So the related question in the safety world is: why do employees think that safe appearance means safe achievement?

I see you

While doing safety audits on a recent project, I encountered some subcontractors who on the surface appeared to be complying with the applicable safety rules.  They were in an area of flying debris from a nearby grinding task.  With sparks and metal particles flying in the surrounding area, I put on my goggles over my safety glasses to protect my eyes.  The subs on the other hand, added no protection beyond their safety glasses.  Their premise was that only the person doing the grinding was required to have on double eye protection.  Not being satisfied with the situation, and knowing that these workers were in an at-risk situation, I called for the foreman of the work crew.  He as well did not have on the appropriate eye protection.   The foreman did not see things my way either.  He explained that their permit to work did not call for goggles or a face shield and he wasn’t going to make his employees wear them.  They were wearing the required personal protective equipment and he was going no further to protect his employees because that would be inconvenient.  I explained that they were in a hazardous area and that the workers could be harmed in the grinding area.  My words were in vain.  His people continued to work with the pretension of being safe.

Don’t fall for it

A recent visit to an out-of-state plant site brought back horrible memories of a fall incident where a person was severely injured.  The incident happened only a few years ago but it’s as vivid in my mind as though it was yesterday.  A piece of grating was being removed from the deck of an upper level structure in a chemical plant.  Iron workers, thinking that their crew was the only work group on that level, removed a piece of grating near a scaffold ladder attached to a scaffold that went several levels upward.  With the appearance of doing the grating removal safely, but failing to put up barricades for the safety and warning of other workers, the iron workers moved on to a work task in another area.  Meanwhile, a worker descending the scaffold ladder, stepped into the open hole left by the missing grating and fell 18 feet to the surface below.  Needless to say, the appearance of safety that day led to the near fatality of a co-worker.  The lost time accident could have been prevented had the iron workers properly barricaded the area instead of merely going through the motions of doing things safely.

You can count on me

How many times have we needed someone to depend on and we hear: “You can count on me?”  Well, I’ve hear it several thousand times in my career I’m sure.  But lip service is not commitment.  Actively doing shows commitment.  And actively caring in the safety business proves you can be counted on.

On a recent project my site safety manager gave me his assurance that he’d stay the course and continue on site until the job was done.  However, he disappeared one day in the midst of the turnaround and never came back.  His absence turned into a situation that left many workers without safety and first aid coverage.  Later I found out that the manager simply took another job that was more enticing and left many of his co-workers in at-risk situations.  Could I replace him? Yes.  Did I replace him? Yes.  Did he harm his career by leaving the job in mid-stream?  Yes.  His inability to be counted on when the going got tough proved that the appearance of integrity and honesty is not the same as being and acting with integrity and honesty.  Unfortunately for that safety person, he’ll never have to re-apply for a job with me.  Dependability in the safety arena shows in a person’s actions.

Overcoming the pretenders

The real safety professionals are those supervisors, leaders and safety guys that achieve safety excellence.  They aren’t the ones that look busy around the boss.  They are the ones that do their safety chores diligently, without prompting, without coercing and without begging.  They do their jobs just because it is the right thing to do and because they have taken an unwritten oath to protect and preserve lives.  Those who are pretenders do neither.  In my career I’ve seen pretenders at all levels of operations from the CEO down to the workers.  It’s never fun dealing with pretenders.  The world, as well as the safety business, is full of them.  Overcoming and learning to work with them is a challenge.  But the true safety professional must protect pretenders as well.  Don’t be among those who simply appear to show activity.  Be among those who did it…just because.

You can’t be average

In most colleges around the country, you can have a ‘C’ average to graduate.  It’s not that hard to be average.  It basically means that many of your classmates are better than you and the rest are worse or equal to you, as in the bell curve.  But in safety you can’t be just average.  With a recordable incidence rate of about 5.4 as a national average, you’d be seriously harming employees too frequently if you were average.  If your company works approximately one million hours per year, being average means you’ve hurt about 27 employees.  That’s one serious injury every other week.  If you get paid bi-weekly, how’d you like to get a recordable injury report with every pay check?  A prudent safety professional wouldn’t be able to stand it for very long.

Stay on the short grass

Harvey Penick in “Golf’s Little Red Book” said there are lots of long drives…in the woods.  By that he meant that hitting the ball long is only good if you keep it in the fairway.  Having to hit from the rough or possibly taking a penalty stroke is worse than hitting the ball short each hole.  In the safety world it’s the same: a penalty stroke is a non-conformance, an incident, injury or property damage; all of which are not acceptable to customers.  Not abiding by OSHA standards or owner’s rules and regulations leads to at-risk situations and ultimately injuries.  Playing it safe and hitting down the middle can get you home safely.  Par is OK; just don’t be average with injuries.

Hit the fat of the green

If you hit the fairway and then hit the middle of the green in regulation, you have a good chance to get a par.  It means you’ve not penalized yourself, you’ve taken no short cuts, no walks in the woods, or swims in the lake.  Now it just takes a little concentration to get that par.

I remember a project where a schedule was submitted and approved, and then some construction supervisors began to figure ways to save time by taking shortcuts.  Time means money, they surmised, so if they could save time by doing work-around activities and shortcuts, ultimately they would finish ahead of schedule and make a tidy bonus.  Unfortunately, shortcuts seldom mean saving time; instead, they usually mean re-work and at least twice the cost of doing tasks one time.  On that project, supervisors began to push the workers for faster production, even allowing workers to do tasks at-risk without a job safety analysis.  Guess what?  You guessed it.  Injuries started cropping up and before long the project had several lost work day injuries.  When brought before senior management, the supervisors had no excuse for deviation of the work plan.  In the wake of their doing things outside of the acceptable plan, employees were seriously hurt in the year long project.  Had they stayed on course, hit the greens in regulation and made the marks set by senior management, the job would have been on schedule, on budget and without needlessly harming employees.  The job completed with a worse than average score card.

Everyone can make par

In today’s world, no one has a right to harm another.  On jobsites employers can’t even let one person harm another.  Doing so would show negligence on the company’s part.  And since there is no right to harm people, managers and line supervisors must do everything possible to achieve injury-free projects and worksites.  It’s the right thing to do for all the right reasons.  You may not be able to hit all the fairways, greens in regulation and make just two putts, but if you’ll map out a good construction safety plan, hold workers and supervisors responsible and accountable, you can have an incident-free project.  And by any measure, saving and preserving lives is better than shooting par any day.

Be world class

Lots of golfers do not reach the level of Tiger, Phil or Vijay.  Many who don’t are club pros managing municipal golf courses and driving ranges and providing private lessons.  Tracy A. Hanes “America’s Zero Injury Coach” stated that in business today to be world class you have to do things differently.  Companies have to get out of the status quo.  That’s by exhibiting “Demonstrated Management Commitment.”  To find out more on how to get out of the status quo contact the zeroinjuryinstitute.com. and get started towards being world class.

 "Zero Injury Safety Summit"

The Zero Injury Institute is the only entity from which one can obtain “Certification in the Principles of Zero Injury.” The certification is knowledge-based and that knowledge when applied effectively can lead to reduced at risk behavior on the part of all employees. This reduced at risk behavior results in decreasing injury frequency. As injuries decrease new records of injury free hours worked add up, frequently reaching 1,000,000 hours injury free. 

A Zero Injury result in employee safety.