*SIX MISTAKES HSE MANAGER MAKE WITH OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY*
by Christel Fouche
Management is nothing more than motivating other people. Lee Iacocca
A manager is not without fault and is not a perfect species, and despite our best intentions we often also make mistakes and slip-ups that can have a big impact on what our team thinks about how much we care about occupational health and safety. Ask yourself if you are or have been making any of the six fundamental mistakes listed below when it comes to setting an occupational health and safe example to those around you?
Practice Golden-Rule 1 of Management in everything you do. Manage others the way you would like to be managed.
*Not Walking the Talk*
Actions really do speak louder than words when it comes to occupational health and safety management. All the slogans, posters and tool box talks in the world won’t make a difference if employees see managers acting in a different way to what they are saying. By always being a model of safe work and rule compliance, a manager can have more of an influence on his team than he ever could through “health and safety moments” and “monthly health and safety topics”. People naturally look to their manager for direction, and the aspects they look at most are his/her behaviours. As a manager, you must go above and beyond what is required by your site health and safety systems, and demonstrate to everyone that keeping people healthy and safe is at the top of your priority list.
*Turning a Blind Eye*
Health and safety rules and systems apply to everyone, all the time! When we ignore minor breaches or small unsafe acts and unsafe conditions, we are effectively condoning and encouraging those actions. By our own lack of action we are telling our team that it’s ok not to follow certain rules or procedures. You can’t turn a blind eye, even when the work is urgent, out of sight, or on a back shift. Unacceptable behaviours are best changed early while they are still small.
*Not Giving Enough Positive Feedback*
While it is important to let people know if they are not working healthy or safely or following the correct procedures, it is also important to give people positive feedbackwhen you find them working healthy or safely or doing things that make the workplace better. When was the last time that you have given positive feedback to any of your employees? Did you notice an improvement in the attitude and production output of this individual? We tend to emphasize the negative more than the positive with disastrous consequences. If we want the morale of the workforce to improve we only need to start paying compliments where they are due and the culture will automatically improve towards a better and more positive health and safety climate.
*Not Buying into Health and Safety Systems*
As a manager in the operation, you need to buy into health and safety systems, even if you don’t like them or don’t agree with them. Any feedback you have about the systems and why they won’t work needs to only go up a level – to your boss and your own team of peers. When it comes to the message you send to the team that works for you or anyone at the front line, you need to be a supporter. As a team leader you are the company’s representative in your team. And for better or worse they’ve decided to implement this system, so it’s up to you to support it publically. A team consist of the manager AND his/her workforce – not the one or the other – BOTH needs to be committed to make it work and achieve the objectives! One person not buying into the management system can cause the entire team to fail.
*Forgetting the Importance of Habits*
Habits are what save us when our mind is not consciously on the job. Many of the health and safety systems we use (such as Take-5s, prestart talks, and health and safety observations) are aimed at creating habits in people’s minds so that they are constantly aware of hazards in the work environment, and can react when they see something that is about to hurt them. Each little action and health and safety discussion might not prevent an incident itself, but they all add together to create valuable health and safety habits. Do not think that you are repeating this training or talk for the millionth time and that you are wasting time and money. When the crisis hits it will probably be these repetitive sessions that will prevent great harm or loss.
*The Wrong Intentions for Health and Safety Observations*
When you are going to do a health and safety observation, get your intentions right. Your aim when observing people working should be to find ways to give them constructive feedback which keeps them on their toes, positive and challenges them in their work. We want to challenge/test people to make sure they know what they are doing and how to do it healthy and safely. We are not trying to catch people doing something wrong – we are not implementing fault-finding, BUT fact-finding!
The way you see them is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is the way they often become Zig Ziglar
To summarize: as a manager in the occupational health and safety discipline you have a tremendous responsibility to ensure that the people reporting to you do so because you have bought into health and safety as a way of life BUT also because you have a moral and legal responsibility towards these workers.
_Are you setting the correct example as their manager?_
