There’s “Obamacare” (healthcare reform) and then there’s “OSHAscare.” I received yet another OSHAscare email this morning from a company trying to foment fear of inspections, penalties, jail time, yadda, yadda, yadda. Businesses from newsletters to consultants to attorneys have profited from OSHA scare tactics since the day the agency went into business. But in 2011, language like this from this morning’s email seems to be beamed from another planet:
“The Obama administration has identified OSHA compliance as a top enforcement priority and has promised to aggressively monitor businesses for compliance with workplace safety requirements. Employers and their counsel should prepare now for increased OSHA inspections, closer scrutiny of injury recordkeeping and reporting, a stronger focus on investigations of employee whistleblower claims, and tougher negotiations with OSHA regarding penalties and citations.”
How does that jive with the GOP’s assault on all things OSHA? For example, the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently commented: “Since 1970, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been charged with enforcing federal safety and health standards in America’s workplaces. With nearly 14 million individuals out of work, (it is time to) examine OSHA’s current policies and priorities and how they affect job growth.
President Obama’s FY12 budget, unveiled last week and immediately dubbed “Dead on Arrival” by Washington pundits, includes a wish list for OSHA that would definitely add fuel to the fire of the OSHAscare crowd. A couple of million bucks to research the much vaunted Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2), more inspectors, more whistleblower investigators, standard proposals for silica, beryllium, confined spaces in construction, infectious diseases. Inspection targeting of smaller employers.
Forget about it. Ain’t gonna happen, no way, no how. Word in Washington is that House Republicans are already thinking about dragging OSHA officials up the Hill to explain I2P2. That rule, OSHA boss Dr. David Michaels’ numero uno priority, should have been the baseline standard OSHA set in 1970. Should have been its first regulation. Now in 2011 it appears to be a dead reg walking. Some critics, of which there are many, call it a backdoor entrance to ergonomics regulation. That comes close to a death blow.
Sure, you’ll keep reading press releases from national OSHA about five- and six-figure fines. And naturally those penalties will be played up by the OSHAscare crowd. But how about a little context, some perspective here. Out of millions of workplaces OSHA inspects a tiny fraction. Most often something seriously wrong has to occur in a shop for the agency to levy a heavy fine.
The OSHAscare stuff has always seemed cynical to me. Perversely humorous. But given the current climate, it seems even more out of touch.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Heated regulatory rhetoric: Sound and fury signifying… not much
Even during times when the White House has been the residence of a Republican President have we not heard such rhetoric over the little agency called OSHA. Its budget, after all, is roughly $500 million. Big reg brother EPA runs with a budget of more than $7 billion.
The new generation of House Republicans, inspired if not threatened by the national Tea Party movement, are acting like teenagers, hormones at a fever pitch, who’ve just been given the keys to the car. Their rhetoric is all “take no prisoners.” It plays well with voters back home who want to see less government, less spending, less regulation, and many more jobs.
So the House, thanks to its GOP majority and frenetic freshmen representatives, passed a funding bill to get the federal government through the current fiscal year, ending October 31, 2011, that slashes $60 billion from the fed budget.
OSHA would lose about one-fifth of its budget, or about $100 million.
EPA would stand to lose almost half of its budget, a cut of $3 billion, that’s with a B, out of its $7.3 billion in funding.
So what happens next? Eventually the wailing and nashing of teeth over supposed job-killing regs will die down, likely around the time in early March when differences between the House and Senate budget plans will require loud talk to take a back seat to backroom deal-making.
And when it comes to cutting deals, it’s the Senate that will act like the adults who take the keys away from the kids. OSHA and MSHA and NIOSH and EPA will all stand to lose dollars, but nothing of the magnitude now being shouted about by the GOP and decried by organized labor and safety advocacy groups.
Washington is more Hollywood than Hollywood in some respects. Elected representatives must play to the crowd, the voters who put them in office. So they follow a script sure to please constituents back home. But it’s theatre. Hearings are scripted theatre. Bellicose speeches are theatre. In Hollywood, power brokers seldom cross each other in public exchanges. Rabble rousers in Tinseltown often end up blacklisted and searching for work in Europe.
So take all the current chatter about 8,000 fewer OSHA inspections, OSHA’s website going dark, and national air pollution rivaling China’s with the proverbial grain of cynicism. It’s simply the way Washington works, or doesn’t work.
The new generation of House Republicans, inspired if not threatened by the national Tea Party movement, are acting like teenagers, hormones at a fever pitch, who’ve just been given the keys to the car. Their rhetoric is all “take no prisoners.” It plays well with voters back home who want to see less government, less spending, less regulation, and many more jobs.
So the House, thanks to its GOP majority and frenetic freshmen representatives, passed a funding bill to get the federal government through the current fiscal year, ending October 31, 2011, that slashes $60 billion from the fed budget.
OSHA would lose about one-fifth of its budget, or about $100 million.
EPA would stand to lose almost half of its budget, a cut of $3 billion, that’s with a B, out of its $7.3 billion in funding.
So what happens next? Eventually the wailing and nashing of teeth over supposed job-killing regs will die down, likely around the time in early March when differences between the House and Senate budget plans will require loud talk to take a back seat to backroom deal-making.
And when it comes to cutting deals, it’s the Senate that will act like the adults who take the keys away from the kids. OSHA and MSHA and NIOSH and EPA will all stand to lose dollars, but nothing of the magnitude now being shouted about by the GOP and decried by organized labor and safety advocacy groups.
Washington is more Hollywood than Hollywood in some respects. Elected representatives must play to the crowd, the voters who put them in office. So they follow a script sure to please constituents back home. But it’s theatre. Hearings are scripted theatre. Bellicose speeches are theatre. In Hollywood, power brokers seldom cross each other in public exchanges. Rabble rousers in Tinseltown often end up blacklisted and searching for work in Europe.
So take all the current chatter about 8,000 fewer OSHA inspections, OSHA’s website going dark, and national air pollution rivaling China’s with the proverbial grain of cynicism. It’s simply the way Washington works, or doesn’t work.
Monday, February 14, 2011
The second half of your life
How much fight do you have in you?
Almost half — 47 percent — of ISHN readers are between ages 50-59, according to our 27th annual “White Paper” reader research conducted in September, 2010. Hello, AARP® benefits. You know, there’s a reason the organization no longer goes by the American Association of Retired Persons — who retires anymore? Especially in their 50s? Hedge fund managers, Silicon Valley inventors, Alex Rodriquez, OK maybe.
Another 16 percent of readers are over age 60, meaning almost two-thirds (63 percent) of you reading this magazine are age 50+ and have 30 to 40 years experience.
What do to with all that savvy, all those war wounds.
Says one good old boy from Louisiana: “Over the years I've been hired, fired, left a job because of bosses who were clueless, went to jobs with a strong safety program only to find that half of those were hiding some problems. I've been involved with safety since about 1961. I'm one of those who, years ago, decided this was my life, my career, and my calling. There's damned few of us around nowadays that are willing to fight the good fight.”
