News - News
Reluctance and Risk Assessment
Much has been written about health and safety over recent months and we are all aware of the governing guidelines. As a result, many companies are moving towards introducing risk management programmes. However, some companies still face a major obstacle in terms of driver reluctance and acceptance, based on the perception that risk assessments are an invasion of privacy.
Driver reluctance to participate in such programmes is generally due to their lack of understanding and can be more prevalent where cash for car schemes operate within companies. This can be overcome by establishing clear lines of communication to promote the value of risk assessments to the company and all its employees. Terry Dunn, Remunerations and Pensions Manager of Smith and Nephew demonstrates this point: “As we provide a cash alternative for our employees it was important to review our policies and procedures and how best to implement a new risk management programme. We chose to embrace ING Car Lease's Risk Assist service because it gives a complete service that not only offers advice but a practical solution to managing the risks faced by our company and our drivers."
Generally speaking, if the purpose of the risk management exercise is explained clearly and effectively, the vast majority of employees are happy to respond. However, internal company culture has a huge influence on their responses. If companies adopt a 'because I said so' attitude this will prove very ineffective, as it is almost impossible to force compliance. Even if you do try to force compliance the chances of an individual putting any new initiatives into practice whilst they are driving on their own are almost zero. The whole company, from the top down, must embrace the concept of risk management, with no exceptions - Directors and Senior Managers must lead by example.
The most common objection to risk assessment is the perceived invasion of privacy, particularly from drivers who have taken the cash option as they feel some of their freedoms are being taken away. For this reason, only information relating to the risk that drivers face on a daily basis is collected including: age, type of car, annual mileage and accident history. The ING Car Lease Risk Assist service tries to minimise the amount of 'personal' information they request. Diarmuid Fahy, ING Car Lease's Fleet Risk Manager comments: “The information collected is covered by the provisions of the Data Protection Act. This means the information cannot be used for anything else other than the stated purpose. But, when checking driving licences, we need access to their DVLA records because paperbased licences are very easy to manipulate. Employees who are reluctant to provide access to their
DVLA records perhaps have something to hide?"
Risk management isn't a punitive exercise. The purpose is not to identify poor drivers and to send them on remedial training courses, reduce their allowance, or increase their excess. The purpose is to look at each driver, identify the specific risks that face them as an individual, and take steps to address these risks and to help the driver do their job in a safer and more effective environment. For the majority, this involves no change whatsoever, but there are always individuals who, through a specific set of circumstances, are more exposed to danger than others.
Diarmuid Fahy adds: “Any risk assessment programme will not affect drivers' entitlements – its objective is to enhance the safety and reduce the risks that they face on a daily basis. A company driver needs to have the proper tools to do their job. You would expect safety to be considered within an office or warehouse environment and working on the road is no different."
Drivers need to be reassured that providing their details and undergoing the risk assessment will lead to positive action being taken if necessary. All too often, organisations feel that giving their drivers a risk assessment is all they need to do to cover themselves; this is definitely not the case. Identifying a driver at risk and then failing to take any action actually puts the employer in a worse position than if they had done no risk assessment at all, as they have now moved from basic negligence to wilful negligence.
There will always be individuals who for whatever reason refuse to participate in the risk assessment programme. While they are thankfully a rarity, employers need to have a mechanism in place to deal with these situations, as allowing employees to 'opt-out' undermines the integrity of the programme. As mentioned previously, it is very difficult to force compliance, but in order to be effective and to protect all concerned, the programme must be consistent and there must be a policy that allows an employee to be precluded from driving if they fail to provide the minimum amount of information.
19 January 2006