Networking Groups, my view point (October 2012 update)

I am an advocate of face to face Networking as those of you who follows me on Twitter (@Safety_Matters) will know. Over the last two years, I have reviewed critically all of the Networking Groups that I am a member of. The upshot of this review is that it is clear that some Groups are more active and more effective than others. I'm not merely griping about lead generation, but I'm criticising the ethos of some of these groups.

An obvious point coming out of the review is that attending Networking Groups costs both time and money. These are commodities that all businesses need to keep under review and to control. The money (in most cases) is not a great deal. The time, however, is a resource that is increasingly subject to many demands.  I now ask a lot of the Networking Groups that I associate with and challenge them to be more than a group of people meeting up.

Following my review, I have now left two Networking Groups altogether and I have reduced by attendance at another (by using a reliable substitute from within my business). I joined an active and vibrant Group that operates differently: they meet twice a month rather than on a weekly basis and they provide tea & coffee, but not breakfast. This does help to control both the cost and the time commitment for attendance. AS I said, this new group is the most active and vibrant group that I have ever been a member of. The reason for this, I think, is focus: on the Members and on Outcomes. This group has risen to the real challenge facing many Networking Groups: getting work through the group, not just for the members. The group has secured a significant contrcat to provide the services of all members to another (business) Group on a retained basis. I hope to talk more about the mechanisms of that when it is not so sensitive a subject.

This group has also set some ambitious targets for all members: pairing members up and requiring them to get five business opportunities for their partner before the end of this year. Not an easy task.

Social media marketing cannot, for me, fully replace face to face Networking, but it does give some positive results and is becoming increasingly important to my business. I'm encouraging others within my business to take up and embrace the world Twitter. As you can guess, this is being met with different views. Jamie embraces the concept, Richard struggles with it and Hagrid can't even touch computers (a Hogwarts thing!). My time investment in Twitter is not excessive: I use a lot of (otherwise) dead time, such as waiting for clients, waiting for the train, travelling by train, etc. Writing blog posts can be both rewarding and therapeutic. Rewarding in that it helps to crystallise some thoughts and therapeutic in that it allows me to channel some frustrations into (hopefully meaningful) words. I can then spread my thoughts and my musings by the use of (you guessed it!): Twitter.

I'm making a conscious effort to make more use of LinkedIn and would be pleased to hear from other as to how effective it is (or can be).

Like many things (including the provision of health and safety services), the true costs of Networking Groups should be monitored and scrutinised regularly. If it is not working for your business, look for other things that are.

Please visit my Health and Safety Website

Please follow me on Twitter: @Safety_Matters

Health and Safety in 2012 - keeping a competitive edge

Worried about safety in 2012?
Many people (including business owners, managers and directors) are looking forward to 2012 and wondering what it will have in store for them. Health and safety is one of those things that companies need to get right, but which should not compromise the economic viability of the company.

With many companies worried about expenditure, it is right that they should be worried that the health and safety of their workers may be compromised. We offer a solution to that problem: appoint us to work with you on your health and safety. True: we charge for that service. Also true: we are likely to be more cost effective than you struggling to do it in-house and then not having the time to do it properly. The benefit of appointing us is that we know what we are doing and we will work with you to improve your safety performance.

Contact us through our website

Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 extends to the Police

As of 01 September 2011, police forces, prison services and other authorities holding people in custody can now be charged under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

Health and Safety in 2012

Have you thought about health and safety in the New Year? Will be doing anything different next year? Does safety feature prominently in your business plans for the year(s) ahead?

If you want to do things differently and you need support, please contact LRB Consulting.

Can flu be avoided? simple steps

There are some steps that the employer (and the employees) can take to reduce the number of cases of flu. These steps are largely about providing suitable facilities and passing information to the workforce on how best to use these.

