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Welcome to 2012.

Now that it’s the start of a wonderful new year, we’ve put together our list of workplace safety trends for 2012.

Given the introduction of OHS harmonisation laws across most of Australia, this has formed the basis behind most of our hypotheses.  However, we’ve also included other safety areas that have long since needed an overhaul.

Our predictions for 2012 workplace safety trends are:

1. Director’s responsibilities – Given the tough penalties corporate directors will face for unsafe workplaces, there will be a demand for executives to find out more about their responsibilities and what they need to do to improve their workplace safety.  Expect to see a plethora of executive training courses on this subject.  And executives out attending them (if they didn’t do this in 2011).

2. Safety communication initiatives – With the need to improve workplace safety, the majority of large companies will introduce large workplace safety initiatives to target areas that need fixing.  Expect to see lots of workplaces bombarded with various communications.  Unfortunately, most of these will be rushed, bandaid approaches, that will have little effect on improving safety.

3. More strikes on poor safety  - Companies that allow poor workplace safety conditions to keep occurring will have a rough 2012.  Thanks to workers at Baiada Chicken farms who have lead the way in complaining about workplace safety).  Expect to see an increase in strikes due to poor safety (and also pay increases, but that’s another subject).

4. A decrease in deaths – 2011 saw a spike in unnecessary workplace deaths, particularly in Victoria, and in many other countries across the world.  Given the need to focus on harmonisation and improve workplace safety, the amount of deaths will decrease.  Time will tell as to how short-lived this will be (no pun intended).

5. An increase in mental health programs and awareness – Thanks to initiatives like R U OK day?,  the National Mental Health reform program sponsored by the Australian Government and organisations like the CFA leading the way in providing access to a variety of mental health programs, organisations will start to realise the importance of good mental health.  More importantly, these types of initiatives will allow people to realise that they might not be themselves and seek help.  After all, it is only when people are self-aware that they will be able to get the help they need and do something to improve their lives.

6. Quad bike riders will have to wear helmets – I’ve ridden a quad bike, in an effort to round up cows on my parents-in-laws dairy farm.  And it was terrifying.  Now, I have to admit that I’m a city girl, and quite frankly, anything remotely rural scares me, but riding a quad bike up and down hills chasing stubborn cows wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped.  I was petrified.  How teenagers and adult riders can drive them without a helmet in this day and age, surprises me.  After all, if city kids have to wear a helmet when riding a scooter on smooth city streets, surely those riding an open air quad bike on uneven ground have to wear one, too?  After the high numbers of quad bike fatalities in 2011, finally, improved safety rules will be introduced for quad bikes across Australia.

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In the book, Drive, by Daniel Pink, he mentioned that former US labor secretary Robert B. Reich has developed a simple diagnostic tool to assess the health of any company.  When Reich talks to employees, he listens carefully for the pronouns they use.  Do staff refer to their company as “we” or “they”?

“They” suggests disengagement and at its worst, alienation.  While “we” suggests that employees feel as of they are part of something meaningful and significant.

The importance of Group Identity

We see ourselves in terms of other people and groups.  Evolution has taught us that it is beneficial to live in tribes, where we can share out the work of daily survival.

Businesses can build on this strong need for group identity to build a thriving organisation.

This is why getting staff aligned with your core values and vision is so important to establishing a successful company culture.  And as Jim Collins says in Good to Great, in great companies there is a fervent elitism where staff feel they belong to something special.  Staff that don’t embrace the company vision and culture are ejected like a virus.

Organisations that have staff aligned with their core values often have a much easier time  getting new initiatives through that might need staff to change behaviour (provided that the new initiative is framed in terms of their core values and vision).

Businesses need to cultivate a strong sense of group identity.  Encourage group behaviour that works towards achieving your company goals whether they be more sales, improved safety or developing a new product quickly.

Using the fear of rejection from the group is a powerful force to achieving workplace goals.

