how do you make a company safer?

[BULLogna]

When getting on a safety committee what are the best ways to improve safety? Any ideas? thank you.

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

ENFORCE THE RULES YOU HAVE!! Throwing a bunch of new safety rules and equipment at guys doesn't make them any safer, it normally just pisses them off. Don't get me wrong, there is new stuff out there that is worthwhile. But, most of the accidents you hear of are caused by current rules being broken.

[NMSA122-G]

Yes, enforce current rules... And set an example. Some of the safety rules may be a pain or sound stupid (some are) but they are there for a reason. Work safe and demand that people working with you do the same..

[Koga]

Who should even be on the safety committee ? Our co. has a board made up of a wide range of folks. If you broke it down to what the usuall topics discussed in the meetings 99% of the time its about linemen and our work. Now linemen only make up about 8% of this committee. Sitting and watching closely at the expression on the faces of the majority of the folks in these meetings it is easy to tell they haven't got a clue as to what is being discussed. But they are more than eager to help make suggestions and policy rules and regulations on how we should do our jobs. Wanna take a guess on one of the suggestions. It had to do with another sticker to be put on my truck !:rolleyes: Yep, a few more stickers in the windshield and we are gonna be safe that day. Can't see out the truck for all the stickers , but we,re gonna be safe. One meeting, one of the women brought up a concern that actually had something to do with them. I pointed out in the 6 months I had been serving on the board that was the first time any of them brought up something about thier work place. By the looks I got you would have thought I called her a bunch of ugly names. Shortly there after I was removed from the board. Oh well thats usually how it goes. My suggestion is still the same, look at who or what is actually a problem and correct it. Feel good crap don't save trips to the hospital and lives.

Koga

[BigClive]

I HATE those "safety" stickers and worse still, the safety badges for overalls that say something like "I'm 100% safety motivated" or some other tat.

It's so dangerous as well.... Removing them with a sharp seam stripper. :rolleyes:

[CPOPE]

When getting on a safety committee what are the best ways to improve safety? Any ideas? thank you.

Incident Prevention Magazine - Safety Management Section

A look at the common denominator in companies that have successful safety programs.


Nobody wants to get hurt. No supervisor wants to take an employee to the emergency room. No manager wants to tell a family that their loved one was hurt on the job. Then why do accidents happen even when a solid safety program is in place?
First, you need to understand that 100 percent compliance does not equal 100 percent safety. The OSHA standards, along with other safety regulations, cannot account for every situation your workers might face. So, where do you go beyond compliance?
Over the 14 years that I've been a practicing safety professional, this has been the question that I have struggled with. There are lots of options out there and I've probably tried most of them. All of these different processes and programs had elements that were effective, but for one reason or another, they were never as effective as we hoped they would be.

GETTING EVERYONE ONBOARD
In an effort to determine why some companies or facilities have excellent safety programs and others don't, I looked for a common denominator that linked these leaders. I finally came to the conclusion that those companies and facilities that had successful safety programs did have one thing in common—active participation by all employees, at all levels, on a daily basis, in their safety program. In order to achieve this, and to make it manageable, they had to integrate safety into everything that they did, as opposed to viewing it as a separate function of their jobs.
Let me give you an example. How often have you heard someone say something like, "I don't have time to do safety because of all my other work," or "It's time to put my safety hat on," meaning that dealing with safety issues was separate from regular work. Many times in my work experience, I would come upon a work situation where there was an obvious safety violation. When I would ask a supervisor or foreman to look at the situation, they often would not see the problem. It's not that these people didn't know the regulations or rules. It's not that they didn't care about their employees' safety. It was just that safety wasn't integrated into what they looked at when they looked at a job. This problem exists throughout entire organizations—from senior management to the worker.
What ASPIRE seeks to accomplish is to integrate safety into the everyday work routine of all employees of an organization. If you're in an organization that has ever attempted to integrate a new management process into its work practices, it's a fairly predictable process. The new system may deal with things like quality programs, ISO 9000 certification, cost control programs, or new technology. In the beginning, performing the new work practices feels very awkward. You have to develop new work procedures and checklists to help you through the process of learning the new system. However, using the system is not an option—it's a requirement. Some people will complain about the new system, how it makes the work more difficult, how it doesn't really do what it's supposed to do. In the end, though, people get used to the new process and it eventually gets incorporated into the way things are done. Before long, you don't have to use the written work procedures and checklists to know how to make the process work—it's just part of what you do. This same process can be used to integrate safety into every- day work practices.
Before you can integrate an effective safety process into your work practices, you have to determine where your safety program and safety culture stand. In order to do this, an assessment needs to be performed. There are two major areas that need to be evaluated during this assessment. First, basic safety compliance needs to be evaluated. If compliance issues are not in order, they need to be addressed. The second area that needs to be evaluated is safety culture. Every organization, every facility, and even departments within a facility, have different attitudes and behavioral norms that affect safety performance. An evaluation will help to determine each area's strengths and weaknesses. Safety cultural strengths need to be capitalized and built upon. Areas of weakness need to be improved.
When you look at it in total, the evaluation tool identifies the activities that you will engage your entire workforce in—from senior management to the workers. It will also show you which cultural issues need to be addressed, such as communication, trust, accountability and commitment.
ASPIRE includes several elements that are sometimes lacking in other safety processes. First, it includes measurement so that you can determine which areas need to be addressed and when progress has been made. If you can't measure something, how do you know you've achieved it?
Second, the ASPIRE process coordinates the safety activities of all members of your organization to ensure that they complement and support one another. The failure of many safety processes has been due to conflicting goals and activities of other processes, safetyor otherwise, that are taking place at the same time.
Third, all employees are given specific activities, along with an accountability system, that they are expected to achieve. These activities are meaningful for the employees involved and are selected based upon the results of the safety assessment. Every ASPIRE implementation looks different than every other implementation because everything is tailored to the specific needs of the subject organization.
Lastly, ASPIRE, as a process, is designed to end at some point in the future. The ultimate goal is for safety to be integrated into everyday work activities. The activities will go on, but they will go on without ASPIRE because they will be part of the normal work.

