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#1 Posted : 23 May 2006 15:08:00(UTC)
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Posted By Andy Petrie My company is considering the idea of asking people to include at least one safety related objective in their annual PDR objectives. The idea would be to make this voluntary at first, but with a view to making it compulsory. There would be a range of suggested objectives from minor personal issues to things that would have impacts at a corporate scale. Has anyone any experience of doing this sort of thing? did it work? how did the staff take it? etc. Also, any suggestions as to what the objectives could be would be welcome. Thanks in advance, Andy
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#2 Posted : 23 May 2006 15:27:00(UTC)
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Posted By Merv Newman Yes ! I struggle scntinually to get safety responsabilities included in job descriptions or "mission statements". It is even harder to get evaluations partly based on H&S objectives. First, the 'orrible warning ; do not include statistics among the criteria. Leads to all sorts of problems. eg : one of your people gets hurt while visiting another department. Who gets penalised, you or the other department head ? Look for criteria which help employees to develop into a good safety culture. How many of your people attend safety trainiing, participate in other H&S activities, display safe behaviours ..... Was it Neil Budworth who wrote the definitive paper on positive safety measurements ? It's been sooo long. We have run safety "competitions" based on positive criteria. eg : each person of the workgroup who goes to a training programme wins 5 points for the workgroup. If the 1st line supervisor also goes, the group gets another 10 points. If the N+1 manager goes, all of their groups amass 20 points. When each group had, say, 1 000 points, then they won prizes. The programmes usually run for 12 months. I have known some groups who got there three times in 12 months. One or two never made it. A lot depends on the enthusiasm of local supervision and management. Elements of such a system could, I think, be adapted to supply a number of measureable objectives for an annual appraisal system. Merv
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#3 Posted : 23 May 2006 16:06:00(UTC)
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Posted By Rakesh Maharaj Hi Andy, I am currently working with a UK electricity generation company to integrate SMART SHE objectives with their business/operational objectives which are reflected within their PDRs. I agree with Merv's point - this can be a tiresome task, however, in theory and practice -it need not be so onerous. If your management system is developed in accordance with the current state of play (bus. strategic/tactical/organisation and operations) and responsibilities for line management upwards are documented, then these responsibilities should be fit for purpose. However, if your management system is entirely divorced from the day-to-day activities then clearly this presents a shortcoming which is not so easy to resolve. If the latter is more recognisable than the former, I suggest that those who volunteer to include a H&S objective in their PDR should be firstly applauded and secondly aided in some way. One of the techniques that I am using to overcome poorly designed responsibility metrics is to implement a very simple 360degree analysis by posing a simple question to all those that the individuals actions could impact upon in the workplace by asking a simple question. "What do expect me to deliver in terms of H&S/operational/quality/resource to make your job safer and more efficient?" This would then generate a list of objectives and the individual could adopt the objective of choice provided that it is specific etc etc... As I mentioned, this rather simple tool can be quite effective as those affected have suggested the change/objective (bottom up) - as opposed to the more traditional (resistance building) top down change management approaches. I hope this helps. Regards Rakesh
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#4 Posted : 23 May 2006 18:53:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ciaran McAleenan Dear All I don't know why you would bother. There is only one objective that we all share; "...to carry out our business in a manner that will not cause harm..." Surely competent managers and workers exercise their authority and carry out their duties in a manner that doesn't harm themselves, their staff/ colleagues or others that may be affected by their work. If not... What is more important is to help them to develop the tools that will allow them to do that. To develop operational safety controls, derived from the OAC principle will give your organisation a worker driven/ management lead solution which should significantly reduce and eventually eliminate accidents in the workplace. If you do this then you need not enter the realms of KPI game play. Best wishes Ciaran
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#5 Posted : 23 May 2006 20:45:00(UTC)
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Posted By Merv Newman Ciaran, "...to carry out our business in a manner that will not cause harm..." Yes of course. But as you know better than I, managers need practical, clear, understandable ideas, methods, measures and motivational tools to enable them to move forward. It is our job to find ways of helping them to do that. Avoiding jargon and quoting the legislation will help us to "get the message over" to our managers, supervisors and employees. WE may need to know the underlying psychological basis of unsafe behaviour but our managers may not have that same level of need. I think the original question was asking "are there practical measures which will help towards career development ? or "How can one measure the H&S results/commitment/etc of a manager/supervisor/employee". But then, maybe, I'm just waffling. Merv
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#6 Posted : 23 May 2006 21:48:00(UTC)
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Posted By Rakesh Maharaj Hi Guyz, 3 different contributors saying the same thing in 3 different ways... How often do we encounter this phenomenon in our profession!! Well done! The basic principles of all 3 arguments are exactly the same. Perhaps its the MEANS and NOT the end that we need to reach concensus on! I am personally a great supporter of any tool as long as it is fit for purpose... ..../Discuss
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#7 Posted : 24 May 2006 15:28:00(UTC)
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Posted By Margaret Stokes Information on http://www.consultnet.ie...rmance%20Measurement.htm may help generate some ideas. I have used performance targets for frontline supervisors and middle management on tool-box talks and planned inspections with some success. Regards Margaret
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#8 Posted : 25 May 2006 13:53:00(UTC)
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Posted By garyh What does PDR stand for? My aproach would be to have an improvement plan across the patch (anything from entire business to a section, team etc). Give elements of the improvement plan (by agreement of course) to everyone (to teams also eg shift teams), from top to bottom of the organisation. Easy to say, but requires a lot of management input to set up, then monitor individual progress and to keep the plan under review. This is based on the model used at a large blue chip "Safety excellent" Company I spent ten years at. The huge advantage is that it givesd everyone a role in Safety / Improvement.
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