When we talk about health and safety, the word "compliance" often looms large. It's thrown around in policies, manuals, and training sessions as if it’s the gold standard. But let me be blunt: compliance, in its cold, detached form, is the enemy of true safety. Yes, I understand the intention behind it, but when the focus is solely on ticking boxes and meeting regulations, we lose sight of the real goal—keeping people safe, healthy, and most importantly, alive.
Health and safety isn't about meeting some faceless standard. It's about people. It's about ensuring that every single person can go home to their families at the end of the day. It’s about the gut-wrenching reality that every decision we make, every safety protocol we put in place, could mean the difference between life and death. That's the real "why" behind what we do.
Effective risk management is at the heart of this approach. When people understand the "why" behind what they’re doing, it resonates on a personal level. It’s no longer about following rules for the sake of it; it’s about protecting yourself, your friends, and your family. It’s about making sure that you and your colleagues have the chance to laugh, argue, and share moments with your loved ones long after the workday ends.
That’s why I believe we need to shift our focus away from compliance and towards building a culture of care—one that’s deeply rooted in empathy, respect, and understanding. We need to stop treating health and safety as a checklist and start treating it as a human responsibility. When we frame safety in terms of feelings, we remind ourselves that every rule, every precaution, is there for a reason. It's there to protect people, not just to satisfy a regulation.
Tools like health and safety apps in NZ and structured site-specific safety plans (SSSP) can play a crucial role in this approach. These tools should be used to reinforce a culture where health and safety are woven into the fabric of daily operations, not just as a means to an end. When integrated with genuine concern for people, these resources can help ensure that risk management is not just effective but also deeply meaningful.
In my view, compliance, as it’s often practiced, is worse than a swear word. It strips the humanity out of health and safety, reducing it to a sterile process that people feel obligated to follow rather than something they genuinely care about. And that’s where we go wrong.
So let’s do better. Let’s build health and safety around people, around feelings, around the understanding that what we do matters. Let’s focus on the "why"—the real, human reasons that drive us to create safer, healthier work environments. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about the rules; it’s about the lives those rules are meant to protect.
Vanessa Crafts
Tauranga-based Businesswoman and Qualified Health and Safety Professional
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