Why is there a certain stigma associated with safety? Is it the impractical nature that safety has become? Or in most eyes is the way we approach safety practical?
Sometimes when people ask me what professional area I work in, I am reluctant to say ‘safety’, simply because people give you that look. I can see words like Roadblock, Overboard, Impractical, Boring, Beurocratic written all over their face…….!!! Although safety is paramount, and people know it is essential to our everyday working lives it still has that avoidable / unavoidable stigma attached to it – why?
Personally I think we need to bring back an element of common sense to safety in order to make employees feel like they are in control / empowered again. We apply the Principals of Prevention to our business works and practices in order to eliminate human error, but have we thought about the cultural consequences when considering controls? Are we missing this vital step in our Principles of Prevention?
In recent years Behavioural Based Safety (BBS) has taken over our approach to safety, although a step in the right direction I think we are missing the empowering factor (i.e. employees and the technical experts being integrated into the decision-making process). I don’t mean to introduce a margin of error but if we ‘empower’ we will encourage a cultural change not force one! People will be embedded in safety, instead of becoming slaves to it. We need to make people see the logic behind all of our actions, get them heavily involved and most importantly listen to what they have to say.
If any of my blog readers have children you can relate to what I mean. Humans are programmed to rebel when they are told what to do, perhaps rebel is too ‘strong’ a word but in short we don’t like to be told what to do because we have that ‘we are not stupid’ attitude. So in our approach to safety we should embed our people in our decision-making instead of citing from a written bible of instructions. In many instances we are so caught up on the legalities of safety that we lose sight of cultural change and understanding that makes safety successful.
I think we can find a balance between being legally compliant and keeping our employees content when it comes to safety. We can be practical without compromising on safety….
What do you think? Do you think we are so caught up on ‘covering our behinds’ and creating the patchwork effect* that we lost sight of how to effectively encourage positive changes to behaviour and attitude? Should safety be more integrated in our business instead of being a separate element (which in many cases its it!).
I invite you all to comment, particularly those of you who do not have ‘QHSE’ in your title. What is your attitude towards the practicalities of safety?
* Patch Work Effect – Is a term I started to use in my work practices, it relates to a flaw or a gap in our management system which we create a patch for to ensure its covered. But we don’t really think about the bigger picture.
It is not that Health & Safety is impractical, it is indeed an essential part of our everyday life. However it is the manner in which the guide lines are interpreted by the varius professional and industrial bodies that present a problem. AS an example local Government are probably the biggest offenders as they treat the H&S manual as a Biblical Funbemengtalist would read the Bible. The rules and regulations when used with common sense hey are perfect.
is it safety really common sense?
you may have seen this quote: when safety is just common sense, it becomes a mindless act.
if you want more info on this please contact BJM at whsact@bigpond.com
Orla,
Hear, Hear … I think that what you are suggesting is completely true. ‘Safety’ does have a stigma attached to the profession, more so I believe because stakeholders don’t fully undertsand it. Yes I also believe that an element of common sense needs to be brought into the overall approach to managing safety. Yes we are turning workers into robots and not empowering them to think for themselves. Being a good safety person say on a mine site, requires one to interact with workers, understand their duties on a daily basis and facilitate with them to introduce a positive safety culture where all can have a stake. A good safety culture is something that must be introduced from the start, not ‘bolted’ on at a later stage. I am a long time advocate for ‘safe design’ where safety procedures and principles are a part of the fabric in any work area which also needs to be taken up by service providers, machinery suppliers and the like.
