Over the years I have seen many company initiatives to bring management and operations together to share the corporate safety message such as the safety “Zero LTI” BBQs and management hazard hunts however with some of the contemporary risk and safety management theories around, maybe a fresh approach is needed.
The “newer ideas” often use words like trust, engagement and empowerment and whilst I do not claim to be an expert, I have taken some of the theories and applied them in my own risk “toolbox”.
Let me tell you a story. At a site I work once a fortnight, where work and challenges are openly discussed, I developed a new inspection tool with the following format, catch up with a worker, discuss the work activity being conducted and prompt discussion around what works/challenges etc. From there I would map my findings to a prescribed procedures and see what we could learn.
I headed out to catch up with a worker and nabbed a senior mechanic. I explained that I needed a guinea pig to test my new inspection tool, and he agreed. “So, what are you up to”, I started; “just some end of day housekeeping, clean the workshop up ready for tomorrow; jack stands are returned and pick up any rubbish.” In the back of my mind i was slightly deflated, what am i going to get out of this test. “What’s the challenges.” He took be over to a 44gallon drum filled with oil filters and he said, ” what about that.” I guess if i was conducting a traditional inspection: bin, rubbish: good housekeeping. He continued, “we have to move this and 2 of us lift it into the big bin”. Ok, the penny dropped, we have a manual task to address.
Now we had completed several manual tasks assessments around the workshop and had invested in varied engineering controls, however this specific task had not hit our radar. The outcome was the workshop manager and the mechanics working together to address the finding and they modified the bin to allow easy access with a trolley and purchased a bin lifter attachment for the forklift; all completed within 3 weeks of the finding.
This fits perfectly with the company’s legislative requirement to consult with workers and potentially provides a different way to engage with workers from the traditional context. It also requires a different way we talk about incidents. Workplace Health and Safety QLD has prepared a webinar (definitely worth a view, maybe a management toolbox), presented by Dave Whitefield on engaging with your workers; Engaging with your workers | WorkSafe.qld.gov.au
