In recent years, Australia has witnessed a significant increase in the demand for health and safety professionals. The ever-evolving regulatory landscape, heightened awareness of workplace safety, and a growing emphasis on employee wellbeing have all contributed to this surge in demand. Businesses across various industries are recognizing the need to invest in health and safety, not just as a legal requirement but as a crucial aspect of their corporate culture. As this demand continues to grow, businesses are exploring innovative solutions like Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) to meet their safety professional needs efficiently.

To meet the growing demand for health and safety professionals, businesses may explore alternative solutions such as outsourcing health and safety services to industry known organisations such as FEFO Consulting who can provide expert advice on matters of health, safety, environment and wellbeing.

Let’s take a look on what might be the factors behind the increasing demand for BPO in Australia:

1. Record-high Demand for HSE professionals: The demand for HSE professionals is still climbing. This growth trend, although somewhat stabilised, still continues to rise by the country’s commitment to workplace safety and environmental protection. Various industries, from construction to mining and healthcare, require professionals to ensure compliance with safety standards.
2. A Shift Away from the Big 4 Accounting Firms: One significant catalyst for the growth of BPO is the reputational damage inflicted on the broader external consulting sector by the Big 4 accounting firms. This damage has prompted many businesses to explore alternative solutions such as outsourcing. Smaller consulting firms and BPO providers have emerged as trusted alternatives, leading to a surge in demand for their services.

Industry Leading Practices

Within the safety industry, outsourcing risk, safety and wellbeing services is becoming an effective alternative for many organisations due to skill shortages, technology enabling access to external talent, and the increasing level of acceptance to work remotely “on demand”.

FEFO Consulting continues to partner with a diverse range of organisations across Australia and New Zealand to deliver exceptional health and safety solutions. Our BPO experience includes large scale retained services across a range of industries and disciplines, e.g. labour-hire, events & leisure, and heavy industrial equipment.

• Assurance – Independent recurring assessments 
• Incident Response – “On call” and available to support incident response and critical incident investigations  
• Risk Assessments – Large volume, transactional work 
• Workshop & Training – Facilitation and training sessions.

Tips for Outsourcing

Here are a few tips when outsourcing health and safety activity: 

1. Strategy – Be clear on your strategic choices to improve health & safety activity. 
2. Segment Work – Group work into segments, e.g. strategy & innovation, core business, transaction processes, independent verifications.
3. Resourcing – Evaluate resourcing options based on capacity and capability now and in the future. Be clear on your selection criteria, e,g., share values, capacity and capability fit.
4. Measure Success – Be clear on how you will measure and know your resourcing choices are successful and celebrate success!

Resourcing with FEFO

Is your current risk, health and safety resource model effective? Could you benefit from outsourcing Health and Safety?

FEFO Consulting is proud to deliver innovative solutions and effective outcomes.

Contact us to discuss your needs and how we may be able to help.

Is your health & safety strategy effective?

Do your metrics allow you to learn, adjust and improve?

If either your strategy is wrong or metrics are in effective, there is a good chance there are lost opportunities for success.

The Objective and Key Results (OKR) approach to setting goals is a great way to effectively support a strategy and has been used at Google, LinkedIn Airbnb, and many more. OKR’s are often complimented by Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

OKR vs KPI

So, what is the difference between OKR’s and KPI’s?

• OKR’s set out the direction of what needs to be achieved, e.g., the desired destination.
• KPI’s provide indicators of how progress is tracking, e.g., the speedo.

Objective & Key Results (OKR)

• What do we want?
• Where are we going?
• Where do we want to play?

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

• Did we meet our objective?
• What needs to change?
• Do we need to do more?

One of the key differences between OKRs and KPIs is the intention behind the goal setting. KPI goals are typically obtainable and represent the output of a process or project already in place, while OKR goals are somewhat more aggressive and ambitious.

However, while OKR goals should be bold, they shouldn’t be unreachable. The idea behind this strategy is that by crafting aggressive OKRs, you can push your team (and yourself) to perform that much better.

