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Who's Responsible for Safety?
When it comes right down to it, the employee is ultimately responsible for their own safety. Why then, do employees make the choice to do unsafe acts? What could employees perceive as more important than personal safety? Don't they realize that one unsafe act could change their and their family's lives forever?
Are there things we as employers, managers, and supervisors do to negatively affect an employee's ability to chose to do tasks safely? How can employers make sure employees embrace ownership for their own safety? Here are 10 suggestions:
1) Place the responsibility for safety where it belongs. Make sure employee know they are charged with the responsibility for doing their job safely, and that you will completely back them up on that choice. Give them the ability to say “no” to unsafe acts without fear for their job.
2) Give them the training necessary to recognize hazards. Show them specific things - like how to determine if a sling is worn beyond the safe point (colored threads). Reinforce that training often. Training once or twice a year just isn't effective.
3) Start safety from day one. Most new employees are told about benefits, employee manuals, etc. their first day. Perhaps they are also given a bit of safety training in among all of that. Consider spending the first day or two on the line reinforcing that safety training instead of putting them directly on the job. Show them where to go in an emergency. Make sure they can safety operate a crane and properly lift and move objects. Teach them which PPE to use and how properly wear and maintain it. Make sure they know what is expected of them as far as safe behaviors before any other training.
4) Talk about safety every day. Safety is a daily responsibility. Reinforce that importance on a daily basis. Take a few minutes at the beginning of each shift to discuss a safety point. Ask what hazards each employee encounters.
5) Involve and engage. Don't just talk to employees. Involve them in the safety process. Teach them to report hazards like unlabeled containers, or near misses. Involve them in the job safety analysis so they learn to use proper judgment. Engage employees in the discussion. Ask questions.
6) Praise safe behavior. If you expect your employees to respond positively to safety, you have to respond positively to their efforts. When you see them doing something safely tell them how much you appreciate their efforts. Consider having someone from upper management spend a few minutes talking about safety, or walking the floor praising and encouraging proper behavior. It goes a long way to showing that this is a team effort, and the employee is a vital part of that chain.
7) Make sure everyone walks the walk. Talking about safety does no good if supervisors and managers don't follow their own advice. It's easy to get caught up in production demands. Make sure you aren't sacrificing safety (or giving that perception). If employees feel you are only giving lip service to safety, they won't take safety seriously either.
8) Keep it clean! Give employees time at the end of every shift to clean up for the next shift. Teach housekeeping as a way to stay safe. Make sure there are easily reachable places for tools. Teach them to promptly return items to their proper place. Obtain equipment that makes housekeeping easier – from enough brooms and mops, to trash bags, to retractable hose reels. Have maintenance issues fixed as quickly as possible.
9) Mix it up! Find multiple ways to encourage safe behavior every day. A number of plants now have TV type monitors on the plant floor showing the news, stocks, menus, etc. There is no reason not to use that as a medium to get the safety message out. Do in-house safety “commercials” using employees as volunteer actors. Have safety contests – perhaps even something that can be shown off at a family day. Use your imagination.
10) Hold employees accountable.. Show you mean what you preach. Make sure you have disciplinary measures written into your employee handbook with a well documented procedure for failure to follow rules. If you have someone that just refuses to stay safe, do them and yourself a favor by replacing them. One or two people on a line that just wont care, will ruin your efforts if you allow the behavior to continue. If you are a union shop work with your representatives to create appropriate accountability procedures.
As always, I welcome comments and suggestions.
Pam
Suggested links:
http://www.ncsu.edu/ehs/www99/right/training/meeting/emplores.html
http://www.croetweb.com/links.cfm?subtopicID=503
http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/pubs/videoresource/t5trainnew.pdf
http://www.ohsonline.com/articles/61168/
http://www.montanastatefund.com/ilwwcm/resources/file/ebf7f34c0e6cc90/AccountablityMeasures_Final.pdf
http://www.orosha.org/pdf/workshops/119oh.pdf
Are there things we as employers, managers, and supervisors do to negatively affect an employee's ability to chose to do tasks safely? How can employers make sure employees embrace ownership for their own safety? Here are 10 suggestions:
1) Place the responsibility for safety where it belongs. Make sure employee know they are charged with the responsibility for doing their job safely, and that you will completely back them up on that choice. Give them the ability to say “no” to unsafe acts without fear for their job.