• Consider a simple communications campaign informing workers of the benefits to good hand hygiene at this time of year
• Promote good hand hygiene practice by providing simple awareness raising materials, such as posters and stickers in the washrooms
• Reinforce the simple message:
• cover your nose and mouth with a clean tissue when you cough or sneeze and then throw away the tissue promptly and hygienically
• As well as providing adequate hand washing facilities, promote the use of a suitable hand sanitiser
• If appropriate to the type of work that you do, provide some form of "hand hygiene on the move", such as by the provision of a handy personal issue sanitiser
• Review your cleaning operations for the winter period and consider moving to damp rather than dry dusting and consider the use of suitable surface sanitisers
• Raise awareness to the flu vaccination programme available from the NHS

For general Health and Safety advice, contact us through our website

Do I need a gas safety certificate?

If you are a Landlord (or Managing Agent) and if you are responsible for gas plant and equipment (such as a gas boiler or a gas fire), you should have the equipment serviced and maintained by a competent person (Gas Safe).  Further to this, you should arrange for the equipment to be checked and for a Gas Certificate to be issued. A copy of this Gas Certificate should be made available on request.

Poorly maintained gas appliances can cause carbon monoxide poisoning, which can kill and can also cause serious long-term health problems. Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include nausea, dizziness, tiredness, vomiting, collapse and loss of consciousness.

Recent prosecution involving the lack of a gas certificate
A Walsall landlord has been sentenced for failing to provide a gas safety certificate.The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted the landlord following a complaint from a tenant, who rents a house at Raleigh Street, Walsall from him.

The Magistrates heard that the boiler was replaced in October this year, despite having broken down in January.  Until recently the landlord did not have a landlord’s gas safety certificate for the appliances in the property, despite having being issued with an Improvement Notice from the HSE in March requiring him to provide the certificate by May. The court also heard that when the new boiler was installed, the gas engineer condemned the cooker in the property as dangerous and isolated it. The Landlord was fined £2000 and ordered to pay costs of £3000.

Contact LRB Consulting through the website if you need help in understanding your duties as a landlord.

Health and Safety - the week ahead

Ever wondered how those involved in health and safety fill their time? The week ahead is very busy for my consultancy. This is how we think it's going to pan out.

Hagrid, one of my consultants, is travelling up to Leeds on Sunday to spend three days assisting a company that makes training videos with "a shoot". This follows several days work over the last few weeks reviewing and revising the script. All is ready for the final phase of this piece of work.

When Hagrid returns from Leeds, he is off to Bristol and then onto Hungerford to delivery Legionella and Asbestos awareness training. This continues a large training commitment that will take up most of the rest of this month.

John is off to Dorking to carry out some Fire Risk Assessment work and then is back to Leicester to do the same for a series of small blocks of flats with common areas. He then needs to create the reports.

Richard is off down to London, where he has picked up a lot of my Facilities Management Safety work. At least the student protests of last week did not get in the way too much.

For my part, I'm carrying out a project management task for a client on Monday as well as finishing off a paper for the Board of another client (reviewing their health and safety compliance across their sites). I will also be checking in on the progress with an update on my previous review of Health and Safety at the British Library. On Tuesday I will be delivering a day of Legionella awareness training. Wednesday involves a series of client meetings and a dental appointment. On Wednesday evening, I will be presenting my Consultancy Business to several clients of my Bank. I'll be talking about the key factors in running your own business as well as discussing how to manage health and safety.

Thursday starts off nice and early with a breakfast Networking meeting - again, promoting my business. The day continues with two schedules telephone conferences to chase progress with clients. Friday will again have an early start with more Networking.

Within the week, I also need to progress quotations for work with both new and existing clients; I need to check various reports before that are sent out; I need to review news & blog pages and sort out new content; I need to work on new PodCast materials and develop some ideas for further YouTube video; etc. I also need to address any issues as and when they arise.

Monday's Update
Hagrid reports that day one of the shoot went well, but was sapping as it involved a lot of standing around. Day two will involve film kitchen activity - the key is not to be in the way.

