How about improving safety as a new year’s resolution, but where do you start? Everywhere we go there are improvements that can be made in safety around forklifts. At some workplaces we observe many issues that need to be addressed. But it can be an uphill battle to persuade management, supervisors and operators that they must change their habits.
What can you do if you have a long list of improvements that must be made? It can be daunting but the best policy is to start with the most urgent and then pick away on a regular basis. We are all human and most people cannot tackle multiple changes at once so spoonfeed it slowly.
We recently learnt that it takes the average person 66 days to pick up a new habit and 254 days for a complex habit. This interesting fact came from an excellent webinar hosted by the FIOSA/MIOSA Safety Alliance entitled Teaching old dogs new tricks.
Other tips: safety should not be an extra step in the work process but an integral, inclusive value. How do you make safety a value? Two of the most important steps are: worker involvement and consistency. Consistency in applying the rules everyday for everyone.
Make 2013 the year for safety improvements in your workplace.