Outgoing HSE Chair Touts Networking
"For your networking in IOSH to make a real difference in workplaces, it requires each of you to go back and share that learning with your colleagues and to discuss how good ideas might be translated or built upon to work for you," Judith Hackitt said Feb. 18 at the inaugural meeting of the IOSH Staffordshire Branch.
Judith Hackitt, outgoing chair of Britain's Health and Safety Executive agency, touted the benefits of shared learning and networking among occupational safety and health professionals in a speech at the inaugural meeting of the IOSH Staffordshire Branch last week. Hackitt said these can make a real difference to the well-being of workers across Britain. Her talk's main topic was HSE's five-year strategy to shape the future of Britain's health and safety system.
"The new strategy is for the system as a whole and everyone in it. IOSH and its members have an important role to play in driving forward all of the themes of the strategy, including focusing more attention on harm to health caused at work," she said Feb. 18, according to the transcript posted on the IOSH website.
At the end of March, Hackitt will become the new chair of EEF, a manufacturers' trade association.
"Networking is important in any community because it provides opportunities for learning and sharing of knowledge," she added. "What matters is what you talk about. It needs to be about helping one another to implement the most effective practices. It means being open-minded about new and novel solutions – not immediately dismissing them because your workplace is 'different.' For your networking in IOSH to make a real difference in workplaces, it requires each of you to go back and share that learning with your colleagues and to discuss how good ideas might be translated or built upon to work for you."
The IOSH Staffordshire Branch has replaced the IOSH Midland Branch North District. The Staffordshire Branch is the first of three new IOSH branches that will be launched in the Midlands within the next few months.