Injury Prevention Safety Policy - The Safety & Numbers work safety blog

Work Hazard Analysis

Identifying Workplace Hazards is an integral component of an effective work safety program. As a required element of OSHA VPP Program participation, following an organized hazard assessment process can be the backbone of a company’s safety policy. Identifying hazards provides the ability to mitigate risk and evaluate safety effectiveness.

The work hazard assessment process consists of five main components:

Identify Hazardous Condition
Hazards that can lead to injury or illness range from physical injury risk to chemicals, temperature, radiation, noise, and electrical. Employees need to be involved in hazard analysis from the beginning to assist with acceptance and recognition of benefit.
Determine Root Cause
Potential root causes can include lack of knowledge, lack of physical ability, improper training, or unidentified hazards. Managers should reassess hazards when new equipment is installed or new work processes developed.
Eliminate Hazards
Mitigate risks via controls based on level of injury risk, frequency of exposure, and potential harm. Evaluate the level of overall risk to prioritize controls and implement. Identify PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) such as gloves, safety glasses, etc.
Control Measures
Risk management efforts can include engineering controls to manage exposure, layout, and access; administrative controls to to manage employees, tasks, and training; and work practices for safety, hygiene, and work area cleanliness.
Evaluation of Effectiveness
Hazard assessment programs should be evealuated on injury prevention effectiveness. Evaluation tactics include routine inspections; documentation for injury reports and near misses; requesting, researching and responding to employee feedback.

Source: Marine Corp Community Services

Initiating a Work Hazard Analysis

When commencing hazard assessment, plan to document responsible team members, tasks, and step sequence for processes with injury risk. A Hazard Assessment checklist similar to this sample provided by the California Department of Industrial Relations may be helpful. Next, determine and document preventative measures, equipment, and Personal Protective Equipment, and train employees accordingly. Finally, consider residual risk – any risk that remains after controls have been implemented – for future evaluation and improvement.

Making the Case for Work Injury Prevention [INFOGRAPHIC]

The costs of workers’ compensation and other work injury expenses are significant and difficult to predict. To manage this risk, businesses should build safety culture by implementing work injury prevention programs and providing incentives to employees that promote safety across the organization. For an overview on how to make the case for work safety policy, review our Work Injury Prevention Infographic.

Creating Safety Culture as a Brand

Safety culture compared to safety policy is similar to the difference between creating a brand and pitching a service. Putting in place a safety and health program can and will be effective, but motivational factors can seem like a burden to managers and employees.

Creating safety culture will align executive initiatives with employee investment and organizational commitment to create value across operational activities. As a result, effective safety culture not only reduces hazards, injuries, and related costs, it can also provide reputation advantages that improve employee recruiting, generate sales opportunities, and build morale-based quality and efficiency.

Core Elements of Safety Culture

Culture is a small word with a large connotation. Just how to implement culture is a concept that is a challenge to grasp when managing business objectives. The first step in implementing safety culture is to understand and build upon cultural principles.

Commit to Safety as a Value

Management staff as a rule is subject to shifting priorities and objectives. To build culture, safety should be considered as a value throughout the decision making process: considering new initiatives, managing day to day activities, reviewing performance, and everywhere in between. As employees hear safety consistently discussed as a value, they will understand it is not a shifting objective and more actively support initiatives.

Employee Involvement in Decision Making

Culture is the driving force for decision making in business, from leadership to management, operational employees, sales and support staff. Well known cultural values include quality, service, and efficiency. As values effect each member of an organization on a continual basis, each employee should be involved in planning cultural systems that affect them. By providing employees with objectives and focus areas, management will understand key factors and produce safety systems that employees support.

Cross-Departmental Investment

Values such as quality, service, and efficiency are often driven by incentives across the organization, from executives to managers and staff. Safety as a value can be rewarded in the same way. Safety culture should encourage communication across departments, reward performance at all levels, and include cross departmental activities.

To Support Culture, Create Systems

Once you begin to embrace safety as a culture, you will soon identify the need to create systems for consistency, management, and performance review. Effective systems will build trust and focus on correcting unsafe practices, generally improving the environment for safety discussions. Systems will also provide management with a process for hazard identification, injury prevention training, incident reporting, and continuing improvement.

The importance of safety to businesses of all sizes is proven to reduce work injuries and related costs, but implementing safety initiatives at optimal benefit is not always easy. Integrating safety as a cultural value will build motivation across the organization and encourage cooperative discussion. For more on safety culture, visit OSHA.gov.

