How to Create Win/Win Client and Safety Consultant Relationships – What a Client Should Know Part 1: Assess Your Safety Consultant Beliefs and Attitudes

NOTE: This is part one in a four-part series discussing what clients should know about their relationships with health and safety consultants. This blog will discuss how a client's attitude towards safety consultants can influence this potentially mutually beneficial relationship. The points in this blog can be extended to all client/consultant relationships. Before we get started, ask yourself, what are your safety consultant beliefs and attitudes?

Perhaps from time to time, you hire a health and safety consultant to help you "plug the leaks" in terms of human resource staffing on your health and safety team. Or maybe you bring one in to work on a specialized service such as an external audit or investigation training. Regardless of why you hire them, you must be aware of your beliefs and attitudes toward health and safety consultants. This knowledge will help you get the most out of this potentially win/win business relationship. In fact, this article talks about how our beliefs are not always based on truth.

Health and safety consultants can seem expensive, so we must take a balanced view and make sure the consultant adds enough value to warrant the investment. And yes, it is the health and safety consultant's responsibility to hold up their end of the relationship. Still, it is also vital for a client representative to look at their share of the business dynamic. Specifically, successful client behaviours and attitudes are observed in a win/win relationship, leading to improved service from the health and safety consultant and more effective use of your organization's resources.

Background

I have worked for consulting firms and industry (clients) in various health, safety, and environment (HSE) roles. I started my HSE career working for a smaller environmental consulting firm. For the past six years, I have been operating my consulting firm, Risk Defense Inc. I have worked with clients from oil and gas, logistics, IT, transportation, staffing, environmental engineering, occupational health, concrete, construction, and education. While working in the industry, before starting up Risk Defense Inc., I also got an opportunity to do some consulting for a power generation and distribution company in the Caribbean.

I have also worked as an employee/client in the oil and gas (service and producer companies), agriculture, outdoor adventure, and construction industries. I share this because I have had some valuable insights that I can share from both sides of the coin when working with clients and consultants.

Ask yourself how do you see this business relationship? What are your attitudes and beliefs regarding health and safety consultants? How you view the relationship, and your general position on health and safety consultants will significantly impact the consultant's ability to carry out the project you need to complete successfully.

Beliefs are ideas or assumptions we have about things based on previous experience. Attitudes are how we think or feel toward something, someone, or even a group of people. Because our beliefs and attitudes are subjective, it is crucial to be aware of them. Just because we have a belief or attitude doesn't mean it's true, or maybe it isn't true all the time. The point here is that we do not want to let our beliefs or attitudes about health and safety consultants get in the way of doing the best for the organization.

Past Experience with Safety Consultants

Our beliefs and attitudes regarding health and safety consultants are influenced by our past experiences working with them and how we view a consultant's role. While our experience working with them affects our overall attitude, it is not a good idea to pigeonhole all consultants into a category because of past experience.

Maybe you have had several positive experiences with health and safety consultants. That does not mean that every project will go so smoothly (trust me). Just because you've only had positive experiences with a particular consultant does not mean this will always be the case. On the flip side, just because you have had a negative experience with a health and safety consultant does not mean that all experiences with all health and safety consultants will be that way. And of course, consultants need to do their part including adding value which discussed in this article.

Attitudes About Safety Consultants

How do you view health and safety consultants? Do you think that because you are the client, this is a one-way relationship?

While you might be able to get away with this attitude if you require a skillset common among health and safety consultants, this attitude will fail among specialists because there might only be one or two people in your area who can provide the service. Also, this attitude will assuredly leave a bad taste in a generalist's mouth, and this will boomerang back to you one day where you will either pay more, or the health and safety consultant will not be available when you need them.

Also, to have a win/win relationship, both groups must focus on how their needs are being satisfied (i.e., the consultant provides services and gets compensated for that work while the client receives external expertise that they currently do not have or do but are not available for the project) and if any action is required to improve need fulfillment for either one or both parties.

Partnership or Dictatorship?

As a client, do you dictate all the terms of the engagement? In other words, do you tell health and safety consultants what you are looking for, how they are to complete the project, how much time it will take, and how much it will cost?

While at times this approach may be appropriate, in other instances, it is not. As a result, you might be missing out on leveraging your health and safety consultant's experience. They may have a simpler and more cost-effective solution (or, on the flip side, more expensive but also with more upside). If you trust them enough to hire them, you should at least consider their recommendations when making the final decision.

We need to be aware of our beliefs and attitude regarding health and safety consultants (as well as the potential limitations of these beliefs and attitudes) to ensure they do not get in the way of us doing the best job for our organization. This also goes for small business owners like myself, who also hire consultants. After all, the points made in this blog apply to all client and consultant relationships regardless of industry or service. Successful relationships exist when two, or more, parties mutually benefit and treat each other with respect.

For more information on how to maximize client/health and safety consultant relationships and how this can benefit your company (or to discuss other ideas on how to take HSE at your company to the next level), don't hesitate to get in touch with Risk Defense Inc. by filling out the contact form below.