From the compassionate, humanitarian and moral standpoints, employers want to keep their employees whole and healthy. And they want the same thing for good economic reasons, too. Healthy workers are productive workers, and when workers are productive, their company prospers. It's in everyone's best interest to do everything possible to keep all injury rates as low as we can, on the job and off. To do that, you should consider creating an off-the-job (OTJ) safety program. Here are a few ideas to help you get started.

Why You Need an OTJ Safety Program

We all know that work-related injuries cost employers money - increased workers' comp premiums, lost productivity and the additional burden on other employees who have to pitch in to cover the spot and duties of the injured worker.

But OTJ injuries are often more serious than those incurred on the job and may take longer to recover from. The employer may provide long-term disability insurance and if enough claims are paid under these contracts, the premiums are likely to go up. And, again, the issue of lost productivity and an increased burden on other workers comes into play. If the injured worker is a key employee, then the loss becomes even more critical.

What's more, workers are injured and killed at a much higher rate off the job than they are on the job. Why? Mainly because the workplace environment is controlled, safety rules are in place and followed (for the most part) and the workers are performing very familiar tasks. Off the job, conversely, the environment is much more lax, safety rules are often disregarded or unknown and people are often performing tasks with which they have little, if any, familiarity.

Creating an OTJ Safety Program

When establishing an off-the-job safety program for your company, it's important to avoid any appearance of heavy-handedness. OTJ safety programs must be delivered as a series of suggestions and helpful hints, rather than as a series of mandates.

There are two ways to implement an OTJ safety program. There's the subtle approach and the not-so-subtle approach.

The Subtle Approach

Probably the simplest way to get an OTJ safety program started is just to begin providing information to employees via:

• Payroll stuffers;
• E-mails; or
• Articles in the company newsletter.

This way, the information is out there for people to use or not use as they please, with little fanfare.

Conclusion

There's a more assertive and effective way to implement an OTJ safety program involving others in your organization. We'll look at that next week, and also offer some ideas on what your OTJ program should include.

MEMBER REPLIES
More First Job/Worst Job Stories

Simple Safe Operating Instructions

When I was 15 years old I worked at a trade show center. Besides "portering" exhibitors in and out (you could tell if they had a good show by the tip) I had clean up duty. This involved tearing down the construction paper used to decorate the booths and stuffing it into the trash compactor. I was instructed by my Supervisor as follows:

"Dump the load into the trash compactor. Now it'll all be mounded up, so you've got to get in there (the enclosure) and stomp it down. Then push the start button - while you're in there. Don't worry - the ram moves real slowly across. As it's coming across keep stomping it down. As the ram comes across, step up onto it. Be sure that you do as you don't want to lose your feet. Oh, and the emergency stop button is too far to reach if you do get caught so be careful."

What do you think of that for safe operating instructions? What did I do? Well, I did what I was told of course. It was my first job, I didn't know any better, and as my Dad got me the job I didn't want to disappoint him. Any surprise that kids are at particularly high risk for injury?

Jonathan Klane, M.S.Ed., CIH, CHMM, CET
Klane's Education Information Training Hub (KEITH)
93 Norridgewock Road.
Fairfield, ME 04937-3116
Phone: (207) 453-KEITH (5348)
Fax: (207) 453-5226
E-mail: jonathan@trainerman.com
www.TrainerMan.com

My first full-time job, while I was in college in the early 70's, was at a machine shop that made custom parts for motorcycles. My responsibilities included operating a belt sander, band saw and drill press - all without any PPE, and cleaning the parts after machining in a big tub full of some kind of solvent (MEK, I think) without gloves. I remember my hands tingling after work, and wondered why the skin on my hands would peel off a couple days after a parts-cleaning shift.

After leaving that job, I went to work in a wood working shop that made plaques, picture frames and shadow boxes for hobby stores. There I mostly ran a table saw, cutting wide planks down into strips to make picture frames. None of the saws had guards. My job there ended when I was making the last cut in a plank and hit a knot, which pulled the plank and my hand (no push stick) through the blade before I could react. I received a 1/8" wide cut from the tip of my thumb to about the center of the pad, requiring a quick trip to the emergency room for several stitches. Ironically, the owner's son had experienced the same accident two days prior to mine. The only result was the owner telling us, "You guys have GOT to be more careful!"

