safety thinking #7

Use this area to offer a short preview of your email's content. View this email in your browser

Safety Thinking.

Follow us Visit us Join us Mail us

Keep Safe this Holiday Season

'Tis the silly season, yet it's not the time to forget about safety at work and

home. Remember most of us are more likely to get injured at home rather

than work. WorkCover Queensland says that injury claims tend to rise in

the lead-up to Christmas. Here are some tips for maintaining focus.

Manage Fatigue - Barbara Martin from Work Cover Queensland cites,"People rush to get everything done before Christmas. But after a busyyear they're often already worn out and can easily lose concentration,which leads to mistakes and injuries". “Your ability to think clearly is vitalwhen making safety-related decisions and this can be impaired whenmental or physical exhaustion sets in. Everyone needs time to rest andrecover or else they could make a mistake in the workplace that threatenstheir own health or that of a workmate,” said Workplace Health and SafetyQueensland in a media release. “Workers and managers needed tocooperate to better manage fatigue during the Christmas rush as it caninvolve factors both inside and outside of the workplace. Employers andbusiness operators are responsible under workplace health and safetylegislation for protecting their workers from the adverse effects of fatigue.Workers must ensure they are fit for duty and should raise any concernsabout workloads and work pressures such as deadlines with theirsupervisor or health and safety representative.”

Manage Stress - Christmas can be a particularly stressful time for somepeople. Those who work in FIFO roles can find it particularly difficult beingaway from their family over this time of year. Others working in industriesthat close down like construction can experience financial hardship ifthey're living week to week.

Subject: MailChimp Template Test - "Safety Thinking. Edition #7 - long version don't u"From: <[email protected]>Date: 8/12/14 10:40 AMTo: <[email protected]>

MailChimp Template Test - "Safety Thinking. Edition #7 - lo...

1 of 6 8/12/14 10:43 AM

John Brady from MATES in Construction provides great advice for how

employees can support mates who may be doing it tough over this period.

Share these tips with your workforce:

If you know this is the first Christmas for a mate without a loved

one, or without children due to relationship breakdown, or other

stressful events, it’s good to make contact with them to check they

are okay

Changes in normal behaviour for a mate is also a clue that all is

not right with them – once again it’s good to check in with them

Trust your gut instinct – if you feel a mate is not doing so well you

are probably right – tell them you sense things are not right and

see if you can offer support. Sometimes just a chat with a mate

can be enough to assure them they are not alone with the

difficulties and challenges they may be experiencing.

Be Mindful of Temporary Workers - Employers often recruit temporaryemployees to cover for holidays. It's important to ensure that theseworkers receive full safety inductions and training. "Temporary workers areat most risk of injury at this time of year because they are hired for aspecific purpose and timeframe and safety inductions may not always be ahigh priority," says Work Cover Queensland.

Make Christmas Parties memorable for all the right reasons - It's allfun and games 'till someone gets hurt. It's important to make sureemployees understand what conduct and behaviour is acceptable atChristmas Parties ahead of time. To ensure a safe event always have analcohol policy in place; monitor the consumption of alcohol throughout thefunction; ensure that underage workers do not consume alcohol; providesufficient food and non-alcoholic beverages; provide first aid facilities;ensure the premises is vacated at the end of the function; and arrange foradditional security if necessary. You must also ensure that workers leavethe event or venue safely. Make it clear when the function ends andensure that workers have access to a safe means of transport home (e.g.taxis).

Communicate and the communicate some more - As always,communication can not be underestimated. Be sure to remind yourworkers to work safe right up to their very last shift, travel safe and partysafe this festive season.


2 of 6 8/12/14 10:43 AM

Empower your Workforce through Critical RiskManagementBy Jason Thain

“Measuring Safety Performance by the number of injuries you have is like

measuring parenting by the number of smacks you give” – Dr Robert Long

Industries and companies are still fixated on measuring their safety

performance on injury frequency rates and other lag indicators, and the

majority companies are focusing their attention on zero harm or slips, trips

and falls.

I have seen many approaches to “drum into workers” the importance of

safety, these have ranged from stop for safety sessions, industry

mandated courses, targeted talks at start of shift meetings and poster

campaigns. Also in efforts to keep workers focused on adherence to

procedures companies also have cardinal rules. Most if not all of these

approaches approach safety and risk in a broad sense and really do not

provide separation of slips, trips and falls from fatalities.

