The Safer Choice

Resources

I’ve written articles for health and safety publications since 1996, first for Health and Safety at Work Magazine, and later for IOSH Magazine, including the Lexicon series. I’ve also presented on a range of topics at professional conferences. Have a look at examples of articlespresentations and webinars.

With a background as a chartered psychologist, as well as a chartered health and safety professional, I’ve always been interested in how psychology has an impact on safety. My consultancy, training and writing focus on two things which continue to surprise me. First, the frequent failure to consider the impact of the physical and psycho-social working environment on safety outcomes. Secondly, the notable lag in the adoption of technology by safety teams compared to other departments in the same organisations. I copntinue to study the use of traditional, upcoming and futuristic technologies in safety, while keeping my feet planted firmly in human factors.

I am available for presentations, panels, debates and webinars on a wide variety of safety topics. In the past I have “ghost written” white papers, blogs and press releases on safety and health topics, particularly those linked to technology. 

Although I no longer write blogs for product marketing, if you have a writing project in mind please get in touch. You can also let me know if there’s an article listed below which I haven’t yet linked that you’d like to read.

I have been comfortable standing in front of an audience since I was 11, as my wonderful English teacher encouraged us to hold in-school debates, and between-school speaking competitions. I’m equally happy providing an interactive training or coaching workshop, delivering a session for an IOSH or other professional meeting (in person, or virtual), participating in a webinar or podcast, or giving a formal presentation to a large audience.

Take a look at some presentation topics that are “oven-ready”, or let me know if there’s something bespoke you’re interested in.

You might find it useful to listen to some of my Webinars.

Bridget presenting at a professional conference

Articles

  • When virtual training isn’t enough. A description of a day’s ladder user and inspection training, demonstrating when only a hands on approach will work.
  • Manual handling training: the evidence for, and against. Is there any evidence that manual handling training is worth the time and money, and how can it be improved?
  • Back on course. How training providers have adapted essential health and safety training to cope with social distancing (written with Louis Wustemann)
  • The Right Fit. How different learning tools can be blended to create a great learning experience, from traditional classroom, to new experiences with virtual reality
  • Learning and forgetting. The problem of skill decay, and suggestions of how to overcome it.
  • Learning in style. The myths and dangers of learning style theories.
  • A PowerPoint well made. Some tips on how to make better use of PowerPoint as a health and safety training aid.
  • Letters of distinction. Rote learning is not the ultimate goal of health and safety education. Understanding, attitude and application are critical, and these require a lot more effort than a few mnemonics. But there are times when an aide-memoire can prompt a sequence that helps us to focus a risk assessment or audit –  or even to pass an exam!

I was a panelist on this webinar in 2022 which discussed the need to rethink workforce safety and health learning and training. Register to watch the recording.

An older article in HSW magazine asked for my thoughts on using drama in training.

Artificial intelligence. I’ve written multiple blogs and longer pieces on how AI can contribute to occupational safety, including:

You’ll note that with blogs, someone else gets the credit, but my involvement with webinars demonstrates my credentials in the industry. See AI v the EHS manager in 2022.


Augmented and virtual reality
articles include:

  • Augmented Reality. A brief introduction to AR and its possible benefits in safety (and a few precautions to take)
  • Alternative Realities. Provides an introduction to health and safety professionals on VR, and how it can be used in occupational training
  • Feeling the heat. A summary of a visit to see the Nottingham University project to use heat and smell with VR to create a multi-sensory experience as part of fire safety training.
  • Virtually perfect. How do the outcomes of training using virtual reality stack up against conventional, real-world training?
Robots are discussed in:
Other new tech, including IOT and wearables are discussed in:
  • Safety net. A look at the advantages and challenges of the Internet of Things, with examples of how UAVs (drones), wearables, hearables and geographic positioning could enhance health and safety in the workplace.
  • Tech top to toeLooking at the benefits and barriers to using wearable technology in personal protective equipment (PPE) and other safety and health applications. I devised a workshop for the annual IOSH Conference in 2017 to bring together providers of wearable tech and OSH practitioners to invent new wearable solutions. Ideas included safety boots that warn you when they need replacing, and a lab coat that detects hazardous. If you’d like to know more about this, get in touch.

One of my early, peer-reviewed papers on Human–computer interaction in safety-critical systems looks at how menu structures in the user interface impact choices made by operators.

I was asked to write this article about software to manage environmental control actions on the IEMA website.

I am often asked for comments on how technology can support safety and health management. See my contribution to Is EHS software the Holy Grail? in IOSH Magazine (quick answer: no), a panel discussion on digital technology hosted by HSW Magazine, and my predictions for 2023 in IOSH Magazine.

