PLANT MACHINERY & SITE SAFETY
EFFECTING CHANGE
As a developer and provider of smart safety technology, we always want our customers to be protected and get the best out of the safety solutions we provide.
If we don’t effectively engage with our users, they won’t get optimal performance and we will have unhappy customers, with inadequate protection from occupational harm.
So, during the biggest crisis to affect us in decades, is it really that different to get people to behave safely in their daily lives than it is on a construction site?
KEEP CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION OPEN If we don’t safeguard against breakdowns in user
engagement and communication with our clients, they just won’t understand how best to use the PWS. That means they don’t get the best out of the solution we provide for them, and therefore thwart their safety objectives.
Ineffective communication has been the cause of many misunderstandings, and when improved, can result in significant developments for the better – whether it’s for international diplomacy, occupational training or a global health and safety emergency, like COVID-19.
As we’ve seen during the lockdown, regular and clear communication has been very prominent. The UK government has been briefing the nation every day with consistent messaging. They’ve reached out to all groups, explaining the protocols of safe movement for them, working from home and not going out except for one form of daily exercise and vital supplies. Key workers have slightly more freedom of movement and special access for shopping.
THE CHALLENGE OF DOING THINGS
DIFFERENTLY Similarly, when we are implementing a safety solution, for it to be useful, buy-in must be achieved at different levels in an organisation, from the directors to operatives. Each group needs to understand how our solution affects them.
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Gary Escott, Director of SiteZone Safety shares his thoughts on the similarities between changing safety behaviour on site, and changing behaviour in an entire country under lockdown.
Senior management is concerned with production and reputation and anything that impacts them. In the COVID-19 lockdown, owners and senior leadership everywhere have been concerned about keeping staff safe, and their businesses alive. They want to know that any solution offered benefits the business, whether it’s improved safety, or a financial safety net.
Product users will physically use and feel the direct effects of using a solution. They’ve generally done things a certain way over years. Engagement with them requires taking their concerns seriously and even persuading them to revise long lived habits by communicating the clear and practical benefit of doing so. During the COVID-19 lockdown, we have seen that the public does not like change, and it takes a while to adapt. Therefore, steady engagement and reporting on the effects of their behaviour helps enforcement.
Similarly, with our telematic data capture offering, clients can record whether users are breaching site safety rules. With accurate data gathered and shared, the end users get the message: be mindful of your decisions; they can endanger you and others.
SHARE THE RESPONSIBILITY Many clients understand that safety is the
responsibility of everyone involved in the company, from the top down. When you understand what your requirements are, how they affect everyone, then investing in safety solutions pays off; people are protected and reputations are strengthened, whether you’re a user or a supplier.
Our society works much the same in an emergency. When you stop and evaluate consequences, then you start working together more. Lives are saved, business prevails, the worst of the crisis is mitigated effectively. Altering habits can be good, even if it’s enforced, because you just never know when changing your spots is going to save lives.
www.proximitywarning.com
www.tomorrowshs.com
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