Why Conduct a Gap Analysis?

Why conduct a "Gap Analysis"?

To measure what is being done to improve your safety performance!

If you don't, then you will have no idea if what you have been doing has been effective.  You need to know what is working well and what is not working in order to adjust your plan!

What Gets Measured Gets Done AND What Gets Celebrated Gets Done Well

Measure what you ask the employees TO DO… that will help you eliminate the hazards and create a safe workplace.  Remember that SMART safety goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant, and Time Targeted!

The Solution Is Obvious

- OSHA Act

Provide a safe and healthful workplace Free of recognized hazards

Then shouldn't we be educating employees about hazards, looking for and correcting hazards?  Shouldn't we want employees to bring hazards to our Attention so we can fix them before someone gets hurt?  Shouldn't we want employees to report more close call or near miss?  Don't we want to find the problems so we can fix them before someone gets seriously hurt?  Shouldn't this be a Goal you want to continue to improve?

A primary goal of any safety action is to remove, reduce, or otherwise manage hazards.  It’s obvious then that the first step must be to recognize the hazard!

While it is extremely important to identify hazards in the planning stage, Hazards are not static, they change over time as environmental, equipment, human, and management factors change!  Hazard Recognition is a never ending necessity at all stages and levels in each and every task!

Increase workplace inspections to identify new or previously missed hazards, Find and fix more hazards, Train employees about hazards and JSA procedures (more than once so they remember! Find a positive way to increase reporting of near miss or close calls and investigate a near miss just as you would an OSHA recordable or lost time (in a timely manner) and then recheck that JSA you wrote to perform that task.  If that JSA is well written, employees have been well trained on the tasks, hazards, and controls to prevent accidents, and you have a close call or  near miss........then you missed something and need to address it.

• How many inspections you do and how many hazards are being found and how long it takes to get hazards corrected are leading indicators of how effective your inspection and hazard reporting programs are
• How many training sessions and how well the employees retain the information are leading indicators of how effective your training program is.  If your hazard reporting is low, but you still have close call or accidents, then perhaps you should focus training on hazards or unsafe acts
• How many hazards are found and corrected in a timely manner are leading indicators of how effective your safety program really is

Some possible Safety Goals

• Increase the number of inspections for hazards by X % over the previous year
• Increase the number of hazard reports received by X% over the previous year 
• Increase the number of close call or near miss reports received by X% over the previous year
• Investigate all hazardous events within X number of days of the occurrence

What Gets Measured Gets Done

What Gets Celebrated Gets Done Well

Author: Deborah Grow, Safety Specialist

Extensive experience in General Industry, Manufacturing, Construction, Trucking, D.O.T. Compliance, HM126 Hazardous Materials, and OSHA consultation project.  Contact Deborah if you would like to schedule a consultation visit or training

 

Be SMART

Six Rules for Motivating Employees to Participate

Focus on the POSITIVE first and let the negatives will slowly disappear!

You must have Enthusiasm to Motivate employees to follow you!

       

                                                                    BE SMART

1. The Annual Goals, Objectives & Action Plan

If you include the employees in developing SMART goals and objectives, they will be more inclined to follow you because it was partly their idea

2. People will go above and beyond expectations to be recognized for their efforts

People like to be recognized for what they do!  Don't you?  Link the recognition to what you are doing (safety activities like inspections, observations, toolbox safety talks, stepping up and taking initiative without being told to do something), not to what isn't happening.

3. Participation + Recognition=Motivation to Excel

Managers and Supervisor must motivate everyone to participate in safety activities! Enthusiasm is contagious! Leadership is the ability of a single individual, through their actions to motivate others to a higher level of achievement! Recognition motivates people to do better and to exceed your expectation.  If your Managers or Supervisors can't motivate their employees, then maybe they aren't good Leaders.

4. People don’t do what you EXPECT, they do what you INSPECT

Inspections should be done in EVERY area at least EVERY month-Identifying and correcting hazards will reduce or eliminate potential for an employee to have an injury.  If you are not finding hazards, you aren't looking very hard because they are there every single day!

5. What gets measured gets done. What gets' recognized gets done well!

If you do not measure what you are doing to meet your goals, you have no idea if what you are doing even works!  Immediate recognition gets immediate results!!

6. Don’t discipline for reporting”

Employees must be able to report hazards and close call/near miss without fear of reprisal.  If you discipline them for reporting, they will not tell you the next time and hazards will exist that could cause a more serious accident the next time.  Eventually, there will be a next time! If you Employees are encouraged to report hazards or near miss incidents, then you can investigate and reduce potential for more serious injuries But with a twist-"REPORT" and "RECOGNIZE"

Author: Deborah Grow, Safety Specialist

Private Safety Consultant, assistant Damon Fall Protection and Coordinator EHS Network ~ Kansas.  Extensive safety experience in General Industry, Construction, D.O.T. Compliance, and OSHA consultation project.  Contact Deborah if you would like to schedule a consultation

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OSHA Fines in Construction

In the Construction World

As the construction industry continues to grow, falls continue to be the leading cause of death.  Source: http://www.bls.gov

The private construction industry saw a net increase of 25 fatal work injuries after updates were added, resulting in a revised count of 899. The 2014 total was 9 percent higher than the 2013 total and represented the largest number of fatal work injuries in private construction since 2008.

January 14, 2016- OSHA has proposed penalties of $36,000. Investigators determined that two workers were installing metal roof sheets on a structural steel building when one of the workers stepped into an opening created by the removal of the adjacent metal roofing sheet and fell.

January 15, 2016-OSHA proposed penalties $65,000.  OSHA also found employees exposed to fall hazards because ladder ways and platforms lacked guard railings.

Falls are the leading cause of death in the construction industry, with 337 deaths reported in 2014, up from 291 in 2013 and 279 in 2012, according to OSHA.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped Phoenix-based Design Plastering Inc. and Design Plastering West LLC with a $407,400 fine for the death of one of its construction workers in Dallas.

"It is heartbreaking that it takes a fine of over $400,000 to get the attention of an employer, rather than the employer seeing that these workers' lives are much more important than finishing the job quickly," he said. Today, OSHA issued eight "egregious willful" and four "serious" citations against the Phoenix company.  "We issued citations for every one of those workers," Michaels said. "Each one of them was put in this situation where they could have been killed. One was killed."

Summary of Penalties for Inspection Number                      1063007

Citation 1, Serious                                                                          $15,400.00

Citation 2, Willful                                                                           $392,000.00

TOTAL PROPOSED PENALTIES                                               $407,400.00

In the General Industry World

Feb. 1, 2016-OSHA prioritizes general industry inspections using the most recent BLS "Days Away, Restricted or transferred" rates and its "Days Away From Work Injury and Illness" rates. Hazards related to lifting and other ergonomic stressors will also be evaluated.

The emphasis program focuses on manufacturing industries where injury and illness rates exceed the average for the private sector. Included are manufacturers of the following products: food, furniture, fabricated metal, nonmetallic mineral, machinery, and computer products as well as printing and related support activities.