Ep.10 What helps and hinders stopping work for safety? EPISODE SUMMARY On today’s episode, we discuss which factors support workers stopping their work for safety reasons and which factors hinder workers from stopping.
EPISODE NOTES The paper we use to frame today’s discussion is We Can Stop Work, but Then Nothing Gets Done.
Topics:
Why do workers not stop when risk is obvious? The purpose of focus groups as a data collection method. The pitfalls of the focus group method. Turning focus groups transcripts into research findings. How supervisors can support workers in making good decisions. Why it’s hard for workers to turn down unsafe work.
Rwandan Road safety campaign taken to 20 protestant churches
The year-long national Gerayo Amahoro campaign dedicated to influencing a road safety culture was this Sunday extended to 20 other religious denominations under their umbrella ‘Protestant Council of Rwanda (PCR).’
… While addressing the congregation at Pentecost Church of Rwanda (ADEPR) in Remera, Gasabo District, Commissioner of Police (CP) John Bosco Kabera, commissioner for Public Relations and Media and Rwanda National Police (RNP) spokesperson, said that road security status requires efforts of all groups to change minds of road users on safer road usage and prevention of fatalities caused by wrong human decisions.
More than 5,000 road accidents occur in Rwanda every year killing over 500 people while other 2,000 survive with serious injuries, according to statistics.
Utkal Alumina Observes National Road Safety Week
Bhubaneswar : Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL) organized the 31st National Road Safety Week from 11th January to 17th January 2020. The program was targeted at improving road safety awareness amongst all stake holders in the unit. It extended beyond the works boundary engaging the peripheral area as well as the local administration. On day one, Mr.MazharBeig, Joint President, UAIL inaugurated the program by flagging off the Road Safety Rally and Cart.The Road Safety Cart was deployed to create awareness in nearby villages.This year the theme of the Road Safety Week was– “Bringing Changes through Youth Power.”
This seven day long program witnessed different safety promotional activities like Road Safety Awareness Rally by all employees, Road Safety Awareness Talk, Road Safety ‘Sit & Draw’ competition among school children, Road Safety debate competition among school children, Road Safety Awareness Training to employees by RTO/MVI followed by quizetc. were organised.A Safety Task Force was also formed under the direct supervision of Col. Ranbir Singh GM – Security & Administrationto conduct training program, surprise inspections/audits of various vehicles during the month of January, 2020 as per corporate guideline.The winners received their awards during the closing ceremony. The employees who completed safety related training sessions successfully and the life savers who played a vital role in saving lives during industrial incidents were also rewarded during the program. On the occasion of inauguration, Mr.Beig, highlighted, “how the role of company policies and adherence to its norms has worked significantly in prevention of mishapsin the company premises. He stressed upon the awareness programs for employees to promote safety culture in UAIL.” Speaking on the occasion, the Unit Head & President of UAIL, Mr. N. Nagesh, “appreciated the role of the role of all stakeholders in the safety excellence journey of Utkal Alumina which made it possible for many mile stones being achieved as far as safety was concerned. According to him, based on the learning from past experiences, many initiatives had been taken which would definitely enable the company towards its “Ultimate Goal of Zero Accident.”
(NFPA 70E Tip: Informative Annex Q, Part 8 Is your workplace culture safety-centric?) [https://www.ecmweb.com/safety/article/21120692/nfpa-70e-tip-informative-annex-q-part-8]
This eighth and final part of Annex Q is titled, “Work Place Culture”. The word “culture” has been overused and misused in the business literature so much that it has taken on a trivial dimension. But in the electrical safety world, its meaning is anything but trivial. In this context, the workplace culture consists of the prevailing attitudes and core beliefs of the group. When a workplace has a positive safety culture, people tend to think safety first and the peer pressure to enforce that is pervasive. This culture doesn’t just happen. It must be nurtured from top to bottom and from bottom to top.
“Workers, supervisors, and managers must all work together to implement strong human performance practices” [Q.8.1].
Workers take personal responsibility for their actions. They strive to improve themselves, the task at hand, and the work environment [Q.8.2]. The Annex lists five general practices that workers should consistently demonstrate. One of those is “Anticipation of error-likely situations and conditions” [Q.8.2(2)].
Supervisors and managers have several responsibilities in regard to the safety culture. Firstly, they must lead by example. In fact, Q.8.3, which discusses their responsibilities, begins with the words “Through their actions.” One of the jobs of any supervisor or manager is to identify and address problems that workers face; you can think of this as “running interference” or “optimizing the system.” Annex Q incorporates this concept in one of the five general practices it says supervisors and managers should demonstrate:
“Seek out and eliminate broader company weaknesses that may create opportunity for error” [Q.8.3(3)].
