Accident Prevention e-News
May 2010
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Volume 5/Issue 5/May 2010
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In this Issue:
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MOL priorities for 2010/11
 Ontario is safer than ever before, but not safe enough, according to speakers at Partners in Prevention 2010: Ontario Health & Safety Conference and Trade Show. The implication: employers can expect increasingly strategic approaches to injury and illness prevention.
Partners in Prevention 2010, which took place May 4-5 in Mississauga, ON, is a new event hosted by Ontario’s workplace health and safety system. The event drew over 1,200 conference delegates, 2,000 trade show attendees, and 400 exhibitors.
Tom Beegan, the Workplace Safety and Compensation Board (WSIB)’s chief prevention officer, crystallized the “safer but not safe enough” issue in a session on the board’s Road to Zero prevention strategy: “How do you set an acceptable number of injuries and fatalities,” said Beegan. “’Road to 50’ just doesn’t make sense.”
From 2005 to 2009, reported Beegan, the total number of injuries among WSIB-registered firms fell 30%, while the number of workers fell less than 1%. Nevertheless, the direct and indirect costs of injuries are punishing: a collective $4 billion. The WSIB calculates that, as of 2007, the average cost to an employer of one lost-time workplace injury is now $106,500.
Labour Minister Peter Fonseca, in his remarks during the conference opening, noted that “human capital is vital for Ontario’s prosperity… but ‘human capital’ has family and friends, hopes and aspirations, and they have a right to go home after work safe and sound…”
“One thing is certain,” said Fonseca. The health and safety challenges facing Ontario’s prevention system “is a problem we all share, employers, supervisors, workers, the Ministry of Labour... our H&S partners, the WSIB. We all own this problem together.”
Assistant Deputy Minister Sophie Dennis, in a session on Ministry of Labour priorities, noted that, while the ministry is responsible for administering and enforcing the Occupational Health and Safety Act, “430 inspectors is not enough to ensure compliance.” Consequently, the ministry’s compliance strategy includes promoting and sustaining a health and safety culture.
The cornerstones of this strategy, said Dennis, are focused inspections, transparent enforcement, working closely with system partners, sustained compliance through the internal responsibility system (IRS), and continuous improvement.
“In 2009/10,” continued Dennis, “238,000 workplaces were engaged by at least one system partner, [but] compliance has to happen when there isn’t a system partner in the workplace.” The solution: strengthening the IRS. “It’s an indicator of a strong health and safety culture.” Of orders resulting from 90,000 ministry field visits in the last year, 30% involved the IRS.
Inspection priorities
During upcoming field visits and enforcement blitzes, inspectors will be looking for what Dennis described as the 3Cs:
- competence (knowledge of OHSA)
- commitment (leadership)
- capacity (resources to address H&S issues)
A number of upcoming enforcement blitzes involve the industrial sector:
- May 1-August 31 — young and new workers (all sectors)
- May 1-31 — fall related hazards
- Sept 1-Oct 31 — musculoskeletal disorders (all sectors)
- Nov 1-Dec 31 — conveyor guarding
- February 1-28, 2011 — loading docks
Dennis also spoke briefly about Bill 168, the violence and harassment amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act that come into force on June 15. Before June 15, inspectors will remind workplaces of the requirements of Bill 168 and distribute material to help workplaces be in compliance with the act. After June 15, inspectors will ask about policies and programs, and issue orders if they discover non-compliance.
How firms are selected for inspection
The ministry takes into account a number of factors. Expect a visit if these apply to your firm:
- notable WSIB injury record
- serious repeat violations
- blitz-related hazards
- certification referrals from WSIB
- membership in industrial rate groups with the highest lost-time injuries
- previous inspections under high risk program or blitzes
“We know there is always going to be a percentage of workplaces with an attitude of ‘I’ll do it if you make me,’” said Dennis. “Others, ‘Show me what I need to do and I’ll do it.’ Their attitude is I want to do better.” Dennis described a third category as “’Watch me. I’m the high performance, maybe I can mentor other firms.’ We’re going to focus on ‘make me.’
In his Road to Zero session, Tom Beegan also touched on compliance and enforcement. “We need to get to the point where you can’t open a business unless you show compliance with the law. We found that one third of new businesses in 2009/10 were operating illegally — not in compliance with the IRS.” That is, they didn’t have an active joint health and safety committee or a health and safety representative.
“We must continue to work together: bring new ideas to the table, find more effective and efficient ways to get to the hard-to-reach employers and vulnerable workers, provide practical, leading edge solutions that will make a difference. We can be the innovative hope in the world.”
