Posted By NSO I'm currently trying to revitalise our near miss reporting on site as our accident reduction has levelled off, I need to drive it down further by increasing near miss reporting levels and carrying out the preventive actions arising. I have a scheme currently in place which has cash incentives for those with really good ideas for preventing accidents but response is poor (no they're not well paid). Has anyone successfully got everyone on board to report near misses, and how the heck have you done it? I need to change behaviour patterns so this can't just be a flash in the pan solution.

Posted By Mark Bywater I've just introduced a system where everyone who has an accident has to raise at least 2 near miss / safety concern forms in their area. Only just started in Feb so don't know any results yet...but I'm hopeful. Regards, Mark

Posted By HarveyJ A good starting point would be to post up some working examples of 'near misses' and explaining what constitutes a 'near miss' on ESH notice boards or employees notice boards. Quite often employees are just not aware or their risk perception is different to yours/mine. There is a difference between a near miss and an unsafe working condition but both could ultimately lead to an accident. We have QDIP boards in every cell and we track days since last reported near miss. Their is also near miss reporting sheets on these boards for employees to use. When management have their walkarounds (Genba Management) we pick up on these amongst other issues. I've heard of a system called SOUSA, which stands for safe or unsafe actions. this encourages praise for best practise aswell monitoring potentially dangerous situations arising. It's great you are trying to get more reported as they so often go unreported in many organisations, which has the obvious implications. Bring it up at your next committee meeting and brainstorm as a multi functional group - you will get buy in this way. sorry just wrote down what came into my head...no particular order in the above! Good luck. J

Posted By Mike DF There is a good DVD made by SGB (the scaffolders). I previewed it at home and had my wife in tears - very moving. They used to send it out free of charge but you have to pay now, worth the expense though if you can gather your teams together for 15 minutes. http://www.cip-books.com/products.aspx?psrch=sgb

Posted By James P W NSO, I've used the 'SUSA' approach (John Ormond) before and it's quite good...other programmes are available! When it comes to near misses, encouraging "2 a week" will end up with people reporting planes flying over head! KPI's linked to near miss reporting are fine provided the whole process is managed effectively. Focusing resources on improving one aspect of how workers can be involved in H&S (i.e. near miss reporting) will be costly in the long run. It's perhaps a good time to look at employee motivation in a broader sense. If your employees are motivated (for the right reasons) then they'll report near misses, wear their PPE and even work with you to figure out innovative solutions. Putting your effort and resources into WORKER INVOLVEMENT will pay greater dividends. Culture change takes time so it makes sense to water the roots rather than the leaves! PLEASE PLEASE don't use cash/prizes as a safety incentive! Your employees are already paid to work safely...and when the cash prizes stop, so will everyone else. Interestingly 'salary' comes about 6th in the list of motivational factors. 'Achievement' and 'recognition' are 1st and 2nd. Here are some handy resources: www.hollinconsulting.co.uk www.safetybonus.co.uk www.hse.gov.uk/involvement www.rydermarsh.co.uk www.carrots.com