Page 60 - OHS, October 2023

HAZCOM requirements.) But the sailors understood that risco was a shared feature of their workplace. The dangers it posed were collective, and so their response to it had to be equally collective. First, supervisors need to keep their crew’s attention focused on hazardous material. Once safety labels have become visual white noise, it’s up to frontline leaders to find new ways to keep every worker thinking about their HazCom training. This re- quires a constantly evolving repertoire of toolbox talks, informal safety chats, story-sharing and other communication tactics – all of which should be two-way interactions. Workers have the right to understand how to manage the risks, and it can be surprisingly tricky to know whether they actu- ally do or not. Watching for head nods among a group of listeners is not as reliable as having detailed verbal confirmation during a conversation. This also means that safety professionals will need to provide a steady stream of support to crew supervisors to shore up their safety and soft skills capacities. Success and safety, failure and hazard, all rolled into one word that, over the years, morphed from a maritime reference to a signifier for a whole host of metaphorical shoals. Aris-Tect Group/Shutterstock.com no-blame mindset can help workers look out for themselves, but ‘It’s Your Ship’ even after a good human factors program has been implemented, In a more recent nautical example, the legendary success of coworkers are often best positioned to spot early signs of poten- the USS Benfold was made possible not by the Navy’s cutting- tial safety issues with their colleagues. edge systems on board but by the crew led by Captain Michael One of the keys for safety professionals is to establish a culture Abrashoff, who realized he had to improve his own leadership in which workers are willing to speak up when they notice some- skills before he could improve his ship’s competence. He learned thing concerning. This becomes more important with less visible to balance the typical top-down command approach with solic- iting sailors’ suggestions and listening aggressively to build ac- hazards and more complacency-prone issues like HazCom. Some safety situations are much easier to navigate when you have an countability with the slogan “It’s Your Ship.” entire crew looking out for risk. Second, it means fostering a much greater sense of work- ers looking out for one another. It takes an entire crew to keep an eye out for shallow reefs and then to navigate the ship away Ray Prest is the Director of Marketing at SafeStart, a company from them. Workers are most likely to overlook warning labels focused on human factors solutions that reduce preventable deaths and come into contact with hazardous materials when they’re af- and injuries on and off the job. Ray has educated people about fected by complacency and other human factors. Training and a safety and human factors management for over 20 years. 60 Occupational Health & Safety | OCTOBER 2023 www.ohsonline.com