The organization itself has responsibilities. A key one is to recognize that people make mistakes. Annex Q lists five responsibilities the organization should demonstrate. One of those is “Promote open communication” [Q.8.4(1)]. This concept is often tossed around carelessly, so much talk but not actually implemented. When a worker can go to his or her supervisor and communicate openly, “I made a mistake,” then the supervisor can address that mistake. But if the worker conceals the mistake out of fear of reprisal for saying anything, guess what happens? Similarly, a worker should be able to openly communicate to his or her supervisor, “I think you made a mistake. Can we talk about it?”
Chief Inspector calls for ‘significant reforms’ across fire and rescue services in England
In his first annual assessment of fire and rescue services in England, Her Majesty’s Chief inspector of Fire and Rescue Services Sir Thomas Winsor acknowledges the strong commitment from firefighters to protect the communities they serve.
The sector’s greatest strength is in how it responds to emergencies, with demonstration of a number of life-saving initiatives and a strong health and safety culture. However, the fire and rescue sector needs significant reform in several areas.
In his report published on 15th January, Sir Thomas states that the sector needs to improve how it complies with building fire safety regulations.
He also stated that, despite some examples of outstanding culture in some services, other services needed to do more to address ‘toxic’ environments for staff and improve the diversity of the workforce.
Sir Thomas acknowledges the importance of strong trade union representation. However, he has expressed concern that union influence sometimes prevents necessary reform in some areas.
He also highlighted there being ‘unjustifiable variation’ in the level of service the public receives, across the country.
National Academy of Sciences awards grants to advance safety culture in offshore oil and gas
WASHINGTON — The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced $7.25 million in grant awards for eight projects focused on strengthening safety culture in the offshore oil and gas industry.
Oil and gas production in deepwater are inherently hazardous activities that can fail in complex, catastrophic ways, as tragically shown by the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and the 87-day oil spill that ensued 10 years ago. While many factors led to this disaster, several reports issued in the aftermath emphasized the need for an improved safety culture within the offshore oil and gas industry. A robust safety culture has many dimensions, including leadership commitment to safety values and actions, a safe environment for raising concerns or reporting incidents and “near misses,” and organizational policies and practices that encourage employees to make safe decisions.
The GRP’s Safer Offshore Energy Systems (SOES) Grants 4 supports projects that produce datasets, strategies, and tools for measurement that will promote a culture of safety in the oil and gas industry. As the industry will continue to be a vital part of the Gulf Coast economy, this work is urgently needed to ensure protection of people and the environment.
Bradfords flies high for safety standards Builders merchant Bradfords Building Supplies kick-statred its 250th year with a visit to the Royal Navy’s Flight Safety Centre at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset to get an insight into the aviation iundustry’s safety culture.
Bradfords aims to put safety at the forefront through 2020. Hosted on the day by the centre’s Commanding Officer, Commander Ant Laycock, and with stories and aircraft parts from Naval aviation accidents on display, the Bradfords’ team were provided with valuable insight capturing the essence and concepts that underpin the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm’s relentless development and maintenance of its safety culture.
Giles Bradford, communications and engagement manager at Bradfords and a former Naval pilot, said: “It’s a fact that the majority of incidents occur due to human factors rather than technical or environmental, and the same can be said in our industry. The aviation industry is well known as the front-runner in the management of safety, and to have the chance to learn from an organisation that is held in the highest regard in that industry is a real privilege.
When a bank gets that high level of rapport, it can embody the spirit of ERM—risk culture throughout the organization, with every employee held accountable to managing risk in their own areas. “Whether you’re an executive leader or a teller, what can you do to mitigate risk in your area?” as Piger puts it. “If you’re a branch teller, maybe it’s letting [the]BSA/AML fraud [department]know of a suspicious customer. That might be your biggest avenue of mitigating risk. [It’s] a huge avenue for instilling that risk culture.”
How Safe Is Air Travel in 2020, Really?
This year’s top 20 safest airlines list from AirlineRatings is based on a seven-point rating system that includes not just crash data but also more specific information about individual incidents, fleet age, pilot training, financial performance, and other factors. The list was headed by Australian flag carrier Qantas (a longtime winner) and also included international heavyweights like Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore, and Virgin Atlantic and Australia. Top-ranked U.S. airlines included Alaska, American, and United.
