Health and Safety Discussion
I do not think the training video “Reducing Unsafe Acts’ is a good way to bring awareness to employees and to get them to take responsibility.
Instead of focusing on unsafe acts, a more effective approach would be to focus on how to identify and control hazards to eliminate injuries.
The video focused on the unsafe acts and not why the unsafe acts happened and how to prevent recurrence. Was there a hazard analysis of the task/job that the worker was doing? Was the worker properly trained? Were proper procedures in place? Was the workstation and equipment properly designed for the task/job? Was the worker given the proper tools to perform the task/job safely? For example, the video referred to the box cutter as a “finger cutter” but they did not mention that other, safer, tools may be available for the task – they could replace the box cutter with a self-retracting utility knife that retracts as soon as there is a change in pressure, this would prevent recurrence of cuts and be a proper tool for the job.
Also, the video focused on the fact that 85-98% of all accidents are whole or part by employees but does not state what percentage is whole and what is part. The contributing factors are very important in preventing recurrence in injuries and the video seems to down play this important factor.
This video also reminded me of behavior based safety programs which turns the hierarchy of hazard control measures upside down and attention focused on dealing with the worker instead of the hazardous job conditions.
In my opinion, blaming the employee will not prevent injuries from happening again but identifying the hazard and developing controls both before an injury occurs and after is a better way to prevent injuries.
However, if a worker blatantly disregards all training, procedures and tools in place to prevent injuries and