How we can help
Are you in compliance with current legal requirements under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act?
3 strategies for supervisor safety coaching
By Shawn M. Galloway
 Supervisors influence worker behaviour more than any other level in an organization. However, most supervisors have not received formal training to coach for performance, much less to coach for safety performance. What often results is the belief that a supervisor’s role is to manage safety compliance (i.e., rules, policies, procedures, personal protective equipment). This restricted thinking limits a leader in his or her ability to increase performance output beyond the minimum. In this situation, creation of a culture of safety excellence becomes a near impossibility.
Compliance is, without question, the critical foundation of a safety program. However, it is also the minimal level of safety effort expected of a company. Reaching the bare minimum can be managed and become common practice. This lowest level of exertion can then become a culturally reinforced expectation where an employee might go against the group when given the chance.
“When the leaders don’t lead, the followers don't follow."
This is a critical truth in safety. Organizational leaders communicate priorities, values, and strategies to the workforce, both directly and indirectly. Specifically, managers and supervisors play a vital role in the safety efforts of most organizations, whether they realize it or not. Their impact on safety can be exceptional, if their behaviours are precisely aligned with organizational goals and develop effective communication and coaching skills.
When leaders at any level take active control of the messages they send to promote safety, a clear distinction can be made that safety is an organizational value, rather than a changing priority. They can set levels of expectation that point everyone in the direction of safety excellence and exert a positive influence on the formation of a safety culture. Safety values are established in an organization only when they are reinforced from multiple levels, at or near the point of decision. One great leader cannot accomplish this alone; it takes the efforts of many.
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If extra effort is perceived as a bad idea by one’s peers, valid or not, a company persists in a state of compliance-driven focus. Demonstrating the limited nature of safety compliance in total injury prevention is quite easy. Ask workers if they can obey all the rules, follow all the procedures, and wear all the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and still be injured. The answers provided will certainly be ‘yes’. There are further hidden opportunities to improve safety and prevent injuries. The challenge is facilitating an employee’s ability to recognize these opportunities and develop new habits that contribute to the creation of a new safety culture. This is where coaching comes in.
Coaching becomes an increasingly critical tool of management when attempting to achieve excellence in any performance category. This tool can be used to facilitate performance improvement in employees greater than they thought possible. It is best used to influence individuals to increase their performance output, and learn how to do so without outside direction. Coaching targets the creation of new behavioural habits. Consider the following three strategies.
1. A memorable, behaviourally-defined focus
When training supervisors and other leaders to become safety coaches, strategies and examples must be relevant, practical, clearly defined and easy to understand. Moreover, ensure the coaching targets are
- defined in terms of desired behaviour
- limited in scope
- focused on the highest leveragable incident prevention precautions
This can be determined from a Pareto analysis of injury or incident data, identifying the vital few precautions that can help a majority of injuries and incidents.
According to research, our working memory (the executive information processing function of the brain) can handle only a limited amount of new information. This means people can remember only a few details. While repetition helps preserve this information in our long-term memory, relying on reminders is not the goal within coaching. Rather, it is to help people identify more effective strategies that they can internalize and thus sustain. To ensure the creation of these new, unprompted, desirable safety behaviours, the employees must be able to recite from memory the items they are being coached on. Try keep these items to fewer than seven.
2. Forward facing commentary
If these targets are behaviourally defined, they are observable and feedback can be provided to the individual being coached. Even though someone has been told about the precautions, he or she will often forget and fall back into old habits. Coaches need to constantly remind workers through on-the-job feedback. If workers are observed taking the precautions, encourage them to continue. If they are not, thoughtfully remind and refocus.
The purpose of feedback is to create desirable future behaviours. Far too often, feedback is used as a mechanism to discuss past performance. The comedian, Lily Tomlin, once joked, “Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.” Authors Marshall Goldsmith and Jon Katzenbach coined the term “feedforward” to encourage leaders to spend more time creating a desirable future rather than rehashing a past that cannot be changed.
3. Remove the barriers to sustainable performance
Most workers share a common desire. They do not want to be injured. Ideally, work is performed in a way that accomplishes this. The reality is that, occasionally, a worker will encounter an obstacle or barrier that makes it difficult or impossible to accomplish the task as safely as possible. It is the role of a coaching supervisor to help identify and remove the obstacles to working safely.
