Why Health & Safety Matters: Marissa Firkins on Leadership, Teams & Accents

Episode guide

About this episode

Health and safety can feel intimidating to a smaller business, especially when owners are faced with legislation, risk assessments and the fear of getting something wrong. Marissa Firkins argues that the starting point should be much simpler: understand the actual level of risk in the business, keep the approach proportionate and use plain English wherever possible.

Marissa is the founder of Safety Forward, a Staffordshire-based health and safety consultancy that works across the UK and beyond. The business supports organisations in areas including construction, manufacturing, engineering, local authorities, charities, retail and office-based environments. She explains how her earlier career in law enforcement shaped a strong focus on protecting people and eventually led her into health and safety.

For business owners who are not yet at the point of bringing in a consultant, Marissa highlights the value of free support. Insurance providers may offer health and safety advice lines, while the Health and Safety Executive provides practical guidance for common workplace situations. Her advice is to understand the risk before assuming that outside consultancy is automatically required.

The conversation also explores what it means to run a company alone. Marissa prefers being the sole owner, but recognises that leadership can be lonely. She credits a strong senior team, supportive business contacts and a trusted mentor with helping her make better decisions and avoid feeling that every problem has to be solved in isolation.

Team building is a major theme. Marissa explains that small businesses offer nowhere to hide, which means people often need a broader skill set and a willingness to take responsibility. Safety Forward increasingly hires with values, personality and soft skills in mind, while technical knowledge can be developed through training and mentoring.

Hybrid working is discussed as something that should fit the role rather than become a blanket rule. Marissa's more experienced consultants can work between home, client sites and the office, while newer team members benefit from being around colleagues, listening to conversations and learning how the business operates in practice.

The episode also moves into business growth, strategic resets and the pressure to keep adding people. Marissa reflects on earlier plans to grow Safety Forward to a much larger headcount, then questions whether that would really have represented success. Chris and Helen share a similar experience of reducing team size, tightening systems and becoming more profitable. The broader point is that growth needs to support the life and business the owners actually want.

Alongside the business discussion, Marissa talks openly about her Brummie accent, the assumptions people can make about regional speech and why she has learned to embrace it. That theme connects back to a wider message running through the episode: confidence, identity and leadership are often shaped by being comfortable with who you are rather than trying to fit somebody else's version of what a business owner should look or sound like.