SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS - This SlideShare presentation is my offering for other Safety Leaders - on how to effectively Communicate Safety to their People.

1. SAFETY
COMMUNICATIONS
How to Use Safety Communications that
Your People can Use and Benefit From
Steve Wise - July 2010
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2. SAFETY
COMMUNICATIONS
Should always be issued with the intent of
benefitting your People from a Safety
Standpoint.
If done correctly - it can be used to not only
inspire your People to work Safely, but to reach
out and get them engaged in your organizational
Safety Process.
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3. Safety Communications
-- My Goal --
❖ Coming from an Accounting background, coupled with the fact that I like
to write - I use to issue lengthy Safety Communications to my People.
❖ When I asked my folks what they thought of such Safety Communications
- most told be that they did not have time to read it.
❖ This fact taught me quickly that I had to learn how to maximize the
“Safety Time” that was available to my Supervisors and my Workforce.
❖ From this, I learned to issue condensed Safety Communications that could
be read in passing or covered in a pre-shift Safety Meeting.
❖ In addition, such communications included Safety Items or Actions that
pertained to my folk’s everyday Work Life - with the ultimate goal of giving
them a “Safety Takeaway” that they could benefit from.
❖ The goal of this Safety Training Presentation - is to give you something to
use and takeaway - that could benefit your Safety Communications.
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4. Safety Communications
--- What I Can Offer ---
❖ Know Your Audience
❖ Know How / Where to Communicate Safety
❖ Maximize Your Safety Time
❖ Use Safety Pictures
❖ Tailor to the Specific Aspects and Jobs of Your Workforce
❖ Share What You Can from Others
❖ Use what You Learn from Your People
❖ Keep Your Safety Communications - Fresh
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5. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
❖ From a Safety Communications standpoint - it is essential that you
know your audience / the Employees that you are directing such
communications to.
✦ Production Workers - Their main job is production. They want /
need to focus their attention on what they are producing. They
often will have no to limited time for Safety.
✦ Office Workers - Most OW’s think that they cannot be injured on
the Job since they work in an Office. Therefore, they do not have a
need for Safety.
✦ Field Employees - Since most FE’s are removed from the
organization’s main Safety Efforts, they will need a leader that
effectively passes on Safety Communications.
❖ Your Safety Communications must be tailored to fit your situation.
Don’t assume that what you think will suffice. Find out what your
People need and adjust your Safety Communications accordingly.
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6. Know How / Where to
Communicate Safety
❖ In addition to knowing your Audience, you must know how to
properly reach them.
❖ Such actions can include what you do personally as the Safety Leader
- or through others such as through your Supervisors.
❖ There are various avenues for you to Communicate Safety including -
Management &
Pre-Shift Meetings Safety Boards
Workforce Meetings
Ad Hoc - during your Dedicated Safety
Safety Training
Safety Walks Meetings
Safety Audits & Organizational
E-mails
Investigations Announcements
❖ Once you have found the avenues for your Safety Communications -
know how and use them to their full potential.
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7. MAXIMIZE YOUR SAFETY TIME
❖ The Time that organizations devote to Safety - can range from
basically no time - to whatever time you feel is needed.
❖ As with determining your Audience - you must also determine
your Available Safety Time - or the time that is consistently
devoted to Safety.
✦ Various Safety Time components include - Start / End of
Shift, Weekly / Monthly, As Needed / Available, Special
Safety Training Sessions, 5 Minutes to 1 Hour, and NO Time.
❖ Knowing what Safety Time is available to you, will allow you to
tailor your Safety Communications to best make use of this
time - as well as not waste your People’s time.
❖ Whatever time that is given to Safety - use it wisely / maximize
your Safety efforts / maximize your People’s Safety Time.
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8. USE SAFETY PICTURES
❖ SAFETY PICTURES are a
great way to send a Safety
Message to your People.
❖ They can include pictures of
Safety Incidents from your
workplace - or external to your
organization.
❖ Such can easily be used as
simple and quick - “Live and
Learn” Safety examples.
❖ If done correctly, they can
How can You use this Picture to
simply be posted for your folks affect or benefit your People from a
to read & learn from. Safety perspective?
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9. Safety Mishap - What Can You Do to Prevent?
❖ Inspect your Tools & Equipment daily.
❖ Do not use T&E that are found to be
unsafe and in poor condition.
❖ Be prepared for the unexpected.
❖ Don’t take chances / risks / shortcuts.
❖ Make sure that you wear the appropriate
PPE - Personal Protective Equipment for
the job that you are performing.
