Workplan: Near Miss Reporting Management
Seventy-five percent of all accidents are preceded by one or more near misses, according to the National Safety Council. So, if you’re trying to reduce the number of injuries and incidents with property damage and other incident-related loss, it makes sense to measure and manage your near misses. Why Near Misses Are So Important It’s been recognized that focusing on minor incidents, including near misses provides the wherewithal to reduce the probability of major incidents. Near misses occur much more frequently than serious incidents. They’re also smaller in scale, simpler to analyze and easier to resolve. Working from the top [...]
When the Worst Happens
You work hard at keeping your team safe from any injuries, let alone a fatality. But when the worst happens, how do you help them to cope? When workers have witnessed or been involved in a horrible scene – a fall from heights or entanglement for example – it can haunt them for years. They need prompt help to prevent short-term shock from turning into chronic post-traumatic stress. Stress can harm a career, relationships as well as mental and physical health. An affected worker needs to talk to someone within a day or two of the tragedy. In this debriefing, [...]
Safety Attitude: How to Get Workers to Develop One
Getting workers throughout your company to display a “safety attitude” is the key to a safe and healthy work environment. Of course, that’s easy to say. The hard part is to actually cultivate such a safety attitude among your workforce. Here’s what safety trainers can do to achieve this objective. The Challenge of Gaining Buy In The biggest challenge is establishing and maintaining a safety conscious work environment. That’s a tall order and a full-time job. Sure, you might think and eat safety every day; but that’s not enough to get other people in the company to do the same. By definition, [...]
Workplan: 10 Steps to Creating a Confined Space Entry Program
Working in a confined space is one of the most dangerous of all workplace hazards. In fact, it’s been calculated that working in a confined space is 150 times more dangerous than doing the same job outside of the space. While this Workplan is geared toward compliance remember, compliance is often only the minimum set of requirements for safety. Step 1: Identify Permit-Required Confined Spaces Determine if you have any confined spaces and then classify the spaces as either: Non-permit confined spaces – spaces that don’t contain or potentially contain hazards capable of causing death or serious harm to entrants; or Permit-required confined spaces – spaces that [...]
The Importance of Breaks in Adult Learning
Breaks keep our brains healthy and play a key role in cognitive abilities such as reading comprehension and divergent thinking (the ability to generate and make sense of novel ideas). Breaks play an important role during a training session, particularly in the case of longer sessions. If you are delivering a full day training session, then you should give at least 2 breaks during the training day. The first break could be a coffee break in the morning while the second can be a lunch break in the afternoon. LUNCH BREAK It is essential that the lunch be a light [...]
An Integrated Safety Management System Primer
What Is an Integrated Management System? An integrated management system is the framework of policies, systems, processes and procedures that organizations use to fulfill all of the tasks required to achieve their pre-defined business objectives. Why do organizations need such a formalized or structured management system to achieve their goals? Systems might be unnecessary when business competition is weak, risk is minimal and business activities are uncomplicated or mature. But if changes take place, the need for a more formalized system will emerge. For example, the company’s processes and business knowledge may reside not in a formal system but solely [...]
Becoming an Effective Speaker
THE IMPORTANCE OF STRONG PUBLIC SPEAKING Strong speaking skills will set you apart, make you feel more confident, and give you the ability to take on leadership roles. Public speaking offers one of the most effective ways to get your point across, demonstrate your knowledge, and influence others. It can even help you stay organized and improve your writing and interpersonal communication. Many people who appear completely comfortable in front of crowds started out with a significant fear of public speaking. By overcoming this fear, practicing, and gaining confidence, you can have more advantages in life. STRATEGIES TO BECOME AN [...]
Building a Safety Program
Workplace fatalities, injuries, and illnesses are preventable. Safe workplaces exist because employers make the choice to fulfill their responsibilities and protect their workers. Workers shouldn’t need to put their lives at risk to make a living. The system should train workers to be aware of and appreciate safety issues. A well-defined safety program benefits and advances the best interests of everyone. SAFETY PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT Step 1. Make the Commitment to Safety with a Mission Statement. Document safety goals so they can be measured and improved. Step 2. Industry Requirements Check out all resources made available including other professionals in the [...]
Hearing Protection PPE Requirements
Employees must be given a selection of several types of hearing protection to choose from. For routine noise levels, earplugs, canal caps or earmuffs can be used. There are many styles and sizes, some even designed to allow the wearer to “hear” conversations while providing a barrier to extremely loud sound levels. For extremely loud areas, such as working around jet engines, special ear muffs are designed for more significant noise reduction. Your vendor can help you make some choices. If you do not have a vendor, interview several before you select one. When making your selection you should consider [...]
Meeting Minutes – Tips and Tricks
SIMPLE TIPS FOR BETTER MEETING MINUTES Meeting minutes help with communication at work and they ensure people have a common understanding of what the meeting was about, what was done, and what they should be doing next. PURPOSE OF MINUTES Minutes are particularly helpful for formal meetings as they serve as a permanent record of the discussion and the decisions that were made. A written record of the meeting in the form of minutes can be especially useful for people who were not able to attend in person as they get to see what came up in the meeting. TIPS [...]
5 Steps to Emergency Preparedness
If the California flooding has taught us anything, it's that emergencies can happen at any time. Your workers play a key role in the execution of your company’s emergency preparedness plan. Given the current conditions, maybe it’s a good time to review the topic of emergency preparedness with your workers and go over the 5 steps to emergency preparedness. Step 1: Evaluate Your Existing Plans Your first step is to review and re-evaluate your company’s emergency response plan, making sure that plans are in place for all possible types of emergencies. These can include, but aren’t limited to: Fires and [...]
How to Use Total Cost Assessment to Demonstrate Business Value of Your Safety Initiatives
Convincing senior management to invest in safety initiatives can be an uphill battle, especially when the initiative isn’t specifically required by law. Of course, demonstrating that the initiative will cut costs and/or boost revenues is a great way to sell it to the business people who control the purse strings. But doing so is easier said than done. So how can you demonstrate that a safety initiative will have a positive effect on your company’s bottom line? One possibility is to use Total Cost Assessment (TCA), an accounting method that’s designed to measure the true profitability of EHS investments. Although TCA is [...]
