This is a story of individuals who helped shape today's safety industry and paved the way for future changes in the management and perception of health and safety. This is also a story of the evolution of health and safety in accordance with a safety professional we'll call Band-aid Bob. In the Beginning In the late 1800's, there have been no safe practices professionals. Companies could not have thought of retaining people specifically to control health and safety for them. In fact, at work, humans really weren't ranked all that high as a resource. In the mining industry for example, mules were often used to haul equipment and materials in and from the mines. When a serious incident occurred such as an explosion, rescue operations focused not on humans but on the mules. A dead mule cost the mine around $24 to displace. A worker, making around $3 each day, was cheap to replace as there is generally a lineup of individuals willing to work in trade for pay. If a worker was only injured he would be sent home to recuperate without pay. If he recovered fully, he would be allowed to return to work. In the early 1900's (i.e. around 1914), workers' compensation insurance was established in many areas in North America. The insurance provided compensation to employees who have been injured in addition to to the families of those that had died face to face. It was at the moment that companies started recruiting people to help patch up their injured workers and to get them back to work as soon as you possibly can, as well as assist in preventing further injuries. Some called these folks safety advisers. The evolution of the Safety Adviser's role could very well be best shown by the legend of an individual known as Band-aid Bob. Band-aid Bob wasn't his real name, but that's what he had become called. If ever there is a safety one who could patch people up once they were injured, it was Bob. At the moment in the evolutionary history of health and safety, there is no such thing as formal safe practices management systems. Workplace injuries were common and accepted within the job. People like Band-aid Bob were typically hired by only the biggest of companies who needed you to definitely administer good first aid and felt they might afford the overhead. A number of these safety people were workers with work injury disabilities for instance a missing hand, fingers, or toes. In the end, if anyone knew anything about safe practices, it needed to be an already injured worker. Bob was excellent at his job. One evening, tired from a hard day of administering bandages, cauterizing wounds, and massaging strained muscles, Band-aid Bob made a decision to take the time for himself. He packed up some gear and hiked in to the mountains. Trekking up Mount Doringba, he made an incredible discovery that would change how companies viewed employee safe practices. High on the mountain, Bob stumbled onto some tablets inscribed with strange writings. Among many broken bits of tablets, he found two intact pieces. Worked up about his find, he brought the two tablets back to the City and had them transcribed. The tablets' writings proved to be pivotal to safe practices as they identified key elements to achieving health and safety excellence. Sun and rain included: Management Commitment and Involvement, Hazard Identification and Assessment, Records and Administration, Inspection, and Investigation. Soon Bob found himself on a speaking tour spreading the term about his findings, laced with interpretations from none other than Band-aid Bob himself. When asked about the need for the writings, Bob would respond, These important elements are needed in order to achieve safety excellence. Success in implementing these elements means you will never have to bandage up a worker again. Present Day Health & Safety Management Systems To many people, Bob's new approach to safety made a lot of sense and, as time passes, Bob gained a significant following. Soon word spread and companies all over the world adopted the elements. Mounting interest in the elements gave rise to numerous health & safety associations, safety professionals and consultants who all helped spread the term to an incredible number of companies and their workers. Many companies hired people focused on implementing and maintaining these landmark elements. Billions of dollars were spent implementing them. For a time, improvements to health and safety were achieved. Companies employing the elements noticed reductions in incident and accident rates. Fatality rates decreased. Insurance charges decreased. This success lasted for several years but, there came a period when fatality rates stopped decreasing plus some people started to question the value of the basic program elements. Others suggested the essential elements had improved about all they could improve in their companies. They needed a re-evaluation of the status quo, but the prospect of change was a very hard sell. By this time, a lot of people had bought into the basic safe practices elements that were passed down to them by Band-aid Bob. Their livelihood depended upon them. To now buy into alternative approaches threatened their very existence and indicate they had all along been following wrong path. And so it went on for quite some time: companies entrenched in Bob's basic elements didn't achieve the safety excellence promised them. Many health and safety professionals reported difficulties in getting the elements in place and functioning fully. At the moment in the evolutionary era of health and safety systems, many viewed safe practices as an application, separate from all the aspects of the business enterprise. As with other programs when times got tough, health and safety systems got cut or downsized to create method for leaner programs yielding profit. For many of the companies, survival and productivity were the real number one priorities. Safe practices was silently regarded as an extra cost of doing business. It was for this time that some important truths were revealed that could result in another enormous shift in safe practices management philosophy. Dissatisfaction continued to improve with the current method of safe practices. Band-aid Bob Jr., grandson of Band-aid Bob (who had passed on compared to that safe haven in the sky) in addition to a Safety Adviser, reflected on the state of health and safety at this time. A lot more than 90 years had passed since Band-aid Bob had discovered the essential safety program elements. This approach had failed to yield the improvements to employee health and safety that were promised. If ever there was a time to re-think the old failed philosophies around health and safety program management, this was it. So, Band-aid Bob Jr. packed up his things and retreated to the mountains, coincidentally to the precise mountain and spot where his grandfather had retreated a long time ago. The New Approach to Safe practices Management When Band-aid Bob Jr. arrived at the location where his grandfather had made his discovery, the