According to a recent poll from Gallup, nearly half of workplace injuries go unreported. There are many possible reasons behind this alarming statistic. Fear of retribution or embarrassment could be one, and a lengthy reporting process could be another deterrent. Or maybe some workers think of safety incidents as a normal part of their job. Whatever the reason, the fact is that many employees fail to disclose safety incidents.
The data shows that one other reason employees might not report safety incidents is a lack of safety training, which affects their perception of their company’s safety culture. Analyzing the poll results, IOSH states: “people who have had OSH training in the past two years are more than three times more likely to report harm at work than those who haven’t had the training.”
While safety has always been a priority at McClung Energy Services LLC, the leading compression package manufacturer caught on to the fact that safety training—especially the human factors kind—won’t only improve their safety record, it will also strengthen their safety culture and improve their safety incident reporting.
John Oglesbee, McClung EHS & Facilities Manager, said that their goal in implementing SafeStart is to help employees recognize the states of mind they experience and the critical errors those states can lead to.
“Once we build awareness, we want to guide our staff through capitalizing on our critical reduction error techniques (CERTs),” says Oglesbee. “By giving our team the tools for safety and success, we hope to minimize safety hazards, make everyone feel confident in reporting safety incidents, and continue improving our safety culture.”
Having a safety goal of zero incidents is common, but SafeStart training is proving to be the element that was missing from McClung’s safety toolbox. The company wants to make its staff feel comfortable reporting any safety incident or near miss. And since implementing SafeStart, their staff are reporting noticeable changes in the safety and culture at their facility. Employees feel empowered, like they have been given a voice to share their safety concerns.
SafeStart provides a common language that makes talking about safety, in both on and off the job contexts, a normal part of everyday conversation. That shared vocabulary helps folks discuss the states and errors that increase the risk of incidents.
Anthony Jenkins, McClung Quality Assurance Technician and SafeStart trainer, provides a perfect example of common language in action: “…when we are talking about complacency, I ask participants to tell me how many cars they passed that morning on the way to the shop. Most cannot recall how many they saw. You can really see the wheels turning and it clicks. At that point, it really hits home about how ‘mind not on task’ is a factor when we do tasks out of habit. It’s a reminder to self-trigger and stay aware.”
SafeStart storytelling is another way that the employees at McClung are focusing on 24/7 safety, and it helps maintain the awareness that’s so crucial when it comes to reporting incidents and staying safe. They’re developing the safety mindset that incidents can happen anywhere. It’s not only while they’re performing certain job tasks that they need to be cognizant of safety, but rather it’s something that they need to be thinking about all the time, for themselves and their families. By reflecting on their everyday experiences and sharing them with peers and supervisors, workers are learning from each other, keeping states and errors—and the safety incidents they lead to—front-of-mind.
McClung will continue to look for ways to incorporate their SafeStart training into their existing safety management system and everyday tasks. Continuing to build keystone habits and developing other key human factors management techniques will make safety reporting a natural process and the goal of zero incidents more achievable.