Healthy outlook can transform businesses from within | Interview with Janette Hyslop, Project Health and Safety Services (PHSS)

Entrepreneurs are a diverse crew. They all don't emerge from the same mould, one the public sometimes views as via a university spinout preparing itself for international acquisition.

Janette Hyslop, for example, had spent more than 35 years leading complex operations including at board level, helping to shape strategy, culture and performance in public and private sector organisations that included the NHS and managing more than 8000 staff at Openreach before transforming Glasgow based Project Health and Safety Services (PHSS) into a profitable enterprise.

"I've been with the business since 2021, became joint owner in 2022 then last year I bought my business partner out and am now chief operating officer and sole owner," she explains.

And while she has worked in many industries internationally and has experience in working with board level executives, she says an understanding of "cultural dynamics, transformational and behavioural change and performance management," is integral to her skillset.

"I've always had a keen interest in coaching, mentoring many individuals and groups," she adds. "This has been my passion throughout my career, and I enjoy nothing more than watching people transform their leadership abilities, which is why I decided to make executive coaching and mentoring my full-time job."

PHSS, now with 10 employees and utilising additional associates offers a wide range of health and safety consultancy and advisory services, including site inspections, retained competent advisors and bespoke project support.

Most of its clients are in Scotland but it also has a number in London and Birmingham (Hyslop had previously been operations director for Openreach for the south of the UK).

"When I joined the business, we had a predominantly construction-based client base, but I've tried hard to diversify so while now 30 per cent of our clients are now in construction, we've been doing a lot of work in the public sector with clients such as Historic Environment Scotland, Scottish Canals, the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and have also moved into the social care sector, renewable energy, funeral care and occupational health among others.

"Another interesting niche, which not many other consultants advertise, is a headstone inspection service for local councils - which is a different type of work to the traditional consultancy services."

The company's aim, she says, is provide environments in which people are genuinely safe: "We want to work with clients who take the safety culture very seriously."

By helping them to take ownership of that rather than us doing it for them, it will help them develop their business and embed that culture, one we aspire to see in all the businesses that we work with. The safety approach you adopt within your business is all about how you run it on a day-to-day basis," she says.

This article was written by Colin Cardwell as part of The Herald Business HQ Monthly. Click here to read the full edition.