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Introduction The Construction Mentoring Program is designed for new hire associates to allow them a safer working environment. We have found that new hire associates have one of the highest incident rates. Our records show that 41% of our recorded incidents occurred within the first year of employment. Of the 41% of accidents/injuries within the first year of employment, 1/2 of those were within the first three months of employment; 24% of these occurred within the first month of employment. Of the 41% of accidents/injuries within the first year of employment, 83% were due to unsafe acts. Of the total accidents/injuries documented, the number of accidents declines significantly (6% or less in each year) by the third year of employment. With this data we decided to implement our new hire-mentoring program. The Mentoring Program This program consists of specialized training and mentoring for the newly hired associates for the first three months of their employment. The associates training will start during their first day on the job. Before the associate is allowed to step foot onto a construction site they are required to attend a six hour in-house new hire training program. This program reviews all aspects of the job and provides them with a wealth of knowledge before they begin their career as a roofer. The object of the standardized safety training is to provide the associates with all the information needed to work safely and insure that the associates understand the safety requirements. This training also meets the Federal and State requirements for safety training. The safety-training program consists of the following:Watching our custom made orientation video Reading through the company safety manual Fire extinguisher video Fall protection Hazard Communication Personal Protective Equipment Mechanical Equipment Safety Electrical Equipment Safety Ladder Safety With each of these training areas each has the following elements:Discussion Demonstration Practice Explanation Questions and Answers Exam Depending on the training site they may receive additional training on the Hoist and Power Industrial Truck. Implementation The company uses color-coded vests or color-coded personal protection equipment to designate new hire associates. The lime vests are assigned to the new hires after they complete their standardized safety training and are worn until they reach a month of experience, which equates 160 hours or less. The associates are then required to wear an orange vest for two to three months of experience, which equates to 161 to 480 hours. Wearing the vest for the new hires is a full time requirement. The new hires wearing the vest will assist their safety mentor, team leader and their fellow associates in helping them to learn safe work habits. The new hires will also be able to understand who else on the site is a new hire associate so they do not seek advice from another trainee.
- Education (1.00)
- Health & Medicine > Consumer Health (0.35)
Introduction As safety professionals, we strive to implement a robust safety process in our organizations to maximize worker protection. We sell our philosophy and ideas to senior management, and then work with line management and the work force to develop and implement the safety process. Through this effort, we are likely to accomplish two major objectives. First, we obtain buy-in from line management and the workers, maybe even ownership for the safety process we implement. Second, we increase the likelihood that the hazards (and necessary controls) associated with the work activities performed by our workforce are identified and addressed by the safety process we implement. Our ambition is to maximize safety and health in the work place, and prevent injuries. Realizing this goal improves overall business operations. Petersen suggested an accident is an indication of something wrong in the management system (Petersen, pg 15). Successful organizations operate with the safety process fully integrated into the management system. If the management system fails, the safety process has failed the worker. As safety professionals, we must ask ourselves whether we did our job adequately whenever the system fails. The better organizations strive for continuous improvement. As the safety expert, we need to foster the concept of continuous improvement of the safety process. The overall success of safety processes, in terms of accident and injury prevention, has improved since safety professionals have learned to involve line management and the workers in the process. Although we maintain the label of "safety expert," our role has shifted somewhat to that of a "facilitator" in the process. The role of the safety professional is to advise and counsel line management (Kohn & Ferry, pg 28). Line management owns safety! If you subscribe to this philosophy, our role of advisor to line management makes perfect sense. Most safety professionals no longer operate as the "safety cop." That role belongs to line management. Instead, our role falls into the category of "oversight" or facilitator. We observe systems, processes and work activities, and then convey our findings and observations to line management. We advise them with regard to what they need to do, and then we help them find workable methods to implement those solutions. Line management owns the responsibility to implement the process and to monitor safety on a daily basis. Safety professionals advocate safety and facilitate process implementation. We audit implementation of corporate policy at the operational level. We help line management meet their responsibilities with regard to safety. Maximizing safety performance is achieved by maximizing the safety process. Robust safety processes serve as the model and are earmarked by vigorous support of both labor and management. Where a robust safety process exists, the safety professional enjoys interest and support on the part of management and workers. People are motivated to achieve success and willingly accept their roles and responsibilities. Work activities are appropriately planned. Hazards are identified and controlled to safeguard the worker. Work tasks are well defined and workers stay within the authorized scope of work.
