Dusty Roach
Welcome again to the wonderful world of safety. I noticed everyone immediately went first of all to the table of contents to look up this month’s page number for “Safety”—said no one ever, except another safety person. That’s okay. We are used to it, no umbrage taken.
If you ask the general public, “Why do we have safety?” you find that, in any company, they usually respond with three different answers: 1. It’s required, 2. It’s the law, and 3. Safety is a value! (but it costs a lot to maintain). If it were that important, would not the answers be reversed?
This brings me to this month’s topic: Why safety? After all, I seldom see volunteers that want to be hurt. Actually, I’ve never seen a volunteer that wants to be hurt. Through all of the feel-good presentations covering the OSHA mandated topics each year, whether you’ve been there 12 months or 12 years, you can pretty much bank on the fact that everyone has their own presentations pertaining to their own application of the business.
Lately I heard an exuberant safety professional field a question from a monthly training class. The question, by an employee, was, “Why do we have to have the same training topics every year?” I was shocked at the answer. The safety professional responded by saying, “because OSHA requires this training every year.” He proceeded to explain that these mandated topics should be covered yearly. This is to ensure that all the topics required be covered so that all personnel are covered by the required courses mandated by OSHA. I guess that was an accurate statement of sorts, but it struck me wrong. I did not hear, “So we can go home every night to our kids, wife or parents. Here is why: The motivation behind each required training is to refresh everyone’s memory throughout the year. It is also required to make the training relevant to what is actual in the field, whether it’s an everyday occurrence or preparation for the common and not so common activities. It is also a method to make clear expectations and cover any updates, trends, or practices. Lastly, on this specific point, it is required to meet the expectations of the company, its goals, and standards.”
One time about ten years ago, I overheard a safety professional say, “I can train a monkey in 3 days to do that guy’s job, if the monkey pays attention.” What a disrespectful safety person. Pardon me for saying that he was a professional. Clearly, he was not a professional.
Safety is important for the welfare of valued employees. Safety keeps the money that came in the front door from going out the back door. We teach the mandated required topics to ensure they are instilled properly. Then why do we still have accidents? We deal with fallible individuals. We train at new hire orientation and we cover the same topics each year. We have tests to prove they have comprehension and have been taught the proper procedure. We have taught every required topic and then some.
We teach and we train. All tests are remediated with correct answers. We have documentation that they have been told, comprehend, and know the hazards. Why? Because this is what OSHA requires. Why do they make it a law? It’s worth asking because some people don’t listen to or don’t care about the law. It has little or no impact. It’s just a meeting.
Are there individuals that take individual exceptions? Yes.
Are there individuals that passed the course in January but forget the information in October? Yes. Are there supervisors that say, “Forget what you learned in class, this is the way we do it”? Yes.
Numerous companies cover the rules and, most of the time, follow the rules. We inspect what we expect. We retrain them and try again. The real world reality is that supervisors and safety personnel cannot be everywhere all the time. So why do we train them? It’s the law. It’s what we are supposed to do.
We make a mistake by telling them it’s the law and OSHA requires us to teach it. Instead of telling them it is the law, find the reason that it is the law but sell the value. Sell the intent of the laws. Sell reasons for the laws.
OSHA cares. Law enforcement cares. Safety professionals care.
The laws protect all concerned; the employee, the supervisors, the company, the families, the children, and the public. Some of the laws protect you from the people that do not care. Who among you has never gone over the speed limit, while driving, whether it be inadvertently or purposefully? I’ll wait. Thought so.
Why have speed limits? Everyone, whether intentional or not, has gone over the speed limit. Some smile and do it again and some correct themselves. We preach it because of the value, not just because it’s the law. If you have someone that exhibits no values, please give them an opportunity to seek employment elsewhere. If you ignore it or tolerate it, you are complicit.
OSHA has rules and regs. Obey the rules, because it’s the right thing to do. It’s a value. Value the rules. Thank you all. I value you.
It’s not how many hits you have in baseball that counts! It is how many times you reach home safely that counts, and wins the game. —Dusty
Dusty Roach is a safety professional based in Midland. He is also a public speaker on subjects of leadership and safety, and he maintains a personal website at dustyroach.com.