Safety Reflections

Military leaders on leadership George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE’S WORK HERE and www.ohschange.com.au Many people agree that to attain the pinnacle of leadership, a person must be humble. It seems obvious that someone who is arrogant ,self-important and condescending can never be a good leader. Neither can someone who does not want to [...]

10 Commandments of Leadership

10 Commandments of Leadership George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE’S WORK HERE and www.ohschange.com.au Ten Commandments of Leadership · Search out challenging opportunities to change, grow, innovate and improve. · Experiment, take risks, and learn from the accompanying mistakes. · Envision an uplifting and enobling future. · Enlist others in a common vision by [...]

Safety Coaching and Mentoring

Safety Mentoring / Coaching George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE’S WORK HERE and www.ohschange.com.au Mentoring Having a mentor is often of great assistance to progress in your chosen field. Both mentee and mentor can learn significantly from the process. The following are tips to get the most out of the mentoring process- 1 Learn [...]

Access to earthmoving equipment

Mining Safety

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE’S WORK HERE Access to earthmoving equipment A highly practical safety project in the early 1990’s was the Access to Earthmoving Equipment project. Work required included: v Carrying out a literature review; v Thorough statistical analysis of company accident data v Developing a check-list to assess access systems; v [...]

Analysis of “Accident” experience

Accident Investigation

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE’S WORK HERE Analysis of “Accident” experience Many organisations analyse their “Accident” experience in the hope of gaining insight into how to prevent their problems. Most organisations will not have sufficient serious “Accident” experience to make statistically significant determinations. 1. Damage to people at work has a number of [...]

Commercial Safety Management Systems

Safety Management Plan

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE’S WORK HERE Commercial Safety Management Systems No doubt there are commercial safety managements systems that add value to organisation’s safety effort but I experienced one that was a disaster. The introduction of the overseas S.M.S. was led aggressively by senior management despite a workshop of safety staff rejecting [...]

Leadership in safety – Trust

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE”S WORK HERE Leadership in safety – Trust If people do not trust those leading safety change there will never be wholehearted adoption of the leaders approach. People may agree to the leaders face but do little to advance the leaders ideas, innovative ways to sabotage the leader quite [...]

Leadership in safety-Ethics

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE”S WORK HERE Leadership in safety – Ethics I do not want to comment on the moral issues but it is fair to say the Monica business got American President, Bill Clinton, a lot of bad press. While I am not a student of American politics I am told [...]

Implementation of a learning management system

Hierarchy of Hazard Control

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE”S WORK HERE Implementation of a learning management system In the early 1990’s XYZ mining company revolutionised their approach to learning. I was heavily involved in this work in my role as Senior Safety Adviser in the Brisbane-based corporate OHS department. 1 Existing learning programs were examined and costed, [...]

Young Worker Safety

Child Safety

George’s Safety Reflections – More Pearls of Wisdom Here Young Worker Safety Photo: Colorado Historical Society Working with young people brings unique safety challenges to the OHS professional, supervisors and managers. Workers 15-24 have a 75% greater chance of being killed on the job, often their accidents happen in the first 2 weeks of employment. [...]

Alternatives to the hierarchy of hazard controls

George’s Safety Reflections – More Pearls of Wisdom Here Alternatives to the hierarchy of hazard controls The traditional wisdom when developing hazard controls is to use the Hierarchy of Controls. The author’s experience is that a better result will be achieved by using either Haddon’s 10 Countermeasures or the A.C.I.R.L. 9 Box Model. The main [...]

Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate

LTIFR

George’s Safety Reflections – More Pearls of Wisdom Here Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate The Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate is the principal measure of safety performance in many companies in Australia. The definition of L.T.I.F.R. is the number of Lost Time Injuries multiplied by 1 million divided by the number of manhours worked in [...]

Role of the safety professional

George’s Safety Reflections – see more here Role of the safety professional It is interesting to read job advertisements and see what employers expect of OHS personnel. Statements are often made that the OHS person is to be responsible for implementing and managing OHS. Of course this flies in the face of management obligations at [...]

How To Develop Trust in OHS

Safety Culture

George’s Safety Reflections Developing trust in OHS Having worked in industrially volatile environments I have seen trust breakdown between management and workers. Sometimes it has been for no real reasons and people were working on perceptions. Without trust it is impossible to have an efficient operation. Introducing OHS change inevitably upsets the established order in [...]

Behaviour Based Safety

George’s Safety Reflections MORE HERE Behaviour-Based Safety Many will have you believe around 90% or more of accidents are caused by human behaviour. I have written elsewhere questioning this assertion, even if it were true it is unhelpful. My view is that there are a number of proponents of B.B.S. who make outlandish claims about [...]

Contractor Safety Induction Training

Contractor Induction

George’s Safety Reflections – READ MORE OF THEM HERE Contractor Induction Training At one start-up operation I developed a comprehensive safety induction program lasting 2 days and put about 300 people through the training over about a year. I used to feel very proud that they left the training very switched on about safety. [...]