SHARP Program Emphasizes Work Injury Prevention in the Trucking Industry

In Washington and across the country, the SHARP program is helping to bring awareness to trucking industry work injury risks, via the TIRES (Trucking Injury Reduction Emphasis) initiative. SHARP (Safety & Health Assessment and Research for Prevention) is an established Washington State Department of Labor & Industries program focused on research and response to occupational safety and health issues across industries and disciplines.

With additional support from NIOSH, the TIRES program maintains a website and social media presence, provides training materials and reports, and conducts interviews and surveys with members of management and labor teams in industry.

The goal of the TIRES project is to reduce the incidence of:

Non-traumatic musculoskeletal disorders of the neck, back and upper extremity.

Slips, trips and falls.

Injuries from getting struck by or against an object.

These conditions comprise 71% of the industry’s workers’ compensation claims, costs and lost workdays.

The trucking work injury prevention resources available at the TIRES website is a smorgasbord for safety professionals and industry members across the country. The Washington Department of Labor & Industries also conveniently ties together reports and publications in an encyclopedia-like layout that provides everything you need to develop safety programs, research risk areas, and gather case studies for reporting.

To stay up to date, follow @TruckSafe on Twitter or visit the TIRES blog. And as always, upgrade your trucking fall protection with a trucker ladder or flatbed work platform from Innovative Access Solutions.

Integrate Ergonomics into Shipyard Health & Safety

The shipyard environment is complex and unique. Workers often perform awkwardly positioned tasks in unique and varying environments and have a history of forming musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Nonadjustable work stations, enclosed or confined spaces, and diverse repair activities can be job requirements which contribute to health and safety risk.

Ergonomics is the study of efficiency in work environments. Shipyards that have systematically addressed ergonomics in the work environment have been effective at reducing injury and reducing MSDs. As a result, many companies have recognized the value of integrating ergonomics into existing safety and health programs. Companies invested in safety policy should take general steps for initiating ergonomical improvements in the work environment, and always remember that each work environment will have different needs and limitations to consider.

Shipyard Work Environments and MSD Injuries

A shipyard is composed of three main work environments. Shop work, with conditions similar to manufacturing and maintenance; and Yard and Vessel work, where tasks include assembly, welding, and repair. Shoulder stress, lower back strains, and symptoms including numbness, pain and swelling can indicate a work environment for which ergonomic improvements can reduce work injuries.

In addition to reduced worker’s comp and lost worker time, ergonomic risk management initiatives can improve morale, reduce absenteeism, and increase production efficiency.

General Steps for Systematic Improvement

Integrating ergonomics into a health and safety plan can follow the following process.

OSHA Shipyards Ergonomics Report — OSHA 2008 PDF Report

Providing Management Support
Involving Employees
Providing Training
Identifying Problems
Implementing Solutions
Addressing Injury Reports
Evaluating Progress

These general initiatives can lead to programs and activities across departments to accomplish injury prevention goals.

Equipment Solutions and Guidelines

Ergonomics solutions can be implemented site-wide and evaluated on a task basis for unique work hazards. Consider three equipment options and related ergonomic guidelines.

Standing Platforms: Provide stability and reduce shoulder and neck fatigue, particularly for overhead work. Ideally workers should operate with hands between waist and shoulder height. Lightweight platforms can be utilized site-wide.
Racks and Shelves: For staging, moving, storing materials, tools, equipment. Wheeled racks simplify maneuverability. Position between knee and shoulder.
Tractor Trailers: Reduce trips between work areas for transport handling and time savings. Avoid load shifting or tipping by considering stability and balance.

For details about Systematic Improvement Measures, additional Equipment Solutions and Guidelines, and a complete summary of Shipyard Ergonomics and MSDs, view the Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders report online at OSHA.gov.

Ergonomic Assessment at your Shipyard

OSHA recommends setting up a plan for achieving the cost, efficiency, and morale advantages associated with ergonomics process improvement. In unique and varying shipyard environments, operational or safety teams may need assistance to develop a plan and engineer custom equipment.

Ergonomic improvements have resulted in an 80% accident rate reduction on some shipyards, and are accompanied by operational and morale benefits that can be of great value. OSHA provides free consultation services, and workplace access specialists also assist with recommendations and equipment design. Contact Innovative Access Solutions to get started designing custom access equipment to meet your ergonomic safety program equipment needs.