To facilitate safety means to make it easy or, at best, less difficult to be safe. Supervisors have several opportunities to facilitate safety:
- the words they use (encouraging safe precautions, talking positively about safety)
- the behaviours they model (leading by example, making safety the way they do their work)
- visible proactive action (removing or eliminating barriers to safe work)
Proactive safety is best defined as “aggressively working to remove or reduce risk and safety barriers, thus making it easier and more logical for workers to perform safely.” After all, if a worker cannot take a precaution that would have previously prevented an incident, isn’t this a good example of a safety barrier? Unfortunately, supervisors typically recognize this obstruction during a postmortem of the event. This is too late.
Conclusion
Some organizations believe that if workers would exercise their ability to stop the job for safety, all incidents would be avoided. Unfortunately, this is rarely the reality of total incident preventability. Sometimes workers are not aware of opportunities for performance improvement (i.e., precautions that can minimize exposure to risk); and sometimes they are not taking these precautions because other factors interfere or block their ability to perform the job as safely as possible. Both challenges can be directly impacted through coaching for safety.
Motivational speaker Bob Nelson once said, “You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.” When safety coaching is implemented effectively, a culture is created based on positive, helpful, and appreciated forward-facing feedback. This creates an environment that intrinsically motivates people to act. Tapping into the vital discretional effort within most employees is the most effective way for an organization to achieve a positive and sustainable safety culture.
Shawn M. Galloway spoke on this topic at Partners in Prevention 2010. He is the President of ProAct Safety, an international safety excellence firm. As an author, speaker, safety coach, and expert strategist, he has assisted hundreds of organizations to achieve and sustain excellence in safety, culture, and operational performance. Shawn is also the host of the weekly podcast series, Safety Culture Excellence. He can be reached at 936-273-8700 or info@ProActSafety.com.
Heat stress: protect one, protect many
 Never had an incident of heat stroke in your workplace? Don’t trust the odds.
While dying from work-related heat stress is rare, the low incidence can mask the real threat that heat stress can have on safety performance and productivity. Hot environments lower workers' mental alertness and physical performance. A single worker suffering from a heat-induced illness can jeopardize the safety of an entire crew, and compromise organizational productivity.
Many workplaces don’t track incidents or near misses as a consequence of workers suffering from heat stress. Part of the problem is that workers — seasoned or otherwise — often consider extreme heat just part of the job. Both they and their supervisors have to let go of this never-quit mentality. It’s in their and the employer’s best interests.
Workers most at risk for heat stress include those in hot environments, such as smelters, furnaces, bakeries and out of doors during the summer. However, heat stress can affect anyone, including the young and fit. When combined with other stresses like hard physical work, fluid loss, fatigue or some medical conditions, heat stress may lead to heat-related illness, disability and even death.
Symptoms include excessive sweating, headache, rashes, cramping, dizziness and fainting. They’re a set of natural signals telling you to balance your body’s heating and cooling now.
Reduce the risk of heat-related illnesses by
- implementing engineering controls to provide a cooler workplace
- introducing safe work practices to reduce worker exposure
- training workers to recognize and prevent heat illnesses
6 engineering controls
Engineering controls are the most effective means of reducing excessive process-related heat exposure, says the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. The centre offers the following examples:
- reducing metabolic heat production (heat produced by the body): automating and mechanizing tasks minimize the need for heavy physical work and the resulting buildup of body heat
- reducing radiant heat emission: covering hot surfaces with sheets of low emissive material such as aluminum or paint reduces the amount of heat radiated into the workplace
- insulating hot surfaces: insulation reduces the heat exchange between the source of heat and the work environment
- shielding: shields stop radiated heat from reaching work stations. Two types of shields can be used. Stainless steel, aluminum or other bright metal surfaces reflect heat back towards the source. Absorbent shields, such as a water-cooled jackets made of black-surfaced aluminum, can effectively absorb and carry away heat
- ventilation and air conditioning: ventilation, localized air conditioning, and cooled observation booths are commonly used to provide cool work stations. Cooled observation booths allow workers to cool down after brief periods of intense heat exposure while still allowing them to monitor equipment
- reducing the humidity: air conditioning, dehumidification, and elimination of open hot water baths, drains, and leaky steam valves help reduce humidity
10 administrative controls
The Ministry of Labour offers the following easy to implement, low- or no-cost administrative controls to protect workers against heat stress:
- assess the demands of all jobs, and have monitoring and control strategies in place for hot days and hot workplaces
