Dusty Roach
Greetings and salutations again to my fellow safety brethren! Regardless if you are a safety professional, a worker out in the field, or an executive, I appreciate you taking a small part of your day or month to read what’s going on in the field of safety.
As I’ve stated numerous times over the last five years, it is of the utmost importance to at least yearly, at a minimum, take a stern look at the programs that you have in place. Safety programs in our industry need to be fresh, pertinent, and up to date with the standards. Canned programs quickly become stale and repetitive. Just because the requirements and regulations seldom change or at a minimum, change slightly, it is still important to update the latest changes and arm your employees with the most accurate information possible.
Even if the changes are slight, employees need to be made aware from the top to the bottom. Regardless of if we don’t like change or agree with the changes, there wouldn’t be progress without change.
Once those changes are identified, the next step would be to improve methods of getting the word out. Presentations of PowerPoints are adequate, but sometimes PowerPoints need tweaking as well. Tests of knowledge need to be a true test of knowledge, with little or few “gimme” answers.
Safety meetings and tests need to have a certain degree of challenge. Add some stretch to the quizzes to increase their awareness.
Legitimate accountability and application is also key for tests of knowledge. Remediation of wrong answers is also required.
One of the largest obstacles of proper training is proper preparation and newness. If you are excited about your presentation, it has a better chance of retention with the intended audience. Get “the same ol’ thing out” and put the new fresh in! It almost sounds as if I’m peddling a new laundry detergent. In effect I am.
Engage your employees and ask for legitimate feedback. Ask if they noticed freshness in the presentation. Ask them if they learned anything new about an old topic. You’d be surprised at the responses you get.
Repetition is one of the mainstays in our industry. Repetition is our friend at times in operations and in safety. Conversely repetition can be our enemy, especially with experienced field personnel, office personnel, and with executives.
Is your training pertinent and comprehensive?’ Does it relay the importance of safety? Is it really effective? Do you actually remediate the wrong answers or shuffle it through for regulation purposes? Will the employees actually know the training AND actually follow the training?
Aside from comprehension at the meeting, do you follow up in the field? Or do they see you coming and put on the big show? You know that it happens. Do the supervisors require the correct policies, laws, and procedures or do they put on a show as well? When I was in the end of a 36” pipe wrench or a 48” pipe wrench, with someone with me on a cheater pipe, I’d ask them “are you putting out or just putting on?”
Staying fresh and staying relevant can sometimes entail change. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, change is inevitable. Change is necessary. Nobody likes change, except babies and politicians. Usually, it’s for the same reason.
I don’t advocate change solely for the sake of change, but only if it makes sense, enhances performance, and improves safety. That’s a win! Why do you think there are term limits in politics? In most cases it prevents stagnation
As I always say, “It is not how many hits you have in baseball that counts. It is how many times you reach home SAFE that counts!”
—Dust
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.