How Health and Safety Decisions Made by Head Office Staff Cause Problems

Let me explain about a recent event that illustrates why we have such difficulty creating safer workplaces. No doubt, incidents similar to this occur every day.
This particular company has a large number of trucks and there was an incident that resulted in a driver cutting his head. It seems that he banged his head on part of the truck sustaining a minor injury. Being a good employee, he reported the incident and an investigation took place and a report compiled.
So far, so good. After this it went wrong. A senior health and safety manager who was reading the report decided that the best preventative measure was for the truck drivers to wear hard hats. This decision was sent by e-mail from the manager's office down the chain of command. The instruction was passed down to all truck drivers via managers, supervisors and health and safety officers.
The reaction from the truck drivers was one of derision. It was clear to them that the person who made the decision have never driven a truck. The cab doors in their trucks did not allow sufficient room to get in and out wearing a hard hat without it falling off.
This single act of thoughtlessness, undermined the health and safety process for the business. The drivers lost trust in the organization because they regarded the change as profoundly stupid. All the messengers of this instruction lost a considerable amount of credibility in the minds of the drivers because not one of them questioned the Senior Manager.
This was the unintended consequence of an instruction generated by a person in an office without the necessary contact with reality. How often does this happen?
Any change or safety rule must pass the That Seems Reasonable test of the people who are expected to follow it. If it fails their That Seems Reasonable (TSR) test, they are unlikely to abide by it. However, it gets worse. All subsequent changes and rules were subjected to intense scrutiny and the first reaction was one of non-compliance, "because of what happened last time with the hard hats"
What is even more damaging, is the effect of reporting incidents. Because of the reaction to the report and accident, the workforce rapidly worked out that there was a negative consequence to reporting these incidents. Effectively, they became conditioned not to report but to put on a dressing and carry on working or go home claiming illness.
Poor management in this case

1. Lost the credibility and trust of the organization
2. Lost the credibility of the Senior Health and Safety manager.
3. Lost the credibility of the people who had to pass on bad decision.
4. Created distrust of subsequent changes in safety rules.
5. Strongly discouraged drivers for reporting incidents.

Unless we can educate our managers at all levels to consider the consequences of their decision making process, we are unlikely to advance very far.

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 udated nearly every day. Click here http://plmitchell.com/

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Why Safety Slogans Can Have a Negative Effect in the Workplace

During the course of my work, I go into many different work sites. Many of them have safety slogans posted on notice boards, in reception and sometimes on the main gate. Some businesses go even further and include their safety slogan on their letterhead and in their e-mails. They have been posted around the workplace in the hope that there will be some subliminal effect on the people at risk. If you have a safety slogan, check with a few members of the workforce to discover what they think of it. You may be surprised.
The first thing to remember about slogans on notice boards or posted up around the workplace, is that they become invisible. They become part of the landscape and do not penetrate the minds of people in the workforce. Even important signs such as "exit," are not remembered by people who walk past them every day because their minds are engaged in other more important things.
The second thing about a slogan is that it has to be delivered by somebody with credibility. Credibility is measured by the listener. If that person's credibility is regarded as only average or less, the message will be ignored or will be regarded as totally unimportant. There are plenty of examples of messages delivered by politicians with low credibility failing to arouse and response.
The third thing about a slogan, is firmly in the minds of the people seeing or hearing it. The slogan has to have the ability to pass our T S R test. This is a test that we all apply on a constant basis. It is our That Seems Reasonable test. Any slogan that fails that will also be ignored. If we think a slogan isn't reasonable we will dismiss it and then ignore subsequent messages from the same person.
We have slogans like "Zero Accidents" and "Zero Harm," that fail our TSR test because we know they are unrealistic. We know that you cannot totally exclude accidents and harm from the workplace because they are function of risk and risk is an integral part of human life. Slogans like this give rise to cynicism in the workplace and have a negative effect on a lot of other important messages that may be about safety or quality. They also destroy the credibility of the promoters of these messages which, in turn, can lead to a breakdown in workplace communications.
If your organization is trying to find a slogan to emphasize safety, offer this alternative point of view. Instead of a slogan, lead by example and be the behavior you want in other people. This is much more believable than a slogan.

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/

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Barriers to Improving Workplace Safety

The first stage in improving the level of safety in your workplace is to assess exactly where you are. This is your starting point. Then, you have to recognize the culture that exists in your organization and the factors that have created it. The culture is the sum of the experience, history, belief system, work practices of the people within the organization.
Frequently within businesses there are opposing forces that compromise safety. We have to understand the inevitable conflict that arises between safety and output. We have to realize and accept that no organization is just in the business of being safe. Every company tries to meet two objectives. Firstly, keep the risks has low as reasonably practicable. Secondly, stay in business.
To improve the levels of safety, it often becomes necessary to cope with the forces that have a negative effect on safety. These forces may include time pressure, cost cutting, the single-minded pursuit of profits and indifference to hazards. So often, organizations look at the forces that are lined up against them and give up on improving safety or just pay lip service to it. Under these circumstances each organization gets the repeated accidents it deserves. As always, the losers are the members of staff who get injured or killed.
To improve levels of safety, all staff within the organization must be better informed. In other words, they understand and respect the hazards they face and are constantly reminded of the potential dangers in their workplace. This means that they will never forget the dangers around them.. They know the dangers without having to fall victim to them.
An improved level of safety is achieved by creating a safety information system that collects, analyzes and disseminates knowledge from "near hits" and other incidents. Of course, this can only be achieved when there is a reporting culture that promotes the collection of this sort of information. Generally speaking, staff members understand the need for this information in the interests of safety. Unfortunately, it also requires people to report their own mistakes, errors and lapses. Overcoming this barrier requires sound leadership and positive reinforcement for those people who report.
It is possible to institute a system which can include the confidentiality of the people who are reporting the "near hits" and incidents. Within the system it is vital that all aspects of blame are removed. Any blame direct or implied will ensure that reporting will be minimized. Removing the blame barrier can be a challenge.
The single most important component of an improved level of safety within the workplace, is the establishment of a greater degree of trust. Again, this is a substantial barrier for some organizations to overcome.

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/.

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