The telephone conference calls went well, as did the project manager review. All of the issues seem to be being progressed. The Board paper is nearly complete, it just needs two small pieces of information from the client (promised for tomorrow). Richard's sojourn in London went well, he not has the reports to put together tomorrow. Need to follow up to ensure that John got on okay in Dorking.

Tuesday's Update
Today's Legionella training course was well received by the delegates. There was lots of discussion on the risk assessments and also on record keeping. It never ceases to amaze me how tiring training is. Some time was devoted during the evening to preparing the business to business presentation (B2B) for tomorrow evening with the Bank and some of its clients. I'm hoping that this leads to contact with some interested new (potential) clients.

Feedback from Hagrid on today's filming for the training video was, again, encouraging. I'm a little envious of him for the experience, but I could spare the three consecutive days out of the business. I've been carrying out a little background research to assist him tomorrow - the power of the Internet can be useful sometimes.

Richard attended "Get Bizzing" on my behalf and reported that it was both interesting and (potentially) beneficial. In other news - report writing continues unabated and Richard has been dealing with various phone calls, and general client issues.

Wednesday's Update
Today started for me with a quick trip into the office to touch base with Richard and "delegate" a few tasks to him. I then met with a local client at 08:15 hrs to attend the start of their Board Meeting (where Health and Safety is discussed). My return to the office saw me finishing off the presentation for tonight (more later) and checking through several reports before sending them on to various clients. I dealt with a couple of enquiries and sent off one proposal for client support.

Before leaving the office to attend a dental appointment, I sorted out some invoices for some of the project clients - this is a routine task that I keep rather than delegate. Following the dental appointment, I made a few phone calls and drove over to Blaby (Leicester) where I was giving a Business to Business at a branch of HSBC to about 35 local organisations. This finished at about 20:30 hrs making today a long one. I found the experience rewarding and I'm looking forward to talking to some of the people that I met.

John enjoyed a day off and Richard was working in the office - and picking up delegated tasks! In the afternoon he set off to see a client only to have them phone and cancel while he was in transit. It doesn't happen too often, but it is frustrating. Fortunately, it was a local client.

Hagrid enjoyed the last day of the filming project, after which he called by to collect the training materials for the next two days (in Bristol and in Hungerford). Busy day for all, except John.

Thursday's Update
Well, with the working 4/5 the way through, it's good to say that most things have been achieved.
I made it to the Early Morning Breakfast meeting and renewed several good contacts. This is not a meeting that I attend regularly (it is one where I substitute into a few times a year).

I managed to chase up a lot of information for one particular client and update them in many areas. This involved an extremely long telephone discussion with one of their suppliers. The information was distilled down into a suitable spreadsheet and then emailed over.

Richard and I planned out service delivery to several clients (with a view to keeping him busy until Christmas). We discuoveed a couple of things that had been missed previously and have put things in place to keep the clients happy.

Hagrid delivered a day of Legionella Awareness training in Bristol and is travelling over to Hungerford to spend another training another group in the same subject. Five more of these sessions to be delived this month! We are alos hoping for some follow on training work.

I have put together a proposal for Food Safety Training fo nearly 250 people for next year -fingers crossed on that one!

I will have to miss the early morning Networking tomorrow as I will be taking the car into the garage for servicing. Real life intrudes on health and safety (whatever next).

Friday's Update
I was in the office early after dropping the car off for a service. So far, so good. While contemplating the day ahead, I have noticed that my writing needs to be smaller to get the ideas and actions up on the whiteboard.

Well, Hagrid completed a tough week of filming and training. He carried out the Legionella training in Hungerford and is making his week home for a well earned rest at the weekend.

Richard and John worked through various reports, submitting them in to the office for the formatting to be checked by Janice before being sent on to the client. One of these Fire Safety Risk Assessments was needed by a care home to show to the Fire Officer.

For my part, I finalised a few reports and spreadsheets for several clients and did my stint of chasing up to ensure that clients are receiving their reports on time.

I also had an interesting conversation with an Enforcement Officer with respect to an issue involving a sub-contractor to one of my clients.