This old boy’s still got some fight left in him. “I'm still working part-time. I do the technical writing for the fellow I turned my consultancy over to. I do the work in my home office, take my time and generally get it right.”
Faded finish line
Knowledge workers such as safety professionals are never really “finished,” as physically and mentally exhausting blue collar work will retire a man after 40 years, wrote management genius and self-described “social ecologist” Peter Drucker in his book, “The Essential Drucker.”
But Drucker added this caveat: “Forty or fifty years in the same kind of work (say safety management) is much too long for most people. They deteriorate (from all the fighting), get bored (by all the recordkeeping and compliance chores), lose all joy in their work (44 percent of readers say work hours will increase in 2011; 50 percent say job-related stress will increase), “retire on the job” (NIOSH calls it presentism: the lights are on but no one is home) and become a burden to themselves (depressed) and to everyone around them (coworkers, family, fishing buddies, golf partners).”
Now you might call some of these symptoms your stereotypical midlife crisis. Drucker, though, isn’t buying that. “It is mostly boredom,” he wrote. “At age forty-five most executives have reached the peak of their business career and know it. They are good at their jobs. But few are learning anything anymore, few are contributing anything anymore, and few expect the job again to become a challenge and a satisfaction.”
This is borne out in our reader research. Of pros age 50-59, 54 percent say the level of satisfaction with their work will remain the same in 2011. Fifty-six percent say the level of their effectiveness will stay the same. Can you say “maintenance mode”? Job satisfaction and effectiveness in 2011 will increase for about a third of pros, and decrease for one in ten.
“A deadly bore”
Most mid-life pros, also known as baby boomer pros, I think can relate to Drucker’s words: “…the original work that was so challenging when the knowledge worker was thirty has become a deadly bore when the knowledge worker is fifty — and still he or she is likely to face another fifteen if not another twenty years of work.”
Maybe this explains pros clock-watching while accompanying OSHA inspectors on an audit, or yawning over another recordkeeping interpretation, or restlessly toe-tapping at their 127th hazcom refresher class.
Drucker (1909 – 2005) might have been the original proponent of taking personal responsibility for branding oneself, “You, Inc.” Of course much goes into this career-long branding process, said Drucker: “The knowledge worker, first of all, is expected to get the right things done. Éffectiveness is a habit built on a complex of practices. The effective person focuses on contributions. Knowledge workers who do not ask themselves, ‘What can I contribute?’ are not only likely to aim too low, they are likely to aim at the wrong thing.”
And so we have the legacy of OSHA compliance cops, contributing nothing but compliance to the organization. Their aim is low, misplaced, and their “brand” suffers for it.
Branding yourself calls for managing yourself. Drucker was emphatic about the necessity to manage oneself. He advised: Know your strengths, improve your strengths. Where is arrogance (“I can recite OSHA rules in my sleep”) causing disabling ignorance (“My company’s strategic plan, what strategic plan?”) What are your values? (Drucker as a young and successful investment banker in London in the mid-1930s did not see himself making a contribution. So he quit. “People, I realized, were my values,” he wrote.
Drucker sounds like many safety pros I know. It’s not about the bucks. Forty-three percent of our readers will have an income of between $50,000 to $80,000 in 2011, according to our research.
If you fit our reader research demographic profile, what are you going to do with the second half of your life?
Concluding chapters
Drucker offered three alternatives when you reach the point that your house is empty, your kids are gone, you need income and you need something challenging. 1) Start a second and different career. 2) Develop a parallel career. Keep working, full or part-time, at your old job, and create a parallel job: consulting is an obvious avenue. 3) Be a social entrepreneur and channel your knowledge into a new start-up.
People who want to make something (that contribution thing again) of the second half of their life will be the few and the bold, to paraphrase Drucker. Most, he said, will “retire on the job, continue being bored, keeping on with their routine, and counting the years to the move to Vegas, Sedona, or Sanibel Island. (Full disclosure: I do know some professionals on Sanibel Island who haven’t cashed it in.)
Drucker the social ecologist was spot on when he said, “In a knowledge society we expect everyone to be a ‘success’.” Say hello to “American Idol,” “Survivor,” youth sports and SAT scores. If that’s the case, Drucker said it’s all the more important to cultivate your second half in a way that allows you “to continue to make a contribution, make a difference, and seize opportunities to be a leader, to be respected, to be a success.”
Of course Drucker was an outlier, very much in the minority in this regard. No Arizona sunsets or 19th watering hole for him. He wrote 39 books, including 9 in the last decade of his life, taught his last class at 92, and consulted well into his mid-90s.
So for the many of you staring at the second half of your life, in or out of safety, how do you define success?
Almost half — 47 percent — of ISHN readers are between ages 50-59, according to our 27th annual “White Paper” reader research conducted in September, 2010. Hello, AARP® benefits. You know, there’s a reason the organization no longer goes by the American Association of Retired Persons — who retires anymore? Especially in their 50s? Hedge fund managers, Silicon Valley inventors, Alex Rodriquez, OK maybe.
Another 16 percent of readers are over age 60, meaning almost two-thirds (63 percent) of you reading this magazine are age 50+ and have 30 to 40 years experience.
What do to with all that savvy, all those war wounds.
Says one good old boy from Louisiana: “Over the years I've been hired, fired, left a job because of bosses who were clueless, went to jobs with a strong safety program only to find that half of those were hiding some problems. I've been involved with safety since about 1961. I'm one of those who, years ago, decided this was my life, my career, and my calling. There's damned few of us around nowadays that are willing to fight the good fight.”
This old boy’s still got some fight left in him. “I'm still working part-time. I do the technical writing for the fellow I turned my consultancy over to. I do the work in my home office, take my time and generally get it right.”
Faded finish line
Knowledge workers such as safety professionals are never really “finished,” as physically and mentally exhausting blue collar work will retire a man after 40 years, wrote management genius and self-described “social ecologist” Peter Drucker in his book, “The Essential Drucker.”
But Drucker added this caveat: “Forty or fifty years in the same kind of work (say safety management) is much too long for most people. They deteriorate (from all the fighting), get bored (by all the recordkeeping and compliance chores), lose all joy in their work (44 percent of readers say work hours will increase in 2011; 50 percent say job-related stress will increase), “retire on the job” (NIOSH calls it presentism: the lights are on but no one is home) and become a burden to themselves (depressed) and to everyone around them (coworkers, family, fishing buddies, golf partners).”
Now you might call some of these symptoms your stereotypical midlife crisis. Drucker, though, isn’t buying that. “It is mostly boredom,” he wrote. “At age forty-five most executives have reached the peak of their business career and know it. They are good at their jobs. But few are learning anything anymore, few are contributing anything anymore, and few expect the job again to become a challenge and a satisfaction.”