Written by Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSA

[mainline]

Great another safety process created by a safety "professional". I wonder if Pam has ever turned a wrench. If I recall correctly I saw an article in that Mag that advocated lineworkers wearing goggles and a baclava while gloving. I think if we took all of the suggestions that "knowledgable" safety people put forward we would end up doing all of our work dead. Then they will be able to do it with laborers. Safety comes from us working in a well thought out manner. We have had safe work methods for years. It seems like a lot of what we are doing now is just adding more and more layers of rules. Follow the ones you have revise the ones that are wrong, but if you create to many rules, especially ones that are nonsensical people will just ignore them.

[US & CA Tramp]

For the most part, Safety stickers and committees are usually for the company. If an accident happens management can say, See what we have done for the guys! we didn't want them to make us money by hurrying through a job.We wanted them to do everything possible to be safe, including a rubber suit if necessary! Right, it is called cover your ass Mr Management Sir!

[linemanfrog]

I work for a company that has about 50 linecrew personnel that are split between 2 service centers. Our department also has inspectors, tree trimmers, and of course office personnel. Our safety committee is comprised of 2 linemen or foremen from each yard, 1 tree trimmer, and one office personnel. Each person on the committee has volunteered to be there as well. Although the departments Safety Coordinator can sit in our meetings he has no bearing as to the decisions made by the committee. As far as making a company safer.....well thats a very long and opinionated list but I can offer a few suggestions.

Lead by example.

Set up a safety reward program that recognizes both the individual as well as the department as a whole. 1/2 is for the employee's performance during the year and the other 1/2 is based on departmental goals. Make it large enough for each employee to actually give a shit about. This way they are more likely to correct another employee's bad actions.

Cultivate employee attitudes so that they are more likely to share "close calls", screwups, etc with the other crews and personnel without fear of receiving time off or other punishments. (This has worked extremely well in my department.)

Ensure the Safety Committee has enough teeth to accomplish whatever goals the committee sets. There is nothing that will piss linemen off quicker than being promised something only to then see the legs get cut out from beneath the persons trying to do something for them.

Encourage involvement of ALL employees in establishing a safety coulture. Reward innovation, ideas, suggestions, etc. Rewards can be as simple as recognizing them during a safety meeting. When people see that their safety attitude, idea, suggestion, etc acutally means something to their coworkers it reinforces the safety coulture and makes it more likely to happen again.

Do not "play nice" when dealing with repeat offenders. I dont mean fire them or give them time off but you have to get the point across that being unsafe will not be tollerated. A slap on the wrist and "Bad Boy" usually will not cut it when dealing with repeat offenders.

Actually investigate every accident you have. If an employee slipped find out why. Need to redesign your truck, add friction tape, move a step on the bumper, what ever it is find out......then ensure it is followed through on and fixed.

Look at your safety equipment and see if it is what the employees want. For instance, we had the most awfull safety glasses for years in our warehouse. They were uncomfortable, fogged up all the time, and uglier than hell. Nobody wanted to wear them. They would remove the side shields, etc. The warehouse started carrying some other brand that sucked just as bad in some workers opinion. We realized that you cannot have one type of safety glasses that all will like. So now the General Foremen buy different types of safety glasses and give them to the workers. They vary the types they buy so that more people will be more likely to wear them. They also take the glasses home with them, after all an employee that wears safety glasses at home is more likely to wear them at work as well. This same approach can be used for harness', FR clothing, etc. GET WORKER INVOLVEMENT WHENEVER POSSIBLE before setting a standard for safety equipment. People like having a choice and knowing their voice has been heard.

ENSURE SAFETY IS PREACHED IN YOUR TRAINING PROGRAM. This is a MUST. It is easier to make a new worker safe from the begining than to break the bad habits of a seasoned worker. Ensure they are taught the same things when they are doing their OJT.

Have actual safety meetings without managements involvement. Employees are more likely to share bad expierences with each other when there is no fear of reprisal from the company. If you have speakers from other companies or such ensure the topic fits your work place and that it is something the guys will relate to. (suggestion here: get your local burn clinic in to talk about burns and include those horrific pictures and such.) I know for a fact that when our safety man did that a few years ago it woke many workers up and we were the safest bunch of guys around.

