How do you comply with Health & Safety in your lawn mowing business?

In 2015 the New Zealand Government changed the Health and Safety Act

“Health and Safety at Work Act 2015”

It was a huge deal at the time and threw a lot of small businesses into confusion.

At the time we had employees and there was a lot of mixed messages within the lawn mowing industry. (a lot of other industries as well)

Our local mower shop roped of its repair area and removed the wood-burning heater in the middle of the workshop because it didn’t comply. 

After spending a good amount of time going through the government site I came to the realisation that It would be tricky to keep up with the obligations and I was not qualified to write the documents required. 

To make matters even worse we had a contract with a large private hospital that was also trying to negotiate their way through this issue as well. 

There were calling H&S meetings that all contractors were required to attend BEFORE they could continue doing work on the site. 

It even got to the point with one business where we had to go inside the building to sign in before we started mowing the lawn and then sign out when we left. 

This was madness because if there had been an emergency they would have been looking for us inside the building instead of outside mowing the lawn.

How we solved the problem.

We ended up hiring a company called HazardCo. They were good and they did the job but they were on the higher end of the cost scale. 

These days I would recommend Safetyworkkits . They are a much lower cost option that carries a package for the lawn mowing industry. 

Then you can get compliant and get back to the job.

This is an example of what you would expect to find in a Health and Safety kit

Some of the larger companies have a health and safety statement on their websites. 

Here are some examples

https://www.yardscape.co.nz/health-safety.html

https://www.crewcut.co.nz/health-and-safety/

If you are going to use a company to manage your health and safety for you (and I would recommend this) then do make sure you mention that in your marketing. Show their logo as a partner and do the occasional post on social media. 

Definitely post about this a few times a year on your “Google my maps” page. 

Google loves that kind of stuff and it will be another thing that will push your business a bit higher in the rankings. 

In closing

the health and safety guidelines are mainly for businesses that have employees so if you are a sole trader it is problem not worth hiring someone to manage that for you. 

Just check on the government site from time to time to make sure you are still operating within their guidelines.