Kevin Lindley, Safety Consultant, FRSA Self Insurer's Fund
“Safety meetings are a waste of time and money.” There, I said it. It is often said that meetings to discuss safety topics are a waste of time, money and resources. Yes, safety meetings by themselves, without intention, application, follow through, reinforcement and, most importantly, comprehension, can be a waste of time.
There are many reasons safety meetings are not producing the desired results. Employees and workers come to morning meetings with their mind on the tasks at hand; they are not mentally present at the meeting. Amazingly, most field workers do not do well in a classroom setting and have trouble comprehending certain ideas when only discussed – they are hands-on individuals. Language barriers, hunger, distractions in and around the training area, timing of the meeting, poor speaker(s), ill-prepared lessons, non-applicable material, others in the room, etc. are some of the distractions or reasons they are not mentally present.
When approached poorly, safety meetings can be needlessly repetitive, rehashing the same topics in the same way. I can only watch the same episode of a TV show so many times before I stop watching or paying attention to it. We should ask, if the information has been heard several times, then why aren’t the safety practices being adopted in the field?
There is a gap in training to application in the field when it comes to safety practices and that is frustrating. Companies talk about safety and employees want to be safe, but we are often training and reinforcing in the wrong fashion. It is frustrating as a trainer to talk about a topic for an hour, only go into the field and observe workers blatantly disregarding what was just reviewed only minutes earlier.
So, how do we “fix” this problem? How does a company break through the barrier and achieve compliance with safety policies in the field? Wanting to be safe does not make workers safe. Talking about safety occasionally does not make much of an impact. Going into the field and forcing the workers to comply with safety regulations only makes a temporary difference. There is no single missing ingredient for success in this recipe. Training needs to be fully comprehensive, both in language and content. It needs to be delivered in such a fashion that the workers present are able to understand and mimic it in the field. It has to be practical; it needs to be uniformly applied and followed. This means management needs to hold workers accountable and the other workers need to hold each other accountable.
I was once in an informal OSHA conference in
Jacksonville speaking with the current Area Director for OSHA, Nolan Houser, about fall protection training
– a topic all too often discussed with roofing contractors
in those offices. Nolan asked a contractor about
his training program. The contractor proudly presented
the annual sign-in rosters from the past three years
for safety trainings held in the office with employees.
He explained that the company had gathered all the
workers together, had a trainer come into their office
who held a one hour discussion with the workers that
included a presentation and went on to explain how
well-received the meeting was. Workers asked for new
fall protection equipment following the meeting and
the contractor really believed that the meeting was a
huge success.
Nolan patiently listened to the contractor go on about the training session. When the contractor had finished, Nolan asked the contractor how the company knew the training was a success. Was there any demonstration, application, follow-up or reinforcement during or after the training session? Sadly, the company did not have any documentation or confirmation of follow-up (site inspections), no disciplinary
action taken against any, not even one employee, for non-compliance in the field (reinforcement). Without this key additional information, the training was invalid. It aided the contractor in a slight reduction of the citation value, but there were clearly deficiencies in the “program” evident by the issues observed by the OSHA Field Compliance Officer, resulting in a citation to the contractor.
So, what can we as roofing contractors learn from this? What can we do better? In reading this, I trust you have already begun to think of ways you can fix your deficiencies to make your training more effective. Please do not let your thought die there; put it into action, write down your notes, send out a memo or mass email, get others on the same page as you and put your thoughts into action. We can do better; we must do better for the sake of our workers.
Safety meetings are not a waste of time, money and resources – but only if they are presented well and are applicable to the people listening. Then they must be effectively reinforced and assessed in the field.
The FRSA Self Insurer’s Fund (FRSA-SIF) has professional safety consultants throughout the state who are willing to provide SIF members with safety training at no additional cost. To find out if you qualify for FRSA-SIF membership, please contact us at 800-767-3772, ext. 206, or email alexis@frsasif.com. To learn more about the FRSA Self Insurers Fund, please visit www.frsasif.com.
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