region, initially, seemed clear. But then he stumbled on a half-buried rock and upon closer examination, he noticed that it was a lot more than just a plain old rock. Also, he noticed other rocks poking from the earth. He spent some time digging them out, packed them up, and returned to his home in the City. Without hesitation, Bob visited work on clearing up the rocks and putting the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle. When he was done, he found that he previously two more complete tablets containing more direction on how best to achieve safety excellence. He had them transcribed into English. When he showed off his new find, there was an excellent commotion, but mostly there was disbelief. How could there be more elements? people exclaimed. There were many meetings and discussions concerning the new elements plus they were examined one by one. Following is really a summary of what some call Health and Safety Human Factors, alongside some of the meeting discussions. Values/Safety Priority A company's real health and safety priorities are revealed not by cleverly crafted policies posted throughout the facilities, but by how the employees perform their work. It takes merely one incident of management telling a crew to drive to the worksite in a blinding storm, to handle work short-staffed, to work hastily, or to skip the pre-job safety meeting, to undermine a large number of verbal and written affirmations of safety first. Workers' behaviour are strongly influenced by their perceptions of the business's real health and safety priorities. If they believe safety requires a back seat to production, employees will make the decision to take that trip in inclement weather or work shorthanded. When an incident occurs you can easily blame the employee for not complying with the documented procedures. Unfortunately, the business's real values and priorities are rarely identified as even contributing incident factors. Trust A bond of trust may be formed between workers and management when the acts of management convince workers they can confide in their supervisors and can count on them to act or respond in a predictable way. For instance, managers are trusted if they promptly follow-up on safety meeting issues. Such an environment of trust, employees will freely bring up safety issues at safety meetings because they know they will be acted upon. Alternatively, insufficient action leads to lack of trust and many very quiet meetings. Trust is also diminished when it's violated, such as when an agreement between supervisor and worker is broken. Once this trust is broken, it needs many positive acts by management to regain it. Employee Participation/Autonomy Employees must believe that they will have a stake in this program. Employees are more accepting of an application they helped develop than they are of one which has simply been handed down to them. For instance, it is difficult to imagine anything more boring or wasteful than a band of workers sitting around a table in a safety meeting, hearing their supervisor read out safe work procedures produced by either them or the Safety Advisor. Half of the employees present will likely have their mind elsewhere. What really gets employees' attention is having them take part in safety procedure exercises or emergency drills, then soliciting their input. Employee participation results in improved procedures that employees are more committed to following since they have participated within their development. Autonomy takes employee participation to another level as employees are permitted to make key decisions on various areas of the program. The levels of commitment obtained through participation and autonomy are far greater than what would be obtained by a supervisor reading aloud at a meeting. Companies that allow for a high degree of employee autonomy generally have what is typically called an open culture since they engage employees in decisions and in the creative processes. Credibility Credibility is closely aligned with trust. Trust is gained whenever there are no differences between what's said and what is practised. For example, when management condones or ignores the behaviour of workers who are not complying with procedures, credibility is lost. Next time management promotes compliance to procedures, employees will roll their eyes in disbelief. Alternatively, if management is aggressive in correcting the behaviour of some individuals but not others, their credibility again comes into question. As with these human factors, you can find no barriers to protect management from these negative employee perceptions leaching into other aspects of the business. If you have lost credibility in safety, credibility overall is lost. A manager's capability to manage all other aspects of the job effectively is negatively affected. Leadership Leadership is a important element of the human factor-oriented approach to health and safety. It really is leadership's words and actions that establish behavioural expectations of employees. You can generally determine the extent of management's leadership in safe practices by observing how workers behave face to face. If employees demonstrate a lack of commitment to health and safety it is because management have not led the health and safety charge. So as to influence employees, leaders must demonstrate unwavering support for safe practices whatever the business climate of your day. Leaders should always walk the talk. They are able to never make exceptions and invite operations to take priority over employee safety. For example, if a manager, despite operational costs, shuts employment down to ensure worker safety, he or she is a leader who will be believed when he/she proclaims that safety is number one. When exceptions are created to allow production to keep at the trouble of safety, the leadership sends a solid message that production is actually the number one priority. Under these situations, any attempts to convince employees that safety is management's number one priority are simply not believable. Caring When companies show employees they truly care, they take advantage of the effort performed by satisfied employees. Also, they are rewarded with employees who are more committed to the business. This generally translates into improved safety, productivity, quality, and/or service. Here is one small but powerful example of caring. Some companies send flowers to employees and their members of the family that are seriously ill in a healthcare facility. This act represents very little in terms of investment with time or money and goes a long way towards increasing employees' sense of security, compliance, satisfaction, and loyalty to the business. Hiring/Orientation/Socialization Newly hired employees come to employers with their own pre-conceived safe practices attitudes and expectations. If their attitudes are closely aligned with the business's and their peers', their attitudes will be reinforced. If this isn't the case, the new employee will have difficulties fitting