As part of regular maintenance at a copper smelter, workers would remove large gates from the furnace to have them sandblasted. These gates were about 10 feet wide, eight feet tall, two feet thick, and weighed about eight tons. A crane would lift the gates from the furnace, take them into the yard, and leave them standing on their two-foot-wide edge. Although several people working at the smelter realized the gates might fall over during sandblasting, no one reported it. After all, they had been doing it this way for a long time, and no one had ever gotten hurt. One day, the process of sandblasting the gate ate away the dirt that was supporting the gate, and it fell on a worker, killing him. The smelter then implemented new safety guidelines and enforced them.
Repeating hazardous behavior, just because no one has been injured doing it in the past, creates a dangerous cycle that might be broken only when someone is seriously injured or dies. The absence of injury is the reward that reinforces the behavior. A fatal injury can break the cycle, but it’s the worst way.
It’s much better to use positive safety coaching to break that cycle, say SAIF senior safety management consultants Chris Liechty and Bruce Johnsen, who train employers and workers on how to be effective safety coaches. All employees should be taught to identify hazards, give feedback to correct unsafe behavior, and recognize and praise safe behavior.
In the sports world, good coaches love the game. They care about the athletes and inspire them to be the best they can be. They communicate in ways that build up players and encourage them. The same is true of positive safety coaching. When done correctly, it can stop at-risk behaviors and prevent most on-the-job injuries. Providing supervisors with safety coaching skills can have an immediate, positive impact.
“Approximately ninety-five percent of injuries are from ‘system failure,’” said Liechty. “This system is made up of management, employees, equipment, and the environment. Some examples of system failures include management not setting safety expectations, lack of accountability for safety, machine guards missing, employees taking unsafe shortcuts, inadequate employee training, or poor hiring choices. This system also includes identifying hazards and giving effective feedback, which are key elements of safety coaching.”
A bad coaching approach is to use verbal and nonverbal communication to degrade and shame the players. That kind of coaching doesn’t work on the sports field, nor does it help improve safety performance in the workplace. Ineffective safety coaching only teaches workers not to get caught next time, instead of helping them do a job more safely. It reinforces fear and decreases innovation. After all, why try something new—something that might make the job safer—if no one cares, or you might get criticized for making the suggestion. And shaming workers or trying to make them feel incompetent only lowers employee morale; it doesn’t improve safety.
Effective coaching focuses on what is possible; it is optimistic and supportive. A good safety coach explains why a rule or procedure exists rather than simply demanding that people blindly follow the rule. Taking the time to help employees understand the rationale for a procedure and getting their input makes them feel respected and increases the likelihood that those procedures will be followed now that the concerns are more clearly understood.
If an employee is behaving in an unsafe way, the key is to recognize it as a teaching opportunity and take action. However, it’s important to build rapport and trust with the employees instead of belittling them.
“Ask open-ended questions like ‘Tell me more’ so you can better learn exactly what happened,” said Liechty. “It is important to find out, for instance, if an employee has the right equipment and training for the job.”
“The number one way to motivate someone is to praise the appropriate behavior,” said Johnsen, “not just condemn hazardous behavior.”
“Don’t praise the person going too fast by saying things like, ‘You sure got that job done in a hurry,’” said Liechty. “Compliment the person doing it right: ‘I know it took you a little longer to do that job, but I appreciate that you were so careful and didn’t drive faster than you were supposed to.’”
An effective coach observes, analyzes, communicates, helps, and, most of all, cares.
Explain the proper technique
- Set clear expectations and provide appropriate training.
- Show that your concern for their safety is the reason for the coaching.
- Don’t accuse; communicate using “I” statements and not “you” statements.
- Be specific; don’t speak in generalities.
- Show employees you are there to help.
- Don’t assume anything; seek to understand the issues so you can effectively eliminate barriers to safe behavior.
- Ask open-ended questions: “I noticed what you were doing. Can you tell me why? Help me understand why you were doing it this way.”
- Listen to employees’ ideas and get them involved in finding safer ways to do their work.
- Obtain a verbal commitment from employees to work safely in the future.
Be a good safety coach
Good safety coaches know the hazards in their workplaces.
An employee might be unsafe by:
- Not wearing personal protective equipment
- Not lifting properly
- Not using ladders properly
- Jumping off equipment
Employees take risks:
- To save time
- For comfort
- Because they are not trained in doing it the safe way
- Because someone else did it unsafely
- Because no one corrects them
You need safety coaches to:
- Provide ongoing training
- Prevent injuries
- Prevent pain and suffering
- Show you care
- Promote safety
- Explain why you have the safety rules you do
- Hold people accountable
Provide safety coaching whenever:
- A new person is assigned
- An unsafe act is seen
- Anything done well is seen
- Work is assigned
This fall, SAIF will hold employer trainings in Bend and Redmond on effective safety coaching. These free trainings last about an hour and a half and include refreshments.
This article is from the fall 2011 issue of Comp News. See other articles from this publication.