Can AI write my safety plan

AI is certainly a hot topic of conversation at the moment. While debate rages over the benefits and the dangers, the fact remains that it is a powerful tool which has the potential to save small businesses countless hours and allow them to get on top of all of those administrative projects that sit in the ‘gonna get to’ basket. So, can it do my health and safety?

I’ve experimented with AI and asked it to write a safety management plan for a number of different types of tourism operations. The results were underwhelming at best. I certainly wouldn’t want to rely on it to demonstrate I had met my health and safety obligations. While it did provide a (very) basic frameworks, they are lacking in useful content. Even specifically asking to see a SMP which would be HSWA 2015 compliant, the result was exactly the same as other SMP’s. It appears while AI is able to identify 7 basic elements of a safety plan, it isn’t currently able to identify the requirements of the HSWA and provide a SMP to meet them. So, would I rely on AI to write my safety plan? Highly unlikely, at this point in time.

While this might be a disappointing result for people looking for a quick fix, it’s probably doing them a favour. Health and safety isn’t about having a suite of swanky documents. The true litmus test is the activity which captures the organisations safety culture. A safety management plan should set out the actions and resources required to effectively manage health and safety. We have seen a number of significant prosecutions where business have had a SMP in place, however there was no activity to put it in to action. Without any activity a SMP might as well be a text book. Capturing activity is an important topic, but not the focus of today’s post. Check out our blog to learn more about this.

It may sound like I’m dismissing AI, but it does have it’s uses. Most business owners are aware of the risks in their business. They have processes in place for daily tasks to make sure workers, visitors and others Stay Safe. What confuses and frustrates, or just get’s popped in the gonna get too’s is how to document these procedures. This where AI can save hours of staring blankly at a screen while waiting for a bolt of inspiration. Asking AI to write SOP’s can save hours of contemplation, pondering and frustration. It appeared that the more granular the request, the more accurate the outcomes were. The results should be compared against the procedures in action. Ask the question, are there any gaps in our procedures? If there are, are they relevant? Do we have procedures in place which aren’t identified by AI? These should be added to the SOP. Like all things health and safety, they should reflect the nature of the activity. I would caution business owners not to relay on search results to base a safety plan on.

So, can AI write my SMP? Effective safety management requires business leaders to understand the risks in their operation and how to mitigate them. While it may be able to spit out a template, it doesn’t have the capacity to ensure business owners understand how to manage their health and safety obligations. What it can do is significantly reduce the amount of time businesses need to document policies and procedures. While they wont’ be polished it can be a great tool to get the ball rolling, and if that prompts discuss on what you do and how you do it safely, then that’s got to be a good thing.

AI should be used with caution. The best mechanism to ensure you meet your health and safety obligations is touch base with an accredited health and safety practitioner.

Risk Disclosure Statements

A primary focus of the Whakaari investigation was whether guests were fully aware of the potential risks in undertaking the activity. Regardless of the outcome, this has set the benchmark for the expectation of what good business practice looks like. The premise of the charges was that customers must be made aware of any potential risks prior to making a commitment to undertake the activity.

Risk disclosure statements have been made mandatory under the revised Adventure Activity Regulations. What’s the difference between a risk disclosure statement and a Waiver? The HSWA states you are not able to contract out of your obligations, so any form of health and safety waiver simply isn’t valid. Waiver forms can still be used to mitigate liability for loss or damage to property, disrupted travel arrangements etc.

Of course, the realm of risk extends beyond adventure activity operators. Activities, like freedom kayak rentals, courtesy kayaks, water-based activities, paragliding, skydiving etc. can all be high risk activities yet don’t require an audit. Inherent risks also exist within transportation, attractions, and accommodation. While these risks may be less conspicuous than those in the adventure sector, hazards are present in settings such as pools, spa pools, saunas, ponds, rivers, streams, icy conditions, and busy entryways etc., and of course on the road.

People look through different lenses and don’t always see risk the same way, what is obvious to one person, another is blissfully unaware of. Risk disclosures make your guests aware they also have a role to play, and these are risks they need to be mindful of.

Demonstrating you take the welfare of your guests seriously is a great selling point and something that should be front and centre. Writing a risk disclosure statement is a fairly simple process. The consequences of not having one if something goes wrong could be catastrophic.