REWARD GOOD
Recognize the bad so it can be corrected immediately.
Do not take "we have done it that way for years" as an acceptable answer.

[HIVOLTS]

First and foremost management has to buy in. Upper management is usually not the problem, surprisingly, but mid and lower level management that are more directly involved in production. The senior crew members have to buy in as well. After all, the younger guys learn bad habits from the older ones. It's a cultural thing, and cultures change very slowly. We started with a behavior based observation process many years ago. After several years that lost steam but the things we learned we applied to our current Job safety Plan process where hazards are indentified and dealt with before every job. A more formal tail gate, where evryone working on that particular task must sign off on. It generates good dicussion, and J.S.P. sheets are turned in evryday and the supervisor reviews them, and supervisors make their own crew observations and must give feed back to the crews. It's not a magic bullet, but awareness is elevated by these things and everyone wants the same thing. Our target is zero accidents, and it is acheivable. My crew has not had a personal injury in 12 years.

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

I work for a company that has about 50 linecrew personnel that are split between 2 service centers. Our department also has inspectors, tree trimmers, and of course office personnel. Our safety committee is comprised of 2 linemen or foremen from each yard, 1 tree trimmer, and one office personnel. Each person on the committee has volunteered to be there as well. Although the departments Safety Coordinator can sit in our meetings he has no bearing as to the decisions made by the committee. As far as making a company safer.....well thats a very long and opinionated list but I can offer a few suggestions.

Lead by example.

Set up a safety reward program that recognizes both the individual as well as the department as a whole. 1/2 is for the employee's performance during the year and the other 1/2 is based on departmental goals. Make it large enough for each employee to actually give a shit about. This way they are more likely to correct another employee's bad actions.

Cultivate employee attitudes so that they are more likely to share "close calls", screwups, etc with the other crews and personnel without fear of receiving time off or other punishments. (This has worked extremely well in my department.)

Ensure the Safety Committee has enough teeth to accomplish whatever goals the committee sets. There is nothing that will piss linemen off quicker than being promised something only to then see the legs get cut out from beneath the persons trying to do something for them.

Encourage involvement of ALL employees in establishing a safety coulture. Reward innovation, ideas, suggestions, etc. Rewards can be as simple as recognizing them during a safety meeting. When people see that their safety attitude, idea, suggestion, etc acutally means something to their coworkers it reinforces the safety coulture and makes it more likely to happen again.

Do not "play nice" when dealing with repeat offenders. I dont mean fire them or give them time off but you have to get the point across that being unsafe will not be tollerated. A slap on the wrist and "Bad Boy" usually will not cut it when dealing with repeat offenders.

Actually investigate every accident you have. If an employee slipped find out why. Need to redesign your truck, add friction tape, move a step on the bumper, what ever it is find out......then ensure it is followed through on and fixed.

Look at your safety equipment and see if it is what the employees want. For instance, we had the most awfull safety glasses for years in our warehouse. They were uncomfortable, fogged up all the time, and uglier than hell. Nobody wanted to wear them. They would remove the side shields, etc. The warehouse started carrying some other brand that sucked just as bad in some workers opinion. We realized that you cannot have one type of safety glasses that all will like. So now the General Foremen buy different types of safety glasses and give them to the workers. They vary the types they buy so that more people will be more likely to wear them. They also take the glasses home with them, after all an employee that wears safety glasses at home is more likely to wear them at work as well. This same approach can be used for harness', FR clothing, etc. GET WORKER INVOLVEMENT WHENEVER POSSIBLE before setting a standard for safety equipment. People like having a choice and knowing their voice has been heard.

ENSURE SAFETY IS PREACHED IN YOUR TRAINING PROGRAM. This is a MUST. It is easier to make a new worker safe from the begining than to break the bad habits of a seasoned worker. Ensure they are taught the same things when they are doing their OJT.

Have actual safety meetings without managements involvement. Employees are more likely to share bad expierences with each other when there is no fear of reprisal from the company. If you have speakers from other companies or such ensure the topic fits your work place and that it is something the guys will relate to. (suggestion here: get your local burn clinic in to talk about burns and include those horrific pictures and such.) I know for a fact that when our safety man did that a few years ago it woke many workers up and we were the safest bunch of guys around.

REWARD GOOD
Recognize the bad so it can be corrected immediately.
Do not take "we have done it that way for years" as an acceptable answer.


This has got to be one of the best posts I've ever read!! I could not find one thing that I disagree with. It's too bad every company doesn't do the things yours does.

[graybeard]

So now that we are on this track is anybody involved with the BST program? They started this (or really talked into buying) this safty program and started in the power plants and want to implement it for the rest of the company. Personly I'm not inpressed with it.
Seems to me if we just watched out fot each other and don't get lazy and cut corners and WATCH OUT FOR EACH OTHER we would be working safely. Of course that means that supervisers and managers have to have our best intrest as a prioity.