Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

An Approach to Changing a Safety Culture that Works

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Over the past year QBE has sponsored QUBE (formerly P&O Ports) to partner with Enhance Solutions to develop and facilitate a one day safety leadership program. The program has been very well received and is having quite an impact on the business.

In order to ensure the content was correct, a pilot program was trialled with all of the risk managers from around Australia. With their guidance, the content was redeveloped and will be presented to all of those who lead a team in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. This includes all team leaders through to state managers.

The content of the program includes:

  • Finding a personal why to safety
  • Understanding and impacting safety culture
  • Leading safety
  • Communication
  • Understanding legal responsibilities

The feedback from the program has been extremely positive and includes this quote from Hayley:

If there is one thing I learnt yesterday at the Leading Safety Course was we need to “change the culture” which starts at the top and trickles its way down to the workers.  To help this change I deciphered and took note of three key elements…  We need to change the “behavior” by adjusting their attitudes, supporting their personalities and updating the environment.  If we succeed in all three then I reckon it’s the right step towards making “safety” second nature (kind of like getting dressed everyday).  Ultimately what we want is for a worker to automatically pick up that steel strapping on the footpath and throw it in the bin instead of stepping over it and keep on walking.”

QUBE have identified that to successfully improve a safety culture it is essential to provide the right skills and knowledge to the leaders in the business and encourage them to engage people in the safety discussion every day.

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OHS Body of Knowledge

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

In July 2009 WorkSafe Victoria approved funding for “the development and implementation of the Core Body of Knowledge for the generalist OHS Professional”.  This project has included three major milestones.

  • To define the body of knowledge that an OHS Professional should have
  • To establish a course accreditation process for universities providing education in OHS
  • To develop a professional certification process.

Sally Bennett from Enhance Solutions has been the Project Manager for this project, working closely with Pam Pryor and the Technical Panel (Susanne Tepe, David Borys, Wendy Macdonald, Leo Ruschena, Jodi Oakman and Mike Capra).  The process of developing and structuring the main content of this document was managed by a Technical Panel with representation from Victorian universities that teach OHS and from the Safety Institute of Australia, which is the main professional body for generalist OHS professionals in Australia. The Panel developed an initial conceptual framework which was then amended in accord with feedback received from OHS tertiary-level educators throughout Australia and the wider OHS profession. Specialist authors were invited to contribute chapters, which were then subjected to peer-review and editing.

The OHS Body of Knowledge was formally launched in April 2012 at the SIA National Convention, Safety in Action.

 

http://www.ohsbok.org/

 

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Are they competent??

Friday, April 20th, 2012

This month we finished the second safety leadership program for an Australian wide manufacturing company. During the project presentations we were reminded of the importance of checking for competency. It was highlighted that assumptions are often made about what employees can and can’t do, especially those who are undergoing or have just finished their apprenticeship. For example, one of their electrical apprentices was asked to use a drop saw. Fortunately he was wise enough to let them know he had never used one before, however, the assumption had been made that he could.

OHS legislation is very clear about the importance of adequate information, instruction, training and supervision. It is essential that an employer has methods in place to measure competency in order to understand the level of supervision required by individual employees. In order to measure competency the aspects of a person’s tasks need to be broken down into competencies. Each person needs to be measured against the competencies and shortfalls identified. Once these have been identified training measures need to be implemented in order to provide the employee with the knowledge and skills to undertake their tasks safely.

The people undertaking the project we referred to earlier broke down the competencies for each of the tasks the apprentices needed to undertake in each area of the factory. This included the machinery and equipment, including hand tools, they needed to use for each task. The intention is to assess each of the apprentices against the competencies and arrange for training where there are gaps. They are fully aware of how vulnerable apprentices are in these situations, as they had just completed their own apprenticeships.

Employers need to be asking themselves about any assumptions they may be making about a person’s ability to undertake a task or use a piece of machinery. They need to have a method in place that systematically measures a person’s ability against the required competencies for a job and offer training to overcome any shortfalls. This needs to be recorded in an accessible manner and utilised when making decisions about who can work in what area of the business.

The key question is as an employer how do I know this person is competent to do this job?? How do you know?

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Leading Safety at Toll Domestic Forwarding

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

To understand what they needed to do to achieve their safety objective of “No Injuries”, Toll Domestic Forwarding undertook a Safety Culture Survey across a representative sample of locations throughout their businesses earlier this year.

In partnership with Toll Domestic Forwarding the team at Enhance Solutions spoke to around 160 people across 18 sites, including OH&S representatives, drivers, forklift operators and managers.

The questions we asked included “What does safety mean to you?”, “What currently works?”, “What currently doesn’t work” and “What does good safety culture look like, feel like and sound like?”

That information was then used to develop a safety vision and a three year plan for how to achieve the vision. The next extraordinary step that TDF took clearly illustrated their commitment to the goal of ‘No Injuries’ and the development of a strong, positive safety culture. The Divisional Human Resources Manager and the Divisional Director then visited their branches across Australia and New Zealand to give everyone in the business feedback on:

• What we heard you say

• What we have done

• What we are going to do

In total they visited 29 sites in Australia and 23 sites in New Zealand. They ran a total of 90 one hour sessions which touched the lives of 2,200 employees. What an incredible effort.

As a part of the program they have had a series of powerful posters made up which most sites now have on display.

One of the key messages gained as a result of the survey was the need to skill up the leaders in the business. In order to address this Toll DF have committed to a safety leadership program for all front line staff and above. During the latter half of 2011 they had already worked with us to put 164 of their people through leadership programs. What an incredible effort!

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Trust and Social Capital

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Watching the Qantas dispute continue to unfold over the last few days has got us thinking about the importance of trust, and the significance of social capital in managing workplace relationships.

 Social research supports the hypothesis that the most effective organisations are based on communities of shared ethical values. In short, moral interactions build mutual trust and procure the social capital upon which the organisation develops.

Social capital is major input for the nature of the kind of organisation that is created. If people who work together trust one another, it is because they are all operating according to a common set of ethical norms, hence doing business costs less. Such an organisation will be better able to innovate and implement change, since the high degree of trust will permit a wide variety of social relationships to emerge.

By contrast, people who do not trust one another will end up co-operating only under a system of formal rules and regulations, which have to be negotiated, agreed to, litigated, and enforced. This legal apparatus, serving as a substitute for trust, entails what economists call “transaction costs”.

High degree of trust is thought to increase economic efficiency by reducing the transaction costs that would otherwise be incurred. Transactional arrangements are also thought to be easier and less expensive if the relationship architecture is characterized by honesty. For instance, there will be:

  • less need for control mechanisms within the management process;
  • less need to specify matters contractually;
  • there will be fewer grounds for dispute; and hence fewer disputes;
  • less need for litigation (which consumes wealth but adds little or no value; destroys relationships; and reduces trust);
  • less need to hedge against unexpected contingencies and unpredictable issues.

Building trust though, is a continuing exercise that demands both time and resourcing. Yet, the cost of building trust hence social capital far outweighs the transactional cost that any change management processes can bring. So, it’s a timely reminder for all of us to continue the good work in developing and maintaining the social capital of our respective organisations.

No doubt, 2012 will bring its own set of challenges!

Fukuyama, F. (1995), Trust: The Social Values And The Creation Of Prosperity, Hamish Hamilton, London

 

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