Health and safety consultancy HeadSafe was founded by Les and Tina Heads in 2015.

After many years working in health and safety management with large international companies and as an independent consultant, Les set up HeadSafe.

But while the pair were experts in health and safety, they needed some help with their business when COVID-19 hit our shores.

That’s why they sought the support of the Regional Business Partner Network (RBP) and as a small business were eligible for funding to assist with financial management to see them through.

This is their story.

Tell us a bit about your business:

We are a health and safety consultancy – educating, guiding and advising on critical risk/ fatal risk. We work with businesses on improving their current systems/ processes ensuring their health and safety system is catered to their workplace.

We also assist businesses that don’t have a health and safety system in place. We help them to understand legislation and what it means for each of their roles i.e. PCBU, officer, worker, volunteer.

Other services we offer are Critical risk, health and safety systems, auditing, icam investigations, mentoring and our training programme ‘Playing with hazards’.

How has COVID-19 impacted your business through the various stages of Alert Levels and beyond?

When lockdown was announced all our contracts were suspended until further notice.

During this time we upskilled through webinars and kept in contact with colleagues to prepare once work was to commence. We also kept in contact with clients by sending out information to assist them and their workers, updated COVID-19 info on our website, and kept in touch with family and friends here and abroad via video calls.

When we returned to Alert Level 1 all our contracts came back. We have been very busy – our training programme, which Les created to teach people about risks and hazards (Playing with Hazards), has been picked up by one of our clients as a pilot programme and will soon be rolled out nationally.

What were some of the challenges COVID-19 presented to you?

Les has been in the industry for more than 30 years, having witnessed Ebola in Africa and how it was handled there. We have both spent most of our working lives abroad, so it has been interesting to see how New Zealand and people here have responded. The challenges were in people’s responses – there were a minority that ignored all rules throughout all the Alert levels.

Not being able to travel overseas was also a challenge as we had potential clients abroad just before lockdown was announced.

We had a small number of people wanting a lot of work done for ‘nothing’, so we offered to help in areas that we could and guided them to sites such as WorkSafe.

How did you hear about the Chamber’s RBP services?

Through our accountant, RightWay.

What was the capability work you undertook with RightWay?

We received financial advice and guidance with RightWay to get support during the tough times, and to help make plans for long-term survival of our business.

How did you find the process and what was your experience of this?

The process was very smooth and easy to follow.

What do you think the long-term effects of COVID-19 will be for your business?

I believe we will be OK as long as the Government gives plenty of warning of its decisions involving small business financing decisions. They need to involve small businesses in discussions, which they have neglected in the past.

Coming close to the election we are keeping an eye on issues such as taxes (which I believe are one of the highest in the world).

Click here to find out more about the RBP and COVID-19 Funding.