Engaging Your Workforce for National Safety Month: EHS Strategies for Success
Posted by Clarion Safety Systems | 20th Jun 2024
This June marks the 28th anniversary of the National Safety Council’s (NSC) National Safety Month. As health and safety have become more important than ever before given our current environment, NSC’s National Safety Month awareness initiatives are dedicated to educating and influencing behavior around the leading causes of preventable injuries and deaths in and out of the workplace. While facilities adjust to new modes of work and automation, ensuring employee, facility, and equipment safety is critical.
For 2024’s campaign, NSC is sharing safety messages on four pressing topics — one for each week: safety engagement, roadway safety, risk reduction, and slips, trips, and falls. Continue reading for the latest information and resources to keep people safe, including how best practice visuals help support safety protocols in various workplace environments.
Safety Month Topic – Week 1: Safety Engagement
in the Workplace
National Safety Month is a time to recommit
to creating a safe and healthy work environment for all employees. But safety
goes beyond just policies and procedures. It thrives on an engaged workforce
where everyone feels empowered to prioritize safety and look out for each
other. This proactive approach not only minimizes accidents and injuries but
also fosters a positive and productive work environment. Here are some key tips
for employers to cultivate safety engagement and build a strong safety culture:
- Leadership Commitment: A strong safety culture starts at the top. Leaders must demonstrate a genuine commitment to safety by actively participating in safety initiatives, consistently communicating safety expectations, and holding themselves accountable for upholding safety standards. This sets a powerful tone and encourages employees to follow suit.
- Empower Employee Participation: Safety is a shared responsibility. Encourage employees to actively participate in safety discussions, hazard identification processes, and the development of new safety procedures. This fosters a sense of ownership and empowers them to be proactive about safety in their daily work.
- Open Communication: Establish clear and consistent communication channels regarding safety. Regularly share safety information, updates on incidents and near misses, and best practices. Encourage open communication where employees feel comfortable raising safety concerns and reporting hazards without fear of reprisal.
- Invest in Training and Education: Provide comprehensive and ongoing safety training for all employees, regardless of position. Training should be tailored to specific job roles and address potential hazards relevant to their work. Regularly update training to reflect changes in regulations, equipment, and work processes.
- Recognize and Reward Safe Behavior: Positive reinforcement goes a long way. Publicly recognize and reward employees who consistently demonstrate safe work practices, identify and report hazards, or actively participate in safety initiatives. This reinforces the importance of safety and motivates others to follow suit.
- Lead by Example: Leadership actions speak louder than words. Regularly conduct safety walks throughout the workplace to identify potential hazards and demonstrate your commitment to safety. Encourage open communication during these walks, allowing employees to raise concerns freely.
- Focus on Continuous Improvement: Safety is an ongoing process. Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your safety programs through safety audits and employee feedback. Use this information to identify areas for improvement, update safety procedures, and address any gaps in training or communication.
By implementing these tips, employers can cultivate a safety-engaged workforce and build a strong safety culture. This not only protects employees from accidents and injuries but also creates a more positive, productive, and successful work environment for everyone.
Safety Month Topic - Week 2: Roadway
Safety Practices
With
many employees relying on personal vehicles for work travel, promoting safe driving
habits extends beyond the workplace walls. National Safety Month is an
excellent opportunity to emphasize the importance of roadway safety and equip
your employees with the knowledge and tools to navigate the roads safely. OSHA’s
most recent report showed a 9.3 percent fatality increase from roadway
incidents year over year. Here are some key tips for employers to promote
roadway safety practices:
- Develop a Safe Driving Policy: Establish a clear and comprehensive safe driving policy that outlines company expectations for employee behavior on the road. This policy should address topics like distracted driving (including cell phone use), driving under the influence, speed limits, fatigue management, seat belt use, and safe vehicle maintenance.
- Offer Defensive Driving Training: Invest in defensive driving training programs for employees who drive for work purposes. These programs equip drivers with the skills and strategies to anticipate hazards, react safely to unexpected situations, and minimize the risk of accidents.
- Promote Trip Planning: Encourage employees to plan their trips in advance, allowing ample time for travel and factoring in potential traffic delays or weather conditions. This helps them avoid the stress and pressure that can lead to risky driving behaviors.
- Reimbursement for Ridesharing: Consider offering reimbursement programs for employees who choose to utilize ridesharing services for work trips, especially when traveling long distances or after dark. This can be a valuable option for employees who feel fatigued or uncomfortable driving under certain conditions.
- Vehicle Maintenance Programs: Encourage regular vehicle maintenance by offering incentives for employees to keep their personal vehicles in safe operating condition. This could include partial reimbursement for maintenance costs or on-site safety inspections.
