Actions that are taken immediately after a health and safety incident involving your business, and in the days, weeks and months that follow, can have a profound effect on how your business is perceived by any victims, by your staff and by others. It can also impact any regulatory enforcement action, financial damage, and trust in your business.
The need to have the right people on the ground early, doing the right things in the right way and managing internal and external communications cannot be overemphasised. Get it right and you are more likely to emerge with your reputation and business intact. Effective management of the immediate aftermath, of staff, the public, media message and the regulator all have wide-ranging benefits that last throughout any investigations and in any subsequent court case.
It’s clearly not possible to plan for all eventualities, but there are several things that will always be needed, and these can be practised, prepared for, and planned. Securing prompt medical attention for those injured, and making things safe to prevent further harm would normally be top priorities, but beyond that, the strategies you can deploy are likely to be more effective if people know what to do and have a practised plan – just like a practised fire plan makes life-saving emergency evacuations effective and routine.
The Finch Team (including lawyers, H&S, and fire experts) have wide-ranging experience in all of these areas. As an ex HSE Inspector with 17 years’ experience of incident investigation, Melvin Sandell has seen plenty of good and bad post-incident management and will be talking about the best ways to manage and limit post-incident fallout, and the needs and perspectives of the H&S professional, the people directly involved, a defence lawyer and a regulator.
Melvin will be discussing how to manage and limit post-incident fallout in more detail on the 25th November 2020, at 12:30 pm.
