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.
MANY companies are feeling the pressure to employ technology-based training solutions instead of continuing their reliance on traditional classroom training. Some even have taken the plunge with pilot projects, producing both favorable and unfavorable results.
ON Dec. 11, 2002, four defendants, Ronald Brentson, Frank Hopf, Jr., Equilon Pipeline Company, LLC, and Olympic Pipeline Company pleaded guilty in federal court to committing a federal crime--the failure to keep records documenting that employees of the companies received training required by regulations promulgated pursuant to the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act (HLPSA).
AS safety professionals, all of us have a basic understanding of the effectiveness of our safety program--but what about our safety training specifically? Many people, unfortunately, see safety training as a compliance issue: something that has to get done, not necessarily something that is really going to change or impact safety performance.
OSHA has given us standards for industry. Confined spaces, trenches, scaffolding, forklifts, high steel--you name it and there's a standard written for it. There are good reasons for these standards: They do, in fact, save lives.
COMPUTER-based simulation of work experience has proven extremely effective in helping learners achieve their training goals. Simulation increases the learner's involvement and interest in online learning; however, bandwidth limits the forms it can take.
Protect yourself and your employees from confined spaces hazards