Google Alerts
Safe NZ Forum
OSH
Systems For Business Links Page
- Google alerts:
This one is particularly clever and it's free. A great way to keep up with global specialist topics. We started using this feature some months ago to keep abreast of safety trends and issues. What you do is go to http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en and register, using some key words relating to your subject of interest. Google then filters and digests web articles for you and sends you a report once a day. It normally contains up to 5 topics, each with a relevant sentence or two attached.
We used a bit of trial and error before getting the best out of it. To start with, we used "safety" as the only word. This resulted in some odd reports that included American sports articles. Something to do with the names they use to describe team field positions.
We then tried "occupational health and safety" and this works so well, we daren't change it.
It takes only about 20 seconds to scan the headings and summaries to see if it's worth following any of the links. Here are some recent examples:
WorkSafe takes safety message on the road - Warning: news links may stop working
Ferret - Australia
WorkSafe Victoria will hold a second round of briefings on Victoria's new Occupational Health and Safety Act from April after the first sessions were booked out ...
Labour to tour schools - Warning: news links may stop working
Fiji Times - Fiji
... "Our priority is the safety of teachers at the schools under the Occupational Health and Safety at Work Act and the students come after. ...
Tougher safety laws could cripple us, bosses say - Warning: news links may stop working
Sydney Morning Herald (subscription) - New South Wales,Australia
... manslaughter, but after advice from University of Sydney professor Ron McCallum agreed to beef up penalties in the occupational health and safety legislation
Lingering Threats: Contamination May Still Lurk Near Ground Zero - Warning: news links may stop working
The NewStandard - Syracuse,NY,USA
... This December, the New York Commission for Occupational Safety and Health the EPA to conduct a thorough asbestos abatement procedure throughout the several ...
- Safe NZ discussion forum:
Now hosted by Safeguard magazine, this is a free e-mail forum. Go to http://www.safeguard.co.nz/Safe-NZ.asp to register.
As with anything like this, the quality of the experience depends on what conversation threads are started and who participates. Some of NZ's most knowledgeable safety minds are lurking in there and there is sometimes quite lively and enlightening discussion.
Often, it does descend into tedious nerdy debates until some irreverent wag pops up and asks for a ceasefire. Some people are opinionated. It's a bit like talkback radio without a host, although Peter Bateman, (Safeguard Editor and moderator of the group), sometimes makes a statesmanlike appearance to calm the waters and smooth ruffled feathers.
There are a few ground rules and hints for making it work.:
Because hitting the reply button sends to the whole group, probably the number one gripe is entering into conversations that only interest two parties: Yourself and the originator. Easily fixed. Just paste their individual e-mail address into your reply instead of the group.
Here are other situations in which you are encouraged to send to a specific person:
- your reply contains information which you would not wish to put in the public domain;
- you are saying "Me too!" to an offer of assistance, eg: when a member offers to supply a document of interest to anyone who requests it;
- responding to a job vacancy.
And, yes, as you can see above, advertising job vacancies is acceptable
The host (and everyone else in the group) does not like people being pompous, inflammatory or abusive. People can be removed. Winston Peters and Rodney Hide would hate it.
There are other no-no's, such as blatantly advertising your business, or asking for ideas that you plan to re-use commercially for your own gain.
For those who get distracted by conversations and the "ping" of incoming mail, you can ask for a daily digest.
Overall, highly recommended. The more the merrier.
- OSH What's New Page:
Not earth shattering but worthwhile. It's not as if there are actually journalists at OSH HQ with a sole mission in life to trawl the globe for exciting new safety ideas, but in a reliable plodding way, they keep us informed of events, relevant news and developments in NZ. It's where we found out about the New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards. To check out the What's New page, go to http://www.osh.dol.govt.nz/news/whatsnew.shtml but don't check daily. Monthly would do.
- Our own Systems For Business Links Page:
Well, why not? We spent some time and effort searching for good OHS links, both in NZ and overseas. Here they all are on one page, each with a further link to a selected page that might be of special interest. http://www.safetypro.co.nz/links.htm Please advise any broken links as the addresses do change from time to time.
Do you have some good ways to stay informed? Send us your own ideas
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