worker safety engagement

Visual Literarcy a hazard recognition tool

Visual Literacy is a new hazard recognition tool

Identify hazards before an incident occurs. Here are three steps you can take.

May 23, 2019

Identifying hazards in the workplace, determining the degree of risk they represent, and taking appropriate action is a fundamental component of any safety management system. While simple to say, it can be more difficult in practice than we might expect.

Report problems & precursors early & often

Hey, you — keep that door open!

David Sarkus MS, CSP

January 16, 2019

Most all of us have been around a boss or supervisor who isn’t very likeable or open to feedback. He or she is often avoided, and people may even fear approaching that boss with a safety-related concern or idea for improvement. Workers who perceive their bosses as open believe their leader really listens to their ideas and acts upon them when appropriate — or at the very least, gives their ideas a fair shake.

2019 top standards- OSHA Most Frequently Violated Standards

OSHA fall protection training standard

Training Requirements for Construction Industry (1926.503)

January 4, 2019

Falls are the leading cause of death in construction. In 2016, there were 370 fatal falls to a lower level out of 991 construction fatalities (BLS data). These deaths are preventable.

2019 top standards- OSHA Most Frequently Violated Standards

OSHA machine guarding standard

OSHA’s machine guarding standard was the ninth-most-frequently cited agency standard in FY 2018.

January 1, 2019

Machine safeguarding is the best way to prevent amputations. Guards provide physical barriers to hazardous areas. They should be secure and strong, and workers should not be able to by-pass, remove or tamper. Guards should not obstruct the operator’s view or prevent others from working.

2019 top standards- Global Standards

ANSI-ASSP Z10 safety and health management system standard

December 20, 2018

Work started on Z10 in March, 1999. Almost 100 safety and health professionals spent six years drafting and reworking the document. The Z10 standard for occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) is now titled ANSI/ASSP Z10-2012 (R2017).

When your safety process goes stale

Assess program momentum, relevance & branding

Charles J. Douros

November 29, 2018

In a recent safety excellence workshop, our firm facilitated a brainstorming exercise with a group of safety professionals interested in solving a particular problem they were experiencing in their safety journey. Their safety process was boring them to tears and they worried it would grow stale and become irrelevant with the workforce.

Smartphone, tablets & lockout-tagout

View electronic images of energy isolation points

Jason Anthony

November 28, 2018

OSHA’s General Industry’s standard for the Control of Hazardous Energy (LOTO) 29 CFR 1910.147 addresses one of the most important safety regulations to protect workers from injury: lockout/tagout. The standard requires workers to isolate energy during servicing and maintenance of machines and equipment to prevent the unexpected startup or release of energy.

Want better safety outcomes? Try servant leadership!

Check your ego

David Sarkus MS, CSP

November 20, 2018

Twenty-five years ago, as a young safety professional, I struggled to find a set of leadership practices I could call my own. In 1996, I wrote about many of the leadership practices I was already using but found more clearly established in Servant Leadership (Sarkus, 1996).

Part 2 of 2

Process safety management - the business case

Evaluate three critical aspects of your operation

James B. Porter Jr. Deborah Grubbe

November 4, 2018

Simply stated, process safety is a management system implemented to prevent major incidents involving hazardous materials. It is necessary for managing complex process operations. An effective process safety management system focuses on three important aspects of your business:

How to produce and market a successful safety culture

Creating good vibrations

Chuck Pettinger

November 4, 2018

Impacting organizational culture is a long-term, never-ending endeavor. Many companies struggle with maintaining and sustaining cultural initiatives because their impact may not be felt for several years. Culture, as an organizational construct, is a subjective factor not directly measurable by any instrument, survey or metric. Yet, everyone is impacted by culture and can describe when it turns bad.