safety tips

Hurricane Preparedness and Response

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hurricane preparedness

It’s no surprise that the 2020 hurricane season has proven to be extraordinarily active. Hurricanes Laura and Sally left widespread damage and loss in their path for families and businesses of all kinds. In light of these natural disasters, here are resources to help employers review steps they can and should take to combat the potential damages of hurricanes, as well as other natural and manmade disasters that can impact business operations any time of the year.

Preparedness

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Standards that are part of regulations issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), all workplaces with more than 10 employees are required to develop a written Emergency Action Plan (EAP) to identify and coordinate necessary employer and employee actions during an emergency. On OSHA’s hurricane preparedness page, there is an outline describing how to properly plan for hurricanes. This page on OSHA’s website states that it is important to have an EAP to ensure that workers can get to safety in case a hurricane may affect the area. A thorough evacuation plan, OSHA states, should include:

  • Conditions that will activate the plan
  • Chain of command
  • Emergency functions and who will perform them
  • Specific evacuation procedures, including routes and exits
  • Procedures for accounting for personnel, customers and visitors
  • Equipment for personnel (OSHA.gov)

Recovery and Response

While it’s important to have you EAP ready to go, it is just as important to practice it so you are sure your employees are prepared to handle severe weather situations, as well as other pertinent emergencies.

OSHA also provides a hurricane response and recovery page that showcases their Hurricane eMatrix. The eMatrix outlines the most commonly performed duties during hurricane response and recovery work, and the post-disaster hazards that employees could face. OSHA has developed specific standards to address many of these kinds of hazards.

For example, if your crew is needed for disaster cleanup, then the employers must make sure to have the proper equipment and personal protective equipment. Cleanup responsibilities usually involve fixing power lines, repair roofs, tree trimming, or general debris pickup. Only those with the proper training, equipment and experience should conduct cleanup activities.

Communication is Key

Communication is necessary to do any job, but it is needed even more during an emergency situation. It is highly recommended that employers find a way to communicate with employees during all stages of an emergency situation. Employers must be able to tell all employees whether to evacuate, how to get information about the emergency, what areas of the building to avoid, how and when it is safe to return to the work area, and when it is acceptable to contact family members and loved ones.
If your company has experienced damage from the recent disaster, ResponsAble is here to help. We have experienced industrial labor and safety professionals to help get your site back on track. Call us at 225-753-1909. https://responsablestaffing.com/contact-us/

The Ripple Effects of a Safety Incident

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safety incident

Along with the tragic nature of a safety-related incident, there are unintentional costs and lost time that organizations might have to continuously pay for over a long period of time. 

Besides the tragic outcome of an injury, illness, or even death, accidents have a huge impact on your business. It is in your best interest to make sure that the people working for you are well-trained and experienced so that an accident doesn’t happen on your watch.

Why? Here are six reasons. 

1. Needless destruction of life and health is morally unjustified. We must protect life and health. The most obvious reason for proper safety training is that preventing the destruction of life and health is our primary concern as safety specialists. This is a moral obligation for the health and well-being of our employees.  

2. Failure to take necessary precautions against predictable accidents and occupational illnesses makes management and workers morally responsible for those accidents and occupational illnesses. If a potential problem or threat exists, and no action steps are taken to prevent an accident, the outcome will fall on you.

3. Accidents and occupational illnesses severely limit efficiency and productivity. The third reason for preventing accidents is because accidents and occupational illnesses limit efficiency and productivity because of downtime. This is an indirect cost from an accident, but a very costly one. Replacement labor can cost your company time and resources, along with possible sick pay, repairing damaged equipment, or even OSHA fines.

4. Accidents and occupational illnesses produce far-reaching social harm. The fourth reason for preventing accidents is because accidents and occupational illnesses can produce lasting damage to your reputation. Word gets around when accidents happen and it always paints a negative picture of a company in the public eye. We’ve always said that your clients will only think as much of you as they think of your safety personnel. Sending unprepared employees to a job will hurt your reputation because you will be sending them the wrong message about your company. With the right safety staff, you can send a message that says “We take safety and the lives of our employees seriously! We do our best in everything.”

5. The safety movement has demonstrated that its techniques are effective in reducing accident rates and promoting efficiency.

6. Prevent OSHA violations. The sixth reason for preventing accidents is because state and federal legislation mandates management responsibility to provide a safe workplace, so this is a legal requirement. OSHA violations could cost you thousands of dollars a day. Even the most unintentional violation can cause serious harm to your company.

