To me, providing practical advice means: taking a close look, involving people, defining tasks clearly, and staying on top of things until those requirements are turned into active occupational safety practices.
Workplace safety starts with people
For me, workplace safety doesn't start with a form, nor does it start with a risk assessment. It starts with a conversation.
When I start working with a new company, I like to begin by getting to know the people I’ll be working with in the future. This includes, above all, the management team. They are responsible for occupational safety and must understand the tasks involved.
However, there is a second person who is at least as important: my designated contact person at the company.
I like to call this feature the “hinge” of collaboration. I come in from the outside, offer suggestions, ask questions, provide templates, request documents, and propose actions. For these ideas to actually take root within the company, someone is needed to carry them forward internally: organizing meetings, involving managers, obtaining documents, bringing employees together, and ensuring that agreed-upon tasks don’t fall by the wayside.
That's why, in my view, effective occupational safety and health relies above all on reliable cooperation among people.
1. Getting to Know Each Other and Providing Orientation
The first meeting isn't about going through as many rules as possible. First, I want to understand: How does this company operate? Who makes the decisions? Who is in charge of organizing things? Who is familiar with the company’s operational processes?
At the same time, I explain what occupational safety means in the day-to-day operations of a company. To do this, I often use my "Workplace Safety" program —a concise overview of the key topics and tasks. It makes it clear that occupational safety and health isn’t just a single risk assessment or an annual training session, but rather consists of many interconnected tasks.
This helps us develop a shared understanding of what lies ahead right from the first appointment.
2. Get out of the conference room—take a look around the facility
After the interview, I'd like to tour the facility.
A first joint site inspection is therefore, in my view, an essential part of the consulting process as early as possible. Offices, workshops, warehouses, traffic routes, machinery, or workstations often reveal more about the actual working conditions than a binder full of documents.
My goal isn't to walk around the facility pointing fingers and listing mistakes. I ask questions, have tasks explained to me, and talk to the people who know the work.
And if I notice something while doing that, I'll say so.
Some things can be improved right away. Others require closer examination. It’s not uncommon for me to summarize my initial findings in writing afterward. This allows me to identify, even from the first visit, concrete next steps.
3. Create a structure that works for both sides
It is at this point, at the very latest, that the aspect of workplace safety begins that is less visible but crucial to whether the support system works in the long run: We need order.
Risk assessments, training sessions, operating instructions, inspection reports, occupational health care, first aid, ASA meetings, and many other topics generate documents and recurring tasks.
For companies of a certain size, I therefore offer a shared digital document structure. Both sides work with the same filing system and can see which documents are available and which are still missing.
At first glance, that sounds like bureaucracy. To me, it's the opposite: A clear structure reduces bureaucracybecause you don’t have to constantly search, ask questions, and start over.
4. Observations lead to specific courses of action
We'll go into more detail during the following sessions.
It takes more than two hours to get a good understanding of larger companies. That is why, if necessary, additional site visits, discussions with executives, and a systematic review of specific topics may follow.
Now we're also adding risk assessments, checklists, and other working documents. I provide them; the company adds its knowledge about tasks and working conditions; and then I evaluate the results from a technical perspective.
There is one point that is particularly important to me:
A completed form does not in itself improve workplace safety.
What matters is what we make of it.
5. Insights Become Tasks
This is where the truly practical part of my work begins for me.
I don't want to just tell the company that “action is needed” somewhere. That's not very helpful to the person who has to decide on Monday morning exactly what needs to be done.
That's why I try to turn insights manageable tasks :
What needs to be changed?
Who should handle this?
What documents are missing?
Who needs to be involved?
By when should this be done?
And what is more important than anything else?
Sometimes that also means being a bit of a pain. I request documents, follow up on agreements, provide feedback on returned documents, and assign the next task.
To me, “practical” doesn’t mean asking for as little as possible. “Practical” means translating requirements in a way that a company can actually work with.
6. Occupational safety and health is a continuous process
Over time, this creates a communication loop.
I provide some input. The team works on it. I receive a document back, review it, and provide feedback. This may lead to the next task. At the next meeting, we review the results.
I communicate with senior management on an ad hoc basis, with my designated point person on a regular basis, and—especially in larger companies—with the relevant managers as well.
It is precisely this interplay that gives rise to continuous support.
That said, I don’t want to just point out people’s shortcomings. Progress deserves just as much attention.
If a manager has organized an issue well, I'll say so. If a contact person has come to recognize on her own which documents are missing or what steps need to be taken, I consider that a major success.
After all, effective occupational safety consulting should not render a company permanently dependent. It is intended to build up expertise within the company.
7. After a while, you should be able to see what has improved
A development like that doesn't happen in just a few weeks.
After one or two years of collaboration, however, a clear difference should be evident: risk assessments are in place, training sessions are being organized, deadlines are being met, responsibilities are clearer, and the number of outstanding tasks is decreasing.
That's why, for me, measuring progress is an integral part of my support.
In the annual report, I don't just look back on what we've accomplished together. I also check which required documents are actually on file, which issues have been addressed, and where gaps still exist.
This can result in a score that may initially seem rather uncomfortable. But a number makes visible what general phrasing often obscures.
And it's going to be especially interesting next year.
Because then we can compare.
"We still have a lot of work to do in occupational safety" becomes: "We've taken care of that. We've improved in that area. And these tasks still lie ahead of us."
Occupational safety must be a priority within the company
Ultimately, then, my job isn't about producing as many documents as possible.
I would like to help company management, key contacts, and executives gradually integrate occupational safety into their organizational structure.
This includes technical expertise and legal knowledge. But communication, perseverance, clear tasks, and sometimes a little humor are just as important.
After all, workplace safety doesn't happen at my desk.
It only works when the people in the company put it into practice.