The only question that I have is … what you see as common sense and what I see as common sense, and what someone else percieves as common sense is the issue. It’s relative to our life experience and levels of intelligence
COMMENT BY Kyle Masterman via Linkedin•
Thanks for the read Orla,
My 2c – Its not about practically bringing common sense in but coaching workers into bringing the quality of their ‘common sense’ to a higher standard, there will always be rules and regulations for them to follow and for us to enforce however you can do it in a way thats not ‘telling the workers what to do’ but rather coaching their sub-concious to think in a differant way. Attacking the ‘fortified castles’ (workers mind) from the front gates will only end in slaughter, you must find a ‘secret enterence’ (sub-concious) and attack in secret…
COMMENT BY Antony Mitchell via Linkedin•
Great challenging questions Oria. Whether you are in safety, in finance, or any another field that requires the application of related disciplines to get the best outcome, you will find the need to adapt the workforce culture. If the core values of those disciplines are not built into the training and education as foundations the road to cultural adaptation is long and hard, as paradigms need to be moved and learnt priorities challenged. It is this latter problem which I believe you are seeking to resolve; how can I rearrange the priorities already embedded in the skills, knowledge and attitudes of workers who are yet to experience a personal loss (first or second hand) and who are continually rewarded through the shortcuts they have engrained into their work methods. I am a systems person, who believes that behaviour needs to be shaped early through training, demonstrated through leadership, and supervised, monitored and reinforced through positive and negative incentives. The final element I believe is having an effective system for understanding and sharing risk; everything from method focused risk analysis and control effectiveness, to awareness of the role of self in risk taking behaviour as an aspect of common sense.
Please keep asking questions. You inspire me to answer from my experience.
Thank you for all of your comments to date, everyone has a slightly different take on this topic which is quite interesting but has provided me with allot of information to help me as a practitioner.
I understand that safety is not common sense and it’s not a control factor which can be relied on but it’s like Kyle suggested its how we treat common sense amongst our employees that can favourably affect our employee’s perception of safety.
Kyle I share your philosophical approach to safety, and I feel this is an area / a skill which could be given more attention during the training of our HSE practitioners! Anthony and Gary your right, if our core values aren’t imbedded in the foundation of our systems then we are indeed continually trying to adapt which is time consuming and inefficient be it safety, quality, finance etc. This is a very frustrating process for employees which may also feed the stigma associated with safety.
I am also a systems person and I believe that part of a revolutionising answer lies in company certification process (e.g. ISO) this can be ALLOT more than a marketing tool. A certification process (to encourage integrated management systems) that not only looks at ‘you do what you say you do’ but also looks at methodology, productivity, efficiently etc etc. But that’s a whole other blog!!
Comment from Mark Robb via linkedin •
“A man (person) with a question, is a danger to complacency”
I challenge myself and other constantly in safety by asking this question, not to challenge authority, but to ask for a reasoning as to why do U come to / get to this conclusion/reasoning for an outcome.
I appreciate your comments in this article.
Regards,
a Pre Gen Yer…..
Mark Robb
ProSafe
A comment via linked in Groups by Alan Bate •
A well written article and its sentiments I share, but the reality is far more complex – to get the cultural change and empowerment of individuals a reality, there is a big stumbling block – to empower and to get the culture wanting to buy into safety, there has to be breathing space – which means avoiding the “telling” and “policing” aspect of safety – in a nuthsell allow individuals time to make those decisions – and this produces a natural period of risk where individuals learn to make the right decisions for the right reasons, and where the safety professional backs off and allows that space to occur. But the question is,will that space be a period of acceptable risk or is it too risky for the busimess, a period where close supervisiom and policing is not present, and neither is the full decision making ability developed yet.
Comment via linkedin groups by Jason Rao •
I liked the article and I do agree that you encounter a lot of eye rolling and blank expressions when I tell people what I do, but I have to say I learned pretty early on in my career that a common sense & practical approach was required if I was to change the accepted dogma and instigate a cultural change regarding HSE within my scope of influence, as I have said many times throughout my career HSE is as much about how you present the infomation as it is about the information you are presenting, you are taking a calculated risk in allowing the individual to join the dots themselves and make the right decisions regarding HSE and yes there is certinly some exposure but I have always believed that it is a risk worth taking especially if its implimented early on in the project , I always go to great lenghts to ensure that project management / company senior management are aware that my goals are the same as theirs to bring the project in on time, on or under budget and as incident free as possible and that a well developed & maintained SMS will enhance this process, I always describe my occupation as 25% HSE Manager & 75% salesman. but it is worth mentioning also that we are advisors, we are not a police force and HSE should not be presented as some sort of demacleese we must work that little bit harder to build solid trustworthy relationships within the work place to make sure that persons at all levels view us a good addition to site operations and not as Judge Dredd, with the I am the Law attitude, it will just be counterproductive and increadibly frustrateing..
