TOOLBOX TALK

  First word: Dealing with contractors can be tricky in that there can be many a slip twit the operational cup and the lips by way of whose or which safety rule should apply, given that both parties have their own rulebooks on how safety is to be managed in their respective businesses. Such that if the two sides do not move to agree on a common front ahead of time they’re likely to end up with gaps and conflicts potentially harmful to the common interest as a situation of ‘one rule for them and one for us’ can rapidly take shape which can in turn, translate to different safety rules, different standards, different approaches, different interpretations and different philosophies within same work enclosure. Nothing leads to chaos and confusion faster than that, seeing how The Right to Choose is not exactly compatible with good workplace safety management. It places a serious and conspicuous question mark on the overall safety of the site. So if contractor employees feel that...

Managing safely is synonymous to safe and efficient production. Yet not many businesses make that connection until it’s too late. All too often they suffer a death blow before sitting down to examine what went wrong. Experience shows that Managers who pay little attention to safety only end up paying a big time price attending to all kinds of post-incident business loss activities. Issues like absenteeism, lost workdays, spiraling medical bills, sagging public image, poor workforce morale, increase insurance premiums, dwindling production and a shrinking bottom line. It follows that poor safety performance directly translates to poor returns on investment and you don’t have to look too far to see it or why. It’s clearly signposted all over the workplace place; in the employees’ body language, asset use and misuse, mounting unresolved environmental issues, etc. Like they say, you can run but you can’t hide because safety issues are like a pack of dominoes, one falls and they all...

First word : Time and time again chief executives and business owners moan buckets about how their safety programmes don’t seem to be working for no reason (or a lot of reasons!). They’ve tried every trick in the book but their people just won’t cotton on for reasons of laziness, hard headedness, indiscipline, lack of interest and so on. And after all the pile of money they’ve invested in safety for the workers' sake, including very attractive SAFETY INCENTIVE SCHEMES no dice. Incentives! Hmmm.. Do you reckon your people are that oblivious of the fact of what’s good for their health, safety and security at work? Or it’s a case of you going at them with a baseball bat each time, in the name of protecting them from their ‘death wish selves’? You really believe those guys look forward to being stretchered out to some hospital ER ward instead of returning home hale and hearty at the end of any work day? Think again boss. Things are not always what they seem. You see, your ways and ...

  Ok, let’s get real. Everybody has their pet challenge with safety, what yours? Money (obviously!), people, material, tools, work environment, client sales or what? In the circumstances, Safety is a ‘hated’ word for some, if not most, especially the small timers. Right now, times are HARD – extremely hard, no doubt! With no money anywhere and the business snoozing fitfully on the slow lane, what does anyone expect? In fact things are so bad that you feel like chucking in your hand and giving up for good. But what good would that do you and your outfit, and how clever is that anyway for a business strategy? Zero! And what’s the point of a self-knockout blow before your opponent’s first punch? Not very clever is it? So why not meet the challenge head-on, if only to give the business a fighting chance? You never know, after all attack is the best form of defense. Be bold and valiant therefore, go for it. Begin by asking yourself some illuminating questions. Why IS safety not a...