Page 22 - OHS, April 2022

TRAINING: ELECTRICAL SAFETY
of the biggest pandemic-induced challenges facing companies. Let’sstartbylookingatwhatdrovetheirexitinthefifirst place. Many employees leftft their jobs because they didn’t feel
appreciated by their employers.
In one analysis published in the MIT Sloan Management
Review earlier this year, researchers reported that most turnover was driven by toxic work cultures. The study’s researchers found this factor to be 10 times more important than pay in predicting turnover.3
Enter the importance of psychological safety. If people don’t feel supported, engaged, and safe, why would they work for us?
Being exposed to injury risk and feeling like their supervisors aren’t providing adequate training, guidance, and support will accelerate worker disengagement. For a quick win, we need to start implementing regular gap assessments to determine how well prepared for work employees feel and use the data to influence future changes. Workers can help identify any immediate hazards that need to be addressed, and they’ll appreciate being part of the process.
Quick Win: Minimize Unplanned Work Activity
It’s well understood that unplanned work increases the likelihood of injury or risk on the job.
High employee turnover leads to less consistent maintenance, which then cascades into reliability issues and uptime challenges. This inherently produces more unplanned work. And that unplanned work causes increase exposure to hazards—and so the cycle continues.
One way to fix this quickly is to ensure risk assessment is baked into all systems, process, and work planning. Have we ensured our safety professionals have a daily dialogue with their production and maintenance peers about priorities and issues? Do we have the resources required to carry out daily maintenance activities or are we falling behind on our punch list? Are we analyzing safety data and translating it into training improvements, or are we simply trying to keep our head above water due to lack of staffing?
OSHA reports that approximately 55 percent of surveyed facility managers use a reactive approach to maintenance.4 This can lead to unexpected breakdowns and emergency unplanned work that may throw unqualified workers into dangerous situations.
Quick Win: Ensure Safety Partners with Others
Ultimately, if we are to protect employees—new, existing, FTE or contractors—we need to have a true partnership-based approach to safety. That starts with safety professionals having a deep engagement in all aspects of how the organization functions— recruiting, onboarding, training, supervision, hazard awareness, production planning, maintenance scheduling ... the list goes on.
We should have a corrective actions list based on a thorough assessment of the heightened risk employee turnover creates, where that risk manifests itself and how best to mitigate it. This process will necessarily take our safety professionals into some unfamiliar territory as they engage in understanding a much broader range of issues related to the functioning of the organization.
Safety awareness should be a welcome change for organizations.
Keep New Employees Safe Around Electrical Assets
New employees may not always feel comfortable asking questions or bringing up potential issues with assets or a specific aspect
of their work. Unfortunately, this behavior may put them at higher risk of injury or even fatal accidents.
Here are some straightforward ways to protect and empower new employees with the skills needed to perform their work safely from the start:
■ Discuss basic operational risks
■ Train workers to use the right type/rating of electrical equipment ■ Review the dangers of “Daisy chaining” cords
■ Teach the hierarchy of controls—PPE is not always the right answer ■ Discuss the critical importance of Lockout/Tagout
■ Educate on the critical information provided in safety labels ■ Implement electrical safety and hazard communication systems ■ Provide NFPA 70E safe work practices and qualified worker
training
■ Provide fall protection training—remember not all injuries
are related to direct contact
Taking it a Step Further
Think Digital. If your training program still relies on pen and paper for reporting or tracking, it’s time to digitize your catalog of training assets to make it easily accessible to employees.
Interaction is Key. Learning happens in practical, real- world situations in collaboration with others, so try to put your employees in front of equipment and assets as part of training program.
Maggie Murphy manages the overall safety program for SEAM Group, a global leader in energized asset safety, reliability,
and maintenance. She previously progressed through multiple technician and research management roles for the University of
Arizona.
We need to embrace the shift and make it an immediate strategic focus to improve overall working conditions and enhance our chances of retaining top talent in 2022 and beyond.
Colin Duncan is the CEO of SEAM Group, a global leader in energized asset safety, reliability, and maintenance. He has 20+ years of executive and board leadership experience across the safety services market. His thought leadership has appeared throughout various industry trade publications, and he served as the general editor of the book, “The Zero Index: A Path to Sustainable Safety Excellence.”
REFERENCES
1. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1981/03/art4full.pdf
2. https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation
3. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great- resignation/
4. https://ohsonline.com/Articles/2018/10/01/Just-What-the-Doctor- Ordered.aspx?Page=1
18 Occupational Health & Safety | APRIL 2022 www.ohsonline.com