In the spotlight with Matthew Elson

How did you get into the health and safety industry?

It was really by chance. I began my career in manufacturing and in my early 20s wound up as a production supervisor at Birds Eye in Grimsby with 500 part-time (mostly) women on the production lines. I certainly had some exposure there to safety issues. Mostly small incidents fortunately, but it gives you and appreciation of the challenge presented by large numbers of people working closely with complex machinery.

I did not really come back to health and safety for 25 years when I bought SHE Software (now Evotix).

How did you come to acquire Evotix?

I was interim chief executive at the time of a private equity held business, which we sold. The partners in the fund asked “What’s next?”. I told them I had always been on the lookout for a business to buy, without ever super-actively searching. They had me take a look at SHE Software and, as they say, the rest is history. The business was distressed and I bought if for £1. What I saw was a good product and a great market. Of course, we have come a long way from there.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

We are very much a purpose-led business. How can it be well into the 21^st century that we are still killing 5,000 people a year in workplaces across Europe and North America? And it is not like these are freak accidents. Too many are from well-known and preventable causes – falling from height, caught in machinery, hit by moving vehicles. Meanwhile, we are exporting a lot of the risk to some of the least advantaged in society often on low incomes and in precarious employment. And it is not just safety; we are also emitting 9.3b tonnes of CO2 with obvious consequences for global warming.

We say, “It’s not OK”. Our purpose is to bring great technology to more workplaces to have an impact on these terrible statistics. It is the alignment of my team around this mission that really gives me a buzz.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the health and safety industry in UK?

As most people know, the statistics have plateaued – we are no longer benefiting from the long-term trend of a reduction in injuries. Perhaps this is not surprising at some level – we have made most of the easier improvements. I also think the modern workplace has become more complex. In my role at Birds Eye, I ran production lines. Although it was a hazardous environment, I had large numbers of people effectively doing the same activities day in, day out. Obviously in this context there is a risk of complacency, but essentially you could design in a high degree of safety through machine guarding and PPE, etc.

Often though, the modern workplace is much more complex. More people are working autonomously or remotely, performing diverse tasks in varied environments. We have more contractors and temporary employees in the workplace. You can’t define a “one size fits all” approach. If we don’t change our thinking on managing EHS, nothing will change. But how do you best approach safety in this situation?

How do you think these challenges can be overcome?

We can’t create rules and procedures for every circumstance that our employees and contractors might face. For a start, the safe system of work would become bloated, undermining the criticality of key instructions. In any case, we know that people will usually only follow safety procedures to the extent that they are aligned to “getting the job done”. In the safety parlance, we need to design for “work as practiced” not “work as imagined”. Engagement is central to success – making safety practical and participative, and embedding it where it should be: at the heart of effective operations. I don’t like the expression “safety culture” as it implies that somehow safety is something separate. What we need to do is embed safety thinking in day-to-day activity.

What sets Evotix apart from its competitors?

I am most proud of our team. When a customer is choosing a safety solution, of course the technology is important and make no mistake, we have great tech. But really what makes a difference is choosing the right long-term partner. Choosing a software solution is a big decision – within the EHS budget it is a big ticket item and, successfully deployed, it will be in every employee’s hands. We help our customers right through that journey, from advice on how to make the case to hands-on implementation and training to deliver rapid impact. Our team is helpful, informed, empathetic and authoritative. We understand what it takes and will use our depth of experience to support customers on that journey.

What’s next in the product pipeline for Evotix?

We have a good range of functionality across EHS&S (the second ‘S’ being sustainability). But everybody can see the technology landscape moving fast, especially with the advent of AI. Personally, I think there is a bit of hype around this, but our focus is to make Evotix a platform that customers can use for all of their health and safety needs, bringing value through the very latest technologies. This means that our solution is “plug and play” with emerging technologies and other parts of the operational ecosystem. 

What’s your vision for the future of Evotix?

We recently merged with the EHS business that was part of SAI360, deepening our range of functionality to meet customer needs from global enterprises down to mid-market. While we are a very well-known player in the UK and will continue to expand and serve more customers there, we are now very much an international business with operations in the US, Australia and New Zealand. So, we see global opportunities – there are still plenty of workplaces that could be made safer and more sustainable with great technology.

What health and safety issues are you most passionate about?

All too often, safety is wrongly positioned. We will say, “We must do this. We must comply with that”. The problem is that the obvious rejoinder is, “Fine, how do I do that at a minimum cost?” We need to reposition safety not just as a compliance and risk issue but as a value adding activity. Show me a workplace that has a great safety record but poor operational performance. The core disciplines of safety – analyse, plan, implement, communicate, check and seek continuous improvement – are exactly the disciplines of effective operations. And what’s more, safety is a great topic to drive employee engagement. Who knows best where the improvement opportunities lie? Your employees of course. Get the engagement going and it is not just safety ideas that they will contribute; they will highlight operational improvements across the board.

How can we entice more young talent to work in the health and safety sector?

This is a great question. I believe that we should be promoting two career paths. For some of us, we will want to develop deep technical expertise and plan a full career in health and safety. However, I am passionate about embedding safety in operations and not treating it as a separate discipline. This applies to careers as well. We should promote safety as a step in a wider operational career. After all, what a fantastic set of skills you can develop from a spell focused on safety. Where else can you mix process design and thinking, deep analytics, interpersonal and influencing skills with exposure to the C-Suite? Who would not want to gain that experience as part of a wider operational or general management career? So, I say break down the barriers. Don’t think of safety separately. 

Matthew Elson is CEO at Evotix. For more information, visit www.evotix.com