The catastrophic and entirely preventable incident in July 2022, where a worker was crushed between one-tonne metal frames due to a malfunctioning safety gate, serves as a stark and costly reminder of the devastating consequences of systemic safety failures. For Tarmac Building Products, the incident resulted in a fine exceeding £633,300, but for the employee, Richard Ogunleye, it meant a two-week hospitalization, over a year away from work, and life-altering injuries. The investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed a chilling reality: the company had not only failed to prevent access to dangerous machinery but had also ignored several previous near misses that should have served as urgent warnings. This tragic event casts a harsh spotlight on a critical question for organizations everywhere: where does the responsibility for preventing such incidents truly lie, and what is the evolving role of human resources in moving beyond reactive compliance to proactively embedding a culture of safety that protects every employee? The answer suggests a fundamental shift, demanding that HR professionals become central drivers of safety, not just peripheral administrators.
Shifting from Compliance to Culture
Beyond Policies to Proactive Prevention
The tendency for organizations to respond to safety incidents by simply writing more procedures is a common yet critically flawed approach that often fails to address the root cause of accidents. A safety manual, no matter how comprehensive, is ineffective if the underlying organizational culture treats safety protocols as an inconvenience or a bureaucratic hurdle to be circumvented for the sake of productivity. The Tarmac case poignantly illustrates this disconnect between documented policy and daily practice. True prevention requires a cultural transformation championed by human resources, where safety is ingrained as a core value and a shared responsibility. This involves fostering a no-blame environment where employees feel empowered and encouraged to report hazards and near misses without fear of reprisal. These near misses are not minor events to be dismissed; they are “screaming warnings” of systemic weaknesses that, if investigated and addressed, can prevent future catastrophes. HR’s role is to build the systems and trust necessary for this open communication to flourish, ensuring that every warning sign is heeded and acted upon before it escalates into a tragedy.
A proactive safety culture is not an abstract concept but a tangible set of behaviors and attitudes that must be cultivated and reinforced from the top down, a process where human resources can and should play a pivotal leadership role. This means moving beyond the traditional administrative functions of HR to become a strategic partner in shaping the organization’s ethos. HR professionals are uniquely positioned to influence management and leadership, coaching them to not only communicate the importance of safety but also to consistently model safe behaviors. When leaders prioritize safety in their decisions, their actions resonate throughout the organization, demonstrating an authentic commitment that paper policies alone cannot convey. HR can facilitate this by developing leadership training focused on safety communication, risk recognition, and accountability. The goal is to close the dangerous gap between a company’s stated commitment to safety and its operational reality, ensuring that the promise of a safe workplace is not just a slogan but a lived experience for every employee, every single day. This strategic intervention is essential to prevent safety from being relegated to a secondary concern when faced with production pressures.
Integrating Safety into the HR Framework
For a safety culture to take root and thrive, it must be woven into the very fabric of the organization’s human resources management systems. This integration transforms safety from an abstract ideal into a concrete and measurable component of every individual’s role and responsibilities. Human resources can spearhead this effort by embedding specific safety duties and expectations directly into job descriptions for all positions, from entry-level workers to C-suite executives. When safety is explicitly defined as a key performance area, it signals that the organization holds every employee accountable for their contribution to a safe working environment. Furthermore, performance objectives should include leading and lagging safety indicators, such as participation in safety training, hazard reporting rates, and adherence to protocols. By making safety a formal part of the job from the moment of hire and reinforcing it through ongoing performance dialogues, HR ensures that it is not viewed as an optional extra or the exclusive domain of a specialized department but as an intrinsic element of professional conduct and success within the company.
