The Near Miss Nobody Reports

Picture this. It's a Monday morning. One of your team starts their shift. Within 10 minutes, they nearly trip over a box that's been in the same spot for three weeks. They catch themselves, they carry on, they say nothing. Because the last time someone mentioned something, it went on a list, the list went in a drawer, and nothing changed. Meanwhile, in the break room, someone is telling a colleague their back has been killing them for two months. Wrong chair height, screen too low, hunched over since January. But they haven't said a word to anyone in charge. Because it feels like making a fuss. Because no one has ever asked. And your manager? Your manager knows about the box. Has a vague memory of someone mentioning a bad back. But they've got twelve other things on today, and neither of those has blown up yet. So they're waiting. That is how health and safety fails in small businesses. Not with a big dramatic incident. Quietly. In a near miss, no one writes down. In a pain, someone shrugs off. In a conversation that never starts. And today, World Day for Safety and Health at Work, feels like the right time to talk about that. Welcome to the Hive. Hey there, welcome back to Buzzing About HR, the podcast for small business owners and HR professionals who want straight talking, plain English advice. I'm Kate, your host, HR Queen Bee, and someone who has definitely said, I'll deal with that later, about something I should have sorted immediately. With me as always, in presence if not in helpfulness, is Hazel, our well-being officer who is currently using my foot as a pillow and fast asleep. Today is World Day for Safety and Health at Work. This year's theme is prevention. I've written a blog post on the policy and legal side, what you need to have in writing, all of that. Link is in the show notes. But this episode is about the human side. The near misses nobody reports. The aches and worries people brush off as part of the job. And three conversations, just three, that managers in small businesses keep avoiding. Because a safe workplace is not built in a document, it's built in a conversation. And too many of those aren't happening. Kettle on, let's go. The buzz. What do we mean by health and safety? When most people hear health and safety, they picture clipboards, hard hats, a fire drill at the worst possible moment. And yes, that's part of it. But for a small business, health and safety is much simpler and much wider than that. It's whether your team feels safe doing their jobs. It's whether the chairs, the lighting, the noise, the pace are actually okay for people to work in all day. It's whether someone struggling with stress or burnout gets the same attention as someone with a dodgy step on the staircase. And it's whether your team feel they can actually say something when something is wrong. That last bit is where most small businesses are quietly getting it wrong. You can have every form filled in and every sign on the wall and still have a workplace where people are struggling in silence. Legally, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 says you must, as far as reasonably possible, protect the health, safety, and welfare of your staff. Welfare. That includes stress, mental health, and working conditions, not just slips and trips. The law covers more than most people think. And the gap between what the law expects and what's actually happening in most small businesses? That gap lives in the human stuff, the culture, the conversations, and then the hive check, the numbers. Quick numbers because they're worth knowing. Last year, 1.7 million workers in Great Britain reported a work-related illness. Of those, 776,000 were stress, depression, or anxiety. That's nearly half. Nearly half of all work-related ill health is mental health. And yet, in how many small businesses does mental health get the same airtime as a broken floor tile? Not many, in my experience. There were also 138 deaths at work last year and over 600,000 non-fatal injuries. The HSE puts the total cost of workplace illness and injury at over£21 billion a year. I'm not saying that to scare you. I'm saying it because the cost of ignoring this, the absences, the claims, the good people you lose is real. In a small team, one serious thing going wrong can hurt badly. So let's talk about what to actually do. The sting, why the human side gets missed. Here's what usually happens in small businesses. The physical stuff gets done, eventually. Fire extinguisher checked, first aid kit restocked, risk assessment written the week before someone asked to see it. But the human side slips. And there are three reasons why. First, it's harder to point at. A box in a walkway is obvious, you can move it, tick it off. But nobody on this team feels comfortable speaking up. That's harder to see. So it gets left. Second, most managers in small businesses never trained to be managers. They were great at their job, so they got given a team. Nobody taught them how to spot when someone is struggling or how to start that conversation. So they don't. Third, in a lot of small businesses, getting on with it is quietly rewarded. Speaking up feels risky. People worry they'll seem like trouble. So they stay quiet. They don't report the near miss. They don't mention the back pain. They carry the stress home. And then something goes wrong, and everyone wonders why no one said anything. That is not a people problem. That is a culture problem, and it can be fixed. The waggle dance, the three conversations, right, here's the practical bit. Three conversations, that's it. Not policies, not procedures, not a full HR overhaul. Just three conversations managers need to start having. Conversation one. What almost went wrong? A near miss is anything