by Michael D. Lawrence, Summit Safety Technologies
Today’s guest author, Michael Lawrence, is principal of Summit Safety Technologies, based in Long Beach, California. Lawrence is a safety manager, technical trainer, and instructional designer, and has been training adult workers and safety professionals for many years.
Each year in the United Sates, falls consistently account for a great number of fatalities in both general and construction industries. Events surrounding fall accidents often involve a number of factors, including unstable working surfaces, misuse of fall protection equipment, environmental factors, and human error.
However, without a well-designed and properly-implemented (I call this “Supercharged”) Fall Prevention Program, you are destined to be one of the many statistics in fall injuries and perhaps even fall-related fatalities.
Can you deal with the results of a fall? Can you even imagine the pain and difficulties that might result from a fall-related death or an injury that affects a worker and their family for life?
Yet these injuries and fatalities are entirely preventable. Yes, I said entirely preventable. With a "supercharged” Fall Prevention Program in place, these devastating incidents can be prevented. Read on to find out what you can do right now to prevent fall injuries.
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Components of the Supercharged Fall Prevention Program
These are all critical elements in fall prevention:
Task Pre-Planning: All attempts at Fall Prevention must be exhausted before considering use of Fall Protection (such as a harness). The Pre-Planning meeting discusses the job, its hazards, and measures to take in eliminating or reducing the hazards.
Accountability at All Levels: This starts with all senior management demonstrating full support for safety and holding all employees accountable for their own safety as well as the safety of other employees. Line managers and supervisors must consistently require adherence to safety policies and procedures and set the example. Safety performance should be a part of every employee’s performance reviews or evaluations.
Appropriate Equipment: Fall Prevention includes use of Guard Rails and Floor Opening Protection, while Fall Protection includes Fall Arrest Systems. To be considered “appropriate”, equipment must meet certain standards. For example, Guard Rails must be 42” (+/- 3") above the walking/working level. And there are other standards that must be met for many other types of Fall Prevention and Fall Protection.
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Effective Training: Training in the supercharged Fall Prevention Program is essential and requires:
- Senior management support
- Training of line supervisors
- Daily meetings in which supervisors go over daily work plan and job-specific safety training for those potentially exposed to falls (Pre-Task Meeting)
- Safety awareness & accountability promoted as values
How do you know if training was effective? The impact of training programs must be measured to determine effectiveness. There are basically four levels of training measurement or evaluation:
- Level 1: Learner feedback provided at training completion
- Level 2: Test or quiz after training to determine if knowledge transfer occurred
- Level 3: Transfer of skills to the job
- Level 4: Impact of training on the business
Tomorrow, we’ll continue with the issue of workplace falls and focus on human factors contributing to slips, trips, and falls.