Health & Safety Goals For High-Performing Programs

It’s the beginning of the year, and many companies are busy setting their ambitious 2023 goals.?For some, they have the privilege of presiding over a high-performance health and safety program.?Maybe you’ve gone an entire year without a recordable injury or illness, maybe your employee involvement initiatives have never been better, maybe you have enough systems in place successfully plan all work safely…and it seems to be working!?That’s great, congrats (message me your secrets)!?If you are in that position, you know that setting goals for the new year can sometimes be difficult.?We always want to strive for continuous improvement and implement policies/procedures/technologies/etc that provide a safer workplace.?But can you improve on zero injuries or illnesses??Does “keep doing what we are doing” send the right message??One trap a leadership team may find themselves in is striving for “zero risk.”?

Unfortunately, zero risk is not a realistic goal for a business when it comes to health and safety. There is always going to be some level of risk, and it is not possible to completely eliminate all hazards. Zero risk would imply that no incidents CAN occur, which is not possible. ?Incidents can happen even in the most well-managed workplaces, due to factors such as human error, equipment malfunction, or unexpected events. Sometimes we have the ability to control and influence these hazards and sometimes not.

Even if your probabilistic risk assessment says it is a “one-in-a-million” or “one-in-a-billion” chance, that one “one-time” will happen at some point.?And the first time is just as likely as the last time.?

In practice, many organizations aim for an "As Low As Reasonably Practicable" (ALARP) principle, which balances the cost of risk reduction against the benefits in terms of improved safety.?Some industries, such as aviation and nuclear power, have very strict safety standards and aim for the highest level of safety possible, but even in these industries, the goal is not to achieve zero risk but rather to minimize it as much as possible.

So are there more realistic health and safety goals for high-performance programs?

More realistic goals for a business with a high-performing health and safety program are to strive for continuous improvement and the evolving of current safety management systems. It could also mean seeking out non-traditional approaches to see what works. The general assumption here is that, with your high-performing health and safety program, you already have a basic structure in place and that you have evolved it over time with the support of your employees and management. We can probably skip the "go out and talk to your employees" speech. While practicing those basics will be the foundation and cornerstones of your program, let;s look at some other goals for your high-performing health and safety programs:

• Commit to sustainable compliance with all relevant laws, regulations, and standards regarding health and safety.?100% compliance 100% of the time is very difficult to maintain.?Look for ways to reduce the opportunities for non-compliance to occur – and that can go for both regulatory or company requirements.? This is where trending analyses from regular workplace inspections could be especially useful. If your day-to-day involves several minor compliance corrections, this could be a symptom of a larger systemic issue such as training, enforcement, available resources, or even workplace design. While the solutions may depend on what your root cause analysis says, they could overlap with some of the additional solutions below.
• Implement new technology.?If you are overseeing a high-performing program, you could look to see if there are additional technologies that could improve efficiency and streamline processes.? While "technology" is a broad topic, there are different categories and strategies to consider. There are improvements in materials and product designs. This could be found in better ergonomics for chairs/seats and other high-use products, more comfortable PPE, and even the ability to design better guards through the use of CAD and newer manufacturing processes. Then there is the technology that makes administrative work "easier". This could include using digital forms on electronic devices to reduce paper and automate processes, or developing (or purchasing) a program that will help you run better analytics on leading indicators. Last, there could be technological improvements in the instruments you work with such as better sensors or monitors that give us better feedback about hazards in the work environment such as dust levels, VOCs, harmful gases, etc. This even includes wearable technology like smartwatches that could help track heat stress or even steps! Would you have any CTD concerns with an employee that walks more than 15,000 steps per day? What about the employees that walk less than 1,000?
• Provide new safety training and education to all employees.?One thing is for sure, in 2023, there is no shortage of training and education available to employees.?Some employees may not want to sit through another 30-minute slips, trips, and falls refresher video from the 80s that they have seen ten times.?Instead, look for new subjects that can improve other skill sets or give them new information on non-traditional work subjects like sleep, nutrition, stress management, or even basic exercise.?Giving employees information on these subjects may yield indirect positive results down the line.?
• Nurture more employee participation and engagement in safety.? The best time to incorporate new people into the program is when things are going well.?Let an eager employee take over the Safety Committee.?Let a field guy set the agenda for the next safety meeting.? Ask around the office to see if anyone has a unique expertise they would like to share (maybe the office accountant is a workout fanatic and would love to talk about their CrossFit gym!) The more you remove yourself from the process, the more opportunities you may find to see where “cracks” or “potential cracks” exist.?Then you can work to bolster those areas.
• Continuously seek best practices and new management concepts.?When things are going well, it could front you the opportunity to implement pilot programs to test new practices or processes, equipment, PPE, etc.? Some may work, some may not - but take the chance.?At the end of the year, there could be quite a bit of value from reviewing failed pilot programs.?
• Establish a system for analyzing incident or observation data to identify opportunities for improvement.?Data analytics is an interesting subject in the health and safety world, with viewpoints that land on all ends of the spectrum.?No matter what your feelings about “the numbers” are, there is one thing for certain – measurable data is available in your work area in very large quantities.?This data can be turned into information to help you improve.?If you are not doing some sort of trending or analytics, you are missing a massive opportunity to learn about your workplace.? If you are already doing trending analyses, look for ways to evolve it. If you are finding particular behaviors, is there a particular antecedent that keeps popping up that creates the potential for the behavior? Is this something you can change or add to an inspection list? Could diving into the concepts of risk perception and risk tolerance be a worthwhile "new safety training" for your team? All would be good paths to explore.

Because safety is a never-ending process, it's important to have systems or thought-processes in place for monitoring and evaluating performance so that you can make necessary adjustments to continuously improve. This requires commitment from management and employees, and for it to be a key value of the business.??Don't be afraid to take some non-traditional approaches this year to improve your already high-performing program. That one step back could show you the path to two steps forward!