We Are Failing to Improve Workplace Safety
We have to take a different approach to health and safety in the
workplace because what we've been doing is not working. In spite of our
best efforts, we have driven health and safety underground by the use of
blame and an over-dependence on unreliable statistics.
Fragile Link Between Statistics and Safe Behavior "Safety statistics" are unreliable for a number of reasons. It is possible to work unsafely and not contribute to the statistics, which means that injury numbers and "near hit" figures are not the best indicator of workplace safety. Insurance claims may drop because the pressure is increased not to accept them but safety will not necessarily improve. Where there is reward or punishment for reporting, statistics will fall. For example, if a senior manager has an "at risk portion of salary," based on safety statistics, human nature takes over. A principle of human behavior states that, "Things which get rewarded or recognized--get done." This will lead to a reduction in statistics but safety will not improve.
On the other hand, if the culture of the organization is one where blame is common, then not only is the manager blamed but also the victim. This will also put a downward pressure on statistics.
Our concept of workplace safety Our whole concept of safety in the workplace is totally misguided. The results speak for themselves. We are using slogans like "zero harm," "zero accidents" and "zero injuries" with the pious hope that they will come true. These slogans are promoted by people who have no credibility in the workplace because they are so far removed from the reality of the life of a worker.
Look at it from a logical point of view. If you want to deliver a safety message then you have to identify the people who have the credibility to do so. The only arbiters of credibility are the people who are to receive the message. If they don't trust or believe the messenger, they will ignore the message. Unfortunately, the health and safety industry is full of non-practical people who lack credibility and can only try to achieve results by using accountability. This has created an environment of fear in the workplace because of a not very subtle culture of blame.
Regulatory bodies have determined that if you have risks in the workplace you will have harm. This means that the legislation is designed to remove risk. The problem is that totally removing risk is an impossible task. If it were possible, we would not have the alarming number of fatalities and injuries every week.
We have people writing rules, procedures and regulations who have never operated in the real world. When the experienced operators encounter these new rules, they understand clearly that they have been written by somebody who has no practical knowledge or experience. This immediately erodes any trust that may have existed.
The solution is frighteningly simple. Let the people at risk, design their own safe working practices. Harnessing this knowledge and experience will require a higher standard of leadership but the outcome will be much improved.
Fragile Link Between Statistics and Safe Behavior "Safety statistics" are unreliable for a number of reasons. It is possible to work unsafely and not contribute to the statistics, which means that injury numbers and "near hit" figures are not the best indicator of workplace safety. Insurance claims may drop because the pressure is increased not to accept them but safety will not necessarily improve. Where there is reward or punishment for reporting, statistics will fall. For example, if a senior manager has an "at risk portion of salary," based on safety statistics, human nature takes over. A principle of human behavior states that, "Things which get rewarded or recognized--get done." This will lead to a reduction in statistics but safety will not improve.
On the other hand, if the culture of the organization is one where blame is common, then not only is the manager blamed but also the victim. This will also put a downward pressure on statistics.
Our concept of workplace safety Our whole concept of safety in the workplace is totally misguided. The results speak for themselves. We are using slogans like "zero harm," "zero accidents" and "zero injuries" with the pious hope that they will come true. These slogans are promoted by people who have no credibility in the workplace because they are so far removed from the reality of the life of a worker.
Look at it from a logical point of view. If you want to deliver a safety message then you have to identify the people who have the credibility to do so. The only arbiters of credibility are the people who are to receive the message. If they don't trust or believe the messenger, they will ignore the message. Unfortunately, the health and safety industry is full of non-practical people who lack credibility and can only try to achieve results by using accountability. This has created an environment of fear in the workplace because of a not very subtle culture of blame.
Regulatory bodies have determined that if you have risks in the workplace you will have harm. This means that the legislation is designed to remove risk. The problem is that totally removing risk is an impossible task. If it were possible, we would not have the alarming number of fatalities and injuries every week.
We have people writing rules, procedures and regulations who have never operated in the real world. When the experienced operators encounter these new rules, they understand clearly that they have been written by somebody who has no practical knowledge or experience. This immediately erodes any trust that may have existed.
The solution is frighteningly simple. Let the people at risk, design their own safe working practices. Harnessing this knowledge and experience will require a higher standard of leadership but the outcome will be much improved.
Thank you for reading this article. Peter L Mitchell invites you
to visit his web site where you will discover a wealth of resources such
as free downloads, ideas, articles, information and books. This site is
updated nearly every day. Click here http://plmitchell.com/
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_L_Mitchell
