Creating a safe working environment

When it comes to creating a safe working environment in your work place several things must be considered, like Health and Safety at work act, Management of health and safety at work act to name two. But how many employers and managers think about the effect of emotional stability within the work place?

What is emotional stability and how does that look. Well to answer that you must first look and the work place and the companies culture. Is there a “safe culture” or is there a “At any cost” culture. Both can be separate from the companies own standards and expectations. Your workforce can be very safety aware and guide others to do the same. One example that really shows this is when a grounds worker on a Highways job was using a floor saw without the use of a dust mask or safety glasses. One of his team stopped him and suggested he should wear his glasses and dust mask, stating that the silica dust was dangerous and could cause cancer in the long run. This as well as others doing the same makes the role of health and safety in the work place, mush simpler and easier for all.

But on the other hand a company that holds health and safety very high in their standards and provides all equipment that workers needs. Had the following happen on their site. Again when a worker was using a floor saw, he was rushing and forgot his dust mask. He told his team leader that he had forgotten his dust mask and it was a 20min drive to the site to collect a new one. His team leader replied “we need to get this done before lunch time and it is 11:43 now!” this made the worker take the decision to carry on without a dust mask.

Both of these happened within the same week. The men working are all in the same age bracket and all have the same amount of time on the tools. So what makes one person take the risk and the other stop the work to help his work mate?

The answer is perception, the first incident there was no rush, the worker stopped the work because he didn’t perceive any time constraints. The other incident, the team leader added the fact that there was time constraints. He didn’t say no, but he did add an issue that he needn’t have done. One that led the worker to believe that there wasn’t enough time to go back and collect his PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) The result, the worker carried on and potentially caused himself to get cancer.

How can you as an employer or manager stop and discourage this?

There are two ways in which we at Lean On Me Consultancy have found that works very well. The first is by talks and guest speakers, who will come and speak to your workforce and tell their story and that of their time within the industry that your company works in. These talks are not from anyone that works within the company, they are not managers or H&S (health & safety) experts inn some cases, but they have true experiences of when things go wrong. These stories resonates with workers and alike, which gets them thinking about their own actions. The effect of these kinds of talks has an almost immediate effect of the teams. But these talks don’t last forever and after a few weeks or months people tend to start to fall back into their normal habits.

This brings me to the second way. Behavioral Safety Coaches/Advisors (BSC/A), not to be confused with Safety Advisors, the purpose of the BSC is to highlight the risks and EFECTS of the actions taken. The BSC’s can be either full time Behavioral Safety Coaches whose job is to speak with all the staff on site and assist where needed or full time workers who do this as part of their roles. They are sometimes called Safety Mates in some locations, BSC’s are there for the wellbeing of staff and they are not there to do safety tours or reports, although they can assist the safety advisor/manager with these duties on occasions.

The effect of the BSC’s is long lasting and helps with wellbeing and mental health of staff. The role is very fluid and for this reason the BSC’s need a certain amount of freedom to do their role. This is why you must always be careful who you put into this role. They must be able to manage their own time and be compassionate towards others.

We at Lean On Me Consultancy recommend that you do a talk and then follow up at the end with the purpose of the Behavioral Safety Coach. This approach has had fantastic success within the construction and manufacturing industries and is one of the best ways to ensure that you have a Safety minded workforce.

For more information on how we at Lean On Me Consultancy can help improve your safe working environment. Click here