Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager at the Barbados Light & Power Co. Ltd., Brian Reece, believes that safety continues to be the one thing that crosses all departments and impacts all staff.
“It is only right then that there should be continuous interaction between staff and management,” he told the recently held Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC) 2016 Occupational Health and Safety Seminar.
“Most legislation requires a safety committee which will always be more effective if management at the highest level becomes involved in its operation. Outside of that though, there are many other opportunities for safety sessions and safety meetings, safety coaching sessions, joint audits and participation in wellness initiatives.”
According to him, this approach builds trust among staff in the safety management system. In fact, he expressed that it creates a sense of all persons working towards a common goal similarly.
“Everyone would be willing to follow a General into war, who is next to them during the fight and down in the trenches. A shared vision of the ultimate goal is created within the mind’s eye of all persons and more hands on board make light work.”
Reece said this also provides staff opportunities to not only discuss safety concerns, but also creates a “no blame” environment.
“These discussions are being held to identify improvements not fault. That ensures there is confidence in employees to report unsafe situations as well as share with colleagues who are exhibiting unsafe behaviours in a constructive and encouraging way. The tone is set by the manner in which the leadership have done it.”
Provide avenues for employee observations
The HSE Manager also observed that one of the greatest measures of employee engagement in proactive safety is the number of observations received towards continuous improvement.
“It is unlikely that any supervisor or manager will always be there to observe every unsafe situation or behaviour. This makes it an imperative that staff are on board with documenting and submitting observations for continuous improvement. The approach is built again on the platform of trust,” he stressed.
Reece further revealed that one method which has been successfully used in the Emera Group of Companies has been to create the Balance Score Card – a target submission rate for all employees to achieve.
“The need to have these documented and tracked has to be shared with employees, as usually this is seen as a chore… As I have stated too many staff with the best of intentions, a supervisor cannot remember everything, and though they may want to work on a matter it can slip them.
“Having it documented means that this can be followed through on and reduce the likelihood of it escalating to an incident. It can be married with your work order system or act as a stand-alone system for managing proactive observations. Pre-job forms and discussions are another method for ensuring employees participate in the system and identify ways to work more safely,” he added. (TL)
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