Aviation experts agree that a strong safety culture and an active regulatory role play an important part in the results. “Countries that have a serious government oversight and operations that provide meaningful training to pilots and others, have an accident rate that is outstanding,” said John Goglia, an aviation consultant and former member of the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board. “Those countries that don’t put that kind of effort into their operations have experienced some serious problems.”
But while older planes have generally been considered more accident-prone, the Max problems have raised concerns about new technology. The To70 report stated that fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 that led to the grounding raised questions about how aviation authorities approve aircraft designs and about how much pilot training is needed on new systems. The firm reported that it expects that the 737 Max will gain permission to fly again in 2020.
Boeing’s New CEO Takes Control With Company’s Integrity in Doubt
The opening gambits by Boeing Co.’s new boss show the risks Dave Calhoun is willing to take to reset the deeply troubled planemaker.
Calhoun, who officially takes charge Monday, pushed to release humiliating internal messages last week even though they may darken public perception for years to come – with Boeing’s own employees suggesting rot in a once-vaunted safety culture and mocking designers and regulators on the ill-fated 737 Max. He also was heavily involved in the decision to drop Boeing’s long-held opposition to simulator training for Max pilots, said people close to the company.
Those steps are just the start as Calhoun settles into a 36th-floor suite at Boeing’s Chicago headquarters, entrusted with turning around a company that has been widely censured for its arrogance, failure to take responsibility after two crashes killed 346 people, and unrealistic estimates of when the Max would be cleared to fly again. The bungling cost former CEO Dennis Muilenburg his job, and the bad news is far from over: Boeing is expected to reveal one of the largest writedowns in its history this month along with fourth-quarter results.
“The company has a unique opportunity to get all the bad news on the table now,” said Jim Schrager, professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. “It’s time to get this right and make the turnaround.”
Conclusion: According to the Agency for Health Research and Quality, the overall classification of patient safety score and most of the scores related to dimensions were low. Hours worked per week, participation in a patient safety program, reporting of adverse events and most safety dimensions were found to be factors associated with patient safety culture. Well-designed patient safety interventions need to be integrated with organizational policies to address all dimensions of patient safety culture.
A Matter of Trust: How to Evolve and Manage Worker Health & Safety
A safety culture comes down to establishing a deep trust between the company and the workers.
Top safety leaders create a safety culture that shifts from a minimum requirement of compliance to a workforce where employees are committed to working safely. Safety leaders know that safety starts and ends with the people. It’s not about the confusing jargon, acronyms, abbreviations, and the piles and piles of paperwork. It’s about the deep trust that exists between the company and the workers.
Safety leaders agree that compliance is important. Compliance is the rules, regulations and laws that are necessary for a safe workplace. For this article I spoke to three safety to leaders to better understand how they moved from understanding and knowing the rules and regulations to being committed to operating safely always. It all comes down to trust!
Trust is the ability to be open, vulnerable and courageous based on positive expectations. It’s based on five tenets of trust.
Why Anti-Bullying Policies Should Be Leading Indicators
To have a credible safety culture, management must be responsive to concerns of visible and hidden, verbal and non-verbal abusive conduct.
To earn credibility with employees, management must be responsive to a variety of workplace concerns.
One important worker concern is workplace bullying, or what Tennessee, California, and Utah laws refer to as “abusive conduct.”
The December 2019 issue of EHS Today covered many topics, including leading indicators, workplace violence and safety culture. Each of these is connected to an organization’s anti-bullying policies.
Many organizations do not have such policies. Some have policies but do not communicate or enforce them.
Contributing Editor David Sparkman wrote “OSHA Embraces Leading Indicators” and gave as much detail as anyone could put on a single page in the magazine. As I read about this interesting new strategy, I wondered whether OSHA and employers recognized an anti-bullying policy as a leading indicator.
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel Releases 2019 Annual Report
The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), an advisory committee that reports to NASA and Congress, issued its 2019 annual report Tuesday examining the agency’s safety performance over the past year and highlighting accomplishments, issues and concerns.
The report highlights 2019 activities and includes assessments of NASA’s:
International Space Station Lunar and deep space exploration Exploration Systems Development Commercial Crew Program Aeronautics and air operations Safety culture Enterprise protection
“The panel noted considerable headway toward NASA’s human exploration objectives in 2019,” said ASAP Chair Patricia Sanders. “We are supportive of the significant amount of testing – both completed and underway – as well as the thoroughness of ongoing work to resolve technical issues. While many challenges remain, the progress to date is encouraging; however, much work lies ahead.”
