“I’m not a psychologist but I’m not an asbestos management consultant either.” Sue Parker-Tantush on reframing wellbeing.
Credit: BarksJapan / Alamy Stock Vector
It’s a common debate – should wellbeing sit with HR or HS? Sue Parker- Tantush was resistant at first but now welcomes it as part of the safety framework.
I’ve been a health and safety professional for many years, and in that time, I’ve witnessed a lot of change. I’m no longer one of the few women at conferences; our profession has been elevated (particularly post-Covid); and there’s been a real shift toward health and safety leadership. All of this change I’ve welcomed, not only for our profession but for the health and safety of employees too. Raising the profile of health and safety leaders can only be a positive movement toward keeping people safe and ultimately that’s why we do what we do.
Accountability
However, there was one change that emerged a few years ago, pre-Covid that, candidly, I really did push against – that of safety professionals becoming wellbeing managers. It wasn’t the concept of looking after the wellbeing of employees, as I see that as putting the ‘health’ into health and safety, it was more that the accountability of delivering it sat with us.
At every EHS conference I would see increasing amounts of wellbeing sessions intermingled with the more traditional, technical talks, and often led by safety professionals who now suddenly had wellbeing as part of their job title. We love collecting qualifications in this profession and I wanted to shout, “But I’m not qualified to deal with this. Why can’t it sit with HR?”
Having difficult conversations is also a normal part of our role, such as telling people things they don’t always want to hear.
However, on reflection, particularly post-covid, I’m happy to admit that I think I was wrong for a few reasons: We have a unique role in our organisations as we are professionally tasked with caring about the welfare of our employees and keeping them safe from harm so isn’t this just a natural extension? We also work across the whole business, working seamlessly from one department to another, in a collaborative way, so our sphere of influence is extensive. Having difficult conversations is also a normal part of our role, such as telling people things they don’t always want to hear.
Skills
We also have the listening and observational skills to talk to people, understand where there is a problem and seek positive outcomes. In hindsight, perhaps we are the best people for this role. I’m not a psychologist, but equally, I don’t pretend to be an asbestos management consultant either. We don’t need to be technically competent in everything. It’s much more important to recognise when further expertise is needed. And when it comes to wellbeing it can begin simply by tasking managers to say: “How are you?” We can build stress management into our safety frameworks and learn how to spot the signs of someone who looks like they need to talk.
So now I truly believe wellbeing can be part of the role of the safety professional, someone who has the skill to look after our employees, to challenge and engage and find solutions – or, in an ideal world, maybe it should sit with all of us?