Demonstrating leadership

Posted on December 17, 2013

In her recent blog the Chair of the HSE, Judith Hackitt, commented on the need for managers to take ownership and how important them demonstrating leadership is. This related to the recent tragic helicopter incident in Scotland but demonstrates that hazards need to be controlled: keeping Health and Safety at the top of the agenda.

She wrote: “The way in which all parts of the industry has responded to the Shetland ditching is important – they have shown leadership in taking the initial decision to suspend flights and in the subsequent decision to reinstate them. There is a maturity of understanding which is shared by everyone that risks can be managed, but they can never be eliminated. The greatest homage the offshore industry can pay to the memory of workers who have died is to demonstrate that it is striving to understand, to make things safer and to implement the lessons learned from tragic incidents. There was a strong sense of that in Aberdeen last week and that sense of unease needs to be maintained – because the hazards never go away.