Accountability is the linchpin of an effective safety program, and human resources holds the key to forging this critical link, particularly at the managerial level. Managers and supervisors have a direct and significant impact on the daily safety practices of their teams, yet their performance is often evaluated almost exclusively on productivity, efficiency, and financial metrics. This creates a potential conflict where safety can be implicitly deprioritized to meet other targets. To counteract this, HR must redesign performance review and compensation structures to include robust safety-related metrics. A manager’s ability to maintain a strong safety record, conduct regular safety talks, ensure their team completes required training, and respond effectively to safety concerns should be a significant factor in their performance evaluations, bonuses, and promotion opportunities. By tying tangible rewards and career progression to safety leadership, HR sends an unequivocal message that the well-being of employees is as valuable as the company’s bottom line. This strategic alignment makes managers active and accountable champions of safety, driving sustainable improvements where they matter most.
The Strategic and Legal Imperative for HR
The Nexus of Collaboration and Training
While human resources professionals are not expected to be certified safety engineers or industrial hygienists, their expertise in managing people places them at the center of a successful safety program. Their most critical function in this domain is to act as a strategic collaborator and facilitator, bridging the gap between specialized health and safety management and the broader workforce. This partnership is essential for developing and implementing policies that are not only compliant with complex legal requirements but are also practical, understandable, and consistently enforced on the ground. HR can ensure that safety procedures are communicated effectively during onboarding, reinforced through regular communications, and integrated into departmental workflows. By managing the “human elements” of the safety system—such as communication strategies, disciplinary procedures for safety violations, and employee engagement initiatives—HR ensures that safety protocols are more than just rules in a binder; they become living documents that guide daily behavior and decision-making across all levels of the organization.
One of the most powerful and direct contributions HR can make to workplace safety lies in the meticulous management of training and competency. A common point of failure in safety programs is the assumption that once training is completed, the knowledge is permanently retained and applied. In reality, skills erode, procedures change, and certifications expire. HR is uniquely equipped to build and maintain a robust system for tracking all safety-related training needs, ensuring that every employee receives the appropriate instruction for their specific role and risks. This goes beyond a simple check-the-box exercise; it involves creating a dynamic training matrix that flags when certifications are due for renewal, identifies skill gaps that require targeted intervention, and ensures that training is refreshed regularly—at least annually—to keep safety principles top-of-mind. By leveraging its expertise in learning and development and utilizing modern HR information systems, the department can prevent critical safety knowledge from becoming outdated or overlooked, thereby building a resilient and continuously improving safety infrastructure.
Upholding a Foundation of Legal and Ethical Duty
The significant fine levied in the Tarmac case serves as a powerful reminder of the stringent legal duties imposed upon employers to protect their workforce from harm. Under established health and safety legislation, every organization has a non-delegable responsibility to provide a safe working environment, which includes ensuring that machinery is properly maintained and guarded, comprehensive risk assessments are conducted, and safe systems of work are developed and implemented. Human resources plays a crucial role in ensuring the organization not only understands but rigorously adheres to these legal and ethical obligations. This involves working closely with legal and safety departments to translate statutory requirements into actionable internal policies and procedures. HR must also oversee the critical processes of providing all employees, particularly new or young workers undertaking high-risk tasks, with adequate information, instruction, training, and supervision. Failure to do so exposes the company to severe legal penalties, reputational damage, and, most importantly, places employees in unacceptable peril.
A Transformed Mandate for Organizational Well-Being
The lessons from this and similar incidents confirmed that the role of human resources in workplace safety had irrevocably shifted. It was no longer sufficient for HR to be a passive administrator of policies created by others; it had become an active and indispensable guardian of employee well-being and a strategic driver of organizational resilience. The departments that succeeded in this transformed mandate were those that moved beyond mere compliance and championed a deep-seated cultural change. They integrated safety into every facet of the employee lifecycle, from the first interview question to the final exit interview. By holding managers accountable, meticulously managing training, and fostering a climate of open communication, HR professionals built a robust framework that not only met legal standards but also demonstrated a profound ethical commitment to their people. This proactive stance ultimately fortified the organization, reducing accidents, improving morale, and proving that a business’s greatest asset is a safe and valued workforce.