This is borne out in our reader research. Of pros age 50-59, 54 percent say the level of satisfaction with their work will remain the same in 2011. Fifty-six percent say the level of their effectiveness will stay the same. Can you say “maintenance mode”? Job satisfaction and effectiveness in 2011 will increase for about a third of pros, and decrease for one in ten.
“A deadly bore”
Most mid-life pros, also known as baby boomer pros, I think can relate to Drucker’s words: “…the original work that was so challenging when the knowledge worker was thirty has become a deadly bore when the knowledge worker is fifty — and still he or she is likely to face another fifteen if not another twenty years of work.”
Maybe this explains pros clock-watching while accompanying OSHA inspectors on an audit, or yawning over another recordkeeping interpretation, or restlessly toe-tapping at their 127th hazcom refresher class.
Drucker (1909 – 2005) might have been the original proponent of taking personal responsibility for branding oneself, “You, Inc.” Of course much goes into this career-long branding process, said Drucker: “The knowledge worker, first of all, is expected to get the right things done. Éffectiveness is a habit built on a complex of practices. The effective person focuses on contributions. Knowledge workers who do not ask themselves, ‘What can I contribute?’ are not only likely to aim too low, they are likely to aim at the wrong thing.”
And so we have the legacy of OSHA compliance cops, contributing nothing but compliance to the organization. Their aim is low, misplaced, and their “brand” suffers for it.
Branding yourself calls for managing yourself. Drucker was emphatic about the necessity to manage oneself. He advised: Know your strengths, improve your strengths. Where is arrogance (“I can recite OSHA rules in my sleep”) causing disabling ignorance (“My company’s strategic plan, what strategic plan?”) What are your values? (Drucker as a young and successful investment banker in London in the mid-1930s did not see himself making a contribution. So he quit. “People, I realized, were my values,” he wrote.
Drucker sounds like many safety pros I know. It’s not about the bucks. Forty-three percent of our readers will have an income of between $50,000 to $80,000 in 2011, according to our research.
If you fit our reader research demographic profile, what are you going to do with the second half of your life?
Concluding chapters
Drucker offered three alternatives when you reach the point that your house is empty, your kids are gone, you need income and you need something challenging. 1) Start a second and different career. 2) Develop a parallel career. Keep working, full or part-time, at your old job, and create a parallel job: consulting is an obvious avenue. 3) Be a social entrepreneur and channel your knowledge into a new start-up.
People who want to make something (that contribution thing again) of the second half of their life will be the few and the bold, to paraphrase Drucker. Most, he said, will “retire on the job, continue being bored, keeping on with their routine, and counting the years to the move to Vegas, Sedona, or Sanibel Island. (Full disclosure: I do know some professionals on Sanibel Island who haven’t cashed it in.)
Drucker the social ecologist was spot on when he said, “In a knowledge society we expect everyone to be a ‘success’.” Say hello to “American Idol,” “Survivor,” youth sports and SAT scores. If that’s the case, Drucker said it’s all the more important to cultivate your second half in a way that allows you “to continue to make a contribution, make a difference, and seize opportunities to be a leader, to be respected, to be a success.”
Of course Drucker was an outlier, very much in the minority in this regard. No Arizona sunsets or 19th watering hole for him. He wrote 39 books, including 9 in the last decade of his life, taught his last class at 92, and consulted well into his mid-90s.
So for the many of you staring at the second half of your life, in or out of safety, how do you define success?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Time: The great enemy of safety
“Effective people know that time is the limiting factor,” said management guru Peter Drucker. “Time is always in exceedingly short supply.” It’s irreplaceable, totally inelastic — you cannot buy, hire, rent, replicate or outsource time.
OSHA is under Republican guns this winter for what critics consider its job-killing regulations. They are job killers because they are time killers.
It takes time to put on personal protective equipment. It takes time to decipher OSHA’s injury recordkeeping rules. Lockout-tagout and confined space entry procedures, per OSHA requirements, take time. Process safety audits take time. Just ask BP.
An OSHA ergonomics rule, as any overburdened businessman would tell you, would have been the mother of all time-killing workplace regs. Think of how production lines would have slowed. All these assessments, job rotations, job redesigns… tick, tick, tick, the clock ticks away. Products must get out the door. Just in time. Quotas for production and sales must be met. Bonuses hinge on early completion of projects. The worse that can happen: time stops. The line stops. Downtime.
Too many workers in meat plants and other assembly jobs cannot get the time off to go to the bathroom. Rest breaks have to be bargained for or legislated. Time is money.
Observation and feedback sessions take time. Job safety analyses take time. Safety meetings way too frequently go into overtime. Training takes time and employees away from their work. So does a serious incident investigation. A wall-to-wall inspection. Or filling out a perception survey. Owning up to employee perceptions about safety, or the lack thereof, takes even more time.
Often when execs reject a safety professional’s proposal, they’re looking at their watches, so to speak. Doing the mental math. You want to bring in a speaker? Play games? Practice with the fire department? Have an evacuation drill? How long will it take?
Why aren’t safety issues on the agenda for board meetings? These are busy, harried, burdened people. Time is precious.
Time is the enemy of safety, but safety as traditionally practiced often wastes more time. One of Drucker’s four major time-wasters is lack of foresight. In safety it’s called fire-fighting, the recurrent crisis. Management by frenzied reactions.
“Malorganization” is another of Drucker’s time-wasters. Also known as death by meetings. “Meetings have to be the exception rather than the rule,” said Drucker. In safety, meetings are the norm. They are entirely expected. You have safety committee meetings, safety steering committee meetings, safety circles, safety rallies, safety contests, safety training sessions, safety champions meetings, team meetings.
An executive who knows little or nothing about safety judges by appearances, and it appears safety involves one meeting after the other.
Miscommunication wastes way too much time. And safety, which relies so heavily on communication, is very vulnerable to time wasted by employees and supervisors trying to figure out the latest procedure, posting, labeling, warning, protocol, compliance directive, letters of interpretation.
How to slay the great enemy of safety?
Be conscious of your requests for time, in all their many forms, and how they affect organizational behavior and priorities. Better to leave ‘em wanting more, said the comedian, cutting short his act. Apply that to your speeches. Avoid techno babble, long stories, bad jokes, unprepared presentations, bitch sessions and compound sentences. Omit unnecessary words. KISS. But do take the time to ask an employee how he’s doing. The rapport-building is worth your time.
OSHA is under Republican guns this winter for what critics consider its job-killing regulations. They are job killers because they are time killers.
It takes time to put on personal protective equipment. It takes time to decipher OSHA’s injury recordkeeping rules. Lockout-tagout and confined space entry procedures, per OSHA requirements, take time. Process safety audits take time. Just ask BP.
An OSHA ergonomics rule, as any overburdened businessman would tell you, would have been the mother of all time-killing workplace regs. Think of how production lines would have slowed. All these assessments, job rotations, job redesigns… tick, tick, tick, the clock ticks away. Products must get out the door. Just in time. Quotas for production and sales must be met. Bonuses hinge on early completion of projects. The worse that can happen: time stops. The line stops. Downtime.
