Significance of Leadership for Safety in Licensee Organizations: Self-Regulation

Yesterday, I listened to a seminar through virtual mode on the above topic. The message conveyed through all presentations was good. The presentations were also interesting and captured my attention. I attended a similar seminar a few years ago also. 

The important points to take home are as below:

1. Leadership is to be exhibited at all levels to ensure safety.
2. Self-regulation is important and is helpful to growing organizations.
3. Organizations shall have self-imposed goals and should work for them (self-regulation), rather than looking to the regulators to identify their drawbacks (here, third-party audits will be helpful, if the organizations do not have the competency to identify their problems).
4. The Decision-making process is an important activity to identify and correct the situation before it escalates.
5. We can't sit quietly by taking pride in our past successes. Our past weaknesses are there still and can endanger us.
6. Self-regulation through safety culture will help in safety management and lead the organizations to a successful path.

Leadership and safety management

A presentation on the title is available HERE.

Safety education - a subject to be made compulsory at all levels in schools and colleges

Even after so many years of industrialization, with all available knowledge, still, accidents are taking place. This only shows that managements pay only lip service for safety in their organizations. 

It appears managements think that having a safety department means that it is the responsibility of safety department to ensure safety and that other departments like production, maintenance, quality, etc need to be told what is to be done for ensuring safety of all. 

This also means that safety is not part of all activities and it is seen as an additional activity like an extra organ in a body, which nobody likes. 

Though people like to remove the extra organ, if it is not possible to remove for any reason, then people bear with it, cursing it or their fate. It appears, safety department is also in a similar situation. One can not avoid it because it is mandatory to have certain number of safety officials as per the local government's legislation. At the same, like the extra organ people don't like it. 

The fact that there is lot of friction between safety and other departments in the organizations shows that there is no safety culture. And culture is defined by experts as the activity which one does even when nobody else is watching. Good culture leads to safe work behaviors and no accidents.

This is all because, it appears to me that safety is not taught from the childhood. If it is included as a subject like language / maths / science / etc, then it is imbibed in the minds and is treated with all respect it deserved. Safety management should not be thought as the work of safety department. It should be an integral part of all activities. 

Accountability for safety

In an article in Safety Center on accountability for safety, Bob Lapidus, Safety Management Specialist gave following five steps.

1. Create written safety policies and procedures
2. Train employees on the safety policies and procedures
3. Provide all the necessary equipment to do the assigned work
4. Hold everyone accountable for compliance
5. Both supervisors and employees provide feedback as to how work is being done Corrective action is taken as necessary

Accountability means, in his words, praising when correct things done and correcting when things are done the improperly. It should not be like knee jerk reaction to punish people when something goes wrong.
While writing safety policy and safety procedures, I feel, it should be written by involving all concerned employees. If it is written by manager or consultant in his office without interaction and active participation of employees, the ownership for the document will not exist with the concerned shopfloor employees and it is likely that they may not like to read and follow.
 

Risk Management and Safety Management - How Do They Correlate?

The following article as appeared in Safety Center  Inside Safety Newsletter Vol 12, Issue 9 October 2012 is posted. 

The article is written by

By Ann Richey, ARM-P

Risk Management Director

City of Ontario, CA

Risk Management (according to Wikipedia) is defined as the identification, assessment and prioritization of risks, followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events.  Safety Management is the identification and mitigation of hazards, through proper training, correct equipment and engineering controls.  In other words, Risk Management assumes bad things will happen so it puts appropriate responses in place, and Safety Management strives for the elimination of accidents altogether.

So, which approach is correct?  The answer is they both are correct.  As a former Safety Manager from 1991 to 2002, and a Risk Manager from 2002 to present, I have found there are a vast variety of unanticipated events with unfortunate repercussions, and there truly is no way to prevent or even predict all of them.  Having said that, I still hold firmly to the belief that employees can work injury-free and accident-free if provided the correct equipment, training and working conditions.  The Risk Management approach is very different from Safety Management, and depending on the size of the organization, it may take two people to maximize their effectiveness.