- Law Enforcement & Public Safety (1.00)
- Law (1.00)
- Health & Medicine > Consumer Health (0.48)
No Silver Bullet
Wendland, Bryce (Square D Company, Schneider Electric, LTD Lincoln) | Lander, Lina (College of Public Health University of Nebraska Medical Center) | Stentz, Terry L. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and College of Public Health University of Nebraska Medical Center) | Spanjer, Kathleen J. (Square D Company, Schneider Electric, LTD) | Herstein, Kelli R. (College of Engineering University of Nebraska)
Introduction Despite increasing efforts by U.S. industries to prevent occupational injuries and illnesses, incidence rates remain high. The incidence rate for non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses was 5.2 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers in electrical equipment manufacturing (SIC 3825) versus 4.6 cases in private industry (BLS, 2005). The investigation of severe injuries and fatalities may provide only limited insight into effective and efficient prevention strategies for less severe and more numerous minor injuries and illnesses, and may also encourage under-reporting of safety infractions. An investigation into one electrical manufacturing facility's implementation of near-miss (NM) reporting yielded not only reductions in incidence rates and workers compensation costs, but an increase in NM incidents and productivity. Changes in incident/accident reporting, data analysis, and plant safety culture were found to be effective solutions with measurable positive outcomes. Objectives In 2003, the newly named Chief Executive Officer defined safety as the company's primary objective. To reach this goal, two secondary objectives had to be met.Describe the incidence of NM, minor, and OSHA recordable injuries over time and to evaluate any differences among the three event types by comparing respective risk factors. Evaluate the utility of a NM reporting system by estimating its impact on the annual incidence of minor injuries and OSHA recordable injuries. Methods Executive leadership at the corporate level determined that if the plant were to be successful, a culture of safety must emerge. This new culture evolved into one that is energized by working safely, set aggressive goals to reduce recordable incident rates, and drives out waste and inefficiency caused by injuries. The following "Safety Mandates" emerged from this corporate-wide initiative:Safety is everyone's responsibility. All injuries and occupational illnesses can be prevented. Management has a responsibility to train all employees to work safely. Working safely is a condition of employment. Preventing safety incidents and injuries contributes to business success. A year after the safety movement began, the plant brought on a new Safety, Health and Environmental team. The goal for this team was to continue progress toward the culture that values safety as a core part of the business. To achieve this goal the team used a three step approach: educate, empower and excite. Educate Management's commitment to provide a safe workplace must provide continuous training in safe work practices to all employees (team members). Formal training sessions keep employees current on new and existing safety methods and material covered is then enforced by supervision. Employees have been taught to pay close attention to close calls and small errors at work and home that could lead to larger errors. Team members are considered "athletes" and are provided with an industrial nurse, trigger point therapist, health fair, wellness committee, and wellness/fitness center which all serve to educate team members on the benefits of personal health and wellness. Supervisors and managers are given safety observation training to teach them to observe team members and give them feedback on safe behavior and unsafe behavior.