Gary D. Couture, COSS
Safety Manager
Facilities Development Department
San Diego County Regional Airport Authority

*****

Ready or Not

Back in the late 60's, before OSHA, I worked summers in a fabrication shop where we made those steel warehouse storage racks. My first summer I was an assistant on a brake press where we formed the racking uprights. The lead operator was a 20-year veteran and I don't think he could spell the word "safety" let alone practice it. He told me to have my end of the steel sheet lined up in the press when he does because when he's ready he trips the mechanism. Fortunately I didn't lose any fingers although a couple of my fellow collegians did lose some digits working a punch press with no training. Somehow I managed to survive there for three summers, each one giving me a new incentive to do well in school.

John Steepy
Human Resources Manager

*****

If I Knew Then What I Know Now ...

When I was 16, a small contractor recruited my brother and me to help them finish some work they were awarded by our small town. They had to replace several blocks of drinking water lines. The contractor consisted of two older gentlemen who basically ran a backhoe and/or told us what to do. At the time, I didn't think much of what followed, but today I shudder each time I think about it. They dug pretty deep. I can remember being in the trench and not seeing above ground. My brother and I would be in the trench laying pipe and then tamping the soil a bit at a time as they back-filled it (tamping is using a piece of heavy equipment, a tamper, that has a flat "shoe" that pounds and compresses the soil). No shoring. No cave-in protection. 16 and 13-year old kids. I can't imagine how horrible it would have been to be a victim of a cave-in or to watch my brother suffer that fate. And something tells me the contractor wasn't too worried about it.

Rex Butler, RIHT, OHST
Manager -Environmental& Safety
Central Iowa Power Cooperative

*****

The Importance of Safety Role Models

I hadn't thought about it too much until I read several other accounts of really hazardous first jobs submitted by other safety professionals but I just gained a lot of respect for my Father and Uncles. I grew up on a farm in South Central Minnesota. I can remember back to when I was 10 years old and my Dad taught me how to drive the tractor. There was no such thing as a tractor cab or rollover protection system but my Dad must have recognized that it was a hazard because he talked about working/driving on hillsides, ditches and roads. He talked about staying alert and watching out for obstacles and other machinery and people working around us. We milked cows, fed hogs, raised chickens and raised corn, oats and a lot of alfalfa that was baled and stacked in barns that could be 95+ degrees on hot summer afternoons.

What strikes me now is that my Dad and Uncles (we did a lot of shared labor) seemed to know the hazards and always talked about the hazards while they talked about the tasks. Their combined experience and their willingness to share that knowledge kept a lot of teenage boys healthy and uninjured. Even though we worked hard, we had regular breaks scheduled to allow rest and recovery. On hot summer days the water hydrant at the well or a water cooler were always within handy reach.

I suppose our parents had a special bond with us and didn't want to see us hurt so they spent the time to make sure we worked safely. What would it be like in industry today if every manager and supervisor took the time to make sure every employee knew the hazards of every task and was willing to enforce rules like our parents did? What would our incident rates and worker's comp dollar costs look like. I suspect a lot of the First Job/Worst Job stories would never have occurred.

Boyd Abbe
Corporate Safety Specialist
Taylor Corporation, MN

SAXCIES PROFILE

A. Blane Morgan of OSH, Inc, 2007 Safety Trainer of the Year

Winner for Safety Trainer of the Year: A. Blane Morgan

Brought to you by:

Criteria: The Safety Trainer of the Year Saxcie™ is awarded to a safety professional who exhibits individual success and leadership in the field of safety training.

The Winner: A. Blane Morgan

Profile: Good safety trainers must be innovative, resourceful and able to explain in simple terms technically challenging material. Former firefighter and paramedic A. Blane Morgan fits the bill.

To build a company that equips workplaces with medical emergency kits, Blane combined his knowledge of emergency preparedness and emergency response with his passion for training. He developed all of his training presentations from scratch and customizes each presentation for each customer or client, utilizing real life stories, humor and empathy.

Blane believes that it's not enough to simply explain to would-be lay rescuers how to use the equipment. To save lives, trainees must know the "how" and the "why," and Blane will use any training tactic available to ensure that all trainees leave the session clearly understanding the key messages. If a trainee has any specific concerns, Blane will spend time after a training session to review these individual concerns and make sure that facility management is aware of the issues, too.

And he practices what he preaches. Regardless of the consequences - whether it's losing a client or facing an unwilling management member - Blane will not walk away from an unsafe occurrence until he knows that the appropriate attention and corrective action are underway.

He has the respect of his trainees, his clients and his colleagues. And he has a handsome Saxcie™ Award on his desk to proclaim that he is indeed Safety Trainer of the Year!

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