❖ Always expect your T&E to fail - and
position your body accordingly.
This is a “Lessons to be ❖ Always follow the Safety Rules that
Learned” example - applied pertain to the task at hand.
to current Work Practices.
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10. Tailor Your Safety Communications
to What Your People Do
❖ One way not to reach your Audience - is to give them Safety Communications that
do not pertain to their specific jobs.
❖ We all are strapped for time - therefore we weed out and disregard those things
that do not matter to us. This often and easily applies to Safety Communications.
❖ In order for your Safety Communications to relate to your People and be worthy
of their attention - they must pertain to what they do.
❖ Produce and distribute “Job or Organizational Specific” - Safety Communications.
❖ This can include the following Safety Items that can pertain to them -
Accident Investigation
Procedures Job Hazard Analyses Safety Statistics
Results
Production Schedule Tools & Equipment
Safety Training Facility Updates
Changes Issues
Organizational Safety Committee Employee Safety Safety Concern
Outlook Happenings Recommendations Actions
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11. Tailored Safety Communication - Example
In Response to a Pinch Point Injury on our Shear - I went around the Shop and
asked various People - what they did to prevent Pinch Point Injuries. Below is a
summation of a Safety Communication that I distributed to my People -
SHEAR OPERATION
❖ “Never place your Fingers / Hands under the
Machine Guard.”
❖ “Be aware of any Metal Plate raising up and
snapping down when it it sheared. Place your
Hands accordingly.”
❖ “Whenever possible, use Tooling Fixtures to
advance Material into the Shear.”
❖ “Know the Operational Rules of the Shear and
follow them. If you have any questions
regarding - then ask!”
FABRICATORS QUESTION - How do
❖ “When making adjustments to the Shear - you eliminate Pinch Point Injuries when
using the Shear.
make sure to Lock Out first in order to prevent
any accidental startup.”
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12. SHARE WHAT WE CAN LEARN
FROM OTHERS
❖ There are numerous and various public websites that are great sources
of Safety Information that you and your people can Learn from.
❖ One in particular is OSHA - www.osha.gov. They have two links that
discuss Workplace Fatalities -
✦ Weekly Report of Fatalities, Catastrophe, and Other Events -
http://www.osha.gov/dep/fatcat/dep_fatcat.html
✦ Fatal Facts - Accident Report -
http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/toc_FatalFacts.html
❖ In addition, you should make a point to circulate Safety Incidents and
Near Misses from all Locations within your organization.
Safety Incidents from whatever source - if they relate to your
organization and what your People do - should be used
whenever possible as Safety Learning Tools.
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13. Ways to Share External Safety Info
❖ There are various ways to share external Safety Information with your People in
ways that will benefit them -
✦ One simple way is to either review a report, document, whatever - with your
People or post it for them to read when they are able.
✦ One of my favorite ways, is to review a Safety Incident with my People, then
ask them -
• How could the Safety Incident have happened?
• Which of our Safety Rules would have applied to this Incident?
• What would You have done to prevent it?
✦ Chances are, the offerings that you receive from your People - will be worthy
to share with others within your organization - so pass it on and continue to
benefit the People in your organization.
❖ The goal with Safety Communications - is to maximize the exposure to and
impact on your People - that will improve their Safety on and off the job.
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14. External Safety Info - My Example
OSHA - Weekly Fatality / Catastrophe Report
Preliminary Description of Safety Actions to Prevent -
Date
Incident from Safety Leader or People
* Never work under a suspended load without
Worker was performing a repair on a
properly jacking.
4/29/10 hydraulic jack plate when the dock plate fell
* Never work on equipment without applying
on the worker.
proper LOTO.
Worker had cut the last band of strapping * Always be prepared for the unexpected.
that was holding a bundle of pipe together. As * When handling material under tension, position
4/27/10
Worker did so, the bundle of pipe shifted, your Body away from the direction the Material
crushing the Worker. can move / fall.
* Always know and be aware of the hazards in your
workarea, and guard against them.
Worker was fatally injured while overseeing a
* LOTO equipment and facilities, prior to working
4/26/10 track maintenance group, when he came into
on them.
contact with a high voltage rail.
* Never work on live Electrical sources and ensure
they are disabled or protected against.
Worker fell when attempting to access a * Always use approved T&E for climbing.
4/19/10 ladder after climbing on a rack, falling to the * Always maintain 3-point contact when climbing
concrete below. or descending.
There are countless Safety Examples available to Learn from.