- reduce the physical demands of work by using hoists, lift-tables, and other related devices
- increase the frequency and length of rest breaks
- schedule strenuous jobs for cooler times of the day
- assign additional workers or slow down the pace of work
- make sure workers are properly acclimatized
- ensure that pregnant workers and workers with a medical condition discuss working in the heat with their doctor
- ensure first aid responders and an emergency response plan are in place in the event of a heat-related illness
- caution workers to avoid direct sunlight
- investigate any heat-related incidents
5 training suggestions
The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that heat stress training cover these components:
- knowledge of heat stress hazards
- recognition of risk factors, danger signs, and symptoms
- awareness of first-aid procedures for, and potential health effects of, heat stroke
- employee responsibilities in avoiding heat stress
- dangers of using alcohol and/or drugs (including prescription drugs) in hot work environments
How workers can protect themselves
Since victims of heat stroke are often unable to notice the symptoms, don’t let your exposure to heat get that far. Follow these simple, preventive steps to minimize the discomfort and hazards of excess heat:
- set up a heat stress buddy system with co-workers, so that you all look out for each other
- don’t drink coffee because it can cause dehydration
- avoid large lunches (your blood will concentrate around your digestive system and compromise your body’s ability to sweat)
- if spending time outside, avoid extended exposure to the sun
- avoid smoke breaks outside on hot days
- watch your consumption of alcohol the night before since alcohol can also cause dehydration
How we can help
IAPA offers the following heat stress resources
- Heat Stress Awareness Guide, developed by the Occupational Health and Safety Council of Ontario
- heat stress poster
- heat stress awareness tool
- humidex based heat response plan (55 KB)
Learn more about other seasonal hazards.
Young worker safety: the Gap, the MOL blitz, and more
 Next time you’re in a GAP store, listen to the music. It’s not just there for your shopping entertainment. It’s also part of Gap Inc.’s injury prevention efforts.
This was just one of many insights from a panel on young worker safety at Partners in Prevention 2010, the new conference and trade show hosted by Ontario’s prevention system. The session coincided with the beginning of a 4-month young worker safety enforcement blitz. But first: a glimpse of Gap Inc.’s young worker safety practices.
Joel Rabideau, senior manager, corporate health and safety business integration at Gap Inc., explained to session delegates that store music is on a one-hour loop. “When staff hear a specific song, that’s their cue to check for and remove slip, trip and fall hazards on the floor, such as merchandise, hangers…”
This is just one way in which Gap Inc. has integrated safety into daily business operations — an essential step for a retail clothing firm that, worldwide, has 130,000 employees in 3,100 stores. Of these employees, 102,000 are young workers, of whom 22,000 are supervisors in an industry with a high turnover rate. Another essential step: safety orientation training that lasts at least a week.
Rabideau told delegates that people often assume stores are safe environments. At one point, he said, a senior executive called him on the number of safe work practices Rabideau had developed. “Do we really need a work practice for changing lightbulbs,” he asked. Rabideau responded with statistics: in Gap stores around the world, “22,000 lightbulbs are changed weekly; 22,000 times a week a worker is climbing a ladder to remove a hot bulb, and dealing with electricity.” Hence, the need for a work practice. “We don’t want anybody taking shortcuts,” Rabideau told delegates.
Among other safety measures: “nobody works alone, and nobody works without a supervisor.”
Rabideau shared with delegates a list of “what works” for Gap Inc:
- orientation. Included in orientation literature is a questionnaire for parents and guardians of a young worker, featuring questions for them to ask the worker
- safety training
- mentoring
- active supervision
- observation and feedback
- active and empowered joint health and safety committees
Young and new worker enforcement blitz in effect
Ontario’s service industry is one of several sectors that are the focus of a Ministry of Labour enforcement blitz running from May 1 to August 31. Manufacturing is another.
“If you’re in the manufacturing sector, we’ll be in,” advised panel member Roy Ford, a provincial specialist with the ministry’s Industrial Health & Safety Program.
This year marks the third in a row that the ministry has conducted a blitz on behalf of young and new workers, a high risk group. New workers at any age are more likely to be injured during their first four weeks on the job than at any other time.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board statistics indicate that young workers in Ontario sustained 573 lost-time injuries and 27 fatalities from 2004 to 2009. Most fatalities involved falls, motor vehicles, and machinery.
The ministry’s first blitz, in 2008, lasted two weeks and resulted in 5,000 orders. Last year’s 1-month blitz generated 10,000 orders. Could this year’s 4-month blitz lead to 40,000 orders?
Of particular concern, said Ford, is a dramatic growth in new businesses: “more than 100,000 new businesses are started each year in Ontario; 40% of them by young people aged 25-34, and 16% by youth under 25. Young workers have become supervisors, but what training have they had themselves?”