BRINGING ORDER TO DISORDER SHOULD BE THE OBJECTIVE Setting a course for an organization that aligns with its mission, vision and values brings needed order to what would otherwise be described as disorder. Leadership plots the organization’s journey through defined processes that establish goals for the present and the future. The success of an organization depends on the leadership team consistently working with the crews to meet the defined goals utilizing defined metrics. Patient and employee safety culture is a key component.
EMS has made significant strides in organizational leadership; but not all leaders have defined and aligned plans to support their efforts. Those who have established goals which are supported by measurement, allow leaders and their teams to succeed both from a business and safety culture standpoint.
Advocates call for T control board extension
A three-member group of outside safety experts issued a report in December that blamed the absence of a strong safety culture at the T partly on turbulence at the top of the agency, particularly the high turnover of general managers. The report also criticized the control board for holding too many meetings each month and drawing the attention of top managers away from the jobs that they need to be doing.
After the release of the report, Gov. Charlie Baker promised to file legislation this month creating a successor to the control board. He said the measure would address two of the safety panel’s concerns – reducing the number of monthly meetings (current law requires three a month) and appointing one member with safety and operations experience.
Safety of Work Podcast Ep. 5 Can increasing uncertainty improve safety?
Topics:
Our safety practices are always about reducing uncertainty. The paper we’ve chosen to use for today’s discussion is Promoting Safety by Increasing Uncertainty. The paper uses major accidents to frame its arguments. Differences of opinion is a type of uncertainty. Increasing uncertainty in practice. Feeling uncomfortable with increasing uncertainty. Encouraging people to speak out.
Quotes:
“If you don’t understand the question or you don’t understand the problem well enough, then you’ve got very little chance of coming up with a good solution.”
“We need to take action that deliberately encourages introduction of contradictory information…breaking consensus, not forming consensus.”
“The responsibility is on the organization to provide the right psychological environment for people to speak up.”
Resources:
Grote, G. (2015). Promoting safety by increasing uncertainty–Implications for risk management. Safety science, 71, 71-79.
With some interesting new tidbits, the board’s conclusions on the cause of the accident matched my predictions — the did not place blame on the many faults in Uber’s software, bad as they were, because the system was designed to expect such faults to exist and had a human safety driver there to supervise and take over when they occurred. Uber did a terrible job of designing their safety culture, and of hiring, training and monitoring their safety drivers, and that night, the driver was watching a video on her phone instead of the road, leaving her to not take control in a situation where she should have easily done so — and a tragic result.
One notable thing in the findings was a focus on “automation complacency” — the situation where humans quickly become bored with automated systems that need only rare attention, and then get bad at paying that attention. Uber didn’t account for that at all. Some teams have a camera monitor the driver’s gaze. Teslas require their drivers to keep tweaking the wheel to show they are there. We can expect regulators to follow the NTSB and start pushing for better countermeasures to complacency during testing and driver-assist.
Show Me the Money: The Business Case for Safety and Wellness in EMS
Step 1 is to put in place a dedicated risk and safety officer. This individual’s job is to ensure the safety, training, wellness and resiliency culture is firmly in place. Their job is as much a coach as it is compliance, daily interaction with the crews, establishing an open and ‘just’ reporting system free from retribution are all critical components of their job.
Step 2 includes building the framework for your safety and wellness culture.
A. All pre-hire employment candidates must take and pass a nationally validated EMS specific physical abilities test. We need to establish a fitness standard as it lays the groundwork for your wellness culture/
B. Pre-hire candidates need to take an EMS specific psychological evaluation to ensure that that can function in your safety culture and have the key resiliency characteristics needed to survive the job.
What do you do when your new employer values output over safety?
You were excited to take this new job, because it offered new experience and more opportunity for advancement than your previous job. In fact, you last worked as a Master Electrician but were hired on as an Electrical Supervisor. You have four Master Electricians, each with his own crew, working directly under you. So you’re already on the advancement path. Then there’s the downside. One of the crew wears a T-shirt that says, “Real Electricians Work It Hot” and another routinely “forgets” his PPE.
You discussed the shirt with its owner, expressing the inappropriateness of the message it sends. During the discussion, you found he routinely avoids lockout/tagout to save time. Saving time was the same “reason” given by the other one for “forgetting” his PPE. You also found your Master Electricians don’t hold job briefings. When asked why, the answer was again the time savings — all of this in your first two days.
