Safety Training

Previously I have talked about “Training, What Does It Really Do To The Employee And The Company?”, now I will go into some details about the safety training, *NOTE* I am far from being an expert in this field, but I used to handle this type of training (coordination), but I will mention how it can affect an organization.

Safety training is sometimes conceived as a waste of time, and that is a HUGE mistake, and I believe it depends on its drivers, if it is coming from top to bottom, and the top understands and clearly sets the measures of success alongside the safety it will affect positively on the entire organization, but if that didn’t happen, catastrophic consequences can be expected.

Safety training can be delivered through the same ways mentioned before for any type of training, but where safety training differs is what happens next.

The keyword here is “Company Culture” if a company’s culture is set to a safety culture all is well, but if it isn’t, then you might as well be throwing your money on that training, here are some examples I have noticed that can deliver a message of a safety culture company:

• Safety Moments:

Safety moments are 3-7 Minutes at the beginning of ANY type of meeting, training, official gathering in a company, the subject should be something relevant to safety and current events, for example during raining season, the subjects usually focus on safety driving in rainy conditions. When I first saw this I have to be honest I thought it was redundant, but as time went, it got harder to find new topics, and the more I searched, the more I educated myself in safety habits. And it can get competitive to be the best safety moment supplier in your department.

• Authority to Stop any unsafe work:

This HAS to come from the absolute top of the pyramid, the CEO himself. this authority should be given to any and ALL employees (operation & administration  to STOP any job if he/she sees an unsafe act, even if stopping the job will affect the income of the company with NO consequences on the employee (even if it was an UNINTENTIONAL mistake). With this authority employees feel safe to report any and all unsafe acts, and keep all their co-workers safe.

• Near Miss & Hazard Reporting:

I have to break this into two categories:

• Reporting:

Any and all employees should always report any Near Miss and hazards to the safety department, the more information and details the better knowledge can be shared through the organization, also a picture is worth a thousand words.

• Acting:

Here comes the responsibility and the accountability of the safety department, it should ALWAYS act upon the reports, because not acting upon these reports will lead to employee disengagement. So be aware.

• Monthly or Quarterly Safety Meeting:

This also can be conceived as a waste of time, but the message it sends is very strong, of course all top-level management should be there and should always push all their available staff to attend. This meeting should include all staff (operation & administration), and should focus on the safety targets set by the management  also, it should commend and appreciate any and all employees that show effort in holding said targets. This is a very good opportunity to hold mini competitions on best Near Miss report, best Hazard report, and possible best safety moment of the month/quarter, it will raise awareness on the company’s direction, and it will engage all level of employees to be more safety oriented (employees will report and do safety moments, and management will raise the best to the safety department), gifts are suggested to get even more engagement.

• Clear procedures:

Any and all jobs can and should be performed safely, a very good method of ensuring the safety of the job is to a have a clear procedure on how to perform said job safely, these procedures should always be tailored to the job, and should always be modified for the better to ensure the safety of the people and equipment.

• Performing investigation (e.g. TapRooT®)

These investigation are after the fact, after an incident happens, this step MUST occur, this helps in finding out how the incident happened, what was the cause, and how to prevent it from happening again. The less incidents the organization has the less investigation it needs to perform.