SAFETY BENCHMARKING

Safety Benchmarking

George’s Safety Reflections – READ MORE OF THEM HERE SAFETY BENCHMARKING Over a 14 month period in 1994 -5 BHP Minerals carried out an extensive international safety benchmarking exercise with “best in safety class” companies throughout the world which cost many millions. 25 locations throughout the world participated in the study. An approximate 100 [...]

Major mistakes made in implementing OHS

OH and S

George’s Safety Reflections read more reflections HERE Major mistakes I have seen made in implementing OHS The biggest mistake is management and supervision making decisions about safety without input from the workforce Bear in mind some are not interested in contributing, give them the opportunity but do not force them. Lack of management demonstrated commitment, [...]

Classic Leadership Quotes

George’s Safety Reflections – see more of George’s insights HERE Leadership is the often forgotten key to excellence in most facets of business and life. Formal and informal leaders in business need to be trained in Safety Leadership. Classic Leadership quotes (pictured Eleanor Roosevelt) You can only lead others where you yourself are willing to [...]

23 Keys to Success for Safety People

George’s Safety Reflections – read a whole lot more HERE Many OHS professionals think they can be successful with technical skills alone, the reality is that a broad range of additional skills are required. Key Success Factors Develop objectives and goals for what you do, if you do not know where you want to go [...]

Safety Incentive Schemes

Safety Incentives

George’s Safety Reflections LOTS MORE HERE Safety Incentive Schemes For the 20 years I was in the mining industry we had a variety of safety incentives. There were stubby coolers, belt buckles, caps, jackets, sports bags and so on. Awards were given for various periods without a lost time accident, often a more valuable prize [...]

Customer Service Tips for Safety People

George’ Safety Reflections – see more here Customer Service Tips for Safety People OHS professionals have many customers-Their boss, managers, supervisors, workers, unions, employer associations, regulators, contractors, visitors and fellow professionals. You must adjust your mind-set to these people being customers and seek to satisfy their needs. Customer service The customer is king and you [...]

OHS Change Management

Change Management

George’s Safety Reflections see more here OHS and Change management Implementing OHS management systems is essentially about change management. The OHS professional who learns about change management will have a better chance of being effective. Change has been around a long time. The only thing constant in business is change. “I cannot say whether things [...]

Handy Hints For Safety People

Safety Management Plan

EXAMPLE ONLY-PREPARED FOR A PARTICULAR ORGANISATION AFTER AN INITIAL EXAMINATION OF THEIR NEEDS,NEEDS WILL VARY WITH DIFFERENT ORGANISATIONS By George Robotham, www.ohschange.com.au Practical tips for implementing a new or revising an existing Safety Management System (S.M.S.) Quotable Quote "A health & safety problem can be described by statistics but cannot be understood by statistics. It [...]

93 Tips for a Small Safety Business

Small Business Success By George Robotham – See more of his articles Here Must have passion for products & customers Must have continuous customer feedback Test / pilot product with customers Do not expect any thanks Never take your eye off the ball Adequate is not adequate Have a positive attitude and do not whinge [...]

Education for OHS people

Education for OHS people A Safety Reflection by George One of the features that distinguishes adult education from the education of young people is the fact adults have a rich data bank of experience to draw from, they tend to discount any education input that conflicts with this experience. A major way adults learn is [...]

What To Do If You Are a New Safety Manager

What To Do If You Are a New Safety Manager Another Safety Reflection by George Robotham – SEE MORE HERE Draft for discussion with my boss, I recognise this just represents a starting point and will be changed after my evaluation of the current Safety Management System Main objective for the first month is for [...]

How To Write a Safety Report

George’s Safety Reflections How To Write a Safety Report OHS professionals write many reports, read many reports and ask others to prepare reports for them. A major sin is long rambling reports that do not get to the point quickly and succinctly! Prepare succinct reports yourself and make it clear that your expectation is that [...]

Safety and Continuous Improvement

Articles

‘George’s Safety Reflections Safety and Continuous Improvement Continuous improvement is a long-term business strategy to improve your business in terms of customer value and satisfaction, quality, speed to market, flexibility and reduced cost. One of the principal objectives of continuous improvement is to increase the skills and capacities of all the organisation’s employees so they [...]

Safety Needs Analysis

George’s Safety Reflections Safety Needs analysis A major lesson in my professional life is that whatever is done in OHS must be preceded by a thorough needs analysis. The perceptions on needed change that managers, supervisors and workers have must be incorporated in the change process. There must be organised processes in place to surface [...]

How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation

How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation (Failure is not an option) Another Safety Reflection by George Robotham – SEE MORE HERE The following has been assisted by formal learning / Education but largely represents critical reflection on the writer’s personal practice. The people who say an amount of it is based on the writer’s [...]

Basic Tips for Professional Success

Safety Professional

George’s Safety Reflections – MORE HERE Basic Tips for Professional Success OHS and indeed all professionals need OHS technical skills but also need broader skills if they are to be successful. Personal and business success Success is doing your best to improve the situation, sometimes you may not achieve an objective but if you have [...]

