with good
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H&S advice to come up with practical, effective methods of work. Once we crack this we can start to turn people’s opinions around. That’s why, at HLS we take time to understand the activities people are doing when working at height and recommend equipment that makes those activities both safer and more productive. This goes a long way in helping people to adopt safer working practices because it makes the benefits tangible.
Q5
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO COMBAT NEGATIVE
ATTITUDES TOWARDS HEALTH AND SAFETY? People are not often negative in their attitudes towards H&S when it actually helps them to do their job, it’s only when H&S policies or practices are a poor fit to the work being done that people get frustrated with it. It’s like I said above, the box-ticking drives people insane, but if we make it relevant to the specifics of their work then we start to combat those negative attitudes and turn them around. That means H&S advisors working with practitioners as equals, and formulating policies and procedures collaboratively.
Q6 Q7
WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU COULD GIVE TO
SOMEONE NEW COMING INTO THE SAFETY PROFESSION? Be pragmatic! Learn your theory, take CPD seriously, but above all make sure your decisions are made based on the reality of the situation, not what a textbook tells you the situation should be.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR THE
HEALTH AND SAFETY INDUSTRY? The UK has a good reputation for H&S across the world and I think
we will continue to improve on this. Companies will continue to come up with innovative ways to promote safe working practices and at the same time improve productivity.
Q8
IF YOU COULD HAVE A DINNER PARTY WITH ANY
THREE PEOPLE, DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD THEY BE AND WHY? Tough question. If I only get three people I think I’d go for Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc because they bounce off each other beautifully and would have me in stiches. Maybe we’d invite Giles Coren along for the ride, though his table manners do leave something to be desired I think he’d provide a bit of controversy.
Q9
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN A FUTURE ISSUE OF
TOMORROW’S HEALTH & SAFETY? Maybe a day in the life of… Where a H&S advisor and someone doing their regular job spend the day together and discuss the impact of H&S, positive or negative, on their day.
Q10
ASKED BY JAMES CLAYTON, FOUNDER OF
EHSRATED.COM: GIVE US YOUR BEST HEALTH AND SAFETY ANECDOTE: I can think of a few, but none that I want to confess to here!
www.hls.co
www.tomorrowshs.com
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