Safety Management Articles

• Effective Fall Protection for Utility Workers

  A review of the relevant standards and training that companies need to provide.

• Managing Safety

  There's no magic to safety; it's management. Just as you manage productivity, quality or any other part of your company, safety management takes planning, organizing, leading, controlling and evaluating. You or your managers will be inspecting, investigating, recording, analyzing and reporting. How you make all this happen is through a safety program that gives you the policies, procedures and monitoring systems to make safety happen. With time and resources in short supply, a safety program has to be approached in a practical and effective manner. How do you assure its successful implementation? Start with some basic questions:

• Passion for Safety We have a responsibility to care for ourselves. In the utility business, for example, safety is about using proper personal protective equipment and approved safe work methods in a controlled environment. When we have a true passion for safety, we not only care for ourselves, but also take responsibility for influencing others in the use of safe practices.
• Comcast Cable and CUSA How Comcast Cable strongly encourages its employees with
  responsibility for safety to obtain Certified Utility Safety Administrator (CUSA) certification. Should your utility do the same?
• Managing Safety Rule Violations This is the question I am asked most frequently at conferences and when delivering training. The short, direct answer is "Yes." So, if an individual violates a safety rule, should he or she be punished? It depends.
  I know that sounds like a consultant's answer, so let's discuss what I mean. We can start by considering human nature. We all choose our behaviors based on expected consequences. What are the consequences of taking shortcuts on the job? While there are possible negative consequences, like rework or an injury, these problems are few and far between. One definite result is that the job takes less time. Getting done faster is usually considered a good thing. But what if the shortcut involves violating a safety rule? If there are no consequences for violating safety rules, can they be ignored? Will this  affect your safety record?
  For the most part, people do not deliberately violate policies and safety rules. Our workers, however, are responding to many influences on their actions, including company goals, a sense of urgency to restore customer service, personal issues at home, and so on. When shortcuts get results and they are not corrected, the decision becomes a bad habit. And while bad habits will not lead to an injury every time, they will eventually catch up to the worker.
• Lessons Learned, Successful Implementation of Behavioral Safety Coaching

  Previously, we discussed the power of behavioral safety coaching (BSC) to prevent injuries and fatalities in the utilities industry. To this end, we introduced 10 key practical guidelines for creating and maintaining successful BSC as gleaned from three decades of empirical research and 20 years of practical experience with our clients. Once again, here are the 10 guidelines for creating and maintaining an effective BSC process:

• What It Takes to be a Safety and Compliance Leader

  A successful safety and compliance team member cannot always be the most liked or the most popular, but must always be well respected.  They need to be able to talk to senior management, front line supervisors and employees and be open and honest about what needs to be done to ensure employee safety and regulatory compliance.

• Injury Free Change

  Paradoxically, change is a permanent part of life. Yet it's no excuse for neglecting safety. Tune into your emotional responses to change and become a 'change agent' for safety in any environment.

• Eliminating Excuses "Management is pushing us, customers are pushing us and we don't have enough help." This excuse for taking short cuts is becoming more prominent in the workforce. When I hear it, I cringe! We must take personal responsibility and not let other factors distract us from having safety on our minds. No one can make you do anything you don't want to do unless you give him or her permission. The supervisors, crew leaders and linemen who attend my seminars consistently tell me that they need more help
• Leadership Influencing the Culture

  Learn how to best use all your resources as a safety leader and get the most out of your workers.

• Taking Safety to the Next Level

  A look at the common denominator in companies that have successful safety programs.

• Keeping the 'Fighter Pilots' of Your Company Safe

  A consistent, clear safety message backed by unwavering actions is what is takes to keep your employees flying straight.

• Dramatic Results By employing an advanced project monitoring and analysis solution, Oregon Electric Group is achieving significant safety improvement success.
• Making Safe Choices In the high-risk world of utility operations, safety depends greatly on the choices that are made at all levels of an organization. The decisions that are made as to how we will handle a particular situation determine how safe everyone involved will be.
• Bridging Communication Gaps As a safety professional, it's your responsibility to protect your firm's human capital.