that could have caused harm but didn't. The box nearly tripped over. The vehicle that reversed too close. The time someone nearly burned themselves because a handle was loose. Most near misses go unreported because people think nothing actually happened, so why mention it? But near misses are gold. They're the warning before the accident. If you want to catch problems before someone gets hurt, make it normal to talk about them. Not a form, not a formal report. Just what almost went wrong this week. Ask it regularly. Make it safe to answer. That's it. Conversation two. How's your body holding up? This one feels awkward, but it doesn't have to be. Someone quietly struggling with back pain or a bad wrist for months is not going to get better by saying nothing. They're going to get worse. And then they'll be off work. You don't need to be their doctor. You just need to ask, how's your setup feeling? Is there anything making the physical side of your job harder? Are you getting proper breaks? That's all. Those questions, asked genuinely, asked regularly, mean people actually tell you things before it becomes a big problem. And fixing something small early is almost always cheaper than dealing with it when it's serious. Conversation three. Are you actually okay? This is the one most managers avoid because it feels too personal. I get it. But there's a version of I don't want to pry that is really just I don't know what to say, so I'll say nothing. You do not need to be a therapist. You do not need to fix it. You just need to notice when someone seems off and say, You don't seem yourself lately. I just wanted to check in. You don't have to tell me anything, but I'm here. That's not some big HR moment. That's just being a decent person. And in a small business where people are not just a number, that kind of check-in matters more than you think. Worth knowing, stress is a legal health and safety issue. If people in your team are overwhelmed or burnt out because of how work is set up, you have a duty to do something about it. Not a nice idea. An actual legal duty. But honestly, even without the legal bit, your people deserve to be asked, so ask. The Swarm Mythbuster Parade. You knew this was coming. Myth one, we've got the policy, so we're covered. Having a health and safety policy is like having a recipe. It doesn't bake the cake. The policy is just the starting point. What actually keeps people safe is the conversations, the follow-through, the culture. A policy no one reads, filed away and forgotten is just paper. Myth 2. My team would tell me if something was wrong. Would they though? If no one's ever asked if nothing changed the last time someone mentioned something, if speaking up feels risky, your team has quietly learned to stay quiet. Silence is not the same as everything being fine. Sometimes silence means they've stopped trying. Myth 3. Mental health isn't really a health and safety issue. Yes, it is. The HSE is very clear on this. Work-related stress and anxiety is the biggest single cause of work-related illness in this country. If you wouldn't ignore someone limping in pain every day, you can't ignore someone struggling with stress either. Both are your responsibility, both need action. Myth 4, I don't want to pry. That's a kind instinct. But there's a version of not prying that tips into not caring. You don't need their full history. You don't need to sort everything. You just need to open the door. A genuine, are you okay? with actual eye contact is not prying. It's your job. The honeycomb, your quick action list. Here's what to do this week. Screenshot it, scribble it down, send it to your managers. One, ask your team what almost went wrong this week. Casually. Just ask. Two, make it easy to flag near misses without blame. Even a notebook in the break room works. 3. Check in with anyone you think might be struggling physically. Their chair, their screen, their breaks. 4. Do the same for mental health. 1 genuine check-in with anyone who seems off lately. 5. Look at your risk assessment. When did you last update it? If it's gathering dust, it's not doing anything. 6. If you have managers, ask each of them to have just one of these three conversations this week. One. Start there. Seven. If you have five or more staff and no written health and safety policy, you are legally required to have one. Not optional. Sort it. The blog post in the show notes has what you need. Flying the hive. Right, before I go. Today's theme is prevention. Prevention is not a form. It's not a poster. It's a manager who notices when something is off. It's a team that feels safe to say something before it gets bad. It's you today starting one of those three conversations you've been putting off. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have all the answers. You just have to show up and take it seriously. The back pain someone hasn't mentioned. The stress someone is carrying home every night. The near miss from Tuesday that nobody wrote down. Your people spend a third of their lives at work. They deserve better than silence. And you already care because you're here listening to this. You just need to start the conversation. It's probably easier than you think, and it matters more than you know. If this episode was useful, please share it with another manager or business owner who needs to hear it. Find me at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk or email buzz at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you haven't left a review yet, it takes 30 seconds. It genuinely helps. And it is easily the cheapest good deed you'll do all week. More satisfying than a biscuit with your tea. Not quite as good as cake, but nearly. Until next time, keep buzzing and take care of your people. Kettle on, standards up.