Every organization’s safety management journey is unique. Yet as we look at three things – consolidation of EHS processes on a single platform, digital transformation, and implementation of EHS technologies – we see a pattern shared by many Enablon clients.
It usually begins with a company wanting commercial software for incident management. They want a tool to track all accidents, injuries, and illnesses across the enterprise, for recordkeeping and compliance purposes.
Down the line, they decide to expand the use of their EHS platform to other functions, such as audits, inspections, air quality, environmental compliance, etc.
Instead of using the EHS software for compliance, reports, and lagging indicators (injuries, illnesses), they eventually decide to leverage their EHS software system to be more proactive. They do this by capturing near misses and observations of at-risk or unsafe conditions or behaviors. To make this as easy as possible, they encourage frontline workers to enter observations through a mobile app.
Data from observations is then analyzed to identify hazards, risks, and behaviors that need to change. This is followed by corrective and preventive action plans to either eliminate hazards or control risks, and training sessions or other types of employee outreach to encourage the right behaviors.
Many organizations already have a program in place to capture near misses and incidents through mobile apps. But what about observations of at-risk or unsafe conditions or behaviors?
If your company does not yet have a program where workers can capture and report observations, here are five best practices to help you get started.
1) Provide examples of what to report
The roll-out of any software-based program is always accompanied by training (classroom-based, online, microlearning, self-paced). In a safety observations program, training includes a technical component where workers learn how to report an observation (by entering information, images, videos, etc.), and a business component where the purpose and goals of the program are explained.
To make the training more effective, provide examples of what to report. Maybe stage situations on the plant floor and ask people to identify what should be reported. People are more likely to learn through actual examples, rather than theoretical explanations.
2) Remind everyone it’s not about assigning blame
Often, the obstacles to a successful safety observations program are psychological more than technical or organizational. Some employees may be reluctant to report observations because they don’t want to give the impression they’re snitching on their colleagues or supervisors.
Emphasize the purpose of the program is not to assign blame, but to improve workplace safety for everyone. Even better, show the organization is committed to this purpose by providing two types of anonymity.
First, allow workers to submit an observation anonymously if they prefer. Second, allow observations to be submitted without naming the employee involved or providing a location (so the employee can’t be later identified).
3) Include contractors
With the growing use of contractors, there may be worksites where contract workers outnumber employees. Therefore, relying exclusively on your frontline workers to report potential hazards and risks is no longer an option.
Leading EHS mobile apps like Enablon Go can also be used by contractors, making it easy for all workers to report observations. The app is installed in just a few steps and contractors can start using it right away, without a complex IT process.
To ensure security, contractors are able to enter only incidents, near misses, other events, and observations through Enablon Go. They do not have access to the rest of your company’s Enablon platform, from either the app or a desktop.
4) Compare observations with incidents
The number of reported observations is a leading indicator, but lagging indicators, such as incident rates, help measure the effectiveness of the safety observations program. By comparing the number of observations and incident rates over time, you can evaluate if observations are providing valuable insights into hazards and risks.
Note there will be a lag before seeing results. For example, if the number of observations has been high since January, incident rates may start to decline only in April, since it may take time to fully identify and eliminate hazards or control risks through action plans.
Comparisons between the numbers of observations and incidents will fall into one of four scenarios.
- High observations + low incidents: Insights from observations successfully identified and addressed hazards and risks, thereby reducing incidents.
- Low observations + high incidents: Not enough observations are captured to produce insights into hazards and risks, therefore incidents remain high.
- High observations + high incidents: The quantity of observations is good, but not the quality, i.e., observations are not useful in producing valuable insights into hazards and risks.
- Low observations + low incidents: Safety performance has improved so much that there are fewer new hazards or risks to identify through observations.
Also, note correlation may not imply causation. For example, verify if these scenarios are occurring:
- High observations + low incidents: Perhaps most hazards were already known because of regular hazard assessments and have been addressed, or perhaps observations aren’t valuable and aren’t revealing new hazards.
- High observations + high incidents: Observations may successfully identify hazards, but no action is taken, or controls are not reducing risks of incidents. The problem is with execution or risk mitigation, not observations.
In general, simply aiming for a high quantity of observations is not enough. Quality also matters.
5) Start with a pilot program
If you want to proceed cautiously, consider running a safety observations pilot program at one site before implementing the program across the entire enterprise.
The pilot should run for a specific duration. Answer these key questions to help determine the changes that should be made before rolling out the program everywhere:
- Are workers participating? What is the percentage of workers who reported at least one observation? What is the average number of observations per worker?
- Is it easy to report observations? Are workers satisfied with how observations are reported? Are there too many details to enter? Is the process quick and user-friendly?
- Are you getting the right number of observations? If you’re not getting enough observations, is it due to lack of participation, unclear instructions, or because there are not many unsafe conditions or behaviors to report?
- Is there enough data per observation? Are you satisfied with the quantity and quality of details for each observation?
- What is the value of the observations? Are you getting too much noise and not enough signals? Are people entering random observations just for the sake of reporting something?
- Do you notice differences between work groups? For example, are workers from the night shift participating less? Are workers of a specific team participating more? How can these differences be explained?
Start with these five best practices we’ve observed at Enablon clients, and you will be well on your way to a successful safety observations program.