- Fatigue Management: Educate employees about the dangers of driving while fatigued and encourage them to schedule breaks and plan their travel to avoid driving for extended periods. Implement policies that discourage working long hours or attending meetings that could lead to drowsy driving situations.
- Telework Opportunities: For suitable job roles, explore the feasibility of offering telework options to reduce the need for employee travel. This can significantly minimize roadway risks associated with commuting.
By implementing these practices, employers can demonstrate their commitment to employee safety beyond the physical workplace and contribute to a safer driving culture on the roads.
Safety Month Topic - Week 3: Injury Prevention
by Identifying Hazards and Risks
Having and enforcing an injury prevention plan
is important, as it is a proactive way to reinforce hazard recognition and
encourage safe behavior, which helps reduce loss of productivity, money, and
equipment. Many of OSHA’s recently released top 10 workplace safety violations list for 2023
were recurring incidents from year after year. In many areas, this points to
employers still struggling to provide the proper training materials and
programs to employees. The fundamentals of an injury prevention plan start with
communication — both verbal and visual — and employee engagement. To develop
effective communication strategies that promote employee engagement:
- Conduct regularly scheduled safety trainings: Ensure all employees receive the appropriate safety training related to their duties, including trainings on how to wear personal protective equipment when required. Make sure any changes to the plan are swiftly communicated and that all documentation is made available. Encourage two-way dialogue by welcoming employees to ask questions about procedures and to immediately point out safety hazards if they arise. These useful steps help show employees that you care their safety.
- Communicate safety hazards: In a perfect world, all workplaces would be free of safety hazards. Since that’s impossible for nearly all employers, alerting workers of facility and equipment hazards is critically important. In addition to training, incorporating safety labels on products and equipment helps warn end users of hazards to prevent interacting with them. Safety signs help keep employees and visitors safe and meet OSHA rules and regulations. Utilizing best practice safety visuals at your facility and on your equipment helps meet your legal ‘duty to warn’ requirements and reduces your premises liability exposure.
Achieving and sustaining an injury-free workplace demands a universal and continuous improvement in occupational health and safety management systems. To help your injury prevention implementation, ISO 45001, the occupational health and safety management standard is a good starting point. This gives organizations across the U.S. and around the world a structure to plan, support, implement, and evaluate their efforts to eliminate risks to workers. Some ways that ISO 45001 can aid in injury prevention include;
- Reduced work-related injuries and fatalities.
- Eliminated or minimized OH&S risks.
- Improved OH&S performance and effectiveness.
- Increased worker engagement through their participation in the certification process.
- Demonstration of corporate responsibility and meeting supply chain requirements.
- Protection and improvement of brand reputation.
This ISO 45001 standard is applicable to any organization regardless of its size, type, and activities. It shapes itself to the OH&S risks under the organization’s control, taking into account factors such as the context in which the organization operates and the needs and expectations of its workers and other interested parties.
Safety Month Topic - Week 4: Slips, Trips, and Falls
Year after year, slips, trips, and falls make it on OSHA’s top safety violations list, and 2023 was no
different, with fall protection violations being number 1 and accounting for 7,271
safety violations. Ladder safety violations were number 3, scaffolding number
4, and fall protection training requirements were number 8, showing the
prevalence of safety violations as they relate to falls.
According to the most recent compilation from OSHA, work related fatalities due to slips, trips, and falls increased 1.8 percent in 2022, which resulted in 865 deaths. A few ways to keep workers safe are as follows:
- Make full use of signs and labels, both on equipment (like messages related to machines that should not be used as steps) and throughout the workplace (indicating when surfaces are slippery or have been cleaned).
- Try to implement a safety-based culture at your workplace so staff and crew know that "safety first" is more than just a slogan.
- Ensure carpeting is slip resistant. Use slip resistant shoes.
- Encourage workers to always use handrails when ascending or descending staircases.
- Ensure that your workplace is fully OSHA compliant. For instance, guardrails and toe-boards are required by law around dangerous equipment, open floors, runways, and platforms if there's any chance a worker could fall.
- Keep equipment fully operational and fix repairs that can lead to slip and fall accidents immediately. Ensure that workers are properly trained on how to use the equipment.
Your Partner for Product and Workplace Safety Needs
Worker health and safety is a top priority. Now more than ever, as many
workplaces have faced significant changes during the past few years related to evolving
technology, remote work, hiring challenges, and increased digitalization and
automation, proactively maintaining safe facilities and equipment is critical
to prevent injuries and protect your business liability. Clarion Safety
provides comprehensive machinery safety and risk assessment services,
with full-service
product safety and liability prevention capabilities. Get
in touch with us to learn how we can get your safety visuals up
to date with the latest standards to keep your products safe and to protect
your team from harm.