How to Manage Time – for Safety Professionals

Safety Management Plan

George’s Safety Reflections – MORE HERE Management of time for safety professionals Most OHS professionals are very busy people, effectively managing your time can increase your productivity markedly. There is often little correlation between hard work and the level of achievement. Active people do not necessarily get the most done. Activity=Productivity is a myth. “Procrastination [...]

The toughest safety assignment I have had

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE HERE The toughest safety assignment I have had George gets a call from a management consultant, can I commit a bit of time to review a company’s Safety Management System? Said yes and was told 2 of the company directors want to meet me before going ahead. I think they [...]

The Use of Humour in Safety

Funny Safety Images

George’s Safety Reflections – SEE MORE HERE The use of Humour in Safety Humour can be used effectively in formal and informal presentations and in general interaction in business and non-business life. Avoid humour that focuses on religion, politics, race, class, sex, age, physical appearance. To use any of these will run the risk of [...]

Safety Tool Box Meeting

George’s Safety Reflections – SEE MORE HERE Safety Tool box meetings Regular, short, sharp, tool-box meetings or toolbox talks can be an excellent means of getting the safety message to employees and resolving safety problems. The following advice is given for the conduct of these meetings: Find a quiet area free of distractions Use open-ended [...]

Resume for a Safety Job

Safety Jobs

George’s Safety Reflections – more here Resume for a Safety Job Major tip Recruitment & selection uses “Past behaviour predicts future behaviour” The idea is to give plenty of examples of where in the past you have successfully done the sort of things that you will be required to do in the new job. Say [...]

Interviews For Safety Jobs

Safety Jobs

George’s Safety Reflections – more Here Interviews For Safety Jobs Major tip Recruitment & selection uses “Past behaviour predicts future behaviour” The idea is to give plenty of examples of where in the past you have successfully done the sort of things that you will be required to do in the new job. Say [...]

Safety and Human Error

George’s Safety Reflections – guest post by George Robotham – www.ohschange.com.au Safety and Human Error When you pick up the newspaper and listen to the television or radio you will find terms like driver error, human error and pilot error used frequently as if this was the definitive reason why “accidents”, occur. Authorities such as [...]

OHS Leadership

George’s Safety Reflections by George Robotham from www.ohschange.com.au OHS Leadership Having survived a number of years in industry the author is acutely aware that leadership of an organisation can make or break the organisation. The importance of leadership is vastly underrated in Australian industry, leadership is the forgotten key to excellence in business. Leaders send [...]

A light-hearted look at the characteristics of a good OHS Professional

George’s Safety Reflections – by George Robotham – www.ohschange.com.au A light-hearted look at the characteristics of a good OHS Professional (WARNING – Some may be offended – if you are, bad luck!) He is like Herpes – He will not go away He is a glutton for punishment He is structure oriented and used to [...]

Quick Guide to Auditing OHS Systems

AS4801

George’s Safety Reflections – by George Robotham – www.ohschange.com.au Quick Guide to Auditing OHS Systems There is some confusion in practice between the terms inspection and audit, I distinguish between the two by saying you inspect things and you audit systems. Organisations that are successful at Occupational Health and Safety have regular comprehensive internal and [...]

Accident Investigation

George’s Safety Reflections – see George’s Website www.ohschange.com.au Accident investigation summary The term accident is an emotionally laden term that implies blame. I prefer to use the term personal damage occurrence. Summary of the personal damage occurrence investigation process Provide first-aid and medical care to injured persons and make the site safe Ensure Emergency Response [...]

Improving Safety Through Interpersonal Skills

Consultation

George’s Safety Reflections – by Geroge Robotham from www.ohschange.com.au Improving Safety Using Interpersonal skills When interviewing OHS professionals many interviewers focus on their technical skills. Frankly I think communications and interpersonal skills are much more important than technical skills. You can be really bright, you can be highly qualified and trained, you can be well [...]

Safety Professionals–Interpersonal Skills

George’s Safety Reflections – MORE HERE Safety Professionals – Interpersonal Skills When interviewing OHS professionals many interviewers focus on their technical skills. Frankly I think communications and interpersonal skills are much more important than technical skills. You can be really bright, you can be highly qualified and trained, you can be well read but if [...]

Zero Harm

George’s Safety Reflections – More Here Zero harm Many companies in Australia will proudly tell you they have a Zero Harm approach to OHS. My understanding, from admittedly not widespread research, is that Zero Harm approaches are not widespread in other countries. I am told the Canadians tried it and abandoned it. A small number [...]

Safety culture

Safety Culture

George’s Safety Reflections MORE HERE Safety culture A good safety culture is an elusive thing those responsible for safety management systems struggle to achieve. Culture is often defined as “The way we do things around here”. Schein (1990) defines organisational culture as the system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organisation and [...]

Why Rugby Union players make better OHS professionals than Rugby League players