in. For instance, an employee would you not accept the need to follow all safety rules, procedures, etc. will not likely follow them when the boss is away. If she or he hasn't previously, why start now? One method to avoid these types of issues is to enhance the hiring/screening process. Hire employees whose values and attitudes are aligned with those of the organization. Put simply, get them to an effective fit for the business. Many companies focus their new employee orientation efforts on the content of the new employee orientation program. As important because the content is, the orientation process is equally important. Most employees obtain real orientation if they begin working with their peers. Peers inform new employees on how things are actually done around here. If the new employee is orientated by way of a peer or peer group that feels a few safety exceptions are okay, the brand new employee will undoubtedly be orientated with the incorrect messages. New employee orientations should be conducted by experienced employees who are aligned with the business safe practices values and principles. Band-aid Bob Jr. recalls employers commenting on a number of the stupid things employees do. His response is, Can you hire them stupid or make sure they are stupid after you hire them? Legends/Folklore Identify and dispense with folklore or legends of renowned past employees or heroes that not reinforce the behaviours which are currently desired. For instance, Angus MacTavish was a gas utility employee. Legend has it he once performed a rescue by jumping into to a bell hole filled with leaking gas. First he minimized the gas flow by bending over the steel gas line and then he hoisted an unconscious worker over his shoulder and climbed from the six-foot-deep bell hole to safety. With another deep breath, Angus apparently transpired and saved a second employee. This legend suggests Angus was superhuman. The reality is that there are hardly any people strong enough to actually do what Angus is rumored to possess done-especially under conditions of little oxygen and blowing gas. If the corporation now has procedures in place to ensure this sort of rescue is never attempted, legends like this will work against compliance with the new procedure. So as to attain full compliance, conflicting legends should be dispelled, otherwise they might be modelled. One method to dispel the legend in the above case would be to conduct mock exercises to practise removing unconscious employees from a bell hole. No employee can perform Alex's rescue and that will help reinforce the brand new more time-consuming but safe rescue procedure. Fairness Employees must believe the surroundings they are working in is fair and free from bias or injustice. Few employees complain in regards to a system in which the standards and consequences of compliance are organized clearly and so are consistently enforced. If discipline is warranted, it must be perceived to be fairly administered. Alternatively, workers become frustrated if they have been held accountable for something others have been allowed to escape with. One of the worst exceptions in this regard is when workers are disciplined for non-compliance but exceptions are created for supervisors or managers. Companies should always strive to create a just and fair culture. Employee Satisfaction This can be a well-known fact that satisfied employees tend to be more productive, take fewer days off for illness, stick with the company longer and have fewer incident/accidents. The deeply hidden great things about implementing an effective health and safety program are that it opens the door to good two-way communication and fosters employee participation and trust. In this environment, employee satisfaction improves. Satisfied employees benefit companies not only by improving safe practices in the company, but additionally by improving all other aspects of the business enterprise. Companies that view health and safety from this perspective recognize that health and safety adds value to a business. Culture Influences Behaviour There are lots of factors affecting why individuals behave the way they do. The factors influencing employee behaviour are varied and complex. Supervisors and managers can't be counted on to understand them all. However, some of the factors that affect behaviour are popular and understood and they are useful tools for management and supervisors. For example, behavioural science tells us that when supervisors and management provide positive recognition for any desirable behaviour, the behaviour is more prone to be repeated. If an unhealthy behaviour is condoned or overlooked as the supervisor or manager chooses not to treat it, the undesirable behavior will undoubtedly be reinforced and repeated. All supervisors and managers should be aware of these simple behavioural truths that all supervisors and managers should become aware of. Another, and perhaps less-known, factor influencing employee behaviour is the company's safe practices culture. A generally accepted description of workplace culture is the way things remain here. Here is a good example. Band-aid Bob recalls a time years ago when he was auditing a company's safe practices management system. While interviewing an older but new employee, he asked about compliance to wearing PPE and following health and safety procedures. The interviewee responded positively and went on to say that when he saw someone not complying, he felt comfortable with and compelled to state something to them. Then he revealed his recent non-compliant history. In the business where he had previously worked for over two decades, he previously commonly disregarded the guidelines. When asked why the sudden change in behaviour, his response was short also to the idea: Because that's the way we do things around here. Safety excellent companies are well aware of the influences that a positive safe practices culture can have on employee behaviour. Many of them conduct safety perception surveys to gain access to employee perceptions so that they can focus on improving negative employee perceptions. Conclusion We have come a long way since the early stages of safe practices. Each new era has brought new improvements to safe practices management systems. https://ropeaccessspecialistsuk.co.uk/best-rope-access-specialists-london/ discovered by Band-aid Bob Jr. (and real-life safe practices professionals) are proclaiming a fresh and exciting era where health and safety is no longer viewed as yet another program, but as a key contributor to success running a business. The move towards these more human-oriented elements promises to greatly help produce improvements to corporate health and safety culture which will have positive effects on all other areas of a small business. Some companies have already discovered these cascading benefits and also have evolved into health and safety leaders and, and in addition, leaders in their respective businesses.
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