Too many workers in meat plants and other assembly jobs cannot get the time off to go to the bathroom. Rest breaks have to be bargained for or legislated. Time is money.
Observation and feedback sessions take time. Job safety analyses take time. Safety meetings way too frequently go into overtime. Training takes time and employees away from their work. So does a serious incident investigation. A wall-to-wall inspection. Or filling out a perception survey. Owning up to employee perceptions about safety, or the lack thereof, takes even more time.
Often when execs reject a safety professional’s proposal, they’re looking at their watches, so to speak. Doing the mental math. You want to bring in a speaker? Play games? Practice with the fire department? Have an evacuation drill? How long will it take?
Why aren’t safety issues on the agenda for board meetings? These are busy, harried, burdened people. Time is precious.
Time is the enemy of safety, but safety as traditionally practiced often wastes more time. One of Drucker’s four major time-wasters is lack of foresight. In safety it’s called fire-fighting, the recurrent crisis. Management by frenzied reactions.
“Malorganization” is another of Drucker’s time-wasters. Also known as death by meetings. “Meetings have to be the exception rather than the rule,” said Drucker. In safety, meetings are the norm. They are entirely expected. You have safety committee meetings, safety steering committee meetings, safety circles, safety rallies, safety contests, safety training sessions, safety champions meetings, team meetings.
An executive who knows little or nothing about safety judges by appearances, and it appears safety involves one meeting after the other.
Miscommunication wastes way too much time. And safety, which relies so heavily on communication, is very vulnerable to time wasted by employees and supervisors trying to figure out the latest procedure, posting, labeling, warning, protocol, compliance directive, letters of interpretation.
How to slay the great enemy of safety?
Be conscious of your requests for time, in all their many forms, and how they affect organizational behavior and priorities. Better to leave ‘em wanting more, said the comedian, cutting short his act. Apply that to your speeches. Avoid techno babble, long stories, bad jokes, unprepared presentations, bitch sessions and compound sentences. Omit unnecessary words. KISS. But do take the time to ask an employee how he’s doing. The rapport-building is worth your time.
OSHA’s longest winter
“Effective people know that time is the limiting factor,” said management guru Peter Drucker. “Time is always in exceedingly short supply.” It’s irreplaceable, totally inelastic — you cannot buy, hire, rent, replicate or outsource time.
OSHA is under Republican guns this winter for what critics consider its job-killing regulations. They are job killers because they are time killers.
It takes time to put on personal protective equipment. It takes time to decipher OSHA’s injury recordkeeping rules. Lockout-tagout and confined space entry procedures, per OSHA requirements, take time. Process safety audits take time. Just ask BP.
An OSHA ergonomics rule, as any overburdened businessman would tell you, would have been the mother of all time-killing workplace regs. Think of how production lines would have slowed. All these assessments, job rotations, job redesigns… tick, tick, tick, the clock ticks away. Products must get out the door. Just in time. Quotas for production and sales must be met. Bonuses hinge on early completion of projects. The worse that can happen: time stops. The line stops. Downtime.
Too many workers in meat plants and other assembly jobs cannot get the time off to go to the bathroom. Rest breaks have to be bargained for or legislated. Time is money.
Observation and feedback sessions take time. Job safety analyses take time. Safety meetings way too frequently go into overtime. Training takes time and employees away from their work. So does a serious incident investigation. A wall-to-wall inspection. Or filling out a perception survey. Owning up to employee perceptions about safety, or the lack thereof, takes even more time.
Often when execs reject a safety professional’s proposal, they’re looking at their watches, so to speak. Doing the mental math. You want to bring in a speaker? Play games? Practice with the fire department? Have an evacuation drill? How long will it take?
Why aren’t safety issues on the agenda for board meetings? These are busy, harried, burdened people. Time is precious.
Time is the enemy of safety, but safety as traditionally practiced often wastes more time. One of Drucker’s four major time-wasters is lack of foresight. In safety it’s called fire-fighting, the recurrent crisis. Management by frenzied reactions.
“Malorganization” is another of Drucker’s time-wasters. Also known as death by meetings. “Meetings have to be the exception rather than the rule,” said Drucker. In safety, meetings are the norm. They are entirely expected. You have safety committee meetings, safety steering committee meetings, safety circles, safety rallies, safety contests, safety training sessions, safety champions meetings, team meetings.
An executive who knows little or nothing about safety judges by appearances, and it appears safety involves one meeting after the other.
Miscommunication wastes way too much time. And safety, which relies so heavily on communication, is very vulnerable to time wasted by employees and supervisors trying to figure out the latest procedure, posting, labeling, warning, protocol, compliance directive, letters of interpretation.
How to slay the great enemy of safety?
Be conscious of your requests for time, in all their many forms, and how they affect organizational behavior and priorities. Better to leave ‘em wanting more, said the comedian, cutting short his act. Apply that to your speeches. Avoid techno babble, long stories, bad jokes, unprepared presentations, bitch sessions and compound sentences. Omit unnecessary words. KISS. But do take the time to ask an employee how he’s doing. The rapport-building is worth your time.
OSHA is under Republican guns this winter for what critics consider its job-killing regulations. They are job killers because they are time killers.
It takes time to put on personal protective equipment. It takes time to decipher OSHA’s injury recordkeeping rules. Lockout-tagout and confined space entry procedures, per OSHA requirements, take time. Process safety audits take time. Just ask BP.
An OSHA ergonomics rule, as any overburdened businessman would tell you, would have been the mother of all time-killing workplace regs. Think of how production lines would have slowed. All these assessments, job rotations, job redesigns… tick, tick, tick, the clock ticks away. Products must get out the door. Just in time. Quotas for production and sales must be met. Bonuses hinge on early completion of projects. The worse that can happen: time stops. The line stops. Downtime.
Too many workers in meat plants and other assembly jobs cannot get the time off to go to the bathroom. Rest breaks have to be bargained for or legislated. Time is money.
Observation and feedback sessions take time. Job safety analyses take time. Safety meetings way too frequently go into overtime. Training takes time and employees away from their work. So does a serious incident investigation. A wall-to-wall inspection. Or filling out a perception survey. Owning up to employee perceptions about safety, or the lack thereof, takes even more time.
Often when execs reject a safety professional’s proposal, they’re looking at their watches, so to speak. Doing the mental math. You want to bring in a speaker? Play games? Practice with the fire department? Have an evacuation drill? How long will it take?
Why aren’t safety issues on the agenda for board meetings? These are busy, harried, burdened people. Time is precious.
Time is the enemy of safety, but safety as traditionally practiced often wastes more time. One of Drucker’s four major time-wasters is lack of foresight. In safety it’s called fire-fighting, the recurrent crisis. Management by frenzied reactions.
“Malorganization” is another of Drucker’s time-wasters. Also known as death by meetings. “Meetings have to be the exception rather than the rule,” said Drucker. In safety, meetings are the norm. They are entirely expected. You have safety committee meetings, safety steering committee meetings, safety circles, safety rallies, safety contests, safety training sessions, safety champions meetings, team meetings.