- Research Report > Experimental Study (1.00)
- Research Report > New Finding (0.71)
Introduction This paper is not intended to reflect the presentation put on at the San Antonio Safety 2009 ASSE PDC because the presentation was an audio visual experience with copyrighted photography. However, the message at the conclusion of the presentation is provided in full and exemplifies a critical and well-conceived message propitious for all safety and health professionals. The presentation was intended to speak to our colleagues about the work we do at an emotional level, but also to demonstrate how telling stories is an important method of communicating to the non-safety community who need to hear our message about the importance of safety. The end result being that we wish all workers return home safe at the end of each work day, having gone to work in good faith that management would be looking out for their best interests as valued and productive contributors to the enterprise they operate (many of which are in business to make a profit). This paper reflects the background of the project and highlights of the material. It also speaks to the need for our profession to look at refreshing ways of communicating within our profession, within our companies, and publicly throughout our communities. How It All Started As a Practice Specialty Newsletter Editor, I'm often striking up conversations with folks that might result in a good article. So in 2007 when I first took on this obligation and was attending a CIH Review course with Emeritus Professor of Industrial Health at the University of Michigan, Steven Levine, PhD, CIH, I asked him for an article, knowing that he'd written many when he was President of AIHA. After he sent me seven articles to read and to choose from, I had a positive emotional reaction to the personal nature of many of his articles, which resulted in an insight. The basis of that insight was the power of telling stories in a way that jumps generations, social strata, educational levels, and hopefully would translate into the board room. As the Newsletter Editor for RM/I, I chose "Joe's Story." I hope you had a chance to read it and, if not, let me know and I'll send you a copy, gratis from ASSE and the RM/I. If it grabs you and you are in Loss Control or Risk Management, please consider joining our Practice Specialty. Steve and I continued communicating and he expressed a desire to come to Hawaii to participate in the Governor's Pacific Rim Safety and Health Conference in 2008. So we (I was a board member of the local Hawaii AIHA Section at the time and there were several of us who worked on getting him here) began hatching ideas to get him to Honolulu. Having been past Chair of the Governor's conference I was aware that they would need a program for the memorial breakfast session that is done at every conference, so I proposed to the steering committee that I be assigned to take care of it.
- Health & Medicine > Health Care Providers & Services (0.36)
- Media > Photography (0.34)
- Health, Safety, Environment & Sustainability > Health (0.93)
- Management > Professionalism, Training, and Education (0.88)
- Health, Safety, Environment & Sustainability > Safety > Safety risk management (0.46)
- Health, Safety, Environment & Sustainability > HSSE & Social Responsibility Management > HSSE management systems (0.46)
Introduction An influenza pandemic occurs when a new strain of influenza virus to which humans have little or no immunity is introduced to the global population. The disease spreads around the globe in recurring waves and infects healthy people just as readily, or even more so, than others. In contrast to seasonal influenza, in which young and old people and those with pre-existing medical conditions are more likely to have complications and a poor outcome, during in a pandemic these characteristics may reverse. The Centers for Disease Control developed a modeling tool known as the Pandemic Severity Index (PSI), to help plan for pandemics and drive prevention and preparedness activities. As with hurricanes, the PSI rates pandemics from 1 to 5, most mild to most severe, based on the anticipated case fatality ratio (CFR). The 1918 Pandemic is a category 5 on the scale, with a CFR equal to or greater than 2%. At current U.S. population levels, that equates to nearly 2 million deaths. Add to that number an expected illness rate of 30% of the population over the course of 12–24 months and the impact on our society begins to become clear. The medical system alone, which typically operates at 95% of capacity within the U.S., would be overwhelmed in a very short time. Add to that the estimated 40% (to include those infected, those not infect but worried they might be, those afraid to become infected, and care givers) absentee rate and imagine the impact on societies and critical infrastructure around the world. The second and third order effects could easily cascade into complete paralysis of modern social structures. The 1918 PI outbreak had a detrimental effect on the U.S. military's ability to prosecute World War I. More troops died as a result of the disease than died of combat-related injuries. One of the lessons learned from the 1918 Pandemic was that the Army Staff's failure to act on advice from the Army Surgeon General had devastating effects. Spread of the disease was increased in troops due to close quarters and transit time from Continental United States (CONUS) to the European Continent. In the face of a future pandemic, advance planning will establish lines of authority, support and coordination to provide for the protection and continuing operability of the force. In March 2006, the United States Navy was tasked with developing a pandemic influenza instruction or plan. In addition, each military service was ordered to develop a pandemic influenza plan and all of these pandemic plans were to be synchronized. Working in concert, the different military services developed an installation-based pandemic influenza template and required every installation to develop a pandemic influenza plan using the template. The rationale being that if an influenza pandemic occurred, in order for the Department of Defense to mitigate the effects, it would be necessary for all the military services to work together. The Navy's PI instruction is separated into six sections: Purpose, Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration and Logistics, and Command and Control.
