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 The morning huddle. In a recent webinar offered by ProCore, safety expert Carl Johansen talked about using quality management concepts to build a safety culture. The idea is that continuous improvement goes hand in hand with respect for people. So each morning, supervisors should do a "huddle" that lasts a short amount of time but is highly focused on safety. Use the time to: • Evaluate whether – or to what extent – the common accident precursors are there. Check out the list in last week's Association Insight story. It is available here. If there are too many precursors, take preventative steps immediately rather than waiting for the accident to happen. This involves asking your employees questions about the day ahead and how they will approach their work. Look for unusual things (new customers/job sites, roads that are under construction that weren't yesterday, expected weather conditions, time pressure) and talk about the team member's plan for staying safe in spite of them. • Engage your team in committing to safe behavior. Don't ask yes-no questions. (What employee in the world would answer "no" to a question like, "Everyone is going to work safe today, right?") Instead, ask things like, "Okay, we have a new job site today out on highway 212. What needs to happen to keep everyone safe when units are on an active highway project?" The monthly safety meeting. There are many ways to conduct a safety meeting, and some better than others. Experts at Meeting Tomorrow have several suggestions – which we've modified slightly for the portable sanitation industry - on how to structure and conduct a safety meeting: • The main objective of a safety meeting is either to remind employees of safe practices they have already learned, or to introduce and build awareness of new techniques, new equipment, or new regulations that must be observed. • The only true measurement of whether or not a safety meeting was a success or not is if the materials provided were presented in such a way that the employees and other attendees were able to retain the information provided, and implement these tactics into their everyday work habits. • Conducting a successful and interesting safety meeting takes planning on the part of the individual in charge. Simply reading safety procedures from a manual is not the best way to maintain a captive audience. • Most individuals only retain 10% of what they hear or read. If this is true, then your safety meeting has to have some definite bells and whistles involved in order for you to achieve the intended results. Here are some tips for a well run safety meeting: o Do create the ideal atmosphere: A successful meeting may require more than just chairs and a speaker or leader. Think about the equipment and materials you will need. o If participation is expected (and it should be), seating is important: The use of round tables works best. If only chairs are involved, arranging them in a U-shape allows all to interact without anyone being able to slink into the back row to avoid interaction. o Comfort: Be sure the meeting room is a comfortable temperature and the lighting is proper. These factors have been proven to help learning and retention. PAGE 3 CONTINUED ON PAGE 4