Workplace safety is a vitally important topic, but some small businesses have disengaged. This presentation summarises research on how proactive small business owners view their contribution to safety in supply chains.

1. Safety in the Supply Chain
- from the Small Business point of view
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Bronwyn Reid
bronwyn_reid
Mining For Business

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How did we get to this?

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Small Business Big Business

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Terminology and Skills
“No-one’s ever taught me how to do a risk assessment”!
Inconsistent application of rules
“…because sometimes if things are urgent, they alter their system, then it
changes for non urgent items” .
“…because there are all these rules yet the person you interact with … doesn't
know them themselves and you have to go looking which takes time”.
Contractors/suppliers vs company personnel.
Barriers to understanding

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Actual commitment to safety
“… two things I’ve noticed. 1. The more companies scream about HEALTH AND
SAFETY the worse they are.
2. Most of the time its just tick and flick bull*** to cover ***”.
Inconsistent Systems
“In fact a hazard doesn't select whether the person involved is a contractor or
owner….if it causes death, anyone can die so rules are not different but what
can differ is the implementation of the rules through having different safety
systems in place from one organisation to another”.

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Small Business Big Business

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…but only if it is actually contributing to safety.
“Safety is incorporated in the company’s financial budget”.
“Safety brings confidence and motivation in workers”.
“If they are not being safe, they are hurting themselves and that’s not good, but also they are not
productive”.
“The bull**** around getting the right ticket so you can operate a forklift is crazy!! I don’t understand
why it costs 3 days of wages, plus $750 for the course to be told how to drive a forklift”.
“Lack of safety at a work place can actually turn out to be so costly to an organisation”.
“Budget is allocated to maintain the above standard safety position of the company so it's not a matter of
buying PPE anyhow or going to every Safety seminar in town, but choosing the most relevant ones”.
Cost is NOT seen as an issue…

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Good product – bad packaging

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Make it easy for them to do business with you
Don’t change the rules every second Thursday over afternoon tea. Clarity,
Simplicity, Consistency.
Think, and ask
Before you introduce sweeping changes, assess the impact on your smaller
suppliers.
Share information freely. They may actually have some good ideas.
It’s not always about price
Don’t ask them to have a 5 star safety system, and then screw them on price.
How do we change the narrative?

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“… in many industries, companies see suppliers as cost factors that they need to
manage rather than as key partners that can make or break the success of the
business”.*
*http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/180275/become-customer-choice-suppliers.aspx
Be a Customer of Choice