Perhaps the most difficult part of being a safety professional is influencing others who do not report to us to perform their tasks in a manner that their supervisor doesn’t care about or believe in.
We can train, encourage, and provide incentives all day long. We can document all of the learning, gather all of the training certifications in the world, but ultimately it comes down to how the task is performed.
I worked on a project that had crane issue after crane issue. It seemed like we constantly called the crane company to make repairs. From the safety side, we were doing the right thing. Equipment needs maintenance and repairs by the right people.
Here’s where things went wrong: While one crane was being repaired by the proper company, another crane was being repaired by one of our crew who knew how to weld based only on his work in Auto Shop. This is kind of not the same thing.
Our safety team used due diligence to ensure proper repair and followed up with the repair company. What we didn’t know about was the unreported repair of the other crane. This is what I call an operational issue with a safety consequence.
*previously posted on LinkedIn
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