Introduction One is often concerned about where the next opportunity for advancement may come from. It may be available within the organizational units of your current employer. It may become available by competing for positions with a different employer. It may come by invitation because you have developed yourself and demonstrated an appropriate level of knowledge, skills and experience. It may come through a planned process or through an opportunity that simply arises. The question is whether you are keeping up with change, have a strategy for your own development, and continue to work to improve yourself. The purpose of this session is to address three aspects of career advancement. They include understanding and tracking trends and changes in or surrounding practice, establishing a process for keeping current and preparing for advancement, and understanding some of the factors that may affect advancement. Trends Affecting Practice There are two main groups of changes or trends that impact one's practice. One group involves changes in the contents of practice itself. Those changes may impact all positions in the field of practice or impact different levels within the practice. The second group involves changes in things surrounding practice and impact the way one practices. Both are important in being able to stay current and to advance in practice. Trends within Practice Convergence of Safety, Health and Environment. In the past, those involved in the safety profession worked in a narrow domain. Safety professionals focused on safety; industrial hygienists on health matters; and environmental practitioners on environmental affairs. All of these areas of practice continue to converge. Many employers have combined them into a single department. For smaller companies these roles are combined into a single, full-time position. The convergence is worldwide. BCSP data supports this trend. A recent survey established that only 13% of all CSPs work in safety only. Nearly 45% have responsibility for safety and industrial hygiene. Over 40% have responsibility for safety, health and environment. Broadening Range of Responsibilities. One of the unique characteristics of safety practice compared to many other fields is the breadth of knowledge that one must have in order to handle the range of responsibilities. The range of responsibilities involved in safety practice continues to grow. One should note, however, that the distribution of time spent among those responsibilities can different significantly. The table below shows a composite of practice based on data from people holding the CSP. The table lists the portion who hold a particular responsibility and also the portion of time spent on each responsibility. (Table in full paper) Pushing Safety Deeper Into the Organization. Another trend involves moving safety deeper into the organization, particularly into work groups. The trend involves training work group leaders in safety matters and procedures and getting the work group to identify safety issues and hazards and initiating action to resolve them. This is in contrast to forwarding any safety problem to the safety department.
Introduction During his 39-year railroad career the author worked with employees, front line supervisors, managers, executives, regulatory authorities and suppliers to establish processes and practices that were designed to help the organization achieve safety performance, production and cost-control goals. Organizations can achieve their performance goals when leaders, managers and employees have committed to establishing processes that are clearly defined and where roles and expectations of team members are clearly understood. It is equally important that organizations have established methods for monitoring progress toward achievable goals through a system of performance evaluation and feedback. The new ANSI/ASSE Fall Protection Code provides a model that will assist your organization in establishing an effective managed fall protection program. By providing an outline of required activities the new code will guide your organization toward an effective process for reducing or eliminating fall hazards. The newly revised ANSI/ASSE Fall Protection Code is comprised of a set of standards that include; Definitions (Z-359.0), Safety Requirements for Subsystems and Components of Personal Fall Arrest Systems (Z-359.1), Minimum Requirements for a Comprehensive Managed Fall Protection Program (Z359.2), Positioning and Travel Restraint Systems (Z-359.3), Assisted Rescue and Self Rescue Systems (Z-359.4). The topic of this paper will be the new standard Z-359.2, which establishes the minimum guidelines for a fall protection program. Z-359.2 focuses on policies, duties and training, fall protection procedures, hazard survey, eliminating and controlling fall hazards including requirements for fall protection systems, design considerations for new buildings and facilities, rescue procedures, incident investigations and evaluation of program effectiveness. Every employer who has workers exposed to fall hazards should be able to answer the following questions:Do you have policies in place that require the use of fall protection? Have all of your fall hazards been identified? Have all of your employees been trained in the use of these systems? Who is responsible to see that the equipment and systems are inspected and are safe? Who is responsible for rescue should an employee fall? Who is responsible for maintaining equipment? Do you have a program administrator or assigned responsibilities for trainers and others involved in administering your fall protection program? This paper will focus on assisting your organization in understanding the general requirements of the ANSI/ASSE Fall Protection Code and in developing a process and plan for administering a comprehensive fall protection program. The principles and processes discussed are applicable to all levels of the organization from the senior managers, program administrators, trainers and end users. This paper does not propose to describe in detail all aspects of the new standard but should be viewed as a synopsis of the ANSI/ASSE Z359 Fall Protection Code. The Scope and Purpose of the Z-359.2-2007 Standard The standard is entitled, "Minimum Requirements for a Comprehensive Fall Protection Program." It applies to occupational and non-occupational activities except for construction and is intended for the use of organizations where employees are exposed to fall hazards.
