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flexible habit that kicks in no matter what specific task is at hand. Perception I recently helped conduct a survey on hand safety that asked respondents for the most common reasons that work- ers give for not wearing protective gloves when required by policy. The three most common responses were “Forgot them,” “Didn’t think they needed them (low risk perception)” and “Poor habits.” We’ve al- ready seen how habits can play a factor in flexibility, and habits are also a major way to compensate for forgetting. Risk perception can also play a role in forgetting and in several other safety issues too. It’s a lot easier to forget or disregard crucial safety equipment and procedures when the perceived risk is low. Because risk ebbs and flows like the tide, it’s im- portant for workers to have a decent sense of what their risk levels are in the present moment — not an hour or two ago, not later in their shift but right now. One of the most trustworthy tools in building a change-resilient safety pro- gram is encouraging more accurate risk perception among workers. Some of this can come through training, as there are several workplace safety programs that of- fer practical education on risk perception. But a lot of it comes from organizational systems and support. This includes stan- dard-fare options such as hazard analyses and toolbox talks, as well as more tailored one-on-one conversations. Safety Climate and Culture At its core, safety culture is the way things are done on the worksite. It’s the habits and norms that influence individual and group behavior. Culture’s younger cousin, safety climate, is the way that safety culture mixes with temporary conditions, like stress or other human factors, to affect how work is done today. If workers are frustrated be- cause several people called in sick, and now everyone is going to have to work harder to compensate, that’s going to create an ad- verse safety climate that will influence the chances of an incident occurring on the job. Safety climate works the other way too. Think of a crew leader who holds a tailgate meeting that quells existing frustrations and who then spends the day keeping workers oriented towards fluctuating risks in the work environment. That’s likely to establish a positive safety climate, resulting in a safer workplace for the day no matter what task workers are doing in any given moment. The three elements I’ve outlined here have a few things in common. They apply in most situations. They improve people’s ability to take care of themselves. And they can be fostered with formal training and informal communications from frontline supervisors. In fact, they’re so universal that safety managers at non-construction businesses can use them to keep their peo- ple safer in any situation no matter what degree of uncertainty they face. Ray Prest is the Director of Marketing at SafeStart, a company focused on human factors solutions that reduce preventable deaths and injuries on and off the job. Ray has educated people about safety and hu- man factors management for over 20 years. REFERENCE 1. http://tinyurl.com/3eeftpvr INSTANT CONNECTION. REAL-TIME INTEL. ALTAIR ioTM 4 GAS DETECTION WEARABLE The ALTAIR io 4 comes with fully integrated connectivity for real-time visibility across your worksites from day one. MSAsafety.com/io4 www.ohsonline.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024 | Occupational Health & Safety 15