An executive who knows little or nothing about safety judges by appearances, and it appears safety involves one meeting after the other.
Miscommunication wastes way too much time. And safety, which relies so heavily on communication, is very vulnerable to time wasted by employees and supervisors trying to figure out the latest procedure, posting, labeling, warning, protocol, compliance directive, letters of interpretation.
How to slay the great enemy of safety?
Be conscious of your requests for time, in all their many forms, and how they affect organizational behavior and priorities. Better to leave ‘em wanting more, said the comedian, cutting short his act. Apply that to your speeches. Avoid techno babble, long stories, bad jokes, unprepared presentations, bitch sessions and compound sentences. Omit unnecessary words. KISS. But do take the time to ask an employee how he’s doing. The rapport-building is worth your time.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Farewell to AJ McNamara and the old school safety products industry
Ambrose John "AJ" McNamara Jr., 72, formerly or Worcester and Holden, Mass., most recently living in Los Angeles, died September 21, 2010 in Cedars Sinai Medical Center.
A significant player of the post-OSHA industrial safety field, AJ worked 17 years for Norton Co., an abrasives manufacturer that acquired a string of safety businesses in the early 1970s through AJ’s guidance. These companies were consolidated under the North Safety banner, which became one of the iconic companies in the safety market of the 1970s and 80s. North is now a brand name in the Honeywell staple of safety and health businesses.
When AJ was acquiring small, family-run safety businesses in the early 70s, the new-fangled OSHA agency, run by a Reading, Pa., department store retailer who later would own a tour bus company, (think those credentials would fly today?) was conducting 80,000 inspections a year and scaring businesses into buying all sorts of PPE. For safety distributors and manufacturers, these were the gold rush days. The manufacturing base in the U.S. was still strong, though just beginning to head overseas. Demand for hard hats, gloves, ear plugs, steel-toe shoes, respirators and “Buddy Holly” safety glasses would never be higher.
Membership boomed in the American Society of Safety Engineers and the American Industrial Hygiene Association. “Engineers” and “Industrial” were reflective of the times, far less applicable in 2010 as the professions have expanded beyond engineering and industrial operations.
The National Safety Council in the 70s and early 80s held its annual National Safety Congress in the basement of the hulking, palatial Conrad Hilton Hotel on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, the NSC’s home. Attendees trudged up and down stairs, tripped on rumpled carpet, and got lost trying to find exhibit halls tucked away on different floors and wings of the Hilton. Girls in miniskirts and bikinis waved from swing sets. The aisles were packed. I lunched one day in the Hilton with an air traffic controller recently fired by President Reagan. If Reagan had walked into the restaurant the guy would’ve punched him out. He was so angry he couldn’t shut up.
A far cry from the sleek glass and steel San Diego Convention Center where the 2010 Congress & Expo was held.
It wasn’t exactly “Mad Men,” but the Congress in the 70s and early 80s was typical of trade shows of the time. Sales meetings that wound up with cocktails all around, dinners where at least one sloshed sales manager of my acquaintance ended up face down in his plate of spaghetti, nights carousing up and down Rush Street bars, sales reps showing up for booth duty in the morning, dark circles under their eyes, hoarse and groping for coffee after two hours of shut eye.
I remember getting on the plane Sunday morning in Philadelphia to head out to my first Safety Congress. One of the owners of the magazine saw me get aboard and said, “Dave, relax, break a smile.” It was my first business trip. I had a sales meeting and sales dinner ahead of me with men my father’s age. Loud, guffawing, smoking and drinking peddlers. Reminded me of when my father had his pals over for poker night. Loud and profane. I’d sneak out of bed and peek downstairs. Through the smoke I’d see the fellas around the dining room table. Where the big boys roamed. With those damn deep voices. Scary.
My first client dinner was in a tight private dinner room with about 12-15 people around the table. I couldn’t think of a thing to say. They didn’t teach us in journalism school about small talk at sales dinners. My soon-to-be wife picked me up at the airport on Tuesday night. “What’s the matter with you?” she asked. “Never. I’m never going back to one of those damn dinners again.”
30 years later I’m still flying off to Safety Congresses…
Safety was an easy sell in the 70s and early 80s. The sales pitch was simple: OSHA says you need these products. That was it. The market was far from mature in those salad days. Thousands and thousands of companies were short of the required PPE.
Safety distributors never had it better. It would be decades before the likes of Grainger barged in and started stealing business. The Safety Equipment Distributors Association was a family affair, with a small, close-knit number of family-run distributorships retreating each summer to a resort where scores of their kids would run around like at a summer camp. SEDA enjoyed a good run for about 25 years, or a little more than a generation of distributor owners. Many cashed out in the 90s. Safety distributors are still prospering in niches they’ve carved out, but you won’t find them barbecuing in the Rockies on summer vacation write-offs anymore.
AJ, as those who knew him, was a proud family man. He leave his wife of 46 years, Susan McNamara of Los Angeles, three children, James and wife Olivia of Taiwan, Elizabeth and husband Tom of Los Angeles, Margaret and husband Mike of Grosse Pointe, MI. Six grandchildren, Andrew and Alyssa of Taiwan, Holden and Allison of Michigan, T.J. and Luke of Los Angeles.
AJ was something of a renaissance man: sharp business mind, maverick, natural salesman, an entrepreneur, a battler who came back from a massive heart attack in his 40s, one of For Distributors Only’s founding columnists and supporters, early enthusiast of the Internet and its profit possibilities, technologist, raconteur, formidable networker, tireless idea man.
A.J. was born in Utica, NY, graduated from White Plains High School, Bryant College and received his MBA from Boston University.
After his years at Norton, he launched John Alden Associates, a consulting business in the industrial safety field. After September 11, 2001, he passionately ventured into the field of products for first responders under the ForResponders moniker.
AJ was passionate. I recall debating with him in the 1990s about the money-making potential of the then embryonic Internet. I was the old print Luddite before print became old and said “no way.” AJ was absolutely convinced distributors and manufacturers had to sell online, and get online fast. Of course he had his own idea of how to pull that off, which he tried to sell the industry for years.
And of course now I write more copy for the magazine’s web site than I do for the print edition, and do the Twittering and Facebooking and LinkingIn things.
As a trained journalist, AJ was a mentor for me when it came to understanding the world of businesses, corporations, the likes of General Electric boss Jack Welch. AJ was once loaned out to GE from Norton and traveled with Welch on one of Neutron Jack’s “bombing runs” — riding a small plane to out-of-the-way facilities where Welch would stride in, announce wipe-out layoffs, and hop on the plane to his next nuking site. That was one of a thousand AJ stories. And every one of them ended with a punch line.
Except the time I was sitting in a Pittsburgh motel room, with a nice view of a Pennsylvania Turnpike toll plaza. The phone rang and it was AJ. An aggravated AJ, as he quickly let me know. Seems I ambushed him by publishing his column with edits I didn’t show him. “No surprises, Dave,” he said. I have since told that to every editor I’ve hired.