In the book , Switch, by Chip and Dan Heath, they stated that identities are central to the way people make decisions, any change effort that violates someone’s identity is doomed to failure.  It’s important to encourage group behaviour when people need to consider the group rather than themselves (safety is a good example).  Staff will frame questions to themselves based on a whole range of identities such as gender, race, age and their job title.  For example, a scientist will make decisions on how they believe a scientist would make a decision.   The trick in using group identity when wanting staff to change behaviour or embrace a new goal is to word it so they make a decision based on what’s best for the group or you could even use their job role if it would suit that particular department.

If you’re the boss or in a senior position – start eavesdropping of staff conversations to see if they refer to the company as “they or “‘we”.  If you hear lots of “they”, you know you’ve got lots of work to do to get staff aligned with the group.

Successful businesses can leverage this human trait to copy other human behaviour to build a great company where staff are aligned with the values and vision of the company and who fit the culture.  It’s also an important component of any workplace safety campaign.

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By its very nature, glass is a difficult product to work with and needs to be handled carefully.  As a whole, the glass industry has a high injury rate, the most common being manual handling injuries.

In order to keep around 1,000 workers safe across Australia and New Zealand, Viridian commissioned Digicast to produce a comprehensive, high quality manual handling training package.

The main objectives were to:

•           Increase worker understanding and knowledge about how to handle glass.
•           Reduce sprains and strains injuries.
•           Reduce the manual handling injury rate.
•           Be seen as the safety leaders in the industry.
•           Refresh current staff easily on an “as-needs” basis.

In order to engage workers and to clearly communicate how to undertake procedures safely, we designed a workplace training package that:

• Centred around engaging video modules.  After all, 83% of human learning occurs visually so filming correct procedures and even showing how the back gets injured (with animation) during incorrect manual handling procedures helps workers to quickly understand best practice.
• Included a trainer’s manual that incorporated lots of techniques to keep the attention of worker’s during the four hour training session.  The session was designed so that a multisensory environment was created, trainees were encouraged to discuss manual handling experiences and to get up and start undertaking the techniques.
• Designed to foster worker alignment with the material by assigning each trainee with their own pocket sized handbook.  Photos and graphic design elements were incorporated to encourage workers to refer to the manual when required.
• Designed to encourage workers to warm up by filming a footballer  undertaking the correct warm up exercises.  This was shown alongside a Viridian employee also undertaking the exercises.

The training package is up for a WorkSafe Award, but we need your help.  We need 100 votes to be able to be assessed for the Award.

Please vote for us at under the Manual Handling category, by clicking here.  Thanks so much for your help.

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Photo courtesy of The Australian by Morne de Klerk, www.photographylife.com.au

Kris Cole is the author of Crystal Clear Communication a fabulous book that gives you the skills for understanding and being understood.  She is a corporate trainer, international speaker, industrial psychologist, manufacturing technologist and a certified trainer.

Recently, I interviewed Kris to find out what communication tips she has for workplace managers and safety professionals.

1. In your book, Crystal Clear Communication, you mention the need to use positive language when communicating as “negative words encourage us to act negatively and positive words to act positively”.  What advice would you give any safety professional who is looking to communicate to his/her team about a new safety initiative?

Kris: You want to present the new safety initiative in a positive light and in a way that shows the organisation cares for its employees, hence the reason for the new initiative.  And let them know the WIIFM – what’s in it for them.

For instance, it may make their lives easier or help them do their jobs more efficiently or give them a bit more peace of mind.

If it’s a welfare or wellness initiative, you might offer:

Who is involved?

Why are you asking your team to take these actions?

How should your team do it?

They might not all be relevant but it’s worth thinking those prompts through, so you cover everything you need to.

You may also want to post the initiative on the team’s notice board and draw their attention to where they can find it in the organisation’s manuals or intranet.

And of course, remember to follow through at the next few team meetings.

Reiterate your messages, find out whether anyone has any questions or has found any difficulties with the initiative.  Few initiatives are so perfect at roll-out that they can’t stand a bit of fine-tuning.

