Construction, manufacturing, and industrial companies often value workplace safety, and even implement responsible protocol, however gaps in programs often form. The safety consultant team at Capital Safety Services has worked with some top flight operations that still benefited from a comprehensive outside assessment.
The main objective, when working to identify hidden workplace safety issues is to look beyond traditional metrics. Many organizations focus on visible, immediate, and measurable aspects of safety. PPE compliance, safety training completion rates, accident investigations and passing audits and inspections are often top of mind.
To build a more comprehensive and sustainable workplace safety program, however, our safety consultant team helps companies dig deeper. We look closer at the often-hidden issues that can contribute to an incident, near miss, production disruption, or regulatory problem.
Inconsistent Field Execution
There are often gaps between a company’s written safety program and how the protocol is enforced on job sites, in production areas, or on the shop floor. Safety training programs, procedures, and policies are not always enforced consistently by managers and supervisors.
Crews often perform the same tasks in different ways and rules can be enforced unevenly. Some managers put emphasis on certain regulations, while failing to enforce others. When teams are allowed to operate without a unified standard, shortcuts are often taken. This is a psychological and cultural phenomenon known as the normalization of deviance.
inconsistent workplace safety program execution often results in employee confusion, reduced accountability and the undermining of safety culture. Issues are often hidden until a safety audit, incident, or inspection reveals them. A safety consultant can identify inconsistencies through the implementation of site observation, employee interviews and comprehensive audits.
Weak Safety Incident Investigations
When a workplace injury occurs, the issue is typically investigated by reviewing the human error or looking at how the specific rule was not followed. This process can fail to identify why the worker chose to take a shortcut or what it was about the environment that contributed to the mistake. The actual issue may have resulted from faulty equipment or unrealistic production pressure. When all of the factors are not appropriately investigated, the reason for the mistake is oftentimes not identified.
When this happens, issues can snowball. When workers associate investigations with punishment rather than a change in process or equipment, they are more likely to stop reporting minor injuries or close calls.
Lack of Confidence Stopping Unsafe Work
This is one of the most critical issues that effects workplace safety. Although an organization may have policies and safety training in place that encourage workers to speak up when safety risks present themselves, they are not always reported. Several factors come into play including deadline pressure or concerns about coworker reactions.
When the pressure of a deadline is building, workers may prioritize speed over safety. This is typically prevalent at the supervisor level, as supervisors are feeling more pressure to perform.
A safety consultant can help identify these issues through worker interviews, safety climate assessments, and field audits. The safety consultant can then implement programs that strengthen employee empowerment, supervisor accountability, and stop-work authority training.
Bringing In an Outside Security Consultant
The issues we’ve covered here represent only a small portion of workplace safety gaps that exist in the field. The reality on jobsites and factory floors is that, despite safety training and best intentions, even the most responsible organizations can slip.
Over time, workers and managers can become accustomed to certain workplace practices. This can make it difficult to recognize inconsistent procedures, hazards, or cultural issues that have become normalized.
The safety consultant group at Capital Safety Services brings an independent and highly experienced perspective to the table that can carefully evaluate safety gaps and provide actionable solutions. We take a close look at the systems, behaviors, and procedures that are currently in place to identify issues. Once this is complete, we administer solutions that are tailored to the organization’s specific goals and operations. Please reach out to our safety consultant team to discuss how we can help.