The What is.. series was originally published in Health and Safety at Work Magazine (which is no longer available). The aim was to challenge received wisdom on the meaning of terms we use in health and safety. We use the terms inconsistently, haphazardly and without always thinking through the implication of their use. In many cases my ideas have moved on since I wrote these articles, but the challenges presented by each article are just as relevant now as when they were written.

I’ve written other articles that while not part of the original What is.. series, have a similar approach. These cover:

  • Human error, looking at the problem of blame, error proneness and the benefits of human variability
  • Heinrich’s accident triangle, and its variations. Does it still have any value in modern healthy and safety practice? I was delighted to find this article referred to in an NHS report on health, safety and wellbeing.
  • The price of a life – it turns out you can put a price on safety.
  • Everything in proportion. How ALARP and practicability apply in financial terms.
You might also find the Lexicon series in IOSH Magazine useful. From A for ALARP through R for Risk homeostasis, to Z is for Zeigarnik, the series explains, and sometimes demolishes, concepts and terminology used in occupational health and safety, psychology and society.
  • Sit-stand desks: are they worth the extra cost?
  • Ergonomic interventions for display screen equipment: which ones are worth it – and which are just gimmicks?
  • Financial incentives: can we bribe people to be safer and healthier? (Updated June 2021)
  • Manual handling training: why manual handling training might not be the most effective way to reduce manual handling injuries
  • E-cigarettes the smoke screen around the ‘95% less harmful’ figure, and what you should consider in your workplace smoking/ vaping policy.
  • Hearing protection: why noise controls aren’t working
  • Generations: what young workers really need, and why we should stop talking about ‘Gen Z.’
  • Older workers: an asset or a liability?
  • Health promotion in the workplace: can employers have any impact of employee health and wellbeing?
  • Smoking, alcohol and drugs: should employers have a role in managing people’s bad habits outside work?
  • Workplace stress programmes: how should employers spend their resources to reduce stress-related absences?
  • In-car safety systems: what’s available, and how can employers make best use of it for fleet drivers?
  • HGV: how can heavy goods vehicles be safer for cyclists and pedestrians?

This series was published in IOSH Magazine, so these links will take you to the IOSH Magazine website:

  • Quality managers know that quality has to be part of the process, not an ‘add-on’. How can this idea help us to build safety in?
  • Software developers have made great strides in the past decades. Gone are the thick manuals we had to read to use an application on a computer. So why are we still asking people to read safety manuals and procedures?
  • Behavioural economists know that you get more from people by nudging than nagging. How can we use the same principles in health and safety?
  • Safety critical assurance involves detailed analysis of systems to prevent fatal and wide-spread errors. In occupational health and safety it’s not reasonably practicable to apply the same techniques, but can we adapt some of their tools and techniques? Read how SWIFT (structured what if technique) could improve your risk assessments.
  • Health psychologists have developed tools to pick and choose the best ways of supporting behaviour change – so why do health and safety professionals resort to ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’ approaches?
  • Cognitive psychologists can warn us of the mistakes how minds can trick us into during accident and incident investigation, and how to overcome unconscious bias.
  • Lean Sigma Six black belts have lots to teach us about how to improve safety without increasing bureaucracy.
  • Expert Witnesses get to look at the evidence when it goes wrong, so they know a thing or two about what we should be doing to prevent accidents, and where they happen, to provide a defence.
  • Magicians are perhaps the least likely profession we might turn to for lessons. However, both magic and accidents make use of the same cognitive loopholes in how we see and think.

Although not part of the above series, these articles also illustrate how to learn from other areas:

  • Taken to task (IOSH Magazine) explains how task analysis should be as much of a tool for OSH professionals as is risk assessment.
  • Reality check (IOSH Magazine) considers the role of audits in effective health and safety management systems, with views from those who use – and don’t use – audits.
  • Not my article, but I was asked for my advice on preparing for crisis management.
  • Shaken and stirred (IOSH Magazine) in which I attempted to referee the debate between providers of hand-arm vibration measurement tools and experts.
  • Contractor management: prequalified successes. The first of two articles on managing contractors safely, focussing on selecting contractors.
  • Contractor management: agents in place. The second article, focussing on what to do once the contractors have been selected.
  • A term for the worst. Although based on cases up to 2015, this article on health and safety practitioner liability still has lessons for professionals on not overreaching their competence.
The Lexicon is a series of short articles I wrote for IOSH Magazine, under the direction of the then editor, Louis Wustemann. This page provides a list of those articles, with links to the IOSH Magazine website. Several of the articles have lost their first lines, and I have added these where I’ve spotted them so far to this page. This is still “work in progress” so nudge me if you spot one which looks like there’s a line missing at the start.
Psychology comes into a lot of my other articles, but I’ve linked a few items here that don’t fit well into the other categories.
These articles are also referenced under ‘Learning from.. ‘ but repeated here because they provide examples of how health & safety professionals can learn from different areas of psychology: 
  • Cognitive psychology – how unconscious bias affects our decisions, especially during an accident investigation.
  • Behavioural economics – how to influence workplace behaviours using nudging (rather than nagging).
  • Health psychology – how motivation, opportunity and capability affect behaviours.
  • Magicians – what magicians know about psychology, and how that can help us understand
 