2. You also mention the importance of show and tell.  And that to provide memorable communication you need to support words with visual aids.  When would you recommend that safety professionals use show and tell in their communication?

Well, we know people take in information more with their eyes than ears.  Let’s face it – most of us are pretty poor listeners.  That’s where the proverbial “a picture is worth a thousand words” comes in.  My tips are:

• So rather than just telling people what to do  – show them.
• Demonstrate it and even exaggerate your demonstration to make it memorable.
• Tell a little story to back up what you’re telling them, so they can build a picture in their minds.
• Put up a poster or draw a silly drawing to drive your point home.

And when do you use this technique?  Anytime something is important!  For instance, use it when you’re explaining how to do something – don’t just tell someone – show them.

Run them through it and then ask the to do it while you watch.  Just watching is seldom sufficient and that’s a big mistake a lot of busy people make – showing someone something and then walking away, expecting that they’ll remember it.

3. In terms of getting safety messages across to workers, what would you say is the most important communication technique?  Any others?

You might want to vary how you say it, so you don’t get bored, but when something is important, you can’t stress it enough.

And do “show and tell”, too.  The power of your own behaviour, of walking your talk and practising what you preach.  None of this “Don’t do as I do, do as I say stuff”.  People always take their cues from you – from what you do more than what you say.  So you have to support your words with your actions.

4. Workplaces can often be hotbeds of frustration and anger.  For managers who are having difficulty getting workers to listen to them, what communication techniques would you recommend?

Kris: Ah, well!  If it’s a work team that’s a hotbed of frustration of anger, I’d be looking at some serious team building and looking at the way people work together, communicate and relate to each other.  You need to make sure everyone knows what the team as a whole is aiming at and how each individual contributes to achieving it.

If it’s the whole organisation or an entire worksite that’s a hotbed of frustration and anger, you’ve got yourself an even bigger problem.  A fish rots from the head, so I’d start working with the leadership team and getting them to communicate more – and more genuinely with employees.  And not just about safety, but about all sorts of other things.  And not just talking, but the other half of talking – listening.  You know, even leaders have two ears and only one mouth and even leaders should use them in those proportions.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I feel that Kris has given us all some common sense information to help make communicating in the workplace a more enjoyable and effective experience.  Thanks, Kris.

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Musculoskeletal injuries account for 60% of all workplace injuries.

This year they are expected to cost Victorian businesses more than $1 billion in medical costs, wages and other expenses.  When you chunk it down, that’s 400 injuries a week or 50 a day.

Company owners and CEO’s are ultimately responsible for ensuring that there workplaces are safe.  After all, the culture of a company is driven by the senior leaders.  Company culture, including the safety culture, is really what behaviour the CEO exhibits and tolerates.   But how many of them really know the impact of their decisions and policies on the frontline?

WorkSafe Victoria recently launched The Skeleton Project, a new video-led campaign which has seen three high profile CEOs go ‘undercover’ in their business to better understand safety from the perspective of their workers, with a focus on the most common injuries – musculoskeletal injuries.

The Skeleton Project aims to encourage other CEOs and senior management to take a fresh look at what’s happening in their business and open up the lines of communication between senior management and their workers about workplace safety.

Next week, we will post an interview from Neil Coulson from Jayco Corporation to find out his experience with going undercover and how it has changed how he addresses his staff on safety issues when giving a safety speech.

You can watch the video series, here.

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Everything we do is communication.  And it is no wonder that research studies point to 70% of workplace mistakes being caused by poor communication.

How we start our message often determines the result.

According to Crystal Clear Communication, by Kris Cole, people quickly determine the meaning of our message and whether they will be receptive at the beginning.  We only have a short time to get our messages across :

• 2 minutes when we are face to face
• 30 seconds on the telephone
• 10 – 15 seconds by voice mail.

So the more important the message, the bigger the need to plan what you are going to say.

