How to Win Friends and Influence People (to Be Safer)

Case Study: Nigel Clamp


Nigel Clamp believes that one of the key skills that any health and safety manager needs to possess is a strong ability to relate to and influence people.

“If you’re talking to sales personnel, for example, you need to engage them,” he explained. “So it’s best not to talk about rules and procedures, but about margins, losses, bottom line and all of the things that will get them switched on to your key messages. And you have to listen to people. That is so important.”

Nigel is currently Head of Safety and Environment at Breedon Group, one of the UK’s largest suppliers of construction materials. Previously he held the positions of Health and Safety Director Africa & Eastern Mediterranean Basin at aggregates and cements producer Heidelberg. Prior to that he was Senior SHE Manager for Hanson UK, which is part of Heidelberg which employs 60,000 people in 3,000 locations worldwide and is one of the world’s largest building materials companies.

Whilst he currently has a portoflio of the UK and Republic of Ireland, Nigel’s previous experience included experience in over 15 different countries, increasing awareness about safety and health, and improving the safety record there. Something which Nigel is rightly proud of. He also greatly enjoys his current role. “I really love the complexity and the challenge,” he told us. “From trespassers to quarried aggregates, concrete and cement production through to road surfacing and civil engineering, there are all kind of risks we need to manage here.”

His ability to influence is partly innate, but also comes from his experience of general management. As someone who has had full operational responsibility for quarries in the past, he knows the ropes and always puts this knowledge to good use. His experience also means he is held in high regard by colleagues, so as well as being a listener, Nigel is listened to.

Nigel, 52, is a geology graduate. He started off as a Quarry Manager, small scale at first, but ultimately he became the quarry manager at Europe’s largest granite quarry - Lafarge (now CRH Tarmac) Quarry at Mountsorrel in Leicestershire. It was only much later in his career, in around 2002, that he was asked to fulfil a health and safety role. He immediately took his NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety.

“If you are going to be a professional in anything, you need to be formally qualified and then, as you progress, you need to ensure your knowledge progresses too,” he told us.

Nigel has stuck by this. He has a long list of safety and environmental qualifications, including a NEBOSH National Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety, which he describes as the “benchmark qualification for health and safety professionals.” He is now close to achieving his ultimate goal of Chartered Membership of IOSH (CMIOSH).

He thoroughly recommends NEBOSH qualifications to his colleagues at Breedon. As well as encouraging members of his previous companies SHE team to complete the NEBOSH Diploma where he put 28 people through the NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety to extend knowledge and competency into Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean countries he is now actively pursuing the same upskilling where required in Breedon.

“Without doubt, the NEBOSH Diploma is what employers look for on CVs,” said Nigel. “It demonstrates that a candidate possesses a depth of knowledge, quality, consistency and determination to achieve. The International Certificate is the first step for health and safety professionals on their journey towards achieving a high level of competence, with an internationally recognised and well-structured and well-balanced qualification.”