AJ loved to laugh. He will be missed. And in the modern, consolidated, corporate safety industry, there will never be another one like him.
A celebration of life for AJ will be held in Los Angeles on October 23, 2010. AJ surely celebrated life the way he lived it. And he loved a party.
The family encourages everyone to take care of your health. Donations to Heifer International are suggested.
- by Dave Johnson, ISHN Editor
A significant player of the post-OSHA industrial safety field, AJ worked 17 years for Norton Co., an abrasives manufacturer that acquired a string of safety businesses in the early 1970s through AJ’s guidance. These companies were consolidated under the North Safety banner, which became one of the iconic companies in the safety market of the 1970s and 80s. North is now a brand name in the Honeywell staple of safety and health businesses.
When AJ was acquiring small, family-run safety businesses in the early 70s, the new-fangled OSHA agency, run by a Reading, Pa., department store retailer who later would own a tour bus company, (think those credentials would fly today?) was conducting 80,000 inspections a year and scaring businesses into buying all sorts of PPE. For safety distributors and manufacturers, these were the gold rush days. The manufacturing base in the U.S. was still strong, though just beginning to head overseas. Demand for hard hats, gloves, ear plugs, steel-toe shoes, respirators and “Buddy Holly” safety glasses would never be higher.
Membership boomed in the American Society of Safety Engineers and the American Industrial Hygiene Association. “Engineers” and “Industrial” were reflective of the times, far less applicable in 2010 as the professions have expanded beyond engineering and industrial operations.
The National Safety Council in the 70s and early 80s held its annual National Safety Congress in the basement of the hulking, palatial Conrad Hilton Hotel on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, the NSC’s home. Attendees trudged up and down stairs, tripped on rumpled carpet, and got lost trying to find exhibit halls tucked away on different floors and wings of the Hilton. Girls in miniskirts and bikinis waved from swing sets. The aisles were packed. I lunched one day in the Hilton with an air traffic controller recently fired by President Reagan. If Reagan had walked into the restaurant the guy would’ve punched him out. He was so angry he couldn’t shut up.
A far cry from the sleek glass and steel San Diego Convention Center where the 2010 Congress & Expo was held.
It wasn’t exactly “Mad Men,” but the Congress in the 70s and early 80s was typical of trade shows of the time. Sales meetings that wound up with cocktails all around, dinners where at least one sloshed sales manager of my acquaintance ended up face down in his plate of spaghetti, nights carousing up and down Rush Street bars, sales reps showing up for booth duty in the morning, dark circles under their eyes, hoarse and groping for coffee after two hours of shut eye.
I remember getting on the plane Sunday morning in Philadelphia to head out to my first Safety Congress. One of the owners of the magazine saw me get aboard and said, “Dave, relax, break a smile.” It was my first business trip. I had a sales meeting and sales dinner ahead of me with men my father’s age. Loud, guffawing, smoking and drinking peddlers. Reminded me of when my father had his pals over for poker night. Loud and profane. I’d sneak out of bed and peek downstairs. Through the smoke I’d see the fellas around the dining room table. Where the big boys roamed. With those damn deep voices. Scary.
My first client dinner was in a tight private dinner room with about 12-15 people around the table. I couldn’t think of a thing to say. They didn’t teach us in journalism school about small talk at sales dinners. My soon-to-be wife picked me up at the airport on Tuesday night. “What’s the matter with you?” she asked. “Never. I’m never going back to one of those damn dinners again.”
30 years later I’m still flying off to Safety Congresses…
Safety was an easy sell in the 70s and early 80s. The sales pitch was simple: OSHA says you need these products. That was it. The market was far from mature in those salad days. Thousands and thousands of companies were short of the required PPE.
Safety distributors never had it better. It would be decades before the likes of Grainger barged in and started stealing business. The Safety Equipment Distributors Association was a family affair, with a small, close-knit number of family-run distributorships retreating each summer to a resort where scores of their kids would run around like at a summer camp. SEDA enjoyed a good run for about 25 years, or a little more than a generation of distributor owners. Many cashed out in the 90s. Safety distributors are still prospering in niches they’ve carved out, but you won’t find them barbecuing in the Rockies on summer vacation write-offs anymore.
AJ, as those who knew him, was a proud family man. He leave his wife of 46 years, Susan McNamara of Los Angeles, three children, James and wife Olivia of Taiwan, Elizabeth and husband Tom of Los Angeles, Margaret and husband Mike of Grosse Pointe, MI. Six grandchildren, Andrew and Alyssa of Taiwan, Holden and Allison of Michigan, T.J. and Luke of Los Angeles.
AJ was something of a renaissance man: sharp business mind, maverick, natural salesman, an entrepreneur, a battler who came back from a massive heart attack in his 40s, one of For Distributors Only’s founding columnists and supporters, early enthusiast of the Internet and its profit possibilities, technologist, raconteur, formidable networker, tireless idea man.
A.J. was born in Utica, NY, graduated from White Plains High School, Bryant College and received his MBA from Boston University.
After his years at Norton, he launched John Alden Associates, a consulting business in the industrial safety field. After September 11, 2001, he passionately ventured into the field of products for first responders under the ForResponders moniker.
AJ was passionate. I recall debating with him in the 1990s about the money-making potential of the then embryonic Internet. I was the old print Luddite before print became old and said “no way.” AJ was absolutely convinced distributors and manufacturers had to sell online, and get online fast. Of course he had his own idea of how to pull that off, which he tried to sell the industry for years.
And of course now I write more copy for the magazine’s web site than I do for the print edition, and do the Twittering and Facebooking and LinkingIn things.
As a trained journalist, AJ was a mentor for me when it came to understanding the world of businesses, corporations, the likes of General Electric boss Jack Welch. AJ was once loaned out to GE from Norton and traveled with Welch on one of Neutron Jack’s “bombing runs” — riding a small plane to out-of-the-way facilities where Welch would stride in, announce wipe-out layoffs, and hop on the plane to his next nuking site. That was one of a thousand AJ stories. And every one of them ended with a punch line.
Except the time I was sitting in a Pittsburgh motel room, with a nice view of a Pennsylvania Turnpike toll plaza. The phone rang and it was AJ. An aggravated AJ, as he quickly let me know. Seems I ambushed him by publishing his column with edits I didn’t show him. “No surprises, Dave,” he said. I have since told that to every editor I’ve hired.
AJ loved to laugh. He will be missed. And in the modern, consolidated, corporate safety industry, there will never be another one like him.
A celebration of life for AJ will be held in Los Angeles on October 23, 2010. AJ surely celebrated life the way he lived it. And he loved a party.
The family encourages everyone to take care of your health. Donations to Heifer International are suggested.
