OSHA Safety Compliance Starts at Home!

SAFETY IS WHERE THE HOME IS!

OSHA safety rules apply to all employers in all industries and presumably you’re doing everything possible to keep your employees safe to comply with OSHA at the work place. We are all too familiar with The National Safety Council’s statistics on employee accidents on the job resulting in death and disability – costing employers more than $150 Billion a year, BUT …

Did you know that The National Safety Council reports that more workers lose their lives off the job than on the job by a staggering ratio of nearly 9:1? It’s true, BUT the most troubling statistic we’ve seen is that over 7,000 children die accidentally each year!

Knowing about a hazard doesn’t do anyone much good if they’re not thinking about it in the first place. We all know that keeping our minds and eyes on task is important whether we are operating heavy equipment or driving a car. To drive your organization’s rate of personal injury and human error down, you must first understand then address the root causes behind the mistakes and errors. Telling employees to “be careful” or, “pay more attention” or, simply posting safety notices is not enough. They need tools that will teach them how to keep safety in mind when they really need to.

There are only four states of mind that can cause or contribute to four critical errors. These four states are:

•  Rushing
• Frustration
• Fatigue
• Complacency

As a result of one or more of these mind sets, one or more of the following errors will occur:

• Eyes not on task
• Mind not on task
• Caught in the Line-of-fire
• Loss of balance/traction/grip

Of course, there are no absolutes as there are always the unexpected sources that can cause or contribute to accidental injury or death, but these “unexpected sources” beyond our control such as (1) someone else’s behavior; or, (2) equipment failure account for only 5-15% of injury incidents. The remaining 85-95% of all accidental injuries and deaths are directly attributable to our own actions due to one or more four mind sets mentioned above that lead to one or more errors occurring and ultimately resulting in an accidental injury or death.

Many safety programs provide information about hazards or awareness of hazards or dangerous situations – usually relating to specific workplace scenarios. We are committed to reducing off the job injuries and accidental deaths as much as we are toward reducing them on the job. We teach employees to recognize the state to error patterns that (greatly) increase their risk of injury and, we give them four critical error reduction techniques they can use to develop the safety skills and habits to keep them safe at work, at home and on the road.

By making people aware of the state to error risk pattern that increases the risk of injury and, providing them with skills or techniques to reduce these errors, they can begin to reduce their risk of injury and accidental death.

Also, and more importantly given the statistics, teaching employee family members on how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe at home is where a successful employee worksite safety program should begin! There is no stronger motivation for an employee to think safety first than to show them you care about the safety of themselves and their family at home as much as do their own safety at work.

For more information on OSHA compliance and how to engage, educate and train your employees on how to be safe at work and at home, visit http://www.strictlyhr.com or call 330-575-2029.