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Seven tips for ‘innovative’ behavior-based’ safety

The National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA) presented — at the invitation of the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) Southeastern district — seven ideas targeting injury reduction at stone, sand, and gravel facilities.

MSHA invited NSSGA to speak about perspectives on successful leadership. During the presentation, the association discussed the NSSGA Safety Pledge, which calls for signers to commit their companies to help the aggregates industry achieve a 10-percent reduction in injury rates in each of five years, and provided seven ideas of programs undertaken within a culture of safe and healthy production aiming to engage workers with the goal of boosting the team’s overall performance in reducing injuries and illnesses.

The seven ideas from NSSGA are as follows:

1. “Wingman,” which uses the concept of employees looking out for one another and is reinforced with imagery from the movie, “Top Gun.”

2. “Leadership weekends,” which afford the chance for delivering safety training to frontline leaders typically responsible for production-related tasks when most training is offered.

3. “Safety Blitz,” which consists of visits by eight random workers from peer facilities to evaluate conditions as if they were MSHA inspectors.

4. “District Safety Steering Teams,” a new collection of safety discussions ushering together hourly employees for reviewing the process by which safety committees develop and communicate their work.

5. “Saved My Bacon,” a recognition program capitalizing on the notion that co-workers often assist peers in adhering to standards and avoiding injuries; this is supposed to foster added reflection on ways in which improvements can be conceived of, and implemented.

6. “That Was Easy,” a recognition program allowing more reticent workers to see either instances of discernment of hazards or failure to have detected such hazards with resultant insights on avoiding that failing in the future.

7. “Visual Safety Event,” which took a night-time look at safety and health hazards, and spawned useful insights about ways in which lack of visibility can threaten workers, and new approaches (e.g., strobe lights, better clothing, improved safety boards, etc.) for addressing those concerns.