THE safe operation of a forklift is a skill that requires the ability to anticipate accidents. When this ability is learned through "trial and error," it is only evaluated when property damage or serious injury occurs.
AT the end of the day, the goal of occupational health and safety professionals is not only to keep all employees safe, healthy, and on the job, but also to send them home safe and sound to their families and loved ones. Getting to that goal has sparked numerous debates and philosophical discussions over the years.
THE number one cause of safety incidents isn't sprains, strains, repetitive motion injuries' or any other line item on a monthly incident report. It's a lack of commitment to safe work practices. No matter how you slice your safety statistics, virtually all injuries at any company are preventable with the right preparation and focus.
IN June 2001, a Marietta, Ga., worker was using his feet to tamp down cardboard inside a compactor when his feet became caught in the cardboard and he was pinned inside the machine.
IN our work with companies striving to become safety excellence organizations, we've learned the biggest impediment to achieving improved performance is an inability to overcome the conventional "wiz-dumbs" of safety (wrongheaded thinking that impedes progress in the right direction) that inhibit organizational change.
PERSUASION is the name of the big game in organizations. Safety professionals' effectiveness can ultimately depend on their ability to persuade others. This can encompass influencing senior management to actively fund and support new initiatives, inducing mid-managers and supervisors to visibly lead safety.
DURING the past decade, "e-learning" has become a familiar term and a routine part of many corporate training programs.
AT one time or another, most of us have secretly harbored the thought--or even boldly uttered the words--"If I were in charge around here, I'd _____ _____ ____ ____." (You can fill in the blanks yourself.) As for me, having been the only male in my class in nursing school, having fathered two (now grown) daughters, and having been married for more than 30 years, I long ago gave up any desire or hope of ever occupying a position of control or authority over anything or anyone.
AS a manager and leader, how credible are you? Put another way, how much do your employees trust you: your decisions, what you advocate, and even what you say?
ON June 20, 2002, President George W. Bush signed an Executive Order to promote personal fitness in the general public.
OLD Man Winter brings to mind two safety concerns in particular: hypothermia and slip-and-fall injuries.
DESPITE billions of dollars spent on vehicle safety improvements, highway fatalities in 2003 reached their highest level since 1990. Traffic accidents remain the number one cause of on-the-job deaths.
THERE's a lot of b.s. in behavior based safety, to be sure, and no shortage of people pointing it out. But even the most hard-nosed of opponents never seem to argue about the incredibly significant decrease in injuries that are reported! We're talking about a 60-90 percent decrease in injuries within three to five years--on average.
HOW does the theory of adult education fit into Hazard Communication training? What truly is "effective training" as required by OSHA? Does HazCom training have to be boring?
IN our time, it's hard to find a company that does not seek the tools to develop a world-class safety system. Now more than ever, businesses understand one of the most vital components of success is protecting the safety and health of their employees.
WHAT do you really know about machine safety? Ask yourself, "Would I be comfortable working on this equipment? What if someone I cared about was working on this machine? A spouse? A brother? A sister? Would I want them working on a machine that is not safe?" If you answered no to any of these questions, why would you let your employees work on an unsafe machine?
LIKE everyone, you're probably looking to reduce workplace injuries, and you think a safety program focusing on attitude may be your ticket to injury-free employees. You may very well be right. But you may be surprised to find that the journey toward an injury-free workplace may be just as important as the final outcome.
A large construction company was building a multi-story office building in St. Louis. Partway through the job, a worker fell more than 30 feet through a hole in a partially decked floor. He died as a result of severe injuries a few hours later.
I supervise electrical distribution line workers. We start each week with a safety meeting. Being the highly effective supervisor that I am, I have a folder of safety stuff I draw from when we don't have a video or speaker.
ON a cold November evening in Michigan last year, a 20-year-old Hispanic worker was killed while removing bridge formwork as he stood atop an elevated truck bed. When he and a co-worker attempted to lower the platform, which could also serve as a dump truck, the bed malfunctioned and would not go down.