Tag: behavioral safety

Behavioral Safety – Who Is Responsible for Safety?

Safety-Starts-With-MeSafety is everyones responsibility!

As an employee, you should:

  • Learn to work safely and take all rules seriously.
  • Recognize hazards and avoid them.
  • Report all accidents, injuries and illness to your supervisor immediately.
  • Inspect tools before use to avoid injury.
  • Wear all assigned personal protective equipment.

On the other hand, it is managements responsibility to:

  • Provide a safe and healthy workplace.
  • Provide personal protective equipment.
  • Train employees in safe procedures and in how to identify hazards.

Everyone must be aware of potential hazards on the job:

  • Poor housekeeping results in slips, trips and falls.
  • Electricity can cause shocks, burns or fire if not handled properly.
  • Poor material handling may cause back problems or other injuries.
  • Tools and equipment can cause injuries if guards or protective devices are disengaged.

Always use the protections that are provided on the job:

  • Guards on machines and tools keep body parts from contacting moving equipment.
  • Insulation on electrical equipment prevents burns, shock and fire.
  • Lockout/tagout assures equipment is de-energized before it is repaired.
  • Personal protective equipment shields your body from hazards you may face on the job.

In case of emergency:

  • Understand alarms and evacuation routes.
  • Know how to notify emergency response personnel.
  • Implement a procedure for leaving the scene safely so emergency personnel can do their job.
  • Wipe up spills promptly and correctly.

Safety benefits everyone. With fewer injuries, a business can be more productive and profitable. By incorporating safety rules, employees avoid injury as well as illness from exposure to hazardous substances.

via Behavioral Safety – Who Is Responsible for Safety? | Safety Toolbox Talks Meeting Topics.

7 Practices for Safety Leaders

137505843What Great Safety Leaders Do

Many of us have known great safety leaders whose commitment to safety, combined with excellence in leadership, have had an enormous positive impact on their organizations. The hard part is pinning down exactly what it is they do that distinguishes them from other leaders. Our experience is that these people tend to use certain practices that define how they interact with others in the organization and how they go about their day-to-day work. Not surprisingly, these behaviours have been shown to correlate positively with culture and climate attributes that support good safety outcomes:

  • Vision – The effective leader is able to “see” what safety excellence would look like and conveys that vision in a compelling way throughout the organization. This leader acts in a way that communicates high personal standards in safety, helps others question and rethink their assumptions about safety, and describes a compelling picture of what the future can be.
  • Credibility – The effective leader fosters a high level of trust in his or her peers and reports. This leader is willing to admit mistakes with others, advocate for direct reports and the interests of the group, and giving honest information about safety even it if is not well received.
  • Collaboration – The effective leader works well with other people, promotes cooperation and collaboration in safety, actively seeks input from people on issues that affect them, and encourages others to implement their decisions and solutions for improving safety.
  • Communication – The effective leader is a great communicator. He or she encourages people to give honest and complete information about safety even if the information is unfavorable. This leader keeps people informed about the big picture in safety, and communicates frequently and effectively up, down, and across the organization.
  • Action-Orientation – The effective leader is proactive rather than reactive in addressing safety issues. This leader gives timely, considered responses for safety concerns, demonstrates a sense of personal urgency and energy to achieve safety results, and demonstrates a performance-driven focus by delivering results with speed and excellence.
  • Feedback & Recognition – The effective leader is good at providing feedback and recognizing people for their accomplishments. This person publicly recognizes the contributions of others, uses praise more often than criticism, gives positive feedback and recognition for good performance, and finds ways to celebrate accomplishments in safety.
  • Accountability – Finally, the effective leader practices accountability. He or she gives people a fair appraisal of the efforts and results in safety, clearly communicates people’s roles in the safety effort, and fosters the sense that every person is responsible for the level of safety in their organisational unit. It is important to note that this practice is placed last; accountability, absent the context of the other practices, can be counterproductive. Employees will know they will be held accountable, but not necessarily given the resources, information, leadership, support, and encouragement they need to accomplish the task. When used as part of the other six practices, however, accountability complements the work begun.

via 7 Practices for Safety Leaders.

Building the Business Case for Behavioral Safety

toggle-switch-to-safety-277x300How do you sell a behavioral safety program to management? Keep these few pointers in mind.

  • Partner with someone in Accounting or Finance to build the financial case for implementing a behavioral safety program. Use the terminology of investment.
  • Stress behavioral safety is an investment, not a cost. Show how the commitment of resources can earn the company financial returns or gain future benefits or advantages.
  • To help with number two, get current/past cost data on workers’ compensation and follow the ROI guidelines of your organization. Project investment returns by using direct and indirect costs.
  • Stress that behavioral safety helps contribute to fewer lost time incidents and workers’ compensation (WC) claims, lower WC premiums and admin costs, higher employee morale, a better reputation and more.

via DuPont™ STOP™ Behavioral Safety Program.