During the blitz, advised Ford, inspectors will be checking on compliance with the following Occupational Health and Safety Act requirements:
- training and orientation
- supervision
- minimum age
- personal protective equipment
- machine guarding
- fall protection [O. Reg. 851, sections 51 (lifting devices) and 73 (ladders)]
Past blitz results show that the top three orders issued were related to
- preparing an annual written OHS policy and a program to implement it
- providing information, instruction and supervision to workers
- general duty clause (e.g., having a heat stress plan)
Factoring in supervisors
Sandro Perruzza, vice president, strategic relationships for Workplace Safety and Prevention Services — the new organization resulting from the amalgamation of IAPA with the Ontario Services Safety Alliance (OSSA) and Farm Safety Association (FSA) — told delegates that, despite young workers’ high injury rate, they aren’t the problem. “The lynchpin here,” he said, “is the supervisor; 77% of injuries occur when they aren’t properly supervised. Young workers want to be productive. They want to know that health and safety is important to their supervisors.”
Only 10% of young worker interventions have been focused on the workplace, said Perruzza, “and these have primarily focused on the workers, not supervisors and employers.” He told delegates that new tools are in the works that will help supervisors effectively communicate with young and new workers.
How we can help
A number of resources are already available to workplaces. Young worker-specific resources include:
Supervisor-specific resources include the following courses:
In the News
New 1-800 number for reporting hazards
Have you seen a “potential unsafe labour practice”? Report it on a new toll-free phone line: 1-877-202-0008.
The new phone line is just one of several measures announced following an enforcement blitz on hazards involving falls from heights, including the incorrect use of suspended platforms and fall protection systems. The measures could affect all Ontario workplaces. Among the measures:
- zero tolerance of fall-related contraventions in any workplace
- heightened enforcement at construction sites, targeting sub-sectors showing higher rates of non-compliance
Also under consideration:
- higher fines for contraventions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations
- expanded use of enforcement tools, such as ticketing and summons
- mandatory training for workers and supervisors
The ministry is seeking advice on mandatory training from an expert advisory panel. Created in January, the panel is conducting a comprehensive review of the province's OHS prevention and enforcement system. The panel will present recommendations for structural, operational and policy improvements to Labour Minister Peter Fonseca sometime this fall.
Falls blitz results
During the falls from heights blitz, inspectors visited 2,800 construction sites and issued 3,400 orders. More than half were for
- missing or incorrect use or maintenance of guardrails (853)
- suspended scaffolds (629)
- fall protection systems (442)
Since June 2008, 430 inspectors have made 130,000 proactive field visits, issued more than 200,000 compliance orders, and conducted 18 proactive enforcement blitzes. Now underway: a 4-month young and new worker enforcement blitz (see “Young worker safety: the Gap, the MOL blitz, and more” in this issue).
Young worker safety advocate honoured
Sue Boychuk, Ministry of Labour project manager for young worker safety from 2000 to 2009, was recently awarded the Safe Communities Canada Worker Safety Leadership Award. The Award recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to promoting a culture of safety and reducing the risk of injury at the workplace – primarily with younger workers.
"For years, Sue Boychuk has committed her intellect, focus and the sheer force of her will to the issue of young worker safety," said Safe Communities Canada president Paul Kells in announcing the award. Each year 50,000 workers between the ages of 15 and 24 are injured in the workplace, and 50 are killed.
Boychuk, currently on secondment to the Ministry of Health Promotion to lead an after school initiative, has demonstrated a 29-year commitment to workplace safety, serving with the Ministry of Labour as an industrial safety specialist, safety inspector, and more. Among her achievements:
- leading a project team in 1999/2000 that created and delivered the first in a series of Live Safe! Work Smart! resources for teachers to support teaching health and safety in schools. The Ministries of Education and Labour worked together to integrate health and safety education throughout the Ontario school curriculum
- supporting the development of the national online Passport to Safety program (2003/04). Sue led a team of volunteer young worker education specialists from the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island as content authors. The program, operating on a not-for-profit basis, builds and tests young workers’ safety awareness
- traveling thousands of kilometers across Ontario and beyond to promote young worker health and safety initiatives among teachers and teacher associations, school boards, employer groups, prevention organizations, safety professionals, and others
"Sue gets things done," said Kells. “She understands what it means to lead by example."
Boychuk is also a recipient of the Ontario government’s Amethyst Award, which recognizes outstanding achievements by Ontario Public Servants.
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