People like to believe that they are safe even when their lives seems to be hanging by a thread. This is a common human psychology and there is no way you can change this. And as this mentality is deeply rooted, it is no wonder that business organizations still continue to ignore those workplace safety issues that could have led to life threatening incidents. Originations feel that they are doing a commendable job as the injury rates are down compared to last year and the safety system seems to be working fine like a well oiled machine. And out of this complacency, organizations start relaxing and giving less attention to things that could play a decisive role during a life and death circumstance. No matter, how bullet proof the safety system of a workplace may look like, there will always be some rooms for improvements and you can only identify those areas only when you start realizing the fact that your safety system is not perfect, in fact, far from being perfect.
However, I am not saying that you have to waste your hard earn money on some trivial issues that would have zero impact or little impact on the safety system of your workplace. When you are spending too much time and efforts on trivial things, chances will be that you may miss out on crucial things that could spell doom for the safety of your workers. Moreover, as our business models are changing all the time and we are embracing new technologies to give productivity a shot in the arm, the existing safety systems starts becoming obsolete. For this reason, you can never claim that your workplace is perfectly ‘safe’ for workers because of the dynamic nature of your business. But for some unknown reasons some business owners have started believing that they have won the battle against the menace of workplace injury; but when you start believing in things so absurd, you are going to lose the battle for sure. Here are some other ways to lose the battle against the menace of workplace injuries
We Know it All Attitude:
When we enter a new place or face a new situation, we take every possible precaution to get used to that. We follow the rules carefully and think twice before making a move as we are not sure when a problem may crop up. But as soon as we realize that we have gathered enough information about the situation and how to tackle it, we start messing up. We become comfortable with things and this is exactly where we start making mistakes. However, you may argue that we get used to things as we gather more inputs about the work that we are going on a regular basis, but you also cannot refute the fact that this experience also puts you in greater danger as you become oblivious of the obvious dangers in some jobs.
We are Over Confident
You have probably heard this hundreds of time before – ‘Change is the only constant thing in the world’, but you might have never given it a serious thought. If you have, you would have certainly realized that workplace hazards, just like any other things in the world, change and evolve and that means, you have to be proactive and find out the flaws in your safety system on regular basis. But as it appears, people tend to ignore this as they grow a feeling that they have won the war against the hazards. As the perception of dangers starts diminishing, the probability of hazards increases. Therefore, you have to accept that your safety system is not 100% perfect and there is always some room for improvements.
Disruptive Technology
Induction of a new technology does not necessarily mean that it is going to add positive effect in your organization’s safety and security system. People might find it really tough to deal with the new technology and they might make silly mistakes that could have led to minor or major injuries. So, whenever you are inducting new technologies, you have to make sure that people who are going to use this are at ease with it otherwise, it might have negative impacts on the whole production process.
About the Author: This article is contributed by Michael Evans who is associated with Mobile Safety Steps, which is UK’s leading manufacturer of safety steps. Visit our website.