Good practice

Keep it simple – write in plain language, don’t get carried away with legislation speak and health and safety jargon.
Look through the lens of your guests. Consider your audience. Do you need to have it translated into other languages.
Provide an aerial view of general risks, guests don’t need to see your entire risk register.
Consider the most serious risks in your operation.
Consider if there are additional risks to persons with medical conditions, e.g. heart conditions, mobility issues etc.
Ensure your statement is clearly visible on your website, booking engine and other relevant marketing collateral. This avoids the “had I known that I wouldn’t have booked” conversation. You also have an obligation under the Fair Trading Act to ensure all of the terms and conditions are made available prior to entering a contract.
Included your risk disclosure statement as a separate item in your terms and conditions on your booking engine. This ensures discover-ability.
Are there any risks in the area you may feel morally obliged to inform guests of? These might include dangerous beaches, walks, cycle tracks or roads etc.

Why use a HASANZ Practitioner?

I must admit I let out a wee gasp when I read about the first successful prosecution of a health and safety advisor by WorkSafe in New Zealand. It’s a clear warning to all of us in the health and safety industry. The case summary revealed that the advisor had identified significant concerns with the traffic management system with a Contractor client. Despite assurances that these issues would be addressed, six months passed with no action. This lead to a worker suffering a serious head injury. This incident was entirely preventable, had the advisor followed through on their responsibilities. As a result, the Contractor (Client) was fined $270,000, along with $50,000 in reparations. The advisor was fined $70k and $28k respectively.

WorkSafe emphasized, “Businesses paying for specialist health and safety advice need to know both they and their consultants have responsibilities under the law. You need the right consultant helping in the right way to get the right outcomes for workers.” The Health and Safety Association (HASANZ) serves as a reliable source for professionals who can provide expert advice.

This case highlights broader issues in the health and safety. After reviewing countless safety management plans and systems, it's evident that there's a wide range of competence and commitment to health and safety. Too many businesses still treat health and safety as a box-ticking exercise, assigning the role to someone with administrative skills rather than any genuine health and safety expertise.

The challenge in hiring any advisor for your business is that you often don’t know what you don’t know. As this case demonstrates, even though the advisor failed to manage the risk, the business was still held accountable. Frustrating I’m sure!

The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) is unequivocal: your business, your responsibility. You depend on the advice of experts, so how can you be sure they are what they claim to be? Start by hiring an accredited health and safety professional, just as you would a qualified accountant or solicitor. Additionally, ensure they have relevant industry experience. While many tourism operations are low-risk, they are not without risk. With the complexities of the HSWA, GRWM, Transport ACT, Maritime Act, HSNO, FENZ, ……….., it's crucial to work with advisors who understand the specific needs of your sector. This is especially relevant for activity operators who may subject to the adventure activity regulations.

Check the level of accreditation the practitioner holds. Advisors can be members of associations without actually holding any professional accreditation. This can include NZ Safety Council and affiliate members of NZISM (New Zealand Institute of Safety Management). NZISM has four levels of professional accreditation. Once members achieve professional accreditation, they can apply to become HASANZ registered. NZISM and HASANZ practitioners are bound by a code of conduct, ensuring they maintain professional accreditation and consistently meet industry standards.

Accredited health and safety practitioners may come at a higher cost, but so do good accountants, SEO providers, and media companies. Having spent many years teaching people how to sell travel, I would always emphasize three key selling points: saving money, saving time, and ensuring safety. Somewhere within that triangle, customers find their comfort zone. Actively promoting a robust safety system shows a commitment to visitor safety, and working with accredited health and safety practitioners adds credibility to your system.

In case you were wondering, I’m proud to be HASANZ registered, hold NZISM Professional accreditation, and am certified by IOSH (the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), a global organization based in the UK.

Worker Inductions

As I sat on my balcony in t-shirt enjoying my coffee and another glorious Paihia morning, I get the sense spring isn’t far away, that usually means we’re in for another about of serious winter weather, but nonetheless, spring is just two weeks away and I’m enjoying the sunshine today!

While the winter operators are in the throws of another busy season, many of the summer operators will hopefully now have had some time to regroup and are starting to think about the season ahead. One of the key challenges the industry faced last season was recruitment. This left business owners and managers battling away at the coal face, struggling to get things done, and unable to work on the business. Across the industry I saw burnt out teams and stressed-out business owners. One of the ways owners and managers can reduce this stress is by ensuring the use the next 6-8 weeks to prepare for induction and training.

