10 QUESTIONS


10 QUESTIONS WITH… SIMON OLLIFF


Each month, we ask a health and safety professional 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to Simon Olliff, Managing Director of Banyard Solutions.


this opportunity grew into the Banyard Solutions’ e-permits system.


Q3


IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY SUPERPOWER FOR A DAY,


WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY? I would have the superpower to go back in time and warn people about the dangers of asbestos.


Q4 Q1


WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?


My first job was as a Tea Taster and auction buyer for Typhoo. I would ‘slurp and spit’ around a 1,000 bowls of tea each morning, deciding whether to buy or how to blend them. While developing my palate with the masters, I realised that each tea could be assigned a numerical fingerprint of five key characteristics, which would allow me to computerise tea blending and reduce the blend costs. To the surprise of the masters, the idea worked and the process is still used in tea tasting today.


Q2


HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE HEALTH AND SAFETY


INDUSTRY? I became Managing Director of a maintenance company and health and safety was a key part of my responsibility. Early on in this role, we were asked to run the permit-to-work regime to protect 1,500 engineers on a large construction project in Canary Wharf. A paper-based system wasn’t practical for this scale and I thought a smart tool was needed to properly manage it. Curious, I did some research online and realised no other electronic system existed. There was an aching gap in the market and


50


HOW WOULD YOU IMPROVE THE HEALTH AND


SAFETY INDUSTRY? I have been working in the industry now for 15-years and I would like to leave a legacy behind me as playing a key role in helping to reduce incident and death tolls. The rates have come down over the last 30 years from around 600 to 137 deaths per year but I would like technology to create a permanent downward change in these figures.


Q5 Q6


WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE YOU COULD GIVE TO


SOMEONE NEW COMING INTO THE PROFESSION? Don’t accept the status quo and challenge every norm. Business as usual leaves too many people either injured or dead.


WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO COMBAT NEGATIVE


ATTITUDES TOWARDS HEALTHY AND SAFETY? By making best-practice easy. People’s good intentions are too often frustrated by the effort or cost of doing things right. When the right way is the quickest, easiest and cheapest – it’s the obvious thing to do.


Q7


IF YOU COULD HAVE A DINNER PARTY WITH ANY


THREE PEOPLE, DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD THEY BE AND WHY? Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and my dad, who I lost a few years ago. Each character was inspirational, entertaining and light-hearted.


Q8


WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR THE


HEALTH AND SAFETY INDUSTRY? The stats have plateaued at an unacceptably high level. There are competing influences from cost- cutting and removal of regulations that discourage best-practice on the one hand, to an improving sense of self-worth that is changing attitudes amongst workers and management, which is thankfully reinforced by higher fines.


What I want to see is companies embrace step-changing technologies that will banish the unacceptable statistics for ever.


Q9


WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WON THE LOTTERY?


Carry on with the mission but from the deck of a lovely yacht.


Q10


JOHN RUTHVEN, QUALITY & EHS


MANAGER AT TRAKA ASKED: IF YOU COULD COMPLETELY REMOVE ONE HEALTH AND SAFETY RISK FROM THE WORKPLACE WHAT WOULD IT BE? Asbestos without a doubt; it is the worst work-related killer of all time. It is riddled throughout so many public buildings including schools and hospitals, and day-to-day activities like slamming a door or banging into a wall disturb the deadly fibres. Millions of people are unwittingly breathing in fibres, with potentially fatal consequences in the future.


www.banyardsolutions.co.uk www.tomorrowshs.com


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