Comment via linkedin groups by Russel Skilleter •
Good artical Orla.
In Australia, another element that raises its head when you mention that you work in safety is that you must work for the regulator, and you are there to catch people doing things wrong. I have always believed that catching peole doing things right, and recognising it, is a far better approach. This then enables greater engagement, and ultimately empowerment.
Best wsihes, Russel.
Comment via linkedin Groups by John Blake • Interesting article and I admire your efforts on behalf of your generation.
Unfortunately the reality is far more complex. You and I and the many other well-intentioned individuals within the work force are now dealing with legacy of an industry that thought regulation was the only cure for improving safety and risk management.
We could wax on talk for hours on the short comings of the state of the industry.
The commercial realities of life are a fact that we have to accept and deal with.
The mighty dollar that drives business and dictates policy and the principles of E T T O (Efficiency Thoroughness Trade Off) are two of the major contributing factors that have led to this overburden of regulation without any real improvement in safety performance or risk management.
However all is not lost. I am a firm believer in the philosophy that “One person can change the world” and I agree that we have to get back to basics.
The question I have for you is – “how well do we really know the people that we have working for us.”
I also agree with your comment that “Behavioural Based Safety (BBS) is a step in the right direction” but it too is applying a one size fits all approach to address the problem and not taking into account the uniqueness of people and the fact that ALL people don’t think and act the same way.
You may be interested in a program which we have found that addresses the uniqueness of people as individuals and gives them the knowledge which creates an awareness that allows people to have a very different conversation and encourages co-operation and collaboration and not just in safety but in every aspect of their work.
If you would like some more information just send me email.
Comment via linkedin groups by Shixue Ruby • On the different angles, you will see the various view. No matter how hard we tried to understand the people, they always show in another way. So, a wise leader who can discover able people and put them at suitable posts wil be much more important.
Comment via linkedin groups by James Rogers • Love the post. If the people we work with see our rules/req’s as impossible or unreasonable, they are much more likely to ignore the rules entirely. Even if you mange to put together a behavior based system, you can still lose the momentum of the process to the “going through the motions” tendency.
Comment via linkedin groups by Russell Donoghue • Orla,
Great discussion, I espicially liked your comment in relation to BBS. I for one think that a behaviour based program can only reach the pinnacle of its objectives if the workforce have recieved the training and understand the procedures and processes in place.
Everyone as part of their daily lives complete some form of risk management, be it driving a car or crossing a road, some do take risks in relation to these activities, the challenge i see is getting them to understand the consequences of that risk in the work environment, on their own terms, rather than having the organisation confronting them with their legal responsibilities.
Once a person has acquired that understanding you could, with some degree of confidence, believe that person is able to understand why we have the laws, policies and procedures we have.
Encouragement is paramount to achieving this goal, don’t be negative to a persons question or suggestion, encourage and develop their line of thinking and thoughts so that they fully comprehend the end result of what they believe is a common sense attitude towards safety.
Again great blog, its has inspired me to comment and gives me faith that i am not alone in what i see is required for a productive and effective Safety Management System.
Comment posted via linkedin by C.Sharkey:
I’m currently on a project overseas and am working with safety people from various cultures and backgrounds. Its interesting to see how safety professionals view safety, from being legal compliance driven to “she’ll be right mate” type attitude. People aren’t robots so we all have different ideas on what safety should look like, some see it as being legally compliant. Others, the situation will dictate the safety requirements and others see it has a combination of the both.
Comment posted via linkedin by R. Cochrane
I agree with Mr Wakefields comments it is not hard to have a 50 50 mixture of both A & B