THE COHEN GROUP
  Environmental Health & Safety Consulting Services

The Cohen Group Newsletter - Volume 8  Issue 1, Article 2.  January, 2006

Our lives, whether at work or at home pose risks to potential hazards. At work, we try to minimize the hazards and risks through workplace design, proper equipment and safe work practices. But we can’t do it alone; we must enlist and motivate our workforce to optimize our safety efforts. How can we achieve this with the best results?

We all know that the most successful safety programs are run from the top down. That is, top-level management has a sincere interest in preventing injuries and illnesses, and provides middle-managers with the means and authority to implement an effective safety program. Safety is included as an integral part of the company’s goals and upper management regularly demonstrates through action that they are truly interested in safety and not just offering lip-service.

One counter-intuitive pitfall when enlisting employees in your safety effort may be to have too many rules and requirements. Employees may become discouraged when safety rules seem to run counter to getting their job done. It’s often better to simplify procedures and emphasize the most important rules so that safety practices can be readily integrated into productive work practices.

Another way to turn off your employees is to develop safety procedures without their input. It’s relatively easy to sit in an office and crank out a "wish list" of rules and requirements. It’s much harder to make the rules and requirements work on the construction site or manufacturing floor. Limit your written programs to the essentials, emphasizing clarity, effectiveness and industry / regulatory compliance. As needed, supplement with task-specific procedures developed at management-employee safety committee meetings. These procedures should be living documents that change as the process or task changes.

Finally, try to make safety meetings and training classes interesting and interactive. Provide an outline of topics and then encourage input from the group. Use a variety of training aids, including written, audio-visual and hands-on. As time allows, pose scenarios from the "real-life" workplace and ask the group to brainstorm and identify potential solutions. End with a recap of key points, and follow-up on any promising ideas.

We have tried many different approaches to safety training with our clients and find that some have worked quite well and while others have not. We also find that certain techniques work well for some groups and not for others. When we see that something is not working, we quickly make modifications so that the training remains meaningful for the affected employees. Don’t be afraid to make changes until you find the approach that works best for your employees.