Near misses happen every day in the workplace. Regardless of their potential for personal injury and property damage, all near misses should be taken seriously and consistently reported. There are many terms which essentially mean the same thing – accident avoidance, close call, mishap or even narrow escape. It doesn’t matter exactly what terminology your business chooses to use when referring to a near miss. What matters is whether everyone understands exactly what constitutes a near miss and why it’s essential to make a record of it so it can be investigated and addressed.

Near-miss reporting is a critical component of any well-organized and effective safety program. Over time, near-miss programs have been shown to save millions of dollars in medical care and equipment replacement costs. More importantly, they save lives.

“I was a nursery manager when I began implementing H&S systems. It quickly became apparent that with the right system in place, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to look after your staff and mitigate business risk. Knowing that Health, Safety, Environmental and Quality management was a field that i could contribute to, I spent the next 15 years’ experience in  a range of industry sectors. I developed and implemented HSE management systems in all of them, from helping devloping small SME’s right through to large organizations.”

Jamie strives on the “KISS” principle with systems; keeping systems simple and easy to use create participation which in turn lowers the risk of incidents, harm and damage in the business generating better profits and a peace of mind you are doing your best to look after your staff.

His philosophy is to plan to do it right the first time and to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. Jamie Grunwell is an accredited training provider for the Regional Business Partner Network.