MEASURING SAFETY

PERFORMANCE

Safety Kaizen Day

Safety Benchmarking

Moot Court Event

July 2017

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Upcoming events 2017• Safety Kaizen Day with Toyota’s Dale Berry at Toyota Altona - 7 August. See page 6

• Moot Court with MK Law - 14 September. Book now. See page 6

• Lean Safety and Innovation at 3M Sydney - 22 November. See page 6

• Training Safety Leadership - 11th and 12th September BOOK NOW

• Chemicals workshop - 12th October. See page 5

Contact Safety Action for bookings and more information.

Phone (03) 9690 6311. Email enquiries@safetyaction.com.au

What’s new this Month?Welcome to the July edition of Safety Action News. This month I explain how to measure safety performance and invite everyone to participate in our annual Safety Benchmarking Survey.

Participants will receive a free copy of the benchmarking report. For more details see page 5.

We also have updates on chemicals that can damage hearing.

We invite you to participate in our special events with Toyota in Melbourne and 3M Sydney, and a free Moot Court that we are hosting with Macpherson and Kelley Lawyers.

Stay safe!

Andrea Rowe-Tassioulas, General Manager Safety Action

1-day safety leadership workshop in bendigo

This one-day workshop is designed for anyone interested in learning how to better lead workplace safety, or how to coach your supervisors and managers.

This session will be delivered by Gary Rowe, CEO of Safety Action, and will be run as an interactive workshop, with numerous engaging practical exercises. It will provide proven tools and techniques, and will give participants the confidence to become a true safety leader.

Fee: $165 including GSTTo book, call Graham Olsen on (03) 5454 8770 or email golsen@bendigohealth.org.au

Proudly sponsored by Gallagher Bassett worker’s compensation specialistsDate: Friday 18th August 2017

Venue: Capital Theatre, Bendigo

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Measuring safety performanceMost businesses know that they need methods to measure the performance of safety. Many are familiar with the phrase “What gets measured, gets managed.”

Traditional safety performance measures Where safety performance is measured, it is traditionally mea-sured in financial terms of costs of injury and illness to the busi-ness (lag indicators). Work-related injury and illness has many costs to the business including direct costs and indirect costs. “Poor OHS performance and, when an injury occurs, injured em-ployees remaining off work for extttended periods of time, also affect an organisation’s productivity, organisational capacity, workplace culture and morale.” (Comcare, 2004)

Lost time injury (LTI) statistics are also a common measurement used by organisations to monitor the effec-tiveness of safety improvement efforts. Indeed, it is still the only measure used by some businesses. The main problem with focusing on LTI statistics is that this approach is reactive and only allows for preventative actions following the occurrence of an injury.

It is possible for a small workgroup to operate with unsafe conditions and with little or no safety systems for many years without an accident. The absence of accidents or work injuries, particularly with smaller work groups, is not necessarily an indication of legislative compliance, presence of safety systems or the effective-ness of them or a positive safety culture.

Problems with lag indicators

Experience shows that an LTI rate is not a good indicator of the following:

• future workers compensation costs• potential for serious accidents• presence of effective safety systems, or• safety culture / behaviour

LTI rate is not statistically meaningful for small work groups (for example, less than 500 employees). Most businesses or sites are not large enough, on their own, to provide statistically meaningful LTI rates, when measured over a 12 month work exposure.

For example: a small site with about 12 employees would take nearly 40 years to generate one million hours work exposure. Even a large site with about 250 employees would take at least 2 years to accu-mulate one million hours work exposure.

We suggest using the LTI rate as a performance measure only where the work exposure is at least one million hours e.g. for work groups larger than 500 employees or averaged over many years.

Note: Caution is still needed to ensure any comparisons of LTI Rate involve the same work exposure, same definitions for LTIs, and the same interpretations.

Measuring something?

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Better ways to measure safety performance

We recommend a “Balanced Score Card” approach to measuring safety performance. This should include adopting suitable “safety KPI’s”, which include both lead and lag indicators.

Positive Performance Measures

Positive performance measures, sometimes referred to as ‘lead indicators’, are those that relate to activities, which help to establish or maintain workplace safety systems. For example, positive safety performance can be measured by various methods, such as auditing, employee surveys and key performance indicators.

Some other lead indicators include:

• Safety Business Plan on schedule• Incident investigations completed within the time limit• Number of hazards addressed since last inspection• Number of safety inspections completed on time• Number of training sessions completed• Internal audits on schedule• Employee surveys e.g. percentage of employees who believe the company is genuine about workplace safety • Number of employees who seek help, if task unsafe (rather than conduct unsafe activity)• Evacuation drills achieved within the target time

To gain improvements in safety, the following steps should apply to all performance measures:

Step 1: Measure performance by chosen methods e.g. auditing, reviews, surveys, key performance indicators (KPIs) or injury statistics.

Step 2: Compare results with your established targets and benchmark against other similar organisations. We invite readers to participate in our annual Safety Benchmarking Survey (see page 5).

