Safety Factors That Keep You Up At Night

Safety Factors That Keep You Up At Night

Lauren McFarlane, BA, CHSC
President, Act First Safety
Founder, Dental Practice Safety Club

If concerns about the spread of Covid19 hasn’t been enough to keep you up at night, there are other reasons that might make sleeping more restless than usual when it comes to safety. Here’s a list that you might find relatable.

1. New hires

For companies big and small and especially during Covid19 where workers are transitioning between employers and positions, determining gaps in knowledge, skill and experience during reduced and evolving hours of operation can make new worker orientation more difficult than usual. Employers should ensure that a process for documenting onboarding of new workers is effectively in place.

2. Training

Managing a training matrix including the training requirements for each worker should be established, but may only include formal training. New hire orientation and informal training such as safety talks including new developments and trends should also be documented and go beyond formal training requirements. Workers should understand their responsibilities for safe procedures and recognize safety policies that affect co-workers and visitors. During times of disruption like Covid19, maintaining training records remains important for the business.

3. Supervision

Supervisors have authority over workers. Their job is very important and often misunderstood. They help to shape safety culture that predicts safety behavior. Safety culture is largely shaped by organizational leaders. Injury rates directly correlate to supervisor traits and leadership style. In other words, how a leader supervises their team is a strong predictor of safety among direct reports. Supervisors require the resources, management support, and training to effectively perform their job. When supervisors don’t understand the importance of their role and hold workers accountable for safety or lack basic leadership skills, it’s hard to build a sustainable culture of safety. Clearly identifying the supervisors in your organization and mentoring them toward effective leadership and communicating the trust you place in them to the team builds confidence within your supervisor and the team and is less worrisome for you overall.  

4. When the cat’s away the mice will play

Given we have just covered new hires, training and supervision and how things could easily ‘go south’ if not handled well by employers, thinking about what workers are doing when no one is watching can be a big concern. We want to believe that workers are doing what they have been trained to do and do so safely all of the time even when unsupervised, but the reality is, on any given day there will always be a few individuals who, for various reasons, take shortcuts and unnecessarily risks in order to get the job done. Throw in time pressure, production demands, and a person with high-risk behaviours and personal values not in sync with a safety culture than it is conceivable that worker behaviour can be a source of concern especially when unsupervised.  

5. Unsafe, unmaintained working conditions or equipment.

An uneven sidewalk, slippery floor, unmaintained equipment, and an unguarded machine can all be sources of safety hazards that when left unchecked can cause harm. We may be well aware of hazardous conditions and equipment but are willing to live with the risks because there is just not enough time, money or support to correct the issue. Near-misses are our gift to warn us to act on the hazard before it is too late. An unsupported safety culture coupled with poor communication of near-misses is just an accident waiting to happen.

6. Complacency Drift

Without compliance checks in place its easy to imagine how workers begin to drift and allow for shortcuts and deviations that build silently over time moving away from established safety processes and procedures.

7. Time or Money

Sometimes we become aware of safety hazards, but they are not addressed because there is:

• Not enough money
• Not enough time
• Not enough resources or support
• Risk level is not high enough
• Lack of commitment from senior management

These factors might keep you up at night, but there will always be some risks and hazards that have to be addressed. Safety concerns must be addressed by bringing attention to the issue(s) through coaching, feedback, training, maintenance, establishing accountability for unsafe behaviour and similar improvements that keep workers safe at all times.

8. Moral and Ethical Reasons

All workplace stakeholders including employers and workers may be conflicted knowing that something could have been done to prevent an injury, illness or death to a fellow worker or visitor. Don’t let these reasons develop into your personal guilty nightmare.

9. Legal

Concerns about non-compliance may lead to high fines and potential imprisonment if an employer or supervisor is found in breach of occupational health and safety law. Even the threat of legal action is enough to keep you up at night.

10. Poor Workplace Practices

These concerns can be costly when things go wrong. Non-compliance, unsafe work habits can lead to loss of reputation, detrimental health effects, loss of clients, vendors and good staff, increased costs, lower productivity, reduced time,  and overall dissatisfaction. Any one of these factors leads to the kind of disruption that can be described as nighmarish.

Summary
Organizational leaders set the foundation for how health and safety is managed.  A 2018, National Safety Survey found that 80% of survey respondents indicated that top management supported safety efforts, but believed that they don’t fully understand the value of keeping workers safe and the importance of building a dependable safety culture.

At a time, when we have learned so much from Covid19 and how to value safety, diligence in determining the risks, hazards and potential situations that can sometimes be missed and take us by surprise avoids the conditions that might keep you up at night.