Three pieces of work, bought for different reasons.
One is a legal duty you have to be able to evidence. One is a view from outside a room you cannot be objective about. One is for a single person. They are not variations of each other, and most organisations need one rather than three.
- Carried out by
- Craig Fearn — FRSPH Fellow, FCMI Fellow, IoD South West Ambassador
- Board experience
- Advising at board level since 2021, across NHS, technology, financial services and manufacturing
- Sole trader
- One practitioner. Nothing is delegated to a team, because there is not one
Choosing
Which one you need, and how to tell.
| No. | Engagement | The question it answers | Who commissions it | What exists at the end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Stress risk assessment Sometimes called a wellbeing audit | Can we evidence that we assessed the risk? | HR director or head of people, with the board or the health and safety committee signing off | A written assessment against the six HSE Management Standards, mapped to ISO 45003, with findings, evidence and a prioritised roadmap |
| 02 | Board advisory Not a directorship | We need a view from outside the room. | Chair, chief executive or company secretary | Scoped advisory work: governance design, board effectiveness, or one specific decision worked through |
| 03 | Executive coaching One person, not a programme | One person needs to be better at this, quickly. | The individual, or the chief executive on their behalf | A scoped engagement agreed against a stated outcome before the first session |
If none of the three questions is the one you have, say so on a call and it will be said plainly. The first conversation costs nothing and does not end in a proposal you did not ask for.
01 — Sometimes called a wellbeing audit
Stress risk assessment
Employers have a legal duty to assess the risk of work-related stress and act on what they find. This is that assessment, carried out by someone with no interest in what it concludes — Lighthouse sells no EAP, platform, workshop series or app, so no finding points conveniently at something to buy.
- Commissioned when
- A claim, an incident, an ISO 45003 push, or absence data the board has started asking about
- You end up with
- A written assessment against the six HSE Management Standards, mapped to ISO 45003, with findings, evidence and a prioritised roadmap
02 — Not a directorship
Board advisory
A board advisor carries none of the statutory duty a non-executive director does. That is the point rather than a limitation: it makes the engagement scopeable, endable, and free of the conflicts that come with sitting on the board you are assessing.
- Commissioned when
- Stakeholder conflict, a board that has stopped challenging, a succession problem, or a decision nobody can be objective about
- You end up with
- Scoped advisory work: governance design, board effectiveness, or one specific decision worked through
03 — One person, not a programme
Executive coaching
Coaching that is scoped against a business outcome is measurable; coaching that is not is a series of good conversations. What separates them is settled before anyone is appointed, which is why that question comes first here.
- Commissioned when
- A promotion into a job that differs in kind, a leader whose competence is not reading as competence, or a first hundred days
- You end up with
- A scoped engagement agreed against a stated outcome before the first session
Start with the question you actually have.
Whether that is what the duty requires, what an assessment would involve, or whether you need one at all. The first conversation costs nothing and does not end in a proposal you did not ask for.