2) Give them the training necessary to recognize hazards. Show them specific things - like how to determine if a sling is worn beyond the safe point (colored threads). Reinforce that training often. Training once or twice a year just isn't effective.
3) Start safety from day one. Most new employees are told about benefits, employee manuals, etc. their first day. Perhaps they are also given a bit of safety training in among all of that. Consider spending the first day or two on the line reinforcing that safety training instead of putting them directly on the job. Show them where to go in an emergency. Make sure they can safety operate a crane and properly lift and move objects. Teach them which PPE to use and how properly wear and maintain it. Make sure they know what is expected of them as far as safe behaviors before any other training.
4) Talk about safety every day. Safety is a daily responsibility. Reinforce that importance on a daily basis. Take a few minutes at the beginning of each shift to discuss a safety point. Ask what hazards each employee encounters.
5) Involve and engage. Don't just talk to employees. Involve them in the safety process. Teach them to report hazards like unlabeled containers, or near misses. Involve them in the job safety analysis so they learn to use proper judgment. Engage employees in the discussion. Ask questions.
6) Praise safe behavior. If you expect your employees to respond positively to safety, you have to respond positively to their efforts. When you see them doing something safely tell them how much you appreciate their efforts. Consider having someone from upper management spend a few minutes talking about safety, or walking the floor praising and encouraging proper behavior. It goes a long way to showing that this is a team effort, and the employee is a vital part of that chain.
7) Make sure everyone walks the walk. Talking about safety does no good if supervisors and managers don't follow their own advice. It's easy to get caught up in production demands. Make sure you aren't sacrificing safety (or giving that perception). If employees feel you are only giving lip service to safety, they won't take safety seriously either.
8) Keep it clean! Give employees time at the end of every shift to clean up for the next shift. Teach housekeeping as a way to stay safe. Make sure there are easily reachable places for tools. Teach them to promptly return items to their proper place. Obtain equipment that makes housekeeping easier – from enough brooms and mops, to trash bags, to retractable hose reels. Have maintenance issues fixed as quickly as possible.
9) Mix it up! Find multiple ways to encourage safe behavior every day. A number of plants now have TV type monitors on the plant floor showing the news, stocks, menus, etc. There is no reason not to use that as a medium to get the safety message out. Do in-house safety “commercials” using employees as volunteer actors. Have safety contests – perhaps even something that can be shown off at a family day. Use your imagination.
10) Hold employees accountable.. Show you mean what you preach. Make sure you have disciplinary measures written into your employee handbook with a well documented procedure for failure to follow rules. If you have someone that just refuses to stay safe, do them and yourself a favor by replacing them. One or two people on a line that just wont care, will ruin your efforts if you allow the behavior to continue. If you are a union shop work with your representatives to create appropriate accountability procedures.
As always, I welcome comments and suggestions.
Pam
Suggested links:
http://www.ncsu.edu/ehs/www99/right/training/meeting/emplores.html
http://www.croetweb.com/links.cfm?subtopicID=503
http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/pubs/videoresource/t5trainnew.pdf
http://www.ohsonline.com/articles/61168/
http://www.montanastatefund.com/ilwwcm/resources/file/ebf7f34c0e6cc90/AccountablityMeasures_Final.pdf
http://www.orosha.org/pdf/workshops/119oh.pdf
Tags: responsibility, safety, tips
Comment
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Comment by Pam S on July 31, 2008 at 7:39pm - I think many of the things that have been used to create a culture where quality is as important as production would work. Safety should rank as high as production and quality within a manufacturing plant.
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Comment by Paul Patterson on July 31, 2008 at 7:48am -
Pam,
Many years ago there was a trend within many organizations to create a "culture" of quality, where everybody in the organization had quality as part of their mantra.
I worked at Quantum, then a hard disk drive company, and we had the quality theme everywhere: on our badges, in the lunch room, everywhere. It really kept people focused that this was a high priority and people talked about it.
It may be tough to get top management support, but it would be interesting to see if you could launch a similar approach to Safety.
Just my 2 cents,
Paul
© 2010 Created by Paul Patterson.
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