The IT department can no longer work alone in managing security systems, but everyone, especially the management and board, must come in to give support. Company boards are becoming more concerned with business data privacy and systems security. As such, positive and personal approaches must be developed and delivered to generate a balanced exchange of context-rich and respectful dialogue.Currently, every stakeholder in a business is aware of cybersecurity and its role in the business environment. The focus should be to reinforce the behaviors and activities that you want to see continued or increased, rather than on the ones you wish to avoid. In fact, the frequency and quality of the feedback determine the level of improvement in a continuous improvement cycle. The success of any system depends on the richness of its feedback systems. However, long-lasting trust in the process, and the interaction is sorely lacking and certainly does not lend itself to long-term positive changes in workplace safety. ![]() At the surface, the inspector feels justified and the inspection report shows activity. Eventually, the inspector’s speed traps are communicated in a complex web of worker cues to warn others that the officer is on patrol. While a slap on the wrist like a citation may sting initially, most find themselves back in the swing of speeding, and the unsafe behavior continues. Eventually, a punishment, such as a warning or citation, is given. The officer approaches and admonishes you for an infraction. Imagine driving down the highway and then seeing flashing lights behind you. This approach is both impersonal and discourages the gathering of contextual clues that influence actions and behaviors. Often the first word of an issue comes much later when the inspection report is distributed. How many times do we hear of workers complaining that the inspector did not intervene directly or coach them on how to do their work more safely? Instead, they drive by without stopping or interacting, possibly snapping a photo and silently judging, but keep driving. While a crude example, this approach is the antithesis of building trust and relationships. The workers in the area are left with nothing but a mess and a building sense of resentment. The concept is this – the inspector flies in, squawks loudly, defecates all over, and then flies away. As such, the following approaches should be avoided: Ideally, the purpose of safety observations is to create and encourage helpful conversations between workers, supervisors, and safety personnel with the end goal of better understanding the work and the context that drives safety as well as developing learning opportunities for the organizations. Examples include asking workers how they are going to do their work safely instead of just telling them or balancing constructive feedback to workers when opportunities for improvement are identified with acknowledgments to workers when warranted. When a safety system is built around simply observing and recording results, it can create a culture where workers experience inspectors as ‘unwelcome outsiders’ rather than ‘safety partners.’ There are actions that create safer work environments and build strong cultures. It is recommended to use terminology that encourages a speak-up culture and a positive exchange of dialogue that lends itself to organizational learning. ![]() The language used for determination varies widely, but the process should be consistent. ![]() stress, trust, communication), coupled with a risk determination of ‘acceptable’ or ‘opportunity for improvement’. An observation is an individual occurrence of a condition, behavior, activity, or contextual contributor, such as a psychosocial factor (e.g. At its core, an inspection is simply a collection of one or more safety observations. Safety inspections help to identify and record hazards for corrective action through a critical examination of the workplace. In this article, the components that make up the safety observation, the best approaches, as well as the feedback process will be defined. Further, the primary objectives of a safety observation program, ideally, are to proactively learn and improve. In a previous article, Purpose of Workplace Safety Inspections and Safety Observations, it was discussed that safety observations play a critical role in an overall safety management system.
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