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New OSHA fact sheet: Safety walkarounds for owners and management

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Washington — Demonstrating a commitment to worker safety, and getting a firsthand look at whether safety and health programs are working. These are two of the reasons business owners and managers should personally conduct periodic walkaround inspections, OSHA states in a recently released fact sheet.

The fact sheet breaks conducting a walkaround into three steps: before, during and after an inspection.

To prepare for an inspection, OSHA suggests becoming familiar with the worksite’s history of incidents, near misses, incident investigations, and hazards and their elimination, and then giving priority to areas mentioned in the hazard reports. Anyone conducting a walkaround should be wearing appropriate, correctly fitting personal protective equipment.

“Nothing takes away credibility faster than having the wrong PPE or not wearing it properly,” OSHA states in the fact sheet.

Limit the number of inspectors involved in the walkaround, OSHA advises, because a larger group can inhibit communication with workers.

While onsite, talk to the workers, both new employees and veterans. OSHA suggests techniques to make workers more likely to share:

  • Assure them you’re trying to find and fix potential hazards, and aren’t interested in blaming – only improving safety.
  • Ask open-ended questions.

Following up on any hazards found or concerns voiced is a must, OSHA states, noting that failure to do so “can often stifle worker participation and enthusiasm, which can be hard to regain.” Managers should make an abatement plan – hazards found and solutions needed, as well as any further investigation required for more-complicated hazards. Share the plan with managers, supervisors and workers, and give periodic updates.

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Name
March 22, 2018
"Where the boots meet the floor and where the talk becomes the walk": Most Managers do not understand the Walk Around Safety concept and see it as something they are expected to do and delegate the responsibility of action to someone else, without any support or personal ownership in the corrective actions. They like the credit but it is low on their "Key Performance Indicators". Place their bonus 100% on few or no accidents, near misses, etc and I guarantee you would see an improvement in the adherence to rules and results! There are some that take it more serious than others, but the truth is that Safety Professionals have to use every tool in their toolbox to lead the management team as well as the employees towards the goal of following the safety rules, be aware of your surroundings, think about it before you do it, quit taking shortcuts, looking for unsafe conditions, looking out for their co-workers, being creative in safety solutions and holding management responsible for safety as well as themselves. A large obstacle to overcome is that most managers are not good leaders! Good leaders do what most managers can't do, lead people to do things that they normally wouldn't do, when the manager isn't watching. What most managers can do is promote the numbers that they are being held primarily responsible for and thus being rewarded for, such as, rejects, scrap, customer complaints, on-time delivery, headcount, etc. Empowerment and support of the Safety Manager are also one of the most important and critical factors in the success of the Safety Program. Many organizations talk a good game and might even promote the position to a staff level, but are their concerns being listened to, are they deemed as a complainer or hindrance to production, are they allowed only a couple of slides and a few minutes of discussion in the management meetings; or are they valued and supported as one of the most important managers in the organization. It's not about what level in the organization they are or what title and salary they have, it's more about how seriously are they taken and if they are valued and supported by the management organization. High levels of support and value must be at the corporate level as well as the shop floor. "That's where the boots meet the floor and where the talk becomes the walk"!

Title

zaida
March 10, 2019
Inspection checklist