Managers end up committing avoidable errors while managing safety. Here are a few critical ones which must be avoided at all costs if you want your safety process to deliver good results.
1. Appointing a retiring manager as the Safety Head: Many a times OSH head is a random internal appointee who is finishing his/her organizational journey. Just to fill the position a “Body” is named as the OSH Head. It is a terrible mistake. Such appointments showcase a lack of management commitment towards safety. Worse still, many a times poor performers (who cannot be fired) are dumped into the OSH department. If Safety is truly a VALUE for the organisation then how such critical positions be filled without a serious thought? Will a production, or marketing head be appointed like that? Never!!. In fact a smart idea is to choose an already busy senior level manager who wields power and let him/her double hat on safety as well. This technique will never fail.
2. Mindless implementation of PPE: I have been to plants where an across the board PPE implementation is enforced. There seems to be no thought put in the planning of need based PPE. Such actions undermine the very purpose of PPE and create a false sense of security. Things can become so ridiculous that people wear their PPE (and are sometimes even expected so by their bosses) while participating in routine meetings in the conference rooms. The goal should be to optimize PPE usage and not maximise it. All it requires is a need based planning in consultation with the users if possible.
3. Bypassing recommendations of OSH in favor of progress: There could be situations where work stoppage on safety grounds could surely jeopardize production. But when managers use their functional authority and bypass the stoppage then it undermines OSH completely in the eyes of the entire team. A better way could be to converse with the OSH team, reach a consensus and let the OSH team only reopen the job. This way the key message that goes is – OSH is powerful here, it not only stops the work but nobody ignores their recommendations.
4. Making Permit To Work (PTW) forms complicated: Agreed that there is no universally applicable format of PTW forms but one must never forget the core idea behind a PTW form – safety of those who work. When forms are made complicated they are usually for the safety of those who are supposed to supervise. You see the contradictions?? PTW forms cannot be cast in concrete. As the organization grows into maturity such forms should be regularly reviewed and optimized for the fitness of the purpose. The single minded goal should be to ensure the safety of the workers. Rest is commentary.
The team of experts of Max Safety has been guiding their clients for the past decade in multiple techniques that have resulted into clients being successfully able to make their trainings effective.
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