Risk Management looks at situations from a dispassionate, objective, global viewpoint. Safety is just one of many components of Risk Management. Risks, or losses, will happen - so you need to decide whether you will transfer that risk, insure it, or mitigate the cost. An effective Risk Manager works closely with department heads to develop contracts requiring a Certificate of Insurance so that if something does go wrong, you have the ability to successfully reject or transfer the claim over to the contractor. For losses where it is not possible to transfer the risk, then the necessary insurance coverage must be in place. An effective Risk Manager always looks for better ways to insure, from reviewing limits and deductibles, to purchasing coverage as part of a pooled program. When things go terribly awry and you are handling a lawsuit, Risk Managers strategize with legal counsel whether to pursue mediation, arbitration or try the case and weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Safety management, on the other hand, is more intimate.  Effective safety management means getting involved with the using departments, so you are able to view the workplace through their eyes. Then you apply your knowledge to their work environment and come up with ways to work more effectively and with far fewer accidents. Creating a working safety program that is meaningful and practical is just one of the ways good safety managers make their mark on using departments. Another is being a resource for employees who might have safety concerns and do not feel comfortable reporting their concerns to their supervisor. Providing training, monitoring the working environment and equipment to give intelligent feedback to management is crucial to achieving lower injury rates without spending money unnecessarily.  Safety management requires constant involvement, physical presence and ongoing feedback.

If you are responsible for both safety and risk management tasks, it is vital that you dedicate time to anticipating risk as well as being the safety person.  Enlist representatives from various departments to assist in the distribution of materials and provide insight into what is going on in their area. Remember, you chose safety as a career because you are passionate about it.  Nobody else will stay committed to safety if you are not - you must lead by example. 

For further information on Workplace Safety training, please contact Quen or Kei at 916-366-7233. Want to sign up for a class, click here for more info.

What is the level of safety followed in advanced countries and others?

It is common to read / hear about the accidents all over the world. However, what is surprising me is that the number of accidents, type of accidents, deaths / injuries due to accidents are occuring in advanced countries as well as in developing countries.

Though governments of developing countries claim about poverty, illiteracy, lack of resources to implement safety, need for development as the reasons for inability to control accidents, I am unable to find the reasons for the accidents in advanced countries. In these countries, as I understand, greater transparency exists, unions are strong and are powerful that question the managements about poor conditions w.r.t safety, huge amounts are spent for ensuring safe conditions, providing PPE, doing audits, etc. Prosecutions are also carried out on erring companies and punishments/penalties are imposted. Still many accidents take place in advanced countries like those in the other world. Most of the accidents appear to be preventable. I am not really getting any reason for this phenomena.

Whether this indicates that the attitude to safety is same whether the country is advanced or not. The motive is to gain short term benefies i.e profits. Accidents are taken as part of the job and the victims are compensated. Only the amount of compensation varies from country to country. Paying compensation appears to be a better business model compared to spending money on accident prevention.

About Bhopal accident

There was an article on Bhopal accident comparing it with that of BP oil spill. The article can be read at this LINK. The author noted about the poor response of our industry leaders to the injustice met by the victims in comparison with the active involvement of industries at USA against BP. There are many persons in responsible positions in various companies who can come under the Sec 300 of IPC and may not be knowing that they are committing such blunders.
It is essential that top management of all industries should be informed about their responsibilities under various statutes when permissions / licences are issued by concerned government authorities. e-mail is the best service available which can be utilized by regulatory agencies to send e-mails from time to time to these leaders of the organizations.
What I feel is that most of the management representatives do not know about minimum safety procedures to be ensured in their organizations under various statutes and punishment / penalties for violators. Once this is known, definitely violations will come down as nobody likes to trouble himself of attending criminal proceedings against him.

Tale of two factories

Sometime back, I visited two factories on the same day. The visit provoked me to narrate my experience immediately. However, I thought that I can observe similar setups and write. But, I did not get opportunity.

