1.) What is a Safety Contact?
Safety Contacts are a conversation between a “manager” and an employee that is focused exclusively on safety!
2) Who is considered a Manager?
A “manager” is considered to be all levels of management (usually defined by “exempt” status), but also includes the Leadership Team such as Engineers, Shift leads/ Supervisors, and other’s designated by the Business Manager or Safety Team.
3) Why are Safety Contacts so important?
Utilizing world class bench marking exercises of the leaders in industry, Safety Contacts have been determined to be a key element to reducing injuries. Safety Contacts can be an important tool to enhance communications and is conducive to effective two-way communications.They provide an opportunity for employees to share their concerns DIRECTLY with a member of Management, as well as a platform for the management team to demonstrate their level of commitment to the employee’s safety.
4) How much time will it take to make a Safety Contact?
The exact amount of time is difficult to determine. It takes as long as it takes. It could be as short as three or four minutes, or as long as ten or fifteen. It is similar to “how long is a phone conversation?” The conversation is over when both parties say goodbye. However, a Safety Contact is not a passing comment in the hallway. It is a recognizable conscious act and should not be prematurely cut short by either party for the sake of time.
5) How will Safety Contact Time be reported?
Completed Safety Contact cards will be sent to the Safety Group Leader via interoffice mail.
6) What is done with the data collected from all of the Operations?
The data obtained from the cards will be analyzed using the statistical tools to determine process capability. The results of the contacts will be measured against the incident rate and other performance indicators. If the injury rate starts trending upward in an Operation, Safety Contact requirements will most likely be increased.
7) How will Safety Contacts be measured?
Safety Contact’s can be measured in a number of ways. At implementation it will be very basic, in that we will measure the following:
a) Total Number of contacts made
b) Number of contacts made by Department
c) Number of contacts made by Shift
d) Contacts made by each “Manager”
e) Location of contacts
As we progress into this process, we will of course revise our measurement system and goals. We will begin to focus our efforts in those areas/tasks that pose the largest risk to our employees and those that have been shown to cause injuries to employees and contractors. The Safety Team may even ask that certain topics be discussed during contacts. They may do this to head off a negative trend seen in accident trends, observation data, etc. This will call for a separate and finite measurement system to be developed and implemented for this special effort. We will eventually arrive at the point where we set goals to assure that EVERY SINGLE employee is “contacted” on a reasonably set frequency.
8) Will Safety Meetings or Team Meetings be considered Safety Contacts?
No! Safety Contacts must be a specific, recognizable, conscious act conducted in the employee’s workplace (i.e. control room, production floor, shift office, etc.) and not in a conference room or meeting environment. Remember these contacts are for the employees, and conducting them on “their turf” will allow the employees to be more relaxed and open in their discussion. Many times the employee will even be able to physically show you their concerns during the contact.
9) How many Safety Contacts will be required by each Manager?
We have yet to determine the exact number, this will be determined in a statistical process commonly called “Establishing Operating Tolerances”. Safety Contacts will, however vary from Operation to Operation, depending on the size of the Operation and their injury history and trend. The suggested minimum starting point is: each employee should receive a Safety Contact “at least” once a month by their Supervisor/ Manager.
10) What will be discussed during the Safety Contact Time?
The requirement is it must be focused EXCLUSIVELY on safety. Some examples are to discuss recent incidents, communicate and reinforce safety expectations, review new safety procedures, talk about safety issues specific to the employee’s task, or it could be generic information such as LOTO, Hotwork, PPE, etc.. The Safety Team will be assisting the various Management Teams with generic and specific topics. But, keep in mind two-way communications is encouraged, so the employee may determine what the Safety Contact content is (i.e. poor-fitting PPE, work place hazards, solutions to at-risk tasks, etc.)
11) What happens to individuals who do not cooperate?
We do not want our employees to get injured. To support this, we have established a goal of reducing our injuries by __% to a injury rate of _____ in 20__. This goal is no different than any other production, cost, or quality goal to make us a better, more competitive, and ultimately a more successful company. We have utilized the bench marking process to identify Safety Contacts as a vital element to meeting this goal. Therefore, we are confident all of the Management team will actively support and cooperate to meet this very important business objective.
PLEASE visit the Document Library for working examples of a Safety Contact Card.