If a facility spends hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on paint the month before an audit… we may be doing “it” wrong!
Early in my career, I sat in my weekly staff meeting when the plant manager announced our corporate safety and health audit. As in most organizations, these are “big deals”. A career maker or breaker in some organizations. He and I were new to the company and this facility so when the old guard began discussing their “prep plans” for this audit, he was taken back just a bit…
“Wait… you already know what needs to be done today, and you’re not fixing it for the worker’s safety, but you’ll fix it for some suit from corporate? Ladies and gentlemen, put your pens down- we need to have a talk”.
And from that day forward, I learned to live safety as if my “boss was walking behind me”.
If the safety signs are too old and faded for an auditor, they’re too old and faded for the workers.
If the floor striping in the warehouse is too old and faded for an auditor, it’s too old and faded for the workers.
If our programs need updating for an auditor, then they should have been updated for the workers.
If the auditors will not be happy with our safety training as it is months/years behind schedule, then we should not be happy with our safety training.
We don’t do safety to pass an internal audit, 3rd Party audit, or to appease some regulatory authority. We DO SAFETY for the men and women doing the dirty and dangerous work. If our motivations are anything other, we may be doing “it” wrong!
