It is so sad when I hear a management team talk about how their employees are the problems with safety like they are some beasts that can’t be controlled. And the look on their faces is priceless when a “consultant” tells them they should be proud of the “beast they have created.”
A review and discussion of their latest accidents, all of which were stated to be “unsafe acts” by these beasts of employees, show a clear pattern of the basic failure of CORRECTING UNSAFE WORKING CONDITIONS. Sure, a human is removing the guards and sticking their hands into hazardous points of operation, but WHY are they doing this REPEATEDLY? (I bet everyone reading this can guess why)
Now they looked me in the eye with a straight face and zero hesitation in their speech to tell me, “Safety is #1 at this facility”. In fact, there is a banner in the room from 2020 that all the employees signed proclaiming such. On our first break, I took a look at the banner. When the management team returned, I asked them to show me their signatures.
Reply: “That was done before I/we got here”.
How many of the employees who signed it are still here?
Reply: “Not many; we have a lot of turnover.”
I told them… “you are so lucky; you have the greatest opportunity of your careers in front of you.” Again, that look of “this fool is just crazy.” Fix safety, and you’ll fix your turnover issues, your quality issues, your cost overruns issues, your HR complaint issues, and OSHA being called monthly by employees after you fired them for having an accident.
But the first step is the hardest…