- by Dave Johnson, ISHN Editor
Monday, August 30, 2010
Dave Johnson’s Safety Beat – Worries of safety pros; biggest challenges; defining safety leadership; job market status
Good morning,
MINDMELD: WHAT’S ON THE MINDS OF PROS THIS MORNING?
One pro who recently changed jobs wonders:
How has the uneasiness of the economy impacted EHS (postively or negatively)?
Do you find workload increasing with low hiring?
What leading initiatives are you looking to implement in 2011?
Are injury rates and/or # of injuries increasing with your company?
What about EHS work keeps pros up at night?
How to demonstrate the full value of the EHS profession to employers to keep driving improvements during a tough economic time.
The impact of the economy on worker safety & health.
How to manage in a larger role with fewer resources (i.e. low hiring).
How do we feel about our jobs at this point?
What's the state of the job market?
JOB MARKET
One pro emails us: “Feeling pretty secure in current position. Although, wonder about potential of a double-dip recession, and how that would impact.
”Job market for EHS pros, that I have seen, seems to be opening recently, likely because companies are seeing a potential for cost-savings by reducing injuries ... and also potential result of increased regulatory enforcement (possible)."
LET’S MAKE THE MORNING ROUNDS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
Here’s what professional discussion groups are talking about this morning:
RISK MANAGEMENT SPECIALTY GROUP (ASSE)
The QUESTION: "I would like opinions on the control of items entered into company safety manuals. Is it normally seen as a safety professional document or is it open for all departments to recommend and approve content?
“I am not asking from a legal or liability perspective. My question deals more about what is appropriate to include and who normally controls the input. I know it is not supposed to be draconian, but should the SH&E Professional/Department have the ‘final say’ over what is included in the manual?"
LINKEDIN GREEN DISCUSSION GROUP
QUESTION: What is the one thing every single human being on the planet can do that's considered GREEN?
This simple query received more than 1,200 COMMENTS!
Including: “Drink water from the tap!”
"To promote a living in harmony with Nature / a Sustainable Development oriented state of mind".
LINKEDIN SOCIETY OF CORPORATE COMPLIANCE AND ETHICS
Topic of discussion: “Matters of judgment can be taught, starting with lead (mis)bhevarior.”
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALHT & SAFETY PROFESSIONALS (10,000 members+)
“SAFETY CHALLENGE? - I would like to hear from anyone on what they think is the greatest challenge that we face - in keeping our Employees Safe in the today's current workplace.”
83 comments received, including:
One response: “The Effects of Radical Downsizing on Worker Safety. In my research I discovered a fairly high level of consensus that the greatest threat to worker safety in this recession is stress related accidents, injuries, and illnesses. Most have seen a spike in injuries caused by distracted workers, and some experts are predicting that we will see a serious issue involving Post Traumatic Stress Disorders among workers still on the job, but who have worked under the threat of layoff for so long that they are ready to snap. “
Second response: “I've found that the economic slowdown has had the opposite effect: my employees pay more attention to what is needed to keep their jobs. The old poster used to say: ‘New incentive plan: work or get fired’ and it applies to safety compliance as well. We have let some people go for violating serious safety policy and everyone knows that. One of my major customers is just as zealous, and will refuse entry to a vendor employee who breaks their rules. This could end that employee's career in our industry.”
Third response: “I believe cost is the greatest challenge, H&S is perceived as expensive and there are many myths surrounding it. Most people think if we keep our heads down and we don’t get a visit then we are doing OK, this will inevitably result one day in someone getting hurt, there’s never a dull day there!!!”
Fourth response: “Simply put - Employee safety as it relates to behavior. Minding/closing the gap in knowledge versus application or expected behavior.”
SAFETY TRAINING GROUP (LINKEDIN)
QUESTION: What safety leadership strategies have you adopted in your company, and how do you know if they are effective?
From Dominic Cooper: “The background for starting the debate is that
[a] in 1988 Blackspot Construction (a British HSE Doc) the 'root causes' of 70% of incidents were firmly placed at managements door;
[b] During the 1990's, James Reason at Manchester University(UK) showed that Executive level decision-making and line-management implementation were involved in many major disasters (aka the 'Swiss Cheese' model);
[c] Modern Safety Culture approaches (via Maturity Models, Culture Change processes, etc) emphasize the 'supreme' importance of safety leadership;
[d] Managerial commitment to safety has been emphasized throughout the history of the 'safety discipline. Given this background, it would seem sensible for ‘Safety Leadership' strategies to be high on the 'Safety professionals' agenda, when implementing HSE systems, improvement initiatives, etc.
“I recently posted the above question on safety leadership strategies and their effectiveness on 30+ forums, comprising some 107,000 potential respondents. Of the responses received to date, Safety Leadership was defined by one respondent as "The process of defining the desired state, setting up the team to succeed, and engaging in the discretionary efforts that drive the safety value," which broadly boils down to "engaging in and maintaining behaviors that help others achieve our safety goals." ”The COMMON SAFETY LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES appear to be:
[1] Encouraging people to take personal responsibility for safety by setting expectations for each layer (Senior, Middle, Front-line management, and employees) linked to clear goals. These should be created at a dedicated session where the CEO outlines his/her vision and senior managers determine how to translate that into concrete actions. It is important to ensure the strategies and interventions adopted are aligned to their strategic intent and do not just boil down to a simple signing of the safety policy. A reinforcement strategy is for all board members to hold a weekly conference call where plant managers are required to discuss incidents occurring in the previous week, root cause analysis results, corrective actions, best practices, etc. At plant/operation levels, morning meetings should be held to discuss any and all pressing safety issues. Effectiveness assessments are held with 360 reviews of managers, an organizational wide safety climate survey and further diagnostics around organizational systems.
[2] Putting a robust Risk or Safety management system in place encompassing (but not limited to) preventive maintenance, operation procedures, inspections, permit to work systems, safety talks, Safety committees, risk assessments, near miss reporting, training, management of change, risk management plans, etc. In terms of effectiveness, the monitoring focus is primarily on incident rates (lagging indicators), safety surveys, and Gap Analyses via Internal Audit functions (leading Indicators).
[3] Education & Awareness: Providing safety leadership training so that safety leadership becomes a corporate value. Effectiveness assessment of the training strategy revolves around employees visibly observing the leadership commitment to a safe workplace, and leaders in the organization being more knowledgeable on safety with line management accepting safety responsibilities. However, a comment was made that realistically education is not effective for more than a few days post course. This implies that some type of monitoring system is required to ensure attendees are held accountable for demonstrating the behaviors taught (leading Indicator).
[4] Encouraging the management team (from the most senior down) to exhibit visible leadership commitment to a safe workplace. This visible demonstration appears to take the form of chairing of safety meetings, ownership of the SMS (i.e. conducting risk assessments, investigating accidents), involvement in quarterly reviews & training, two-way dialogues about safety, going around site, looking around and talking with people. Effectiveness is assessed by monitoring the number and quality of managerial observations / conversations (leading Indicator). Again, this implies that some type of robust, but easily accessible tracking system is required to monitor the outcomes of the observations and discussions.:
MINDMELD: WHAT’S ON THE MINDS OF PROS THIS MORNING?
