I recently read a very down to earth, “this is how to get it done”, safety article written by Larry Hansen.  “Mind-Shifting Into Safety Excellence” in the January, 2009 issue of EHS Today was very informative yet enjoyable to read.  Larry discusses the difference between companies that have achieved safety excellence, and companies that have not.  He states six “mind shifts” that must be implemented in order to achieve workplace safety excellence.

Mind Shift #1: Stop reporting safety incidences only.  Many companies only report the number of workplace safety incidences that happen because the numbers are easy to calculate.  However, most of those incident reports are lies.  Not every near miss or small accident gets reported out of worker’s fear.  No one wants to bring their team down, and no one wants to be a tattle tale.  The article speaks of Dan Zahlis, founder of the Active Agenda Project who suggests reporting incidences as a fraction: Total cost of all incidents/ total number of incidents.   By incidents, he means everything: near misses, first aid, medical only restricted duty and disabling (pg 41). Larry and other safety professionals believe that this equation will help build trust and remove negative consequences.  Also with this equation, the more incidences reported (especially small incidences), the better the overall number will be.

Mind Shift #2: Stop believing that human error causes safety problems.  It’s not what people do that cause accidents, it’s why people do them.  I think this makes complete sense!  Employees may be scared of the consequences if they don’t get their task done for the day.  They may skip important safety procedures in order to complete their work.  They would rather risk their own safety than not get their work done.  This mindset falls back on the leadership and management.  Changes need to start at the top.

Mind Shift #3:  Companies need to stop being reactive, and start being proactive.  Larry talks about building strong values and safe processes in the workplace.  I believe that really stepping back to examine safety practices is important, and also installing safety equipment to protect employees as well.  SlipNOT® offers a course entitled “Smart Safety Design to Prevent Slips, Trips and Falls” that focuses on non slip flooring products that can prevent accidents, proactively.  There are a plethora of products that can be used to keep accidents from happening, and all aspects of safety should be looked at from the design of workplaces and beyond.

Mind Shift #4: “Excellent organizations lead by values, not by rules”.  Larry hates the new term “Safety Culture.”  He simply believes in organizational culture.  Safety should not be set apart from the rest of the organization.  It should be embedded in the company’s values.

Mind Shift #5:  Safety education is not the best solution for changing repetitively dangerous activities.  Larry believes that education is an important precursor; however the organizational and managerial values can oversight any sort of lessons that have been taught (pg. 44).  Larry strongly believes in both negative and positive consequences to disobedient behavior.  If a repetitive behavior is occurring, don’t make the employee sit through safety training once again, put into action a negative consequence that will make a greater impact.    I think this is really smart.  People will definitely remember being sent home unpaid for the day better than the article and video they are forced to watch for the 3rd time.

Mind Shift #6:  Positive attitudes and energy really make all the difference.  When a company has a lot of negative energy such as an environment where workers and management are argumentative, defensive, blame oriented and quick to make excuses, safety excellent is not going to happen (pg 45).  A complete attitude and organizational adjustment is needed in order for safety excellence to stand a chance.  I would think that a company that is voted one of the best companies to work for might also have achieved safety excellence.

This was a really interesting article with clear steps on how to improve safety.  I thought the “mind shifts” seemed reasonable and attainable.  Take a look at the full article and see if you can implement some mind changes into your own situation.

Hansen, Larry. “Mind-Shifting Into Safety Excellence.” EHS Today January 2009: 40-45

Filed under: Workplace Safety by Beth Faraci