Compliance is the last refuge of sheq culture failure
October 2nd, 2011Sheq practitioners are batting for the wrong side when using health, safety and enviro legislation to leverage corporate culture and labour behaviour.
We are tempted to believe that some legal ‘stick’ would prod our employers and colleagues to the supposedly blessed state of compliance and beyond, to a culture of self regulation, corporate governance, self sustaining continuous improvement and sheq excellence. Instead, compliance is hogging sheq cultural space.
Compliance, and its handmaidens regulation, inspection, enforcement, prosecution, defence and penalties, leave us stuck in a paradigm of minimum measures, window dressing, and revenue generation.
Exposure compliance failures
Consider how occupational exposure limits (OELs) fail to cover most substances, jobs and people. OELs are good at creating a façade, a false face, of general exposure prevention, and soothing corporate consciences.
Compensation compliance failures
Consider how compensation mechanisms have failed thousands of miners, construction and industry workers. Compensation insurers and funds were good at paying out some injured and ill workers after our corporate and public cultures had failed them, at creating a false front of care, and adding to incentives to hide injuries.
Records compliance failures
Consider how South African construction health and safety files are sterling examples of how regulation, supposedly a means to sheq ends, becomes an end unto itself. Some contractors pay a premium to hire construction sheq file specialists to dress up their filing cabinets in the way that Department of Labour inspectors like filing cabinets, full of apparent compliance.
Consider how the quest for compliance led USA Virginia Upper Big Branch coal mine to keeping two sets of health and safety records, one to show inspectors, and one to rationalise behind closed doors.
Labour inspection data ‘success’
Consider how SA Department of Labour inspectors had set their goal to enforcing compliance at a level of 80%, and then found that industry in general was 79% compliant. I marvel at how DOL could congratulate itself on narrowly missing its target by 1%, and implicitly justify its programmes by the perpetually missing 20%, without a hint of the irony of self fulfilling prophecy.
DOL targets and findings are marvelously in line with the 80:20 principle. This seeming success serves to hide the failures of state agencies to draft, amend and enforce the will of decent employers and a labour force seeking decent work, in fair, simple, practical clauses and inspection procedures.
Some defaulters get caught, some of the time. Measured by the 80:20 principle, 20% of employers should be inspected, but most of the 20% are not. Some of those that are fined, continue finding creative compliance methods, playing the game, distracting themselves and workers from the spirit of law.
Traffic compliance failures
Consider how bad traffic law enforcement had institutionalised transgressions. Legislation soothes state conscience that ‘something was being done’, while ‘something’ involves trapping, catching, collection, as well as outsourced trapping and collection, but little prevention, awareness, skills or sheq culture.
Traffic authorities are trapped in a paradigm of restrictions to the extent of proposing a general speed reduction from 120km/h to 110km/h, against better advice from the Automobile Association, business, industry and the well meaning public.
Compliance culture failures
Sheq practitioners should not be police, although we are tempted into ‘compliance rage’ when employers or colleagues follow tempting impulses to conform to unskilled norms. We should not be window dressers, although tempted by self image impulses to gain regular ‘success’ badges.
Compliance culture remains tempting with its tickbox metrics and high percentage results, but saving lives, saving life quality, and inspiring employers and colleagues to adopt risk management culture, requires more of us than compliance ever would.
Excellence is voluntary
Sheq practitioners, employers and organised labour should see legislation for the inadequate minimum, and often the obstruction that it is, and work on risk awareness, skills, lifestyle, values, corporate governance and corporate culture instead.
Compliance culture would be difficult to root out, since it permeates sheq training, practice, metrics, consulting and auditing, but our international sheq colleagues and leading African employers clearly spell out ‘clauses’ of culture in ISO standards and voluntary best practice codes like the King Code on Corporate Governance.
Should we legislate the King Code, or expect decent work if its measures were enforced? Certainly not. As Judge Mervyn King told me in comment on British legislation enforcing Sarbaines Oxley and other best practice measures, “honesty and good intentions could not be legislated.”
States and employers would only reduce measures of excellence to measures of mediocrity.
We should bat on the side of sheq culture, against the onslaughts of compliance culture. Compliance is the last refuge of sheq culture failture.