OKR’s in Action

The Objective is qualitative, and is supported by about 3-5 Key Results, which are quantitative. They are used to focus a group or individual around a bold goal. Key Result metrics tell you if the objective are met in a given period of time typically rated from 0.0 – 1.0.

Most Key Results are evaluated each quarter to inform the next quarter’s work. It’s important the outcomes of evaluating Key Results promote high performance with a focus on the desired behaviour.  Often incentivising teams with praise and recognition is great way to encourage and motivate, rather than focusing on negatives.

What makes a Good OKR?

• Bold: Effective OKRs represent meaningful change, improvement, and growth. OKR’s outline priorities for the next 30-90 days.
• Objective: Effective Objectives are meaningful, audacious and inspiring.
• Effective Key Results:  Specific and timebound, aggressive and realistic, measurable and verifiable.
• Aligned: Organisational OKR’s should cascade to teams and individuals.

What is a KPI?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used to evaluate performance over time for an organization, individual, program, project, action, etc. While you may have some outliers, these indicators are often measured against targets.

We highly recommend you make your KPIs measurable. Adding quantitative value makes it easier to provide context and compare performance for whatever you’re measuring. Creating qualitative KPIs is possible, but not advisable because this structure can lead to confusion and subjective interpretations of data.

What makes a good KPI?

Good KPI combine a balanced approach to include both Evidence-Based and Opinion-Based metrics:

• Predictive: Accurately forecasts the future.
• Valid: Measures what you intended, statistically meaningful.
• Reliable: Repeatable providing statistically consistent results.
• Important: Directly reflects an outcome that matters.
• Functional: Used to inform operational and strategic risk. Balances compliance vs performance.
• Clear: Understood and easily communicated.

When selecting the right KPI, it’s important get the balance right. Examples of KPI’s are outlined below:  

Executing the Strategy

Developing measures for success with OKR’s and KPI’s is an important step, but only one component to develop and deploy an effective strategy. To get started, refer to some additional resources below:

• Validated Surveys: Health and Safety Index
• Lead Indicators: Critical control management
• OKR Template: Click on the Download button below.

If you need some guidance on developing and deploying an effective strategy, contact us today.

FEFO Consulting recently launched our Contractor Safety Workbook, a step-by-step guide to managing contractor and supplier safety. Our Workbook provides a framework for taking a risk-based approach a strong justification for “simplification” to make life easier and controls more effective.

This workbook covers:

1. Current Reality
2. Select & Engage
3. Mobilise & Manage
4. Evaluate & Collaborate
5. Learn & Improve

This Workbook “Choose Your Own Adventure” is supported by a simple self-assessment tool enabling you to understand your Current Reality vs Desired State with a selection of 5 different options based on your desired maturity level.

This covers a number of different contracting arrangements, e.g., Labour-hire, Principal Contractors, and independent contractors.

Our Unique Assessment Method

What is your Current vs Desired State?

Not all businesses are created equal. Different industry, needs, stakeholders and capability. For this reason, we developed a 5 Level maturity assessment approach, allowing organisations to set their own goals. 

“Avoid using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!”

Choose your own goals, and we tailor both the assessment and solutions to meet your needs. Based on your results, we provide unique solutions to meet your need. 

4-Steps to Contractor Safety

1. Segment & Source – Apply a risk-based approach to categorise contractors, confirm methods of sourcing and contract agreements.
2. Engage & Mobilise – Pre-qualify to ensure compliance and maximize value. Induct, set clear expectations and verify permits.
3. Manage & Monitor – Manage contractors, verify effectiveness and provide assurance.
4. Review & Improve – Review arrangements, share learning and ensure continuous improvement.

Contact us for a free discovery session to assist with contractor safety and an outline of our new Contractor Safety Workbook: A Step-by-Step resource to effectively implement contractors and suppliers.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a practice in which an organisation engages a third party to perform projects, tasks, handle operations or provide general services, e.g., subcontractors performing essential business operations in lieu of using internal staff.

While many businesses have used external service providers, including freelancers, independent contractors and large-scale third-party enterprises at some point, the use of BPO has continued to expand. 