- Education (0.68)
- Law (0.48)
- Government (0.48)
Introduction There are numerous tangible and intangible "organizational barriers" that can have a significant impact on safety and heath performance. These barriers in some instances cannot be eliminated; however, ways of addressing them at the very least need to be employed if an organization desires to attain and sustain safety and health performance excellence. These "organizational barriers" and the successful ways of dealing with them will be discussed in this paper. Safety Management " Truths " Before we begin discussing the "organizational barriers" to safety excellence, some grounding with respect to fundamental safety management truths is necessary. The first truth is that Safety Management isn't about preventing accidents; it is really about management learning how to better manage. Organizations that desire to attain excellence in safety and health need to understand that employees don't come to work with the intention of getting hurt or killed. They get hurt for two reasons. First, management didn't properly influence their behavior. Second, management didn't provide a safe work environment. The bottom line is that management is obligated to protect their workers because in many cases they won't protect themselves! Many workers are willing to trade-off their personal safety everyday for a paycheck unless management steps up and intervenes in the behaviors that lead to most incidents and takes the steps necessary to provide a safe work environment. Along, those lines, without proper role delineation and execution, safety and health performance can be managed…but never maximized. But, before management decides to step up, they must first understand their roles and how to execute their roles effectively. Effective management behaviors and actions…will ultimately produce desired employee behaviors in safety. Another safety management truth is that management and supervision at all levels must be held to a high standard for safety excellence to be realized. The correct behaviors won't be exhibited naturally. They must be learned and practiced. Along with this, it must be considered that strong incentives and disincentives will be needed to guide managers and supervisors safety management behaviors and outcomes! Another safety management truth is that productivity, quality and financial return can never be maximized without first achieving safety performance excellence in any organization. The real bottom line is that worker safety and health is not an economic issue…it's really an ethics issue! Finally, the last safety management truth is that organizations that attain safety performance excellence look much deeper than what appears on the surface. Organizations that continue to struggle with effectively managing safety performance need to look well beyond the typical safety issues confronting them every day. When they do, the answers will be more than obvious. The "Organizational Barriers"…Preventing Safety Performance Excellence Organizational barriers that often prevent excellence in safety performance fall into several different categories. Individually and collectively, they can prevent an organization from attaining excellence and also derail those performing well. The following will highlight these barriers: Production Output Barriers Production output barriers are varied in their ability to promote individual and organizational risk taking.