Here are 10 ways to grab engagement with workers when talking about a new or existing safety initiative during your next toolbox talk, safety initiative launch or other safety meeting.

1. Start with explaining the current safety status.  This can best be shown with a visual. In 1994, when the new CEO of IBM, Lou Gerstner was brought in to fix a troubled IBM, he put two charts on the wall to show how the market share had dramatically fallen.  Until that point in time, IBM staff refused to believe IBM was in trouble (they lost $8 billion that year).  A picture tells a thousand words.  IBM-ers quickly saw the message.
2. Customise your safety information.  If your message involves talking at various sites.  Talk about their individual safety records, not about the company as a whole
3. Explain the benefits of the safety initiative Talk about the thinking behind it and how it will effect staff, their family and the company.  For example, you can let people know how much you expect a new training program will contribute to a reduction in injuries and the consequences of that.
4. Get people involved with your message.  If you are talking to a group of people, get people actively  involved.  Ask them questions.  Get them to do a demonstration of how they are lifting with an expert there to point out how they can improve and what potential damage they could be doing to their bodies.  Another idea is to ask workers where they believe the new safety posters can be best placed.  What other strategies can you think of to get people to help with disseminating your message?
5. Repeat your message via different communication methods over a period of time. Use posters, video content, email newsletters, and letters from the GM.  Put together a schedule of communication events that constantly drip-feeds your message.
6. Tell stories. The right brain prefers story.  It also provides an emotional connection to information that people will remember.  What real-life workplace stories can you use that show the importance of safety?
7. Reward in public, condemn in private. Recognise high performing safety leaders or change leaders publicly.  This will encourage others to work more safely.  For those that are not doing the right thing, this needs to be done privately.
8. Use positive language. Avoid words like ‘don’t’ and can’t.  Focus on the behaviour you want, rather than talking about what you don’t want.
9. Expectation Clarity. Let everyone know what it is expected of them and how you will be measuring it.  Clearly set goals and targets.
10. Follow up with Action. While workers might accept your words, they will want to see action that you believe what you say.  Keep communicating with them and checking on their progress.  Remember, the old adage “Actions speak louder than words”.

What else would you add to this list?

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Since the early 1990′s, most companies have got their act together and decreased their workplace injuries (see chart).  After all, it’s a no-brainer that workplace safety accidents cost businesses lots of money each year.  And from a human perspective, it’s always a good idea to look after people.

Yet, many companies around the globe often forget about the real costs of an accident preferring to cut spending on safety training and equipment.

Let’s take a look at some different viewpoints on the real cost of workplace safety to an organisation:

1. The Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index report states that improving workplace safety is a key strategy for reducing direct costs resulting from workplace injuries. The direct costs that are stripping businesses of their profits include medical expenses, workers’ compensation payments and costs for legal services.   Direct costs are just the beginning of the ‘price’ of an unsafe working environment. Workplace accidents trigger a range of indirect costs including repairs to damaged equipment and property, hiring and training of replacement personnel, as well as costs associated with lower employee morale and absenteeism that is common in a work site that is considered unsafe.
2. While across the Pacific Ocean, Ian Woods, a senior business analyst at AMP Capital Investors was quoted as at a Safe Work Australia event that “From an investors’ perspective, we actively consider OH&S performance in our investment decisions, as we believe it is a good measure of management quality in many high-risk industries”.  Woods argues that investors now cannot ignore the cost of workplace injury as it is passed on to Australian employers. The average workplace injury costs 6 percent of profit. In the construction industry, the total workplace injury costs borne by workers, employers and the community is equivalent to a staggering 98 percent of the industry’s operating profit.
3. While Professor Patrick Hudson, based at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands was also quoted as saying “I have an estimate that a company may be losing up to 10 per cent of its turnover as a result of poor OHS and E (occupational health, safety and environment) performance…when you have a shutdown, you lose production, and you just add it up,” Prof. Hudson said

Gary Gregg, executive vice president of Liberty Mutual’s Commercial Markets sums it all up by remarking “There is a clear link between workplace safety and a company’s performance”.

