Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/913174
WEEKLY EDITION DEC 6, 2017 Building a Culture of Safety Part II: Communication…continued By PSAI Executive Director Karleen Kos Elements of a safety program. Most experts on safety say that for a safety program to do you any good it should include: • Management commitment and employee involvement. • Worksite analysis including the best on-the-ground information about hazards and dangers your employees face • Hazard prevention and control, including risk mitigation strategies that everyone in your company understands and buys into • Safety and health training • Ongoing communication about how to deal with the daily stressors and precursors that can make an accident or fatality more likely Communication is part of all of these things. But how should it happen to be effective? Keys to safety-related communication. According to Chris Kilbourne, writing for the blog EHS Daily Advisor, there are four major aspects to effective safety communication. Effective safety communication is: 1. Interactive. It flows both ways. You speak about safety and you listen to employees' concerns and suggestions. 2. Informative. It tells employees what they need to know to work safely under all conditions. 3. Positive. It focuses on the exchange of ideas and information to improve workplace safety and prevent accidents and illness. 4. Productive. It allows you to interact successfully with employees and spread your safety message to all who need to hear it. Putting it in practice. All that sounds great in theory – but how does it work in practice? Let's consider a couple of different times when you could be talking about safety with your workers. ___________________________ * It is possible to find a rare occasion when a team member did everything right and some quirk of fate still led to an incident. For example, a truck that is safely stopped for a red light near an overpass could be crushed under another truck that falls from the overpass. This actually happened near my home once – though the victim was driving a small car and was killed instantly. Since meteors and flying trucks are relatively uncommon, this article is focused on the things that commonly occur. PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 3