One pro who recently changed jobs wonders:
How has the uneasiness of the economy impacted EHS (postively or negatively)?
Do you find workload increasing with low hiring?
What leading initiatives are you looking to implement in 2011?
Are injury rates and/or # of injuries increasing with your company?
What about EHS work keeps pros up at night?
How to demonstrate the full value of the EHS profession to employers to keep driving improvements during a tough economic time.
The impact of the economy on worker safety & health.
How to manage in a larger role with fewer resources (i.e. low hiring).
How do we feel about our jobs at this point?
What's the state of the job market?
JOB MARKET
One pro emails us: “Feeling pretty secure in current position. Although, wonder about potential of a double-dip recession, and how that would impact.
”Job market for EHS pros, that I have seen, seems to be opening recently, likely because companies are seeing a potential for cost-savings by reducing injuries ... and also potential result of increased regulatory enforcement (possible)."
LET’S MAKE THE MORNING ROUNDS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
Here’s what professional discussion groups are talking about this morning:
RISK MANAGEMENT SPECIALTY GROUP (ASSE)
The QUESTION: "I would like opinions on the control of items entered into company safety manuals. Is it normally seen as a safety professional document or is it open for all departments to recommend and approve content?
“I am not asking from a legal or liability perspective. My question deals more about what is appropriate to include and who normally controls the input. I know it is not supposed to be draconian, but should the SH&E Professional/Department have the ‘final say’ over what is included in the manual?"
LINKEDIN GREEN DISCUSSION GROUP
QUESTION: What is the one thing every single human being on the planet can do that's considered GREEN?
This simple query received more than 1,200 COMMENTS!
Including: “Drink water from the tap!”
"To promote a living in harmony with Nature / a Sustainable Development oriented state of mind".
LINKEDIN SOCIETY OF CORPORATE COMPLIANCE AND ETHICS
Topic of discussion: “Matters of judgment can be taught, starting with lead (mis)bhevarior.”
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALHT & SAFETY PROFESSIONALS (10,000 members+)
“SAFETY CHALLENGE? - I would like to hear from anyone on what they think is the greatest challenge that we face - in keeping our Employees Safe in the today's current workplace.”
83 comments received, including:
One response: “The Effects of Radical Downsizing on Worker Safety. In my research I discovered a fairly high level of consensus that the greatest threat to worker safety in this recession is stress related accidents, injuries, and illnesses. Most have seen a spike in injuries caused by distracted workers, and some experts are predicting that we will see a serious issue involving Post Traumatic Stress Disorders among workers still on the job, but who have worked under the threat of layoff for so long that they are ready to snap. “
Second response: “I've found that the economic slowdown has had the opposite effect: my employees pay more attention to what is needed to keep their jobs. The old poster used to say: ‘New incentive plan: work or get fired’ and it applies to safety compliance as well. We have let some people go for violating serious safety policy and everyone knows that. One of my major customers is just as zealous, and will refuse entry to a vendor employee who breaks their rules. This could end that employee's career in our industry.”
Third response: “I believe cost is the greatest challenge, H&S is perceived as expensive and there are many myths surrounding it. Most people think if we keep our heads down and we don’t get a visit then we are doing OK, this will inevitably result one day in someone getting hurt, there’s never a dull day there!!!”
Fourth response: “Simply put - Employee safety as it relates to behavior. Minding/closing the gap in knowledge versus application or expected behavior.”
SAFETY TRAINING GROUP (LINKEDIN)
QUESTION: What safety leadership strategies have you adopted in your company, and how do you know if they are effective?
From Dominic Cooper: “The background for starting the debate is that
[a] in 1988 Blackspot Construction (a British HSE Doc) the 'root causes' of 70% of incidents were firmly placed at managements door;
[b] During the 1990's, James Reason at Manchester University(UK) showed that Executive level decision-making and line-management implementation were involved in many major disasters (aka the 'Swiss Cheese' model);
[c] Modern Safety Culture approaches (via Maturity Models, Culture Change processes, etc) emphasize the 'supreme' importance of safety leadership;
[d] Managerial commitment to safety has been emphasized throughout the history of the 'safety discipline. Given this background, it would seem sensible for ‘Safety Leadership' strategies to be high on the 'Safety professionals' agenda, when implementing HSE systems, improvement initiatives, etc.
“I recently posted the above question on safety leadership strategies and their effectiveness on 30+ forums, comprising some 107,000 potential respondents. Of the responses received to date, Safety Leadership was defined by one respondent as "The process of defining the desired state, setting up the team to succeed, and engaging in the discretionary efforts that drive the safety value," which broadly boils down to "engaging in and maintaining behaviors that help others achieve our safety goals." ”The COMMON SAFETY LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES appear to be:
[1] Encouraging people to take personal responsibility for safety by setting expectations for each layer (Senior, Middle, Front-line management, and employees) linked to clear goals. These should be created at a dedicated session where the CEO outlines his/her vision and senior managers determine how to translate that into concrete actions. It is important to ensure the strategies and interventions adopted are aligned to their strategic intent and do not just boil down to a simple signing of the safety policy. A reinforcement strategy is for all board members to hold a weekly conference call where plant managers are required to discuss incidents occurring in the previous week, root cause analysis results, corrective actions, best practices, etc. At plant/operation levels, morning meetings should be held to discuss any and all pressing safety issues. Effectiveness assessments are held with 360 reviews of managers, an organizational wide safety climate survey and further diagnostics around organizational systems.
[2] Putting a robust Risk or Safety management system in place encompassing (but not limited to) preventive maintenance, operation procedures, inspections, permit to work systems, safety talks, Safety committees, risk assessments, near miss reporting, training, management of change, risk management plans, etc. In terms of effectiveness, the monitoring focus is primarily on incident rates (lagging indicators), safety surveys, and Gap Analyses via Internal Audit functions (leading Indicators).
[3] Education & Awareness: Providing safety leadership training so that safety leadership becomes a corporate value. Effectiveness assessment of the training strategy revolves around employees visibly observing the leadership commitment to a safe workplace, and leaders in the organization being more knowledgeable on safety with line management accepting safety responsibilities. However, a comment was made that realistically education is not effective for more than a few days post course. This implies that some type of monitoring system is required to ensure attendees are held accountable for demonstrating the behaviors taught (leading Indicator).
[4] Encouraging the management team (from the most senior down) to exhibit visible leadership commitment to a safe workplace. This visible demonstration appears to take the form of chairing of safety meetings, ownership of the SMS (i.e. conducting risk assessments, investigating accidents), involvement in quarterly reviews & training, two-way dialogues about safety, going around site, looking around and talking with people. Effectiveness is assessed by monitoring the number and quality of managerial observations / conversations (leading Indicator). Again, this implies that some type of robust, but easily accessible tracking system is required to monitor the outcomes of the observations and discussions.:
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