Two sides of a story: the use of mentors in the workplace may be familiar to many, but what about the health and safety coach? Kieran Duignan explains.(HEALTH AND SAFETY COACHING)

Publication: The Safety & Health Practitioner

Publication Date: 01-JUN-06

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2006 CMP Information Ltd.

WELL-CONDUCTED SAFETY/HEALTH COACHING CAN contribute to top line, as well as bottom line, business results. The savvy coaching practitioner concentrates on making it that bit easier for managers to figure out innovative ways of working and direct attention and energy of employees very intelligently. And he or she is pragmatic about setting out to spark optimism through conversations with managers that lead them to learn from their experiences about what improves performance under pressure.

Practical illustration

Consider the case of a young lady, who may be called Mary for the purpose of this story. She had been working for some 15 months as a sales office assistant in Alpha, a niche distribution company, with six employees, in a phase of growth during its twelfth year. Mary used an electronic typewriter for several hours, several times a day to record data about customer orders.

The senior manager-proprietor, Thomas, asked Ciara, an independent chartered safety and health practitioner, for practical help when Mary absented herself from work, reporting symptoms of a painful repetitive strain injury and threatened to issue proceedings against Alpha. Ciara, who introduced herself as 'a safety/health coach', agreed to conduct a professional assessment of risks of injury and stress arising from Mary's work and to recommend possible changes, in ways that balanced effectiveness, economy and legal compliance. As a basis for the brief

coaching exercise, she also agreed to observe and interview Mary, to gather information about potential options.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Listening to the managers/proprietors, father, Thomas (60) and son, Paul (29), Ciara formed the assessment that one far-reaching set of constraints on a solution arose from their firm religious convictions which they used to categorically prohibit any use of computers. She observed that this closed off the option of introducing an adaptable keyboard and task adjustments to reduce the employees' exposure to risks from repetitive shoulder, arm, wrist and hand movement.

Ciara also formed the assessment that another set of constraints arose from the outlooks of the employer and employee involved. She observed how Mary's introverted behavioural style was little understood by Thomas, the extrovert managing director, and actually appeared to grate with him more than he was comfortable to acknowledge.

The prickly nature of the...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.