The first factory, I visited in the morning, gave a feel of good safety culture right from the entry point of the road leading to the factory. The factory is about ½ km away from this point. Still, one sees good roads, good house keeping with no scrap / waste on either side of the road, no vehicle parking on roads. When we reached the security, I was surprised to see everybody, including the contract workers entering the factory area with shoes. Visitors arrival was informed by the security officials to the concerned in the factory about the visitor(s), were checked on receipt of directions and were guided into the factory. We, a team of about 50 persons, were received by an official and were taken to a lecture hall. The factory is in the business of making some electrical equipment and accessories. It employs about 300-400 regular employees and similar number of contractor workers. The factory layout was explained to us and briefed about the activities of the factory. Then, we were divided into two teams, guided by separate officials for a visit.

I found every where, the aisles are marked and not a single bit of scrap can be found in this area. The sections are marked, bins are available for storing raw material, product and scrap. Everybody on the job appears like a soldier concentrating on the job. Everybody donned helmet and shoe with factory uniform. Instructions are displayed near the workplace. We spent more than two hours in the shop floor before reaching the dining hall for lunch. Only, when I was about to enter the dining hall, I saw a female gardener without shoe. But, this is the only persons and other gardeners (male and female) are in their attire with shoes.

Even, the dining hall is very neat, tables are clean and the items at the counter are in clean containers. I did not go into the kitchen. However, the way factory is maintained overall in such a good condition, I am sure, kitchen also would have been in good condition.

After lunch, we thanked our hosts and proceeded to the next factory in the schedule. Here also the roads are good and I did not see any scrap or waste on the roads outside as well as inside. But, we have to wait at the security for more than 45 minutes before our host could be contacted and then head count was taken before allowed inside. Again, we have guide. Security gave us directions to go to a particular building. By enquiry enroute, we reached the building. There, one of our team member went inside to locate the person and then as in the morning visit, we were divided into teams and were taken around. The factory is involved in the manufacture of machinery and employs about 1000 regular employees and about 400 contractor workers.

Inside the factory (different sections in different buildings), the use of PPE is not witnessed much. Even the supervisors and officers who have to advise their technicians were found without shoes and were seen walking in chappals. Then, materials were dumped everywhere and house keeping is very poor. Cobwebs are found even at arm reaching heights. There is no seriousness in the employees on the shopfloor. A casual attitude is visible. Though, I did not enquire about accident statistics either in the morning visit or afternoon visit, I am sure that this second factory may not be having good record with respect to safety, though their products are of good quality.

At the end of day, when I was on my way back to residence, I thought what could have been the reason for different culture in these two factories, with regards to house keeping, use of personal protective equipment, display of safety procedures and precautions, attitude of employees (security, shopfloor and managerial) and finally canteen.

In the first factory of our visit, there is no job security, though on my enquiry, I found many are working for years in the same factory as it is the case with the second factory. Management is committed to ensuring safe working conditions both by work and action. Even while selecting the contract workers, conditions are stipulated and are enforced. I noted that even in place where lubricant and hydraulic oils are handled, there is no spillage on the shopfloor and they are contained / restricted to within the work area by providing bund / trays. In many factories, which I visited when I did my safety diploma, oil spillage could be found every where sometimes spreading few yards from the source. Without management commitment, in terms of policy, resources and review, this type of culture is not at all possible. Even persons working in the shopfloor must have realized that they can’t bypass safety procedures as they can be terminated. Subsequently, over a period of time, they must have realized the benefits of good safety culture and thus continued in the factory. It is a known fact that casual attitude develops when person is experienced an tries to bypass safety procedures to increase productivity and get some benefits. Again here, the monitoring by supervisors to ensure that this is not the case shows that productivity targets are realistic with the safe production. Though bypassing safety procedures will result in higher productivity in the short term, but in the long tern, it will lead to fall in productivity and result in accidents, compensation claims, decrease in morale, loss of ownership by employees, visits by regulatory agencies, etc.

In the second factory, once a person is appointed, his job is secure till retirement unless otherwise he commits a major blunder. Thus, employees are not bothered about instructions of their superiors. Though, there is no dearth of resources for providing PPE and safety implementation, there is lack of zeal in employees to implement and follow. May be superiors are threatened, if asked to follow safety at the shopfloor. It is totally in contrast with the first factory. It appears that management hands are tied when they can’t control their employees and have to work with so many restrictions.