Critical risk’s primary aim is to prevent the loss of life. It is designed using

a layered approach that focuses on empowering the work force to

understand which critical risks affect their tasks and work areas. It also

gives the work force the ability to assess critical risk and ensure the

relevant critical controls are in place prior to undertaking any task.

When embedded properly in an organisation, critical risk provides a

platform for the entire workforce from the shop floor to the boardroom to

be on the same page and eliminate fatalities in the work place.

I invite you to attend a webinar at 2pm EDST on Monday 15th December

which will provide insight into the different layers involved in critical risk,

and the hurdles that have been encountered and overcome with

embedding the critical risk process in the past. Register Now.


3 of 6 8/12/14 10:43 AM

Webinar Invitation: Critical Risk Management

This webinar will help you enable your workforce to understand and take

ownership for critical control effectiveness in their day-to-day work.

Industry expert Jason Thain will discuss robust and practical risk

management methodologies to help you identify and manage risks that

could tragically give rise to single or multiple fatalities.

Register Now.

Mindful Safety Leadership Webinar

View the webinar for a limited time

Marc McLaren presented a webinar on Mindful Safety Leadership

earlier this month. 100% of participants who provided feedback

indicated that they they would recommend it to their colleagues.

Many participants could't believe that Marc McLaren was willing to

share so much information.

Watch the webinar now to see for yourself.

Visit our new website

We've launched a new website. It's cleaner, more dynamic,

easier to navigate and most importantly, more informative.

Visit generativehse.com to view our new site.


4 of 6 8/12/14 10:43 AM

Anton, safety is not my responsibility; it is thecompany’s responsibility

Excerpt from 'Let's talk about Safety' by Anton Guinea.

Mate, it still surprises me that I hear people say that. You are only one of

many employees who still think that it is their supervisor’s, or their

manager’s, or even the Site Safety Officer’s responsibility to keep them

safe. Mate, there is only one person responsible for your safety, and that is

you.

The mistaken belief that workplace safety is not your responsibility can

form because it is so much easier to leave the company in charge ofsafety, to shrug off responsibility and disengage from the process.

I just cannot understand why anyone would trust their safety to their boss.

If something happens to you, yes, the boss will have to explain it to your

family, the company will have to take responsibility, but it will be you laid

up and in pain. It is your family that will suffer the loss of their security.

Your primary responsibility is to refuse to allow anything to compromise

your safety. Don’t allow any other considerations, such as productivity, or

even people in the company, to convince you to work in an unsafe

manner. Take a stand and be responsible for your actions and your

decisions.

You might even think about more than just taking responsibility for your

own safety - the safety of others. You should ensure that your workmates

are aware of your attitude to workplace safety; explain that it is you that

will get injured if something goes wrong, and that you are unwilling to

make unsafe choices. Your actions speak louder than words, and by being

safety-conscious you are not only changing your own behaviour, but you

may also be changing the behaviour of others thereby making a real

difference to those around you. Remember that your workmates are

watching you and assessing from your actions, how you feel about

working safely; if you are a risk taker or a short cutter, be assured that

your workmates will decide that if it is good enough for you, it is good

enough for them. By taking responsibility for your own safety, and the

safety of those around you, you will increase the chances that you will allgo home from work in the same condition that you arrived.

By taking responsibility, you can rest assured that you have done


5 of 6 8/12/14 10:43 AM

everything in your power to prevent yourself from being injured. Also, while

you will never know if you have saved a life, you can be sure that you

have also done everything in your power to make the job safer for those

around you.

So mate, it is no-one else’s responsibility “ for your safety but your own. By

taking ” responsibility you will prevent an injury to yourself, and you might

even be an example for others.

Help us improve your Safety Thinking newsletter.

We're committed to making this newsletter useful, relevant and engaging. Please complete a brief

survey to help us make your Safety Thinking newsletter the very best it can be.

Join the discussion - LinkedIn

Follow Generative HSE on LinkedIn to participate in informative and relevantdiscussions about safety and risk leadership in Australia.

1300 392 [email protected] from this list update subscription preferences

Copyright © 2014 *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved.*|LIST:DESCRIPTION|*


6 of 6 8/12/14 10:43 AM

safety thinking #7

Documents

safety representative

workplace health

safety inductions

time of year

christmas rush

safetyrelated decisions

work pressures

work cover queensland