In my organization, everyone must have an HSE goal amongst their goals for 
the year.  The HSE Team works to incorporate employee volunteers within a 
multitude of Project Teams.

However, there is still the question, "What happens if someone does not 
follow through on their goal?"  The answer is simple - nothing.

Years ago, there was one Manager who would spend about 1 to 2 hours a 
week, riding a freight elevator where the usage of safety glasses was 
required.  If anyone got on the elevator while she was on it, without 
safety glasses, it was automatically three (3) days off without pay - 
period.

Guess what?  Everyone was wearing safety glasses where required.

We are in a time where no one wants to hurt the feelings of another 
person.  Thus, we now have leadership who says "Well, I know they had a 
fire in their lab, but let's focus on what they did right".  This will 
never make people safer.

It's a fine line, isn't it?  If we focus on too much positive - "We have 
had 1,000,000 hours without an incident", then people will begin hiding 
problems so they are not the one to end that streak.

If we focus on the negative totally "Anyone who has a repeat incident will 
have two days off without pay", then people will begin hiding their 
incidents.

The best thing is getting people involved and not thinking of health and 
safety as a burden.  In 2008, we stopped everything and divided up our 
organization into 12 specific areas.  All work was stopped and all 
employees were divided up amongst those 12 areas.  No one who worked in 
those areas we assigned to visit the area - it had to be fresh eyes except 
for the "host" for the area.  We had a keynote speaker talking about an 
incident in the company that led to a death and then we had the groups go 
out and look at work being done and make recommendations on how the work 
could be done safer.  All had to report back to the whole division.

With this activity, we had more people caring about health and safety than 
ever before.  A few, who always fought everything we tried, became 
champions.  At least we had one success, but we still have a lot to do.

Thanks!
D. Richard Cobb
(585) 477-4903 (phone)
(585) 588-5422 (fax)
(585) 253-3391 (pager)
d.richard.cobb**At_Symbol_Here**kodak.com




In my organization, everyone must have
an HSE goal amongst their goals for the year.  The HSE Team works
to incorporate employee volunteers within a multitude of Project Teams.

However, there is still the question,
"What happens if someone does not follow through on their goal?"
 The answer is simple - nothing.

Years ago, there was one Manager who
would spend about 1 to 2 hours a week, riding a freight elevator where
the usage of safety glasses was required.  If anyone got on the elevator
while she was on it, without safety glasses, it was automatically three
(3) days off without pay - period.

Guess what?  Everyone was wearing
safety glasses where required.

We are in a time where no one wants
to hurt the feelings of another person.  Thus, we now have leadership
who says "Well, I know they had a fire in their lab, but let's focus
on what they did right".  This will never make people safer.

It's a fine line, isn't it?  If
we focus on too much positive - "We have had 1,000,000 hours without
an incident", then people will begin hiding problems so they are not
the one to end that streak.

If we focus on the negative totally
"Anyone who has a repeat incident will have two days off without pay",
then people will begin hiding their incidents.

The best thing is getting people involved
and not thinking of health and safety as a burden.  In 2008, we stopped
everything and divided up our organization into 12 specific areas.  All
work was stopped and all employees were divided up amongst those 12 areas.
 No one who worked in those areas we assigned to visit the area -
it had to be fresh eyes except for the "host" for the area.  We
had a keynote speaker talking about an incident in the company that led
to a death and then we had the groups go out and look at work being done
and make recommendations on how the work could be done safer.  All
had to report back to the whole division.

With this activity, we had more people
caring about health and safety than ever before.  A few, who always
fought everything we tried, became champions.  At least we had one
success, but we still have a lot to do.



Thanks!

D. Richard Cobb
(585) 477-4903
(phone)
(585) 588-5422
(fax)
(585) 253-3391
(pager)
d.richard.cobb**At_Symbol_Here**kodak.com

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