But who is really responsible for workplace safety?

Research undertaken by Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance revealed that 95. 7% of those interviewed stated that the responsibility for creating a safe work environment belongs to management.

The bottom line is that companies need to assess their risk situation and to educate employees about how to keep themselves safe.

For organisations with a profit and humanitarian focus, education and safety training video packages are a wise investment in reducing business risk since they protect the most important business asset of all. . . human capital.

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Every company CEO knows how important it is to talk about the importance of safety within the company and to align staff with the safety culture.

How the safety speech is written depends upon it’s form of delivery (eg: written speech for the annual report, face to face presentation to staff or video presentation) and the audience.   Ideally, the speech is tailored as much as possible to the particular group of workers as this will get more traction.

Another area is to consider is whether the speech is about a new safety program being introduced into the company or a speech that is talking about the current safety status.  Both of these types of speeches need to be approached differently.

Introducing a New Company Safety Initiative

In Blue Ocean Strategy, authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, believe that any new company initiative needs to be introduced to all levels of staff (not just senior management) by a three step process.

1. Engagement – Allow all workers to have input into the strategic decisions that affect them by asking for their feedback.  This shows respect for staff and their ideas.  It also can contribute to better strategic decisions.  Ideally, you are able to do this step before the new safety initiative speech is undertaken.
2. Explanation – Everyone who is involved is given a clear explanation of the thinking underlying the new decision.  This is to build trust in regard to management decisions.
3. Expectation clarity – Once the strategy is finalised, managers clearly state the new rules of the game.  Goals and targets are set. Expectations for staff are clearly communicated.

In other words, to introduce a new safety initiative, the speech needs to contain information about:

• the current safety performance and why it needs to be improved  (explanation)
• the benefits to staff, company and community (expectation clarity)
• any negatives (explanation)
• how the new safety initiative will be measured and what is expected from each staff member (expectation clarity).

The Current Safety Status Speech

Once a new safety initiative has been introduced, it is vital that the CEO or other senior company representative gives regular progress speeches to staff.

As Dick Brown was quoted as saying in Execution, written by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan: “The culture of a company is the behavious of it’s leaders.  Leaders get the behaviour they exhibit and tolerate“.

After all, staff won’t believe that the company backs its safety messages, until they see the proof of action.   So it’s worthwhile that the CEO gives a regular progress report.

In fact, according to Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in Built to Last, social psychology research indicates that when a leader publicly espouses a particular view, they become much more likely to behave consistently with that point of view even if they did not previously feel that way.

So there are two real benefits obtained from the CEO talking about company safety to staff.  The first one is that staff will be more persuaded to change their safety behaviour after listening to the CEO and the second one is that the CEO will start to behave more in line with the new safety initiative and as staff are more likely to believe action rather than words, staff will start to alter their behavior as well.

When it comes to writing this speech, the following need to be included:

1. Make it relevant to your audience – In the speech, make reference to their safety record as it can differ by site.  If you do have more than one site, it can be beneficial to compare that site to the best performing site to encourage some healthy competition.

2. Site Visit -  Enable the  leadership team and employees the opportunity to discuss safety issues with the CEO. This is important to showing that the CEO really does care about their safety and is serious about change.

2. Recognise high performing safety leaders or change agents.   As well as congratulating each of these people in person, it is also important to mention these leaders in any safety talk.  This will shows that the CEO will reward those who work safely and it will also encourage others to work more safely.

3. Use stories. Where possible, include any examples of staff/sites who have improved safety.  Stories help provide an emotional connection and help people to remember.  They are particularly useful when you need to get people to remember data.

5. Make it simple. Keep the messages down to 3 -5, as brain studies show that this is the maximum amount of information people will remember.

Remember that staff want to feel safe in their own workplace.  They also look to the senior leader to see evidence that safety is important.  And while they might listen to your words, it really is action that they want to see.  So by undertaking individual site visits and checking on their progress will really show that the CEO means business when it comes to safety.

