In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Brye Sargent, a professional workplace safety coach and trainer with over 20 years of safety management experience across multiple industries.Brye believes that EHS professionals are undervalued in the workplace and should receive far more support implementing safety programs from frontline supervisors and managers.Furthermore, because safety impacts all areas of an organization and has such wide-ranging benefits, she argues that HSE professionals should be seen as a member of the executive management team.Brye shares great practical tips on making this a reality and achieving safety accountabilty, including how to encourage co-worker involvement, compromise with operations, and collaborate with leadership.Her coaching business is called The Safety Geek, she hosts a podcast and YouTube channel and offers online safety management resources and courses to up-and-coming EHS professionals.Brye Sargent on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/brye-sargent/The Safety Geek website:https://thesafetygeek.com/The Safety Geek podcast:https://thesafetygeek.com/category/podcastThe Safety Geek Youtube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/SafetyGeekDownload her five step infographic on accountability:https://thesafetygeek.com/sliceThe book that Brye refers to in her interview is:The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with David Sarkus, safety speaker, consultant, coach and author, who has been recognized by ISHN as one of the top 50 leaders in his field.David first started exploring the role of community in safety management during the 1990s, and this subject has been a primary focus of his career, research and writing ever since.Based on the simple principle that developing a sense of community helps people care more about each other and what they do, he realized community could play a vital role in keeping everyone safe in the workplace.David later identified five key drivers of community in the workplace. He walks EHS professionals through each of these - mission, diversity, openness, fairness, and consensus - and uses high-profile examples to demonstrate how they can either build or erode safety within your organization.David Sarkus on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsarkusYou can discover more about David’s work on his website:https://davidsarkus.com/Or access his online safety leadership courses:https://www.virtualdavidsarkus.com/Safety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.com If you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com 

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Jim Loud, a safety management consultant, sought-after speaker, and respected author with over 40 years of experience in the EHS industry.Jim has seen many changes during his illustrious career in HSE. However, despite progressive new approaches to workplace safety, it is clear that silos still persist.This causes organizational inefficiencies, adds unnecessary costs and crucially undermines workplace safety. So, how can EHS professionals break down safety silos?Jim believes you can play a key role, using your relationship and influencing skills to build bridges within the organization and involving non-HSE co-workers in safety management initiatives.Never afraid to challenge safety traditional, Jim focuses on the Deepwater Horizon disaster to show that more safety people or procedures and quick fixes don’t guarantee safety success. Instead, EHS professionals should prioritize more collaboration with people who aren't in safety to improve the overall safety effort. Jim implores you to build relationships with people and not machinery!Jim’s safety management consultancy is called James Loud Consulting, and he’s based in Colorado, United States.Jim Loud on LinkedIn (where you can find a selection of his articles on safety management):https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-loud-csp-ms-mph-26357917Safety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.com If you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com 

Dr. Nektarios Karanikas, an Associate Professor specializing in Health, Safety & Environment at Queensland University of Technology, shares his insights on effective safety management systems. He emphasizes that these systems go beyond mere documents, highlighting the critical role of human factors and workplace culture. Nektarios discusses why many systems fail, advocating for honesty and worker engagement. He also explores the importance of context and collaboration, and shares practical strategies for enhancing workplace relationships to foster a stronger safety culture.

Tanya Hewitt, founder of Beyond Safety Compliance, shares her insights as a safety regulations expert. She discusses the detrimental impact of profitability-driven models on safety culture and advocates for internal expertise in decision-making. Through compelling case studies, she shows how safety professionals can elevate their influence and drive change in leadership. Tanya emphasizes the need for a shift from command and control to servant leadership and encourages organizations to cultivate strong safety cultures that prioritize values over mere compliance.

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Jerry Smith, an HSE expert with over 20 years of experience in workplace safety across a wide range of industries.Jerry outlines why strong people skills are essential for modern HSE professionals, and shares his wisdom on inevitable challenges, such as overcoming leadership apathy towards safety and having difficult safety conversations with employees.His starting point is always people, and Jerry’s human-centered approach to safety management focuses on qualities such as honesty, compassion, trust, empathy and continuous self-improvement. He genuinely cares - and eats, sleeps and breathes safety.Jerry is currently HSE, Compliance & Risk Manager at Vanderlande in Australia.Jerry A. Smith on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-a-smith-77002852Safety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.com If you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com 

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Kym Bancroft, an organizational psychologist turned leading health and safety executive.Kym walks EHS professionals through each stage of safety transformation to help them ensure they start in the right place, get the required buy-in, implement initiatives effectively and monitor the most important metrics.Never afraid to challenge traditional approaches to HSE, Kym explains how she incorporates human-centered methodologies and psychological principles to drive evidence-based innovation. She covers diagnostics, implementation, evaluation and iteration and highlights the importance of decluttering, safety metrics, critical control work insights, learning teams and restorative culture.Kym is currently the Head of HSE (Asia Pacific) at Serco and has a Masters’ in Applied Psychology and a Masters in Safety Leadership.Kym Bancroft on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kymbancroft/Doing Safety Differently documentary:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gREMV6j2A4Safety Differently in practice with Kym Bancroft:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIa7-k_y9AASafety on Tap podcast featuring Kym Bancroft:https://open.spotify.com/episode/5zJnEDxYQs5RreXLsdOCwiSafety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.com If you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com 

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Christian Hunt, a behavioral scientist with focus on safety.Christian takes a deep dive into understanding human risk and how this concept helps EHS professionals become even more effective. He reveals how humans tend to be hidden risk magnets in the workplace and shares insights into the impact of action and inaction on safety. With a sharp focus on the synergy of ethics and compliance, Christian manages to draw the line between having too many or too few constraints on co-workers. While discussing daily safety procedures, he explains why a reformative and learning culture must underpin safety management, and how EHS professionals could harness basic marketing approaches to influence people and change behaviors. Christian Hunt on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/humanrisk/Christian Hunt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/christianjhuntThe Human Risk Podcast: https://www.humanriskpodcast.comThe Human Risk Website: https://www.human-risk.com“Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely – https://danariely.com/books/predictably-irrational/“Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374533555“Influence is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen” by Zoe Chance – https://www.amazon.com/dp/198485433XSafety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.com If you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com 

In this episode, Mary Conquest talks with Joel Neily. Joel’s background in safety management is unconventional and highlights strategies for building rapport with employees. Trust, integrity, and balanced communication are key to Joel being a respected and approachable EHS expert. As one of the few safety experts who chose against studying at university, Joel expands on the advantages and disadvantages of his decision, how it sets him apart from his colleagues, and what he would do differently if he got the chance. Starting from trucks to transport safety, Joel has great organic insight into why talking to people is important and how to identify the people who need to be won over. Joel Neily is the Safety and Risk Manager at Bruce Automotive Dealerships and has over 27 years of experience behind him in the field of transport and safety.  Joel Neily on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-neily-687248113/Safety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.com If you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com 

In this episode, Mary Conquest talks with Chris Smith. Chris discusses the role of safety in an organization, elements of safety culture, leadership, trust, and effective communication in safety, amongst other topics.Chris Smith is the author of ‘Intrinsic Stability: How Organic Leadership Breeds Excellence’ and an experienced EHS Manager and Certified Safety Professional (CSP) with a pure passion for creating excellence. Throughout his career, he has successfully developed and led continuous improvement initiatives to achieve Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) success and OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star status.Chris Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-smith-aaa5a714/"Intrinsic Stability: How Organic Leadership Breeds Excellence" by Chris Smith –  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZJQJW3L/In the interview, Chris mentioned resources that help improve management skills and relations in the work space, including “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LHRM2O/Safety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.com