John Lester (MInstLM)

14 July 2010

As Workplace Safety General Manager for The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), John Lester heads up a department delivering health and safety training, consultancy and workplace resources. Profits from these commercial businesses are ploughed back in to the charity to help it deliver its mission: to save lives and reduce injuries.

"There's no such thing as an average day at work, but I may be preparing for major tenders and bids, analysing quality or checking with the satellite office in Scotland to see how they're getting on," John says. "I also keep in touch with our commercial sales and field sales teams, and then there's budget management and cost analysis. I really enjoy the diversity of my job."

Previously having worked in the utilities and waste sector, John is now a firm believer in health and safety. But this wasn't always the case.

"Like many people, my views on this area were influenced by the media. To me, 'health and safety' represented something pejorative, a complicated process involving endless red tape and the responsibility of someone in a different department," he says. "But after coming on board at RoSPA five years ago, that opinion swiftly changed. Thanks to the common sense training RoSPA provides, I realised the whole thing is nowhere near as complex as the media would have us believe. And, although there is paperwork to fill out and procedures and processes to follow, much of it basically comes down to common sense."

John believes if you use that common sense, health and safety can be more about risk awareness than risk aversion. "For example, I'm sure many ILM members manage staff who drive on work-related business, such as reps, account managers or contract managers. It's simple to spot any potential hazards with a quick risk assessment," he points out. "For example, do they plan their journeys? Are they planning for breaks or overnight stays? Are they looking at public transport as an alternative? What's their attitude to driving? Have they had driver training? If there are any concerns, you can decide how to tackle them.

"In the past, people may have heard the words 'risk assessment', and 'hazards', plus all sorts of acronyms such as COSHH (control of substances hazardous to health) and decided to let the designated health and safety person worry about it. But RoSPA has taught me that everyone needs to be involved in the process. In fact, the more who are, the better and more reflective the risk assessment becomes. And if you can get the whole company involved, your business is bound to perform better."

John joined ILM in 2007 as he felt it offered a better package than other institutes. "Resources such as Edge magazine have been incredibly useful, and last year ILM and Management Today published an interesting survey of managers, the Index of Leadership Trust. Employees were polled to find out how many had trust in their senior management teams. As RoSPA are looking at ways to increase collaboration between line managers and health and safety representatives, I'll start actioning some pointers from it soon. It's good to keep an open mind on new thinking and upcoming trends, and if that makes me a better manager and help me achieve more in my current role at RoSPA, then so much the better."