Step 3: Establish action plans to rectify or control deficiencies where targets have not been met (e.g. improve faulty equipment, provide safety training, increase communication on safety issues).

Step 4: Monitor and assess the effectiveness of the risk control measures in place (e.g. by conducting inspections, au-dits, seeking employee feedback). Re-assess the controls if established controls are not effective in achieving the established target.

Step 5: Regularly re-evaluate performance targets and KPIs and re-evaluate to achieve continuous improvement.

Step 6: Continue to monitor effectiveness of performance targets, established controls and KPIs.

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2017 Safety SurveyIts fast approaching that time of year again, where businesses look to see how their investments and activities to manage and improve safety in the workplace worked. So how did your company perform? And do you know how you compare against similar organisations?

Safety Action are inviting all our clients and friends to participate in our Annual Safety Benchmarking Survey. All participants will receive a free report, with information and guidance on safety resourcing and performance. This resource will allow you to analyse how your performance compares with similar companies and across similar industries.

Chemicals that can damage your hearingOtotoxic chemicals are chemicals that result in hearing loss. Some common ototoxic workplace chemicals include solvents such as paint thinners and glues (containing ethanol, toluene and styrene), lead and carbon monotxide.

When these chemicals are inhaled or absorbed into the skin, they can damage the inner ear and/or auditory pathways.

Exposure standards for chemicals and noise do not take into account in-creased risk to hearing. Safety Data Sheets also do not generally warn about potential hearing loss.

What should workplaces do? If your workplace undertakes activities where workers are ex-posed to noise and ototoxic chemicals (e.g. painting, printing, construction, furniture making, manufacture of metal, pesticide spraying), the control of noise and chemical exposure is more important. It is recommended that you:

1. Avoid the use of ototoxic chemicals or reduce exposure e.g. by

increasing ventilation and preventing skin contact.

2. Reduce noise level of workers exposed to any ototoxic chemicals to 80 dB(A) or below.

3. Provide annual audiograms for workers whose airborne exposures are at 50% or more of the exposure standards, regardless of the noise level.

4. Ensure correct PPE is provided and correctly fitted (see PPE fit testing brochure or ask Safety Action about fit test-ing for respiratory and hearing protection).

Learn more: Hazardous Chemicals Workshop (half day) 12 October 8am-12pm.

We look forward to including you in our benchmarking this year

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Safety Kaizen dayLearn about continuous improvement for safety and last chance for a tour of the car factory at Altona!

Toyota Motor Corporation have a reputation as the World’s best manufacturer. The Toyota Production System (TPS) is now used by many leading manufacturers. The renowned Toyota Way is based on two main pillars: “continuous improvement” and “respect for people.” Kaizen is an important part of continuous improvement.

At the Safety Kaizen Day, Dale Berrie, Toyota Safety Manager and TPS expert, will share with the small group more about Toyota’s “thinking way” and their relentless approach to continuous improvement. You will learn how you can apply Kaizen thinking and make your safety systems better and leaner. Gary Rowe, Safety Action CEO will share practical tips for improving your safety system.

Safety Kazien Day with Toyota’s Dale Berrie, including Altona Plant Tour Where: Toyota, Altona, Victoria When: 7 August 2017

Early bird (book before 7 July) $100+GST Profits go to Toyota’s choice charityVery Limited Places - register now

Moot court invitationSafety Action and Macpherson Kelley Lawyers are hosting a mock safety trial in Melbourne on 14th September 2017.

Charges have been laid against a company, a supervisor and its CEO for reckless conduct resulting in a fatality.

What is a Moot Court?It is a court trial presented to you involving highly skilled lawyers pre-senting witnesses and making submissions (just like in a safety prosecution before the County Court) before a jury who decides guilt. You may be chosen to be part of the jury, sit with counsel or the judge or simply sit back and watch. Andrew Douglas, Principal at Macpherson Kelley Lawyers, will lead the proceedings.

Why a Moot Court?There is no better way to experience safety than through a mock court process that involves expert witnesses, trial lawyers and common risks that organisations face every day. The moot court brings these risks to life and demonstrates what organisations need to do to guard against these risks. The moot includes a commentary that explains what is happening and why.

FREE EVENT for two persons per business. Limited places left.

For enquires call (03) 9690 6311 or email enquiries@safetyaction.com.au

Lean safety eventDo you want to save money and waste AND im-prove safety?Learn how from Toyota’s Dale Berrie at 3M’s In-novation Centre.

Lean Safety and Innovation Day3M Sydney, NSW Date: 22 November 2017 Early bird (book before 22 October) $100+GST Limited places. Register now.

Kaizen, the Japanese word for ‘continual improvement’

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new headquarters for safety action

The Safety Action team are moving to bigger new premises near Monash University, Clayton. We will be able to expand our services and support for all our clients and friends.

Stay tuned for more details next month.