See how the experts do it:

Delivering the CEO Safety Speech – An Interview with Stuart Jaquet, Lafarge Plasterboard Australia

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Research has found that the most engaging methods of safety training are, on average, approximately three times more effective than the least engaging methods in promoting knowledge and skill acquisition, as well as reducing accidents, illnesses, and injuries.

Given the cost of workplace accidents to a company, getting your safety training right can save millions of dollars.

Dr Ian Woods, from AMP Capital Investors says that the average workplace injury costs 6 percent of profit.   While in the construction industry, the total workplace injury cost is equivalent to a staggering 98 percent of the industry’s operating profit.

These high cost effects a company’s ability to be competitive.  A good OHS strategy  is necessary to prevent accidents in the workplace and improving OHS safety is now a necessity not a nice-to-have.

So how do you make safety training more effective?

Training can be either passive/low engagement (eg: lectures and reading which are the least engaging) to active/high engagement (eg: watching a training video with a quiz, hands-on demonstrations).

Here are the four tips to an engaging safety training program:

1. Visuals - The trainee receives classroom style training with high impact visuals.  83% of human learning occurs through visuals.  The right brain prefers visuals and it is believed that it can process pictures much faster, even hundreds of times faster, than the verbal brain can process words.  The application of more interesting visuals such as diagrams, video and pictures can have enormous positive impact on learning.

1. Assessment - the trainee is assessed on the information they have learned and face to face feedback is given on their results.  It is important that a person gives the feedback (not a computer).

1. Development of training in stages – this means that the trainee receives different standards of training before starts job (basic), then on-the-job training that changes to suit the increasing knowledge of the trainee.  The training can get more complicated as the trainee understands more.

1. Behavioral modelling - this is integral to an active learning style.  A buddy or trainer demonstrates a particular task, then lets the trainee undertake it.  Coaching is then given as to how to improve.  However, it is important that the buddy is good at their job and will teach procedures correctly.

Action-focused feedback is regarded as the key to knowledge acquisition, in that it forces the trainee to work out relationships between events and actions, leading to development of strategies for handling unforeseen events.

And while classroom training is the a passive form of training it can be used effectively if it includes:

• High impact visuals
• Quizzes (with one on one feedback).

Once information is imparted in classroom training, hands-on demonstrations are also required both in the class and when the new starter is on the job.

By incorporating more engaging, hands-on training into your learning design, it will ensure that workers get more meaning and understanding from their safety training.

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Getting Safety Training Messages to stick can be Tricky.  This New Report reveals the Key Factors behind Successful Workplace Safety Communication and how to implement them.

Melbourne, Australia (7 October, 2010) – Digicast Productions, a safety and induction training video production house, today released a new white paper “Seven Communication Tips for Workplace Safety Messages”.

Effective communication is vital to get staff and contractors aligned and working towards a positive safety culture.  Yet, just providing training to work safely is not always enough.  How we communicate about safety influences whether or not people will accept or reject our safety messages.

The main objective of any safety communication program is to change behaviour.  But how does a safety, training or human resources professional change attitudes towards safety?

Find out how in this exclusive white paper, which also looks at:

• The secret to developing highly successful safety communications programs
• How to develop a workplace safety message strategy
• Seven tips to improve both your written and verbal safety communication
• How the Gypsum Board Manufacturer’s of Australasia (GBMA) promoted manual handling techniques to 3,000 workers across Australia and New Zealand.

For a complete copy of the whitepaper, visit http://info.digicast.com.au/workplace-safety-messages/

About Digicast Productions

Established in 1991, Digicast is an Australian vendor of customised safety and induction training videos. Thousands of people each year worldwide are trained with Digicast training videos. For more information, visit Digicast at www.digicast.com.au or The Workplace Improver blog for training tips, www.digicast.com.au/blog.

Contact Marie-Claire Ross
Digicast Productions
+ 61 3 9696-4400
mc@digicast.com.au

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