Reporting, investigation, preparing, and training
I know I am not the only one who hates when people get hurt. I have spent too much time in clinics, hospitals, and employee homes after an injury has occurred. My goal is to prevent as many as possible.
I know companies everywhere share this goal. But when injuries occur, there is a responsibility to review these incidents to identify the causes and the environments that can lead to future, repeat events.
Creating and maintaining a culture is how we get there – a culture where we want to know why these things happen so that they never happen again. We strive for a culture where employees have a habit of reporting all claims and one where leadership invests in preparing environments to help prevent undesired events. We also strive for a culture where we consistently train our teams on their duties and the hazards associated with them.
Incident Investigation
Leadership must develop a routine for investigating workplace injuries and fatalities. Your company might decide to investigate only recordable claims, claims over a certain dollar threshold, or adding near-misses.
An investigation should include a good root cause analysis system. Whether it’s “The Five Why’s,” “The Fishbone Method,” or “The Bobby Jones RCA Method,” the point is to use a system to isolate root causes, then develop correctable opportunities. A good investigation should involve good pictures, and interviews, tracking corrective actions identified, and effective communication of what was identified.
In addition, adding a periodic review of all events investigated is very effective. This will involve identifying common contributors to these claims and grouping them by location, job function, activity, or other means to develop overall game plans to prevent reoccurrence.
Incident Reporting
Establishing a reporting protocol is very important. Who reports it and to whom? Requiring your employees to report everything to a supervisor, who, in turn, report to management allows your company to get the whole picture and be effective in preventing these incidents.
Determine what level you want reported. Some companies report only medical claims, while others want everything reported.
By requesting everything to be reported, management will get a lot of calls, and most will be small items that are for “report only.” However, small events handled correctly can help prevent large events. In addition, sometimes a small injury doesn’t hurt when it occurs, but later, all of a sudden, it becomes very painful.
That’s why I recommend creating a policy where all incidents must be reported. Then, start holding employees accountable to do the reporting. The strategy of minimizing medical claims to keep workers’ compensation insurance rates down is a losing strategy. We will never be successful by sticking our heads in the sand or sweeping these events under the rug.
Preparation and Training
Success boils down to preparation. It is no surprise that ice comes every year. We can predict even the days when our sites will be affected. In the same way, we all know harvest comes every year, and the same with maintenance needs. You can count on some breakdowns of equipment and machinery. You may not know when exactly, but we should prepare for these times. When employees hurry, they are at the biggest risk potential for injury. By preparing, we can help prevent a lot of undesired events. Failing to prepare leaves our employees at risk and our company liable.
Lastly, train your employees. If someone does a job, they need to know how to do that job. They also need to know the hazards associated with the job or what could happen. Training employees allows a skill level evaluation which helps place the best qualified employee for the task. This not only helps prevent failure of the job being completed but also helps prevent injury.
Recently, companies have posted their Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 300 logs on their bulletin boards. But these should not be just forms. Companies need to drive action from these undesired events.
Leaders have a responsibility to do everything within their power to help ensure all employees go home safely. Creating an environment where incidents are reported to management allows a company to truly get a good picture of their workforce’s needs.
By performing effective investigations on undesired events, companies can then draw a plan to prepare and train against future incidents. This combination of reporting, investigating, preparing, and training is a great recipe for success. A recipe that assists in sending employees home safely every night.
Dean Alling is the safety director for Ray-Carroll Coop in Richmond, MO (deana@ray-carroll.com, 817-932-1000).