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15. Use what You Learn from Your People
❖ As a Safety Leader - you must establish a working Safety
relationship with your People -
✦ You provide them with Safety actions and communications
of various forms that they can benefit from - and they will
go to great lengths to meet organizational Safety Goals and
be part of the organizational Safety process.
❖ One action that can quickly derail your Safety Efforts - is for
your to ignore or not act on Safety Items from your people.
✦ Such items can include - their personal Safety Concerns,
Suggestions and Recommendations, Safety Questions, and
even their Safety Participation and Efforts.
❖ As a Safety Leader - Learn from Others.....and Your People.
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16. Learn from Your People - My Examples of
Safety Communications
❖ EMPLOYEE SAFETY SPOTLIGHTS: Our frontline People often come up with ways to
improve the daily functions that they perform for their organization.
✦ We took action to recognize such improvements - which can be referred to as “Best
Practices” - which should be shared within the organization.
✦ One way of sharing such is issuing “Employee Safety Spotlights” that not only describe their
idea that others might benefit from - but gives them individual Safety Recognition too.
❖ SAFETY HAZARD ABATEMENT LISTING: This listing was maintained at my organization
and included all Safety Concerns that were raised to the Safety Leaders by our Workforce.
✦ Such concerns were logged in an Excel worksheet that noted the following information -
Employee Name, Date, Department, Safety Concern, Action Needed, Assigned To, Tentative
Completion Date, Action Taken to Complete, and Completion Date.
✦ This mechanism helped us to keep track of all Employee Safety Concerns raised and was our
control to monitor their status for completion.
✦ Listing Updates were also posted on Safety Boards - and covered with our People during their
Monthly Safety Training.
✦ With this action, we showed our People that we cared and listened to their Safety Concerns.
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17. EMPLOYEE SAFETY SPOTLIGHT
Lifting Magnet - Hammer Lock Mod
❖ One of the critical and everyday operations in the Fab
Shop is the movement of Raw Steel type items from
outside to inside the Fab Shop.
❖ This is often done via an overhead bridge crane many
times throughout the day, often by several different
Fabricators.
❖ Over the last few months and due to its high use, the
Hammer Lock started to bind in the Lifting Hook pocket
of the Lifting Magnet, which either hindered or prevented
the Fabricators from using this Lifting Magnet properly.
❖ Initial discussions on what to do centered on sending this
Lifting Magnet out to be repaired and modified. The
problem with sending it out was that the Fab Shop did
not have a Backup to this Lifting Magnet, and therefore
would negatively impact the safety and efficiency of
lifting raw steel operations.
❖ Once we started discussions on, Arturo Rico and Xavier
Wynn started talking about what they could do to correct
this situation. Through their efforts, they came up with
an idea to “plug” the Lifting Hole that would keep the
Hammer Lock firmly in place.
❖ Their efforts of plugging the Lifting Hole corrected the
situation, improved the Safety of those in the Fab Shop Through their brainstorming efforts, they both helped out their
that use this Lifting Magnet, as well as saved Calpro fellow Fabricators as well. Calpro wishes to Thank both Arturo
money by not having to send out the Lifting Magnet for and Xavier for not only improving the safety and efficiency of
repair. the Fab Shop, but Calpro as well.
This is an Example of how a “Safety
Spotlight” can be used.
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18. Keep Your Safety Communications
-- Fresh --
❖ Another essential way to keep your Safety Communications
meaningful and useable with and for your People is to -
✦ KEEP THEM FRESH!
✦ Like any organizational communication - if you do not keep it up-
to-date - it will lose its meaning and become wall paper to your
People - which they will not pay attention to.
❖ Safety Postings = should be changed out at least every other week.
❖ Safety Training = should include new content each month.
❖ Pre-Shift Meetings = should have a new message each shift.
❖ Workgroup Safety Meetings = should cover the most recent Safety
Statistics and Operating Performance Measures.
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19. Suggested Internet Sources for Safety Info
❖ http://www.osha.gov/
❖ http://www.osha.gov/dep/fatcat/dep_fatcat.html
❖ http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/toc_FatalFacts.html
❖ http://www.ccohs.ca/
❖ http://www.ansi.org/
❖ http://www.safetyphoto.co.uk/
❖ http://www.safeconllc.com/whatswrong.html
❖ http://www.osh.net/directory/safety/safety_01.htm
❖ http://www.safetynewsalert.com/
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20. Questions or Comments?
Send them to me via “Linked in”
I hope that this offering on
Safety Communications
- has givenYou something
to take away - that you can use
to benefit the
Safety of Your People.
Steve Wise
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