Blogs & white papers

I have written lots of blogs for engage EHS (previously known as Effective Software, and now part of the EcoOnline group) and for eLearning company, Essential Skillz. Most of these are ghost written – so you’ll find someone else’s name given as author! I’ve listed only a few here – all links will take you to another website:

You can see other blogs and posts on my LinkedIn profile.

These articles were all written for Nexstand EU. While obviously I was paid to say nice things about them, I genuinely like the laptop stand they sell, and it has replaced the one I used to use. These blogs also illustrate how I can tie useful information into a blog about your product.

  • Essential ergonomics during the COVID-19 threat. Much has been written about the problems of homeworkers during the pandemic – but what about those returning to work? How do you hot-desk, safely, during a pandemic? 
  • Zooming to meet you. Tips on setting up your laptop for Zoom calls, so that you look and feel good.
  • Display Screen Equipment for teenagers. Even before lockdown, children and teenagers were suffering from upper body pains, rare in this age group in previous generations. But there are things you can do to help protect your teens, and younger children.
  • 4 Top Tips to be a successful digital nomad. Bit of a flight of fantasy here – written in the depth of lockdown, I imagine what it would be like to travel the world and work at the same time.

These whitepapers have all been produced for organisations which produce technology to make safety and health management more effective. I only write for organisations with a produce I believe in, so if you want me to write for you, be prepared to give me a demo of your product first. The links will take you to the vendor websites:

  • The role of AI in promoting a proactive safety culture. With my own visualisation of safety culture, a primer on AI, and examples of how AI provides scaffolding for culture change.
  • Getting senior management buy-in for your AI safety software project. Coming soon.
  • ISO 45001: Benefits and pitfalls to accreditation. An ISO standard might be more than you need, it might even have a downside, but read this if you’re thinking of going for accreditation to ISO 45001 or a similar standard.
  • The future of ISO 45001. Is an international standard for occupational health and safety management a sensible thing to develop? How can a format intended to control the size of screws support something as complex as the way we work? (No longer available online, but contact me if you’d like a copy).
  • Growing safety engagement in your workplace. There’s a lot of talk about ’employee engagement’ in health and safety. But what do we mean by ‘engagement’ and how can you encourage it?
  • Near miss reporting: equipping yourself for the unplanned. Provides a good introduction to the topic of near misses (and other synonyms) for non-specialists, and challenges some of the current approaches to the topic. (No longer available online due to a change in the product it supports, but contact me if you’d like a copy).
  • Getting senior management buy-in for safety software.  Describes how to influence and persuade C-suite managers to support your safety projects.
  • Crisis management: how improving our understanding of the way we think, before, during and after a crisis, can lead to better decision-making.
  • Writing about the use of AI in occupational health and safety in two papers – AI’s role in promoting a proactive safety culture and Getting Senior Buy-In for your AI safety Software Project.

Prefer to watch or listen?

Some webinars require registration:

My latest webinar with ProtexAI, alongside James Carter of Marks and Spencer, discussing how Computer Vision AI can be used to support coaching conversations. Note: if you can’t get this to run on Chrome, try Edge. If all else fails, register to watch.

You can listen to me in some webinars below, or visit The Safer Choice YouTube account.

Example webinars (no registration needed):

Securing leadership buy-in for your safety initiative, April 2022

As part of a panel, I explain three steps for getting support from senior leaders for health and safety initiatives. Hosted by Safeopedia for a largely US audience.

Can technology help drive behaviour change? November 2020

I explain the hierarchy of behaviour change, as part of a panel on how technology is being used to support safety behaviours.

Presentations

A few examples of presentations I’ve given to professional audiences. For more examples see my Presentations page.  If you’d like a presentation on these or other topics I’ve covered in articles, please get in touch.

Virtual classrooms for safety training

Online presentation to IOSH Thames Valley on 7 October 2020.

Robots for healthy workplaces

Health and Wellbeing Event, March 2020

Robots for future leaders

IOSH Future Leaders event, November 2019