Hi All,

I need to make everyone in my company know they have the full support of the company when it comes to stopping any unsafe work (i am only new into the place and we are looking to improve the culture).

An issue arose where people were working at height within a factory without the correct controls in place and this was seen by someone who took a couple of pictures and eamiled them to the safety officer who was hundreds of miles away and did not even reported it to the supervisor.

It is a positive they did this but obviously i want them to address any unsafe issues at the time before going into reporting.

Has anyone any good positive messages, alerts posters etc which they could point me to on this - or any ideas.

Thanks in advance

Roy

Hi JohnW,

Thanks for your response,  but it is not the work at height aspect this post is about as we have dealt with this but the promotion of how we make our staff feel confident and supported to stop unsafe acts. Not just the direct supervisors but all staff.

Thanks

Edited by user 16 June 2017 15:10:28(UTC)  | Reason: added pledge text draft

There has been a lot of stuff about the influence of managers on the Health and Safety culture in an organisation from people like Tim Marsh. Essentially it boils down to managers actually managing taking the lead at all times.

The manager must demonstrate that they take H&S seriously, not just after an accident but consistently. In that way the message gets back to staff that if they see something that is iffy in H&S terms they can go
to their manager and tell them about it with the expectation that something will be done about it.

Keep plugging the message and keep reassuring everyone that they will be supported if they stop work that they think is dangerous.  Changing the culture is a long slow process and you can't force it, it is a a process of evolution not revolution.  My advice (and I'm working on the same issues myself in my new role) is to be consistent with everybody whether your own employees or contractors.  Where contractors are concerned get tough over RAMS,  if your people are aware that you are delaying or stopping works because the RAMs aren't adequate and if they see you monitoring and spot checking on the work then they will steadily start to feel more confident about speaking up themselves.  I sort of like Stuart's idea of a the Worker's Charter but I would keep it much shorter and simpler, just 3 to 5 key points and no more. 

if you look at the doc I posted and put into word, you will find there is nothing big or difficult about it. I sat down with groups of 4-5 and went through it with them and the maintenance person, whilst also issuing defect books per item of plant. it fits on a page with formatting, and was though about for a while.

in some respects, i agree with the focus on 3-5 things, however I tried to do some sort of what good looks like (or bad looks like then countering it). - easier to list.   

We had to go through the issues we felt needed addressing and at the same session, used the dvsa "check it out video" (older one than one on youtube), but you get the message, to ensure that people look at their equipment and treat as "their own". they got the original, and we kept a copy. (both can refer back to afterwards)

it was a process that took a while to get through, however it was needed as we were in a waste site and were unhappy with a lack of ownership of machines used by people and "forgotten about/ignored". 

within what we were doing, we were trying to set some form of "school rules" so that everyone knew where they were, and there were issues with follow up, when others did use things or leave in a lesser state than would have been wanted, leading to some disciplinaries where rule for me vs rule for them. 

all that said, it provided a line in the sand where everyone knew they were on notice that safety was being taken seriously, and would be acted upon. 

apparently, the point when people realised it was seriously was when I frogmarched a customer to our weighbridge to get a hard hat with associated "chat", however i asked him "how come all these people can do it but you can't be arsed? you are disrespecting the policies and procedures that they all have to adhere to and it's not acceptable". He wasn't happy at all, however I think it marked a point of support to our people that they aren't just being asked to do it for them, and as such they knew it mattered. 

I don't want to suggest you engineer a similar event, however I would say that the seeing to be policing is important, as it gives permission to the staff to do to each other and support the positive culture.

if it's not getting better, it will be getting worse, so you need to keep the pressure on and visibility, questioning, and showing it's important. 

The same will apply to important visitors. some may need respectful but firm assurance that they will be following the same rules as the staff, and anyone walking around with you will also be observed, so have a stash of kit ready so that they get to know "it's not worth the headache to me of you not wearing and do what I ask them to do when you are here.

You will be criticised for any deviations from the rules, far more harshly than anyone else, and as such it will be brough up on a continual basis to slap you in the face for years to follow, so make sure you follow own rules.

a spreadsheet of kit also helped to enable filing of relevant "stuff" per piece of equipment inc photos in a folder and reports/info/risk assessments etc. it is a system approach you need to think about as multiple attack vectors you can try/prod with to nudge people in the direction you want them to go.

we also put all supervisors and managers on IOSH Managing Safely - 4 day course, a real way of getting them to think and talk through (with people from other organisations) their thoughts on health and safety, and why it was being done.

I think this was a significant trigger too in pushing the message through the organisation and bringing ownership to more of the workforce. 

good luck. 

Edited by user 30 June 2017 11:41:25(UTC)  | Reason: added iosh managing safely reference