News
Hindsight Bias
Professor Richard Booth has written on the importance of Hindsight Bias in a contentious, albeit personal, account of its effects on the investigation of the Buncefield explosion.
Richard's analysis is underpinned by a study of research literature which takes the story in unexpected directions.
Read the short version (10 pages)
Read the long version (37 pages)
Next Thought Leadership Conference
The topic for the next conference, arranged for 28th of March, is Behavioural Safety - is it a panacea, a quick fix or or part of the longer term safety journey?
Hastam Blog
New for 2012 is the Hastam blog. Liz Shuttleworth and the Hastam directors will be posting articles on a weekly basis, discussing new trends and developments in health and safety management.
Click on the Blog entry on the menu or go to hastam.co.uk/blog
New Training Courses
Hastam has developed two new training workshops for directors, managers and supervisors based on the experience gained in our expert witness work. If you dread the thought of going to court in the event of an accident, one of these workshops may be just what you need!
Taking Safety Seriously - are your managers and supervisors really engaged in actively managing those safety issues that matter to your business? Do they adequately understand the hazards, risks, the potential errors and lapses that could lead to people being seriously injured, killed or your plant being destroyed?
Safety On Trial - do your directors, executives and senior managers understand what is required to construct a defence against a criminal health and safety prosecution?
All our training is detailed on the Training page.
CHASE 14001 Module
Hastam is delighted to announce that we have launched an updated audit question set for BS14001. This question set allows you to assess you compliance with the Environmental standard and good environmental practice. It is an ideal tool to:
- monitor whether your organisation is ready to seek accreditation
- identify improvement actions
- track progress towards the standard
- assess your continuing compliance.
For more details email: 14001@hastam.co.uk
If you aready have CHASE a sample of the questions can be downloaded here>>.
Health and Safety News
For ten years Hastam has published a weekly Health and Safety News digest. Unfortunately, as the cost of obtaing this information has increased quite considerably in recent years, we have, regrettably, come to the conclusion that we can no longer provide this free service.
Health and Safety News is longer being updated from the end of March 2011 but we will keep the ten year archive available as a source of information.
You can still get to the Health and Safety News archive through this link.
From the Chief Executive
Welcome to Hastam's website and I'm delighted that you are reading this page.
When, in October 2009, the Hastam board invited me to join them as Chief Executive I seized the opportunity. The prospect of working with a group of people, who were widely recognised as being at the top of their chosen field was, for me, compelling. I have not been disappointed. My colleagues' knowledge and expertise is in my view unrivalled and this is reflected in all aspects of the work they undertake. Their reasoning and questioning is appropriately critical and searching. Their proposed solutions to issues are sensible, practical, often innovative and always thorough. They clearly care about what they do and the impact that their work has on others. My colleagues in Hastam enjoy helping people learn, making organisations safer and more effective, and solving problems and providing answers. Health and Safety to them is more than just business, it is a passion.
I suppose that some people may be put off approaching Hastam because of its obvious academic prowess, but they shouldn't be. The academic background ensures that clients' problems and challenges are addressed rigorously, systematically and with meticulous attention to detail. The resulting work is always accessible and extremely useful. Clients are often surprised that this expertise does not come with a gold plated price tag but provides excellent value for money. Something that is important at this point in time when organisations need to make every pound count!
Just one other important comment regarding Hastam's approach to managing health and safety, we loath the mindset that fosters inhibiting, bureaucratic, risk averse systems and procedures. We have very little time for those who use 'elf and safety' to prohibit legitimate activities or foster the trivial 'make a claim' culture. We believe in responsible risk taking, where, with careful planning and supervision, even the most risky activity can be managed effectively so that the people involved in it will not be injured.
I hope you enjoy the website and find something useful as you explore it. You will discover a number downloads which I hope you will find useful.
We are trying to ensure this web site is dynamic so please come back from time to time and see what has changed.
And if you need assistance with any health and safety issue please do contact Hastam and discover the pleasure of working with people who provide safety expertise that can be trusted.
Mike Vyvyan
CEO Hastam