Introduction Surging medical costs, expensive lawsuits, over-treatment, and long lost-time injuries have helped push national spending on workers' compensation claims from $2.1 billion to over $60 billion annually according to the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI, 2002). In addition, The National Academy of Social Insurance reported that workers compensation benefits started growing faster than wages in 1992. Furthermore with the increase in the aging workforce and length of recovery time for older workers, many companies as a means of reducing disability costs have realized that benefits, human resources, as well as claims adjusters are not enough to impact lost time cases. As a result, more organizations are beginning to re-examine their efforts in controlling disability costs and are realizing that the most effective way to control the costs and loss of productivity is to interact with Safety and Health to change and impact the organization's culture. Traditional Role of Safety in Return-to-Work Traditionally safety professionals have been marginally involved in the return-to-work process in most companies. Why? Safety and health is typically viewed as looking for preventative measures to decrease the frequency of injuries—not the severity. Most safety and health professionals focus on planning and implementing safety policies and procedures, establishing measurable goals for the achievement of safety, plan and implement programs to training managers and employees, conduct and coordinate inspections and audits to mention a few. Figure 1 summarizes the key tasks of safety professionals within most organizations. (Figure in full paper) Return-to-Work Programs Returning an injured person to work is difficult following an extended period away from work. Hall & Kaleta (2005) found that there was a 50% chance of an employee returning to work from a work-related injury or illness when they have been off of work for at least six months. They also found that the chances decrease to 25% following a year and then 2% when they have been off of work 2 or more years. Therefore early intervention strategies should be determined to help return employees to work. According to the Integrated Benefits Institute (2004), an effective return-to-work program can reduce a company's disability costs anywhere from 20 to 40%. An effective RTW program focuses on returning a worker to employment as soon as possible after an injury or illness and allows them to be a successful part of the company. By returning an injured employee to work, Curtis and Scott (2004) found that the mental state of the injured employee improved. What is an effective return-to-work program? According to Bose (2008), the key elements of an effective return-to-work program are:Corporate Commitment This element is focused on the company and the role that they play in return-to-work. A company should have established policies and procedures that look at not only the aspects of returning an injured employee to work, but also sets up a process to minimize disabling injuries. Some of the corporate elements are:–Accident prevention –Safety program –Review of workplace design process (Ergonomics) –Claims management –Employee Assistance Program
- Health & Medicine (1.00)
- Banking & Finance > Insurance (0.88)
Introduction This paper will focus on the value of internships for businesses, students and the safety, health and environmental (SH&E) profession. It will consist of two major parts. The first part will include an overview of what studies of SH&E internships have shown us about internships—the advantages, issues, and problems. The second part will be a case study of LyondellBasells' intern program, which will give a good overview of internships from one company's perspective and provide practical ideas on how to set up an internship program. The emphasis is to summarize how interns can assist companies in improving their SH&E programs and how companies can get the most out of their interns. We hope to get readers who have never had a SH&E intern to seriously consider hosting one, and for readers who have existing programs, to provide information that would improve their program and make the internship experience more useful for companies and students In summary, this presentation will assist someone who is thinking about hosting an intern, and for those companies who already have interns it will give ideas about how to improve what they are now doing. It also addresses the society's concerns of getting more students to enroll and graduate from occupational and health academic programs and to improve academic preparation of future SH&E professionals. Advantages of Internships Advantages of Internships for Students In academic terms an internship is considered a type of "experiential learning." This is learning that occurs from actually doing something rather than just listening or reading or observing. While there is certainly a place for listening, reading and observing, actually doing and experiencing first-hand has no replacement. This is why an internship, where a student basically spends at least three months working 40 hours a week, is frequently eye-opening for students. A properly structured internship allows students to:Apply classroom learning to real-world situations. It makes the classroom material become real and applied instead of just information. Explore personal and career interests & goals. Is this profession what I really want to do? Is the construction industry really for me? Experience different work cultures. Learn how to get things done in different cultures such as in a union shop. Understand the scope of responsibilities, role and duties of the SH&E professional. Learn how to function as part of a multi-disciplinary team. How to work with other SH&E professionals as well as human resources, engineering, management and others. Learn and practice work skills. Even though they may have studied and even wrote a draft safety plan of some type, to write a safety plan in a company that will actually be used is a totally different thing. This experience is invaluable. Enhance job prospects after graduation. The more real-world experience a graduate has the more employable they are. Make money during the internship. It is standard practice in the SH&E field to pay interns for their time and the students usually need the money.
- Education (0.88)
- Materials > Chemicals > Commodity Chemicals > Petrochemicals (0.36)
- Energy > Oil & Gas > Downstream (0.36)