Making Norway A Safer Place To Work

HSE: Health, Safety and Environment. Dull, I know.

In most countries, the authorities require companies to have knowledge about and systems for HSE. At least here in Norway, the requirements are quite rigid. You have to have sort of a company hand-book for HSE, where you insert anything from your organisation chart to detailed descriptions and routines about various aspects of the business.

And if you do work that could be considered dangerous in any form, or you work with food, health or alcohol, you have even stricter rules and regulations you must conform to.

For many businesses, it makes good sense to put such systems in place. Here’s why…

Why HSE Matters

A few years ago, my broadband business needed to do some digging to lay a fibre optic cable.

To start digging, we first had to cut through some cement-based pavement blocks. So one of the guys in my team grabbed an angle grinder and went to the site to start working.

Then, a couple of hours later I got The Call.

"We've cut a high-voltage line.”

Shit.

We actually had, and let me just say this: the experience wasn't particularly fun. Some reasons why:

• Our guy could've gotten himself killed. Not just by the electric shock itself, but because he was thrown into the street (he was working on the pavement, remember) and was close to being hit by the traffic
• About half the city lost the power
• We received a huooooge bill (although we were lucky — the insurance company covered it)
• The Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority ran a full audit of our company to see if we had all routines and paperwork in place

I could go on, but let me just end the story here (ask me for the full story if you meet me sometime) and say that the last point was the most embarrassing. Because we had nothing.

Sure, we had the verbal instructions and routines and stuff on notes here and there, but a system? Nope. For jobs like that, for instance, we should've had a routine in place where one of the first points on the list should've been "cable detection".

Cable detection means simply that a company comes to the site and checks maps and scans the ground for cables. Then they use spray paint to mark the ground so we can see where the cables run, and we receive maps and instructions about the cable network so we'd know how to avoid cutting or damaging them.

Now, I left out a few details from the story. Among those details are the very special reasons why we didn't order a cable detection. But I won't go into that now, because it's beside the point.

What I'm trying to drive home here is that you need to comply to these rules, because excuses and "reasons why" won't help if you haven't got these routines and procedures in place. If the Labour Inspection Authority catch you with your pants down, you're in trouble. Especially if someone gets hurt.

Now Ben, a good mate and a customer of mine, understands the importance of making it easy for companies to comply with these rules and regulations. So he started a series of courses to teach companies how to comply with as little effort as possible.

He even made an online version of the course.

His problem was that this each course sale was a one-off. He needed to create repeat income, which selling his course didn’t do. Once his client had the course, he was finished and carried on with his life.

So Ben put his thinking cap on and came to me with his ideas and visions. He even made a prototype.

His new idea was a system that his clients could use after they'd finished the course. And even better: his plan was to set the system up so it didn't even require people to take a course — it was self-explanatory and easy to use so his clients could usually start using it right away.

And, this being a subscription based system, Ben got his monthly income.

Grow Your Business With Simple Systems

Ben and I meet up to talk business from time to time. Last time we met, he told me:

"In 2015, more or less our entire turnover comes from this service. We expect to turn over about NOK 6 million. If we'd stayed with our previous system where we only sold courses, we'd have a turnover of only about NOK 1.5 — 2 mill, which would've been impossible for us. We wouldn’t have survived.”

"And it won't stop here, Vegard — I’ve plans to develop this system further now and include more modules and stuff that'll open up new and bigger markets to us. My goal is to have the most complete internal revision / HSE system available so it'll fit most companies, whether big or small.”

Knowing Ben, I believe him.

Here’s exactly what we did for Ben and his business.

Save Money — And Make Money

I worked with Ben’s company to develop a browser-based internal control system. Before this, they sold one-off courses with no repeat income — profits fluctuated depending on how many sales they made in a day. But their new product allowed them to sell year-long licenses, providing an annual income they could budget for in advance.

In 2015, we've been working with Ben to develop the system further, adding new features and modules.

His goal is to have a simpler internal control system that will work equally well for small or large businesses — and his longer-term goal is to develop the system even further.

Ben’s system can save a company a lot of time and money, because some organisations spend hours and hours (if not days and weeks) on creating, maintaining, and updating files full of various documents, procedures, and charts. That's not necessary with Ben’s product: the system takes care of everything.

The law states that you must make HSE information easily available to anyone in the company, and that’s very easy with Ben’s system. In fact, you can save it all as a PDF and make it available from the company’s intranet — or simply print it out and keep it somewhere where everyone can get to it if they need to. Or they could just access it directly through his system.

His clients can save time, money, and energy — and put their efforts into activities that bring in more money for the business… or allow them to take more time off to spend with their family.

And as for Ben’s business — it’s gone from a turnover of just 1.5 — 2 million to more than 6.5 million. That would have been impossible without the system they’ve put in place and developed.

How much could you save — or make — with a simple, efficient system in place in your business? How much easier could your systems be if they all worked together seamlessly? Get in touch today and find out.

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