“Now,” you think, “this is why Bob hired me. To fix this very problem.” Your thoughts drift to the interview, where you and Bob (your new boss) really hit it off. You talked about all sorts of issues, but he never brought up safety. As you head toward Bob’s office, you figure that now you and Bob would be discussing that issue. You began by telling Bob that you wanted to know what his expectations were as far as how you would address the safety problems and what exactly the process would be for disciplining those who didn’t get on board.
For a long moment, Bob sat there just looking at you. Then he said the company was in business to make money, nobody had been seriously injured since he’d been hired, and there wasn’t going to be any change in safety practices. He concluded by saying he hired you to make sure work gets done efficiently, and that can’t happen if people are loaded down with all sorts of “extra” safety rules.
You didn’t know what to say, so you told Bob, “Maybe we can talk about this later. Let me think on it for a couple of days.” Then you walked out of his office. So now what do you do? Do you stay and try to change the safety culture, perhaps over time? Or do you leave and hope you can find another job within a reasonable time?
It’s unlikely you can change that safety culture (such that it is). Some day, something tragic will happen, and it might be a wake-up call. But since they’ve gotten by with luck so far, they are going to use luck as an excuse to gamble.
If you suddenly resign, that could be good or it could be bad. It could be good if you discuss this with another prospective employer who sees you got out of a bad situation right away. It could be bad because it means bringing up negatives to a prospective employer. But it could be really bad if you stick around and the luck runs out, so you are just going to have to resign. Before you do that, contact your previous employer and discuss this problem. If you left them on good terms, they may agree to either hire you back or help you find a job with another firm.
In the future, make a point of seeing the people you will be working with. If possible, see them in their natural work environment — and be sure to address safety during the interviewing process. Not in general terms, such as “Do you value safety” (always answered yes), but with specifics such as, “Can I sit in on a job briefing?” or “Can you tell me about your electrical work permit process?”
Some workers killed on the job aren’t counted in fatality records, making the industry appear safer than it is
Many mining deaths aren’t captured by global safety statistics, making the industry seem safer than it is to regulators, investors and consumers.
Maritime Safety: Subchapter M is a Positive Regulation
In summing up, based on my experience and involvement as also work with the U.S. Coast Guard, I can say this is a very well-intended, well-meant initiative to help the towing industry. The real joy will come from its correct implementation. Subchapter M is not only about compliance. It is about building a safety culture. It encourages the industry to streamline and reduce the paperwork that supports compliance / conformity, by greater use of technology, by identifying common areas and integrating documentation requirements and also motivating the workforce to use and improve the system.
Princess Anne has warned against labelling children from deprived areas as “disadvantaged” no-hopers and says we need to be more willing to let kids take risks.
The outspoken Gloucestershire Royal fears they way society relies on statistics can put children into boxes and make assumptions about their life chances based on the figures.
And the horse-loving Princess says a health and safety led culture holds children back by stopping them from developing their own natural risk-taking ability.
Leading questions: Fletcher’s Ross Taylor on restructuring, safety
Q: What was your worst job?
A: During my university holiday work one year, I was working out on a dam construction site and when the sewage treatment settlement tank pump system broke I volunteered with two others to manually dig out all the sediment. That’s a nice word for it. I got triple time for it but I know I felt at the time it really was not worth it. I am now sure it wasn’t worth it.
Q: If you could change one thing about the workplace what would it be?
A: People getting injured. If I could eliminate all safety risks, I would. But instead, we have to eliminate the belief they are unavoidable and create a safety culture that keeps all our people safe every day.
Food safety voices heard during 2019
Exploring the technology of food safety culture with the FDA’s Yiannas Frank Yiannas, nearing completion of his first year as FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, opened the 2019 Food Safety Consortium Conference recently in Schaumburg, IL. This was his third time to present at the event. His first two were while serving as Walmart’s global vice president for food safety.
“The man’s passion for food safety continued to be evident as he revisited a topic he has long raised as a mission-critical flag — the culture of food safety.
“Yiannas literally wrote the book on the topic with the publishing of his “Food Safety Culture: Creating a Behavior-Based Food Safety Management System.” Food safety was defined simply as “behavior” and Yiannas shared his vision of the sea change we are experiencing. He described the creation of a “new era of smarter food safety.”
“Technology investment is leading a “revolution” where food systems are increasingly digitized, according to the FDA’s top food safety person. Deep-dive data is driving actionable information and innovation.