We see it everywhere.
A comprehensive Safety Management System. Policies signed off. Procedures written. Risk registers are populated. Responsibilities are assigned.
On paper, the system is sound, but does it function in the real world?
Things are getting missed.
The small, easy-to-forget things. The kind of things that, if they slip through the cracks, expose people to personal risk and businesses to regulatory, reputational, and financial fallout.
And the kicker is that no one means to miss them... it can just happen because the tools most organisations rely on, to plan and track these tasks, aren't built for how safety really works.
The Hidden Risk in “Business as Usual”.
We talk a lot about visible risks, hazardous substances, confined spaces and working at heights. All these risks are known, planned for and reviewed. But what about the calendar-based tasks, the low-frequency checks or the local actions buried in a Safe Work Procedure that someone was meant to do last Tuesday..?
What about:
- Employee re-inductions?
- Calibration of gas monitors?
- Cyclone readiness checks in seasonal regions?
- Safety signage inspections?
- First aid kit restocking?
- The HSE committee meeting that didn’t happen?
These aren’t "nice-to-have" tasks... they’re the quiet backbone of every Safe System of Work. And yet, in so many organisations, they’re tracked in spreadsheets, buried in someone’s inbox, or just assumed to have been done.
We Didn’t Know It Was Due.
The most common sentences we hear during post-incident reviews or audit findings:
- “We didn’t know it was due.”
- “We thought someone else was doing it.”
- “We had the system, but we couldn’t check it was being followed.”
The hard truth is that having a Safe System of Work is not enough; you must be able to demonstrate that it is implemented, followed, verified, and improved.
The Safety Leader’s Dilemma
We’ve worked with safety leaders across industries. Their intent is never in question.
But their reality looks like this:
- Dozens of sites. Hundreds of people. Thousands of tasks.
- Spreadsheets that aren’t up to date.
- Site managers with too many competing priorities.
- Safety teams burning time chasing updates instead of improving performance.
- End-of-month scrambles to prepare board or regulatory reports.
And the most frustrating part is that there’s a genuine desire to improve, but no clear system identifying what’s required, when it’s due, and whether it’s been done.
So… Is There a Better Way?
We think so... in Part 2 of this series, we’ll unpack what that looks like – not as a theoretical model, but something real and proven in the field. We’ll show how a shift in thinking (and technology) can turn your safety system from something documented to something demonstrably working.
Until then, here’s something to think about: "What’s the one HSEQ task in your business right now that everyone thinks is happening… but might not be?”
Tune in next week for “From Blind Spots to Line of Sight.”
How visibility, structure and ownership can transform safety performance, and reduce the risk of the things you never want to miss.
Cheers
Paul