To prevent the negative ripple of a safety incident, you must be proactive and fully train your safety staff. Using a proactive health and safety process will help an organization see a large return on investment through improved productivity, improved morale, decreased time away, and lower workers’ compensation insurance costs.

We believe having well-trained, high quality, experienced safety professionals on a job site is the best way to go for accident prevention. The lives of your employees, your reputation, and your bottom line are all at stake, but they will be in good hands with ResponsAble safety professionals on site. Give us a call at225-753-1909to talk with us about your upcoming projects.

Creating an Environment of Safety

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environment of safety

In the type of work you do, safety is no joke. The responsibility for your staff’s safety and wellbeing is a heavy load. Here are a few tips for creating a culture and rhythm of prioritizing safety in your workplace.

Include intensive safety training in the onboarding process. When you hire a new staff member, don’t skimp on the onboarding process. This training is critical to staff competency and efficiency. It also sets expectations and defines priorities for the work environment that you want to create.

Provide clear guidelines and checklists. Make sure your employees know what the safety protocols are and are equipped to follow them. 

Host monthly safety lunches. Provide lunch one day a month and have a project manager present relevant safety topics. Discuss topics that apply to current jobs or projects so that workplace safety is fresh. When you make it a priority to present information, your staff understand it as an important workplace consideration.

Post safety information in the workspace. Hang posters, reminders, and instructions around the workplace as visual reminders of safety considerations and information.

Orient staff on new equipment. When new tools and equipment are introduced, set aside time to go over instructions for use and safety considerations of the new equipment. Many suppliers will include safety information that can be easily shared with your staff as they begin use.

Lead by example. Your company’s leadership should prioritize safety as much as they desire the staff to. They should implement the same precaution and follow the set guidelines as are expected of all employees.

The liability is not worth the risk of safety. Promote an environment of safety in your workplace by creating intentional touchpoints and rhythms that communicate it as a priority to your staff. This investment will pay dividends over time.

Tips for Keeping Your Shipping & Receiving Center Running Safely

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shipping receiving safety

While OSHA does not have specific safety regulations for shipping and handling centers, there are many aspects of the safety procedures that apply to these staff. Any employee that is exposed to hazards or risks should be protected to the extent possible on the job site. Consider these employees as you create workplace procedures and protocols.

Some Common Threats

This type of work requires frequent lifting and moving of incoming and outgoing materials. Back and muscle injury is easily incurred.

Use of equipment such as dollies, forklifts or hand trucks are also common. Accidents can occur, particularly with potential injuries to appendages.

Stacked packages or out of reach materials also produce a falling object hazard.

Additionally, tools for cutting, packaging, and strapping materials also create risk to staff in shipping and receiving.

Shipping & Receiving Safety Tips

It may be time to add some additional regulations for you staff in your shipping centers and warehouses.

Here’s a checklist that may be a helpful start point or reference.

  1. Make sure the warehouse area is clean and free of clutter and unnecessary items.
  2. Always use necessary equipment for heavy, large or bulky materials.
  3. When using cutting tools, always cut away from yourself and others and make sure that tools are closed or covered when not in use.
  4. Be careful when stacking or storing materials at height. Ensure the base of the stack is stable by placing heavy items closest to the floor with lighter items on top.
  5. When loading trucks, make the heaviest point of the load forward on the truck axle for stability.
  6. Feel free to take two trips whenever necessary rather than piling a load too high.
  7. When in doubt, ask for help with materials and work with one or more people to get the job done.
  8. Be sure to position materials on shelving in a way that fall hazards are reduced – far enough back from the edge.

These tips are generalized considerations for many shipping & handling centers. However, to ensure the safety and well-being of your staff the manager should conduct a safety audit of your specific workspace. Pay attention to any special considerations and create policies to keep your team safe. For more safety tips like these, view other articles on the ResponsAble blog!

Serious About Plant Safety? What About The Office?

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office safety

For most employers, the bulk of safety emphasis goes toward the shop floor, production, manufacturing, etc.  Machines moving products rapidly around human beings just demands our collective prevention attention.  But what about the office? 

We tend to look at the office environment long enough to see everybody’s going home with all their fingers and toes; it’s all good. 

It’s Not All Good; They Slipping, Tripping and Falling All Over the Place

The Center for Disease Control, CDC, reports office workers are up to 2.5 times more likely to suffer an injury from a fall than non-office workers.  What?!?!?

Yep, office workers get lulled into safety complacency just like anyone will when they don’t recognize the hazards.  There are many potential slip, trip and fall hazards in a typical office setting.

