TOOLBOX TALK

Personal Responsibility Responsibility is not just a word. It isn’t supposed to be but in workplaces around the globe, quite a number of people don’t seem to want to know any different. Or how do you explain the recurrence of avoidable errors in most industrial premises, factories, construction and other work sites?   Little things It is the little things that people overlook which account for the greater losses at the end of the day. Oftentimes, we expect that the ‘BIG’ problems are it, and we expect they are meant for someone else further up the line to take care of. We forget to reckon with the fact that put together, the everyday routine, ‘insignificant’ errors and violations are by far heavier in reach and impact than that one big bang’ of an occurrence which may never happen. These so-called insignificant events are responsible for most of business losses even though most business owners may not know it because they, more often than not, are looking in the wrong pla...

If you haven’t got communication, you’ve got nothing Communication is the vehicle of the safety trade or any trade for that matter. Clear cut communication is to safety management what a navigation compass is to a sailor, for without it plans for safe operations can go several degrees off course. Poor or no safety communication creates a fertile ground for varied rules interpretation, abuse and ultimately, widespread noncompliance. The more employees work with their own rules or outside laid down procedures in a particular workplace, the more susceptible to loss-producing and injury incidents that workplace will experience over the course of time. Looking to see why these incidents occur often reveal how easily some of them could have been nipped in the bud if only everyone in the loop could have compared notes prior. Share your knowledge Passing around available safety-critical information and openly sharing knowledge across all levels of supervision doesn’t hurt anyone, sy...