Page 27 - CARILEC CE Industry Journal_Oct_2019

Key Element # 1: Management Commitment
& Leadership

Leadership in safety for all management and supervisory
levels in the organization is paramount to a successful
safety program. Managers and supervisors influence the
attitudes of everyone else in the company. If they are
not ‘bought-in’ to safety as a value for themselves, no
one else will be either. This can’t be faked. Company
leaders either believe that staying safe is the most
important thing we do, or they don’t believe it. Workers
will see right through any insincere attitude about safety.
We can’t ‘talk’ one way and ‘walk’ another.

Key Element #2: Roles, Responsibilities
& Accountabilities

Safety is part of everyone’s job description – both Key Element #4: Communications
figuratively and literally. Staying safe is an expectation
and should be a condition of employment. It has become trite to talk about the importance of
So, we all have a role in safety and a responsibility for effective communications in the workplace. By now, we
our own safety and the safety of others around us. all know that. But ‘what’ we should communicate
When safety is accepted as a personal responsibility consistently may not be well known.
everything becomes so much easier. With responsibility
comes accountability. But, accountability for what? Often, we fail to communicate company values enough.
Corporations spell out their Mission Statements, their Goals
Behaviors. Safety is not a thing, it’s how we behave. and Objectives and their Corporate Values. They print
And, as Safety Professionals, we at ISPC call these them and post them around company facilities, put them
behaviors ‘leading indicators’ or ‘process’ behaviors. In on the website and point to them proudly, in the press.
other words there are some things or processes that must
be done consistently by workers to avoid incidents. A Don’t stop there. Our people need to be reminded of all
short list might include things like safety training, hazard this, too. Regularly. Our Values help establish the
analysis and mitigation, pre-job briefings and compliance culture in the company, how we think and how we treat
with PPE usage. The more these behaviors are used and each other and the customer. In the day-to-day work
used correctly, the fewer incidents we have. There is a world, we often forget to talk about these values, but
direct correlation: do them and stay safe, don’t do them keeping them ‘front-of-mind’ will help everyone stay
and, when your luck runs out, get hurt. focused on what is important, including the worker out
in the field that doesn’t see an office very often.
Accountability means being held responsible for the
correct behaviors. Every time. Key Element #5: At Risk Behaviors
Key Element #3: Employee Participation Working safely is all about understanding ‘at risk
behaviors.’ Identifying and qualifying risk on the jobsite
Managers and supervisors can influence attitudes about means the workers spend time upfront reviewing and
safety but they can’t do the work for the workers. The planning. OSHA calls this the Pre-Job Briefing and this
workers will work safe or they won’t. That’s why the is another area where structured, targeted
‘what they do’ to stay safe must come from them, as communications for safety is essential. The important
much as possible. When the workers participate in part of that planning process says that we will all agree
developing those processes mentioned above, they are on what hazards we are finding, how we are going to
so much more likely to do them. Since they have eliminate or control them and what work practices we
decided these things are important to do, they now do are going to use to complete this work correctly, but
them for themselves, not because a manager said they safely. For example, part of the plan may discuss work
have to. That’s where we want to get to with safe work positioning and the requirements under OSHA’s
practices. minimum approach distance (MAD) rules. When
performing work on or near energized lines and
Get your workers involved in the solutions. You might equipment (or systems that could become energized),
be surprised at some of the ideas they come up with to complying with MAD rules is important. Many injuries
work safer. and even fatalities have occurred because of accidental
contact with energized lines and equipment – work
positioning. Just one of the ‘at risk behaviors’ we must
monitor and control. There are many others.

CE INDUSTRY Journal 25