  • • Wet or slippery floors
  • • Objects on floors such as open drawers, electrical cords, carpeting, items left in walkways
  • • Poor visibility or lighting
  • • Use of furniture in place of a proper latter to reach elevated items
  • • Unsafe or unstable footwear

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome anyone? 

If your office workers are careful to avoid all those slip, trip and fall hazards, how are they doing with the long hours on the computer? 

Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS, data reveals musculoskeletal disorders, MSD’s, account for over $ 15 billion in worker’s compensation costs annually. 

MSD’s are associated with many of the type of activities common in office work. 

  • • Sitting still for long periods of time
  • • Poor posture for long durations; improper ergonomics
  • • Repetitive small motor movement such as typing
  • • Lack of work breaks

Lifting Not So Heavy Loads

Poor lifting technique can lead to injury even with relatively light loads.  The act of lifting is intrinsically hard on our back, neck and shoulders especially if we use improper form.  Additional risk comes for people who are not physically fit or have prior injuries that may re-occur with even a small strain. 

Common causes of lifting injuries

  • • Lifting something that is too heavy
  • •Not asking for help
  • • Bending from the waste instead of squatting and using legs
  • • Grabbing with finger tips
  • • Twisting while carrying a heavy item

The risk factors described above are by no means an exhaustive list but simply some highlights to raise awareness around office safety.  The injuries and risk associated with the office environment just don’t tend to get our full attention when stacked up next to heavy industrial settings; but it should. 

Put the same Safety, Health and Environmental zeal into protecting your office workers as you do for any employee.  Make sure your training and accountability for the office staff is on par with any other role but match the curriculum and expectations to the office threats. 

Ensuring your office operates safely is right for your employees and right for your business.  If you want a safe plant, you need a safe office.

My Top 5 Safety Audit Findings

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We’ve written about the importance of building and maintaining a Safety Culture more times than I can recall and I would bet that anyone seeing this post agrees that a Safety Culture is mission critical for their business.  One of the tools that helps reinforce and encourage the importance of the elements that make up a Safety Culture is the Safety Audit. 

Routine but unannounced Safety Audits can really help your staff think and act when they see an unsafe condition or behavior.

This post should encourage you to consider whether you or your business could benefit from effective use of Safety Audits by sharing my top 5, or could also be my bottom 5, findings during unannounced Safety Audits.   Deciding upon what order I should put them in was harder than I thought.

No. 5:  The dreaded open file drawers. 

In spite of our numerous training sessions on trip hazards in the office environment, I received a citation for open file drawers on many of my safety audits.  It seems benign to leave the drawer open while you take a few minutes to make copies, but the struggle is real with regard to trip hazards within the office.  Don’t make the mistake of ignoring safety hazards in the administrative areas of your work place. 

No. 4:  Unmarked or mismarked liquid containers.

The mechanical shop was the big offender.  Waste oil in unmarked containers, soapy water solutions used for leak detection in mismarked spray bottles and my personal favorite citation – an unidentified liquid believed to be a motor fuel such as diesel in a coke bottle marked as ok for human consumption.  It’s hard enough to keep your MSDS files accurate and current without the added creativity of some staff.

No. 3: A dry eye wash station.

In a relatively remote work area with limited access to utilities, someone forgot to return water service to the eye wash station after scheduled maintenance.  Of course we audited “right before” they were going to open the valve and test it; just bad timing I guess. 

No 2: Improper or inadequate PPE.

While not an excuse, I was always most empathetic to this one where hand protection / gloves was the issue.  A craftsman using their hands for work will at times feel they need the dexterity of bare fingers to properly perform the task.  Proper procedures and training are critical to aligning Personal Protective Equipment requirements with employee compliance. 

No 1:  Inadequate or blocked egress.

The most egregious, outrageous, ridiculous safety violation I ever witnessed wins the number 1 spot.  A damaged door latch prevented an exterior door to an automotive shop from staying closed.  This door was the only egress at the very rear of the shop so it was also the only way out to avoid any fire, fumes or other hazard that may occur in the work area.  Being a cold winter week when the door latch was damaged, some innovative soul threaded heavy gauge wire through a hole in the door and adjacent frame to firmly secure the door.  Egress from a cloud of fumes or fire would have required long handled metal snips and a clear minded, strong worker to escape. 

There have been many unsafe conditions show themselves during the course of routine Safety Audits over the years.  The examples described above should never occur where the safety culture is mature. 

One tool in your Safety Tool Box is the Safety Audit to identify opportunities to improve your safety culture and help your team to keep safety awareness as the priority it deserves. 

The Top Five Safety Audit Findings above are just a few examples of how employees can lose focus on safety.  We would love to hear your stories that may help us all improve.