Rolls-Royce Nuclear health and safety adviser Matt Hall GradIOSH explains how a workplace fatality abroad led him to his calling.
As somebody who has visited 118 countries, it’s fair to say that Matt Hall is a globetrotter. So in our video call, it’s no great surprise to see Matt against a background of palm trees and exotic hustle and bustle. But this backdrop – Matt spoke to us from the streets of Davao in the Philippines – couldn’t have been more apt.
‘It was actually when I was out in the Philippines 10 years ago that made me want to move into safety,’ he explains.
‘I was living out here with my former partner and we had a driver who came with her job. Our driver’s brother died in a work accident: he was up a set of ladders – unsecured working on a three- or four-storey house – when he fell, landed on the back of his head and died. Seeing the effect this had on his family, as well as his work colleagues and everybody who knew him, the importance of health and safety really hit home for me.
‘Safety was non-existent on the building site he was working on, and his death was completely avoidable. I realised that it was time to make a change and, rather than focusing on income, I should do something I felt was worthwhile.’
Walking the walk
Previously, Derbyshire-based Matt had worked at luxury car maker and aero-engine manufacture Rolls-Royce as a leader in production and logistics. On his return from the Philippines, he looked for a new route in OSH, starting with an IOSH Managing Safely course. ‘That was my first health and safety course, as well as a NEBOSH general certificate. Then I became a member of IOSH so I could start moving up the membership levels. I’m a Graduate Member, but I’m keen to move towards Chartered status. I should be ready to sit my Chartered interview within the next year.’
The Managing Safely course gave Matt a fantastic introduction to some of the specific factors involved in OSH, but he believes his experience working in logistics and production has also been invaluable when it comes to real-world safety.
‘As a production leader, you see what corners are cut, safety-wise. I know how to avoid those problems and how to speak to people properly,’ he says.
‘I think that real-life experience is a vital addition to the classroom training and textbook learning that safety officers get. A couple of months on the ground beats a year in the classroom. I think every safety practitioner should have some level of on-the-job training. Once they have their basic understanding, they should be sent onto the shop floor with a more experienced practitioner.’
i think real-life experience is a vital addition to classroom training and textbook learning
Zero harm
Matt is now an HSE [health, safety and environmental] adviser for Rolls-Royce Nuclear, which develops small modular reactors – overseeing manufacturing areas to ensure day-to-day safety, carrying out compliance checks and site-wide audits, coaching a team of HSE champions and delivering safety culture improvement sessions. Although Rolls-Royce’s areas of business vary from jet engines and luxury cars to small modular nuclear reactors, one OSH constant is found across the business: the philosophy of zero harm.
‘Zero-harm culture is the goal for all sites to have zero accidents, zero injuries. But it is important to understand that zero harm doesn’t mean we discourage reporting – we encourage reporting a lot, which might seem like a conflict. But since we rolled out the zero-harm initiative over the past four years, reporting has gone up, but accidents rates and injuries have gone down drastically. ‘There is certainly a lot of scope at Rolls-Royce for different working requirements, but the zero-harm philosophy and the training sessions that accompany it are the same across all sites.’
Security restrictions limit what he can say about his work, but it is fair to say the safety culture at Rolls-Royce is positive.
‘We get a lot of support from management. They integrate with us, they help deliver sessions, and we have an open culture on-site. If staff have a health and safety issue, they can come to me or can easily go to one of the directors.
‘OSH-wise, each manufacturing area undergoes risk assessments for each task. Those risk assessments feed into a PIA – a probability-impact assessment – and we put the top 10 risks for each area into the business risk plan. Those risks are then monitored constantly. We look at how we can improve them.
‘It’s impossible to take all the risk away but we do all we can to make it as low as humanly possible.’
Keep moving
Matt’s career goals are to achieve IOSH Chartered status and put his travelling experience to good use by working overseas.
‘I took a step down from being a consultant in production and logistics to an advisory role in OSH, but once I’m Chartered, I’d like to get back into the leadership side. I’ve never worked abroad so I’d like to do that, perhaps in a developing nation.
‘I’m in no rush to leave Rolls-Royce – there are many opportunities around the world to work with them – but I’m open to new opportunities. There is always going to be work for us as health and safety practitioners, wherever we are.
‘I think people look at health and safety as being boring. But it is not just a man with a clipboard: it is about educating, coaching, psychology – making sure you speak to people properly. If you order them around, they’re not going to listen.’
Two life lessons: Matt’s advice for new OSH practitioners
‘Study hard. It’s not an easy job to fall into unless you get lucky or are self-motivated to get some training. Ask your employer to help. If you’re struggling to make the breakthrough, choose an entry-level role – HSE admin, for example. There are always lower roles available.
The best lesson I have learned was on my IOSH Managing Safely training. One of the trainers said: “If you think health and safety is expensive, you want to try having an accident.” I’ve used that as a guiding thought ever since.’