Good health and safety systems relate directly to good work practices. Aligning your H and S processes can reduce time as well as ensure there is consistency across all levels of the operation. For example aligning the development of your induction process with your annual review facilitates looking at all health and safety factors through the lens of someone who is completely unfamiliar with the operation. Thinking about how new workers should be inducted enables business owners to consider the wider risks in the business and also allows them to think about the safety culture they wish to instil. A robust induction program sets the tone for the workplace culture. It also ensures legal obligations have been met.

What should an induction process look like?

Emergency procedures

While we plan to make sure events don’t happen, sometimes they do. When they do we need to be prepared. Ensuring your new workers are familiar with your emergency procedures is a legal requirement. This should be one of the first training elements when workers are on-boarded. The GRWM Regulations stipulate that workers should be trained in emergency procedures. Think about scheduling emergency procedure training for all of the team once you have recruited your new workers and before the summer season kicks into full gear. This is a great way to review your emergency procedures and ensure they are fit for purpose.

Risk management

The first thing to consider is what are the things that are going to hurt them or others. In order to ensure this content is up to date and current, we need to review our risk register. Reviewing a risk register is more than a cursory glance at a spreadsheet. Look at the risk through the lens of a new employee. Are those risks really safe, or are they just familiar? Has my risk register been updated in the past 12 months? What are the new risks that have been identified? If there aren’t any new risks is it because we are in a really stable environment, or is it because it hasn’t been on the radar and the team aren’t that engaged? Did we identify any new risks by reviewing incidents? Were there any patterns or recurring events? Did my team report incidents? If there are few incidents reported, is that reflecting an effective system or a culture of under-reporting? If I review my first aid kit restocks and compare to my incident register, do they align? Have I supplied dozens of plaster but never a recorded cut? If there is a culture of under-reporting, what am I going to do in the induction process to stress the importance, and how am I going to get my existing team on-board.

SOP’s

Now I have determined the main risks, I need to think about how I’m going to teach my new workers how we manage risk and complete tasks safely. So what will that process look like? It’s important your system catches your activity, many small businesses rely on one-to-one coaching and while staff are inducted, there is little evidence to support that process took place. I once ran a business rolling people down hills in a large inflatable ball. When I took over the reigns I asked the team to write down what they did from leaving the base to launching a guest down the hill. The response was, “do you want us to write down what we do do, or what we are supposed to do. That was exactly what I was looking for. Concise SOP’s ensure all of the steps are outlined and there are no gaps in the training, and you are able to embed your culture and values in to the training. Review what you do and why you do it that way. Is it just done that way because ‘we’ve always done it that way’, or because it’s genuinely the best way to do. Review your SOP’s. Do they still reflect what you do in action? Bring in your existing team and have a discussion and get feedback on your systems. If reviewing your SOP’s is a really laborious task, you’ve used too many words! SOP’s should be concise and written for the user, text heavy documents are generally less effective.

Tips for inducting new staff to your Safety Management System.

Do it on day one! Get the paperwork squared away, start with emergency procedures, then talk about prominent and common risks and ‘how we manage them’. People can have accidents at anytime, and they are more likely to happen to new workers. So ensure you can demonstrate you have inducted them.
Keep a record. Records should be specific e.g. identify specific risks and include a break down of the SMS.
Include knowledge tests. Signing a piece of paper along with 20 other signatures on the front of the health and safety manual really doesn’t cut the mustard. There is no evidence to demonstrate the learning process took place. Including a series of basic health and safety questions will demonstrate learning took place. e.g. You might ask a question like “when is it ok to consume alcohol on the job”. You now specifically have verification from the work that they are aware they cannot consume alcohol at work. This can offer additional support if you should happen to have HR matters to manage.
Get an existing staff member to test the induction process. Does it line up with what we do? If not, why not?

Preparing your health and safety induction plan in advance will allow you to focus building your team and support them in delivering a world class visitor experience. You will have reviewed your risks, emergency procedures and SOP’s. You will have got a sense of your worker engagement with reporting, and engaged your existing workers by getting their input. Building effective workplace cultures is about starting off on the right foot. As the business owner, you lead the way!

Category: Leadership