The Events of 2020 and Restarting Safety for the Future

It’s been more than a year. The year of a pandemic also known as Covid 19 or the Corona Virus. With it came many distractions affecting everyone and everything, everywhere. We have learned how to make changes to the work environment and hone our skills in non-traditional ways. Those ways, are now to become our new ways. The question is: Did your safety programs, inspections and paperwork keep up with the changes? If not, what is your plan? Have you started yet? More importantly, where did you leave off?

Maybe, it’s just a good time to organize files, training of inspections. No matter what your list looks like, it’s time to get or reassess your plan of action. As your work force returns it’s a time to renew and reassure the workforce just like you did on day 1 in new hire training days, weeks, months and years ago. It’s time to take action.

Training employees like day one on the job can be quite beneficial. Reconnecting the worker with processes and procedures in safety and general employment can prove refreshing. Production concerns are still concerns and accidents and incidents are still concerns. Generally one, is the reason the other exists. So how do we get them in synch with each other?

Training and assessments, inspections and observations and good ole communication. Now is a great time to develop new skills in how to deal with each other. Cross training due to hiring issues makes this an opportunity to embrace. As the times change, sometimes are approach to those times needs to change. Use this time to make the most of your resources both little and plentiful. Encourage and empower the new and present employees encouraging them to be a part of a fresh start and show appreciation for their expertise. Process and report their findings, and track your progress. Along the way if you need help seek it inside or outside the organization. Be diligent but enjoy the journey as we discover this so called new normal.

Restarting is a chance to close the gap on items that before this trying time we left unattended. Think of this time as a chance to restart or a do over of sorts. It is a great time to explore and update the old Safety Management Plan, its procedures, training agendas and just overall content and revise a new path post pandemic. Sources will say many things and provide many guidelines and suggestions. It is up to us to have a process in place that is fluid and flexible. Use your skills to venture out of a trying time and with that and what we have all gone through, it can be the trying  force of how we survive another event like Covid.

Getting back to basics is sometimes very refreshing. Exploring new ways and doing things with new technologies will be forever be our future. Incorporating, embracing this to include our workforce will be our future. Identifying safety concerns and predicting the here and now, will allow us to decide what path we take and what decisions of execution we use to sustain another crisis in the future of any kind.

Check out the www.osha.gov website for more information and get the plan basics to help you develop elements you need for a workforce connection for a new day in the way we do things. Once, you have all the information and have all the data, training must occur. A trained workforce is a strong workforce. Need help call the National Safety Education Center at 815-753-6902.

 

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