“Thanks to its many benefits and ease of access, I believe business process outsourcing is here to stay and will be adopted by businesses of all sizes.” – Mark Thacker, President of Sales Xceleration

A recent article from Grand View Research, would suggest there is an increasing trend for businesses using BPO in the coming years.

Although outsourcing had been viewed as a way to lower costs and gain efficiencies, it is increasingly becoming a strategic tool for organisations for many others reasons, including: 

• Speed
• Flexibility 
• Efficiencies
• Specialist expertise
• Diversity of thinking
• More effective outcomes

Effective BPO enables organisations to focus on core business activity and strategic priorities – smarter ways to achieve effective outcomes.

Industry Leading Practices

Procter and Gamble (P&G) are world renowned pioneers of outsourcing. P&G seriously started outsourcing their Global Business Services (GBS) in 1999 – yep, last century. The P&G journey has evolved to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as bots for non-core, low-value transactional activity. 

Within the safety industry outsourcing risk, safety and wellbeing services is becoming a real option for many organisations due to skill shortages, technology enabling access external talent, and the increasing level of acceptance to work remotely “on demand”. 

FEFO Consulting continues to partner with a diverse range of organisations to provide risk, safety, and wellbeing services. Our BPO experience include large scale retained services across a range of industries and disciplines, across Australia and New Zealand, e.g. labour-hire, events & leisure, heavy industrial equipment.

• Assurance – Independent recurring assessments 
• Incident Response – “On call” and available to support incident response and critical incident investigations  
• Risk Assessments – Large volume, transactional work 
• Workshop & Training – Facilitation and training sessions. 

Outsourcing Safely: Client Interview

Interview with Trent O’Hara, Group Manager Workplace Health and Safety from Belgravia, on the benefits of outsourcing.

1. As HSE Manager, why is a verification process important to you?

A verification process is important to ensure high standards of auditing are being carried out at local level. The verification process allows us to spend valuable time with local level managers, in supporting, training and helping managers understand how best to undertake and answer their audit questions, ensuring that the work they have done on their WHS Audits meets the benchmark standards we set for every site.

2. You recently engaged Fefo to conduct a verification review program – what was the driving factor for this project?

The driving factor was to ensure that we reach the highest possible WHS auditing standards to ensure the safety of our staff and members of the public is at the forefront of how we operate our business.

3. What are the key benefits of the verification review process 

The key benefits of the verification process include ensuring we meet our ISO 45001 WHS Management System Certification criteria and providing our local managers with the guidance and support necessary to understand how to correctly audit their sites and reach the highest safety standards.  

4. Why did you engage Fefo Consulting?

Fefo Consulting were engaged as they have an outstanding reputation within WHS circles and have experience in many industries, including ours being sport and leisure management. They have excellent customer service and are really flexible with our needs and requirements to execute the program. 

5. What are the benefits to you / Belgravia to outsource health and safety services?

The verification audit program adds to our existing self-auditing and 3^rd party ISO auditing programs, which form our fortification of safety pillar system. Having an external eye to verify any gaps and issues we need to work on is a key part of the program to eliminate any internal bias. Having a trusted organisation such as Fefo Consulting overseeing our program, gives us the confidence that we are meeting our WHS legislative duties of ensuring high levels of safety within our organisation auditing operations.

Tips for Outsourcing

Here are a few tips when outsourcing health and safety activity: 

1. Strategy – Be clear on your strategic choices to improve health & safety activity. 
2. Segment Work – Group work into segments, e.g. strategy & innovation, core business, transaction processes, independent verifications
3. Resourcing – Evaluate resourcing options based on capacity and capability now and in the future. Be clear on your selection criteria, e,g., share values, capacity and capability fit
4. Measure Success – Be clear on how you will measure and know your resourcing choices are successful and celebrate success!

Resourcing in 2022

Is your current risk, health and safety resource model effective and ready 2022?

FEFO Consulting are proud to deliver innovative solutions and effective outcomes.

Contact us to discuss your needs and how we may be able to help.