The winter is largely behind us and we are either in spring or soon will be, depending on which authority you listen to.

For many organisations this is the time of year to start thinking about corporate events. You know, the kind of activities we indulge in because we want to boost the morale of our workforce, perhaps team building events or maybe we want to organise something as part of our programme for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Of course, whilst the warmer weather tends to be more conducive for such events, we may also organise them at other times of the year such as a firework display and bonfire around the 5th November or a staff party around Christmas time.

In recent years, many organisations have cut back on such activities – in part for financial reasons but also out of a fear that something might go wrong, which could damage the organisation in a variety of ways. The fear of litigation and all the negative consequences that could bring has become a real restraining influence.

Adopting a safety approach

There are, however, well defined procedures that can be put in place to minimise safety risks. There is no way to ensure risk is eradicated entirely but then neither is it possible to completely eliminate risk from the workplace but that fact doesn’t prevent entrepreneurs from continuing to establish and run businesses.

It would be unwise to embark on any event that involves substantial numbers of people without careful thought and planning beforehand. The problem for most of us is that while we may be experts in our field, most of us are relative novices when it comes to planning events beyond domestic celebrations for birthdays, Christmas and the like.

Advice is available from the Health and Safety Executive and from some local authorities. However it is often helpful to retain the services of a consultant who has more extensive real world experience in this area and who is able to apply and adapt that experience to the specific circumstances of what you have in mind.

At EDP we like to become as familiar as possible with the prevailing culture of our clients and very importantly, what the ultimate aim is for each event so that our advice is as specific and pertinent as possible.

The broad approach

In general terms, the procedure we follow is straightforward and follows the general principles of health and safety management in most other scenarios:

• It cannot be emphasised enough that comprehensive planning before the event is crucial and adequate time must be allowed for this activity. You need to do some background work, taking into consideration such aspects as:
  • the people who will be invited to attend, who will be running the event and who will have overall responsibility for monitoring what is happening and, if necessary, reacting correctly to an adverse incident. If you are hiring another organisation to run the event for you, then you need to check them out to ensure they have the expertise and the knowledge to handle all the health, safety and welfare aspects.
  • the location may be anything from your own premises, a dedicated location for the type of event you want to run or maybe even the open countryside. Accessibility may also be a factor if you need to organise transportation, for example, or special protective clothing.
  • the time can also be important since this might determine the nature or extent of any hazards that may be present. Risks can vary according to the time of day and may be affected in very different ways, for example according to the time of year.
  • what you are planning to do is an obvious concern. If your event involves a number of different activities, they may each have risks associated with them that differ in nature and extent.
  • clearly identify the objective or reason for the event and to ensure everyone involved has a clear understanding of what it is. This will affect all the general considerations listed above and may introduce other, more specific, issues that you need to take into account.
• Having done your research, you need to assess the risks, following the well-proven methods that apply to most every health and safety situation. Very simply, you need to identify the hazards, the degree of risk associated with each one, who may be affected and the precautions that are in place to manage the risks.It’s worth bearing in mind that your risk assessment may need to take into account how and when people get to the venue and how they get home afterwards as well as the actual event itself.

  Depending on the nature of what you have in mind, you many also need to consider the provision and setting up of equipment beforehand along with safe dismantling and removal after the event.

• Having identified the risks and precautions that may be already in place, you need to consider what other precautions are needed to reduce risks to acceptable levels, how these are to be implemented and who will be responsible for them.
• Even when all risks have been reduced as far as is practicable, there may well be residual risks for which you need to have emergency procedures in place. It should be stressed, however, that emergency procedures are not intended as a substitute for proper risk management. They are intended to kick in if something goes wrong in spite of our best efforts.
• To gain maximum profit from all this work, it is worth scheduling an opportunity after the event to discuss what went well, what went wrong and what could be done better. De-briefing sessions are invariably more profitable if held soon after the event rather than waiting until you plan to repeat the activities the following year, by which time many of the valuable lessons will have been largely forgotten.

Don’t be put off

This might all seem to be too much effort and in some cases, that may be so. However, if an activity appears to be too fraught with danger, the answer may be to find an alternative that has less attendant risk but which will achieve the same objectives.

Putting in a bit of effort beforehand means that the event is likely to be more successful than might otherwise be the case, less likely to end in tragedy and much more enjoyable for everyone, including those with responsibility for organising it.

It should also be emphasised that previous experience in assessing the risks associated with corporate events can be invaluable and a good consultant can often suggest cost-effective solutions that will more than compensate for their consultation fee.