Reward your workers for reporting near misses
Reward your workers for reporting near misses
A worker is wearing a full body harness, but with the lanyard attached to a handrail instead of to an anchor point that was engineered for fall protection. No one is injured - at least not this time.
When an accident could have happened but didn't, it's not always easy to get workers to admit it. However, at Wheelabrator, a Hampton, NH-based waste management company, employees report 300 to 400 near misses every year. These "lessons learned" are shared throughout the entire company.
"We have instilled in them that it's the right thing to do, instead of just walking away, to take the five minutes to report it," says Kent Baughn, senior manager of health and safety. "Many near misses involve people who come to our facility who may not be as familiar with our requirements as we are."
For example, a contractor might be observed not wearing the correct personal protective equipment, a delivery truck driver might not use the correct unloading procedure required at a facility, or a hose or cable might be in a walkway, even for just a moment, putting workers at risk for a fall injury.
What's in it for the employee who reports the near miss? For one thing, the report "doesn't go into a black hole," says Baughn. Immediate action is taken to fix the problem. For example, when an employee reported that a yellow line had faded, which reminded people to stay 36 inches away from an electrical cabinet, the line was promptly repainted.
The employee also gets to see their own near miss listed in a weekly report for everyone to learn from. "We list these by location, not name. But the efforts you took are there in print for others to benefit from," says Baughn.
A worker is wearing a full body harness, but with the lanyard attached to a handrail instead of to an anchor point that was engineered for fall protection. No one is injured - at least not this time.Subscribe Now for Access
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