Every Monday, LogistiekProfs lets a logistics professional talk about his or her expertise.This week: Tom from BLOM gives 6 tips for better safety awareness among employees.
Shielding workstations, increasing pedestrian visibility, hanging mirrors on the walls; all simple measures to increase safety in the warehouse. These measures are only of little use if safety awareness among employees is low. How do you increase this awareness among your staff? In this article, we give 6 ways to increase employee safety awareness.
1. Clarify the definition of safety
When two drivers talk about safety, chances are that both drivers have a different idea of what exactly safe working means. Whether they have obtained forklift certification or not. One may think he has been performing his work safely for years, while the other thinks there is definitely some room for improvement. As an organisation, make sure you are clear about what safety means within your organisation and communicate this clearly to employees. You can do this, for example, by:
-Discuss example situations in consultation
To find out what employees' perceptions of safety are, you can plan a team meeting in which you show example situations. After each example situation, ask team members whether they thought it was safe or not and why. These kinds of meetings are not only useful to find out the level of safety awareness among your employees, but they also contribute to increasing it. You show as an organisation that you are putting time into improving safety. That is already an important step in increasing safety awareness.
- Anonymous survey with example situations
Another way is by creating an (anonymous) survey in which you also show examples of different situations. Employees can then indicate which situations they consider safe or unsafe. The latter method may be preferred when an organisation has more than 100 employees. The results can then serve as a starting point for increasing employee safety awareness.
2. Raise awareness of safety protocols
How well are safety protocols actually known to employees in your organisation? Are they easily accessible? Or are they gathering dust in a cupboard somewhere? To draw more attention to the protocols, you could put up posters depicting a safety rule. Or always pick a specific part of the protocols to discuss during meetings. That way, it stays under the spotlight.
3. Form observation groups
An employee working all day hardly has time to observe how his colleagues are doing. Therefore, form observation groups that observe during high-risk situations. Especially during routine work, it is important to have someone with a fresh pair of eyes watching. Make sure these observers know how to give good feedback and how to motivate colleagues.
By doing this on a regular basis, you slowly create a culture where colleagues teach each other to work more safely and where giving feedback is a norm.
4. Let employees have a say in improving safety
It is often difficult to achieve top-down safety awareness. Employees feel that management does not understand what is going on on the shop floor and find certain safety measures unrealistic or nonsense. This makes implementation difficult. To create more support among your employees, you will have to involve them in the plans you have as an organisation to improve safety. Give employees the opportunity to think along and give their opinion. Let them come up with their own solutions. After all, they know better than anyone else what goes on on the shop floor every day.
5. Share near misses
An accident is in a small corner. How often does something almost go wrong? By creating space to share these experiences with each other in the team (e.g. in a weekly meeting), the risks remain under the spotlight. Make it clear that sharing near misses is not meant to punish anyone, but rather to learn from each other. Talking about them openly and honestly gives employees a better understanding of the possible risks, which increases their safety awareness.
6. Use checklists
Checklists may seem superfluous to experienced employees, but nothing could be further from the truth. Especially in routine work, things can be forgotten when the employee is momentarily distracted, for example. Therefore, make use of checklists.
An example of a checklist is Dura Vermeer's LMRA (Last Minute Risk Analysis). This is a tool where, before you start work, you ask yourself critical questions. For example:
- Do I know what to do, where, when and how?
- Do I have the right (approved) resources?
- Do I have the right personal protective equipment for this work?
- Is the working environment safe for myself, the surroundings and third parties?
Set the right example
Nothing is more important than manager who is pontifically behind safety measures. If he cannot explain certain safety measures, why should employees take it seriously? Set the right example, show up on the shop floor regularly and keep the topic of Safety under the spotlight!
Success!
