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The challenge of managing the many aspects of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in our workplaces can sometimes seem overwhelming. There are many legal, moral and financial reasons for us to pay attention to our OHS obligations. With all of these challenges, we need to make sure we’re not wasting our time, money, and efforts doing things that just don’t work. Here is a list of the Ten Most Common Mistakes We Can Make When Handling OHS Issues That Hopefully We Can All Avoid. It’s okay if you start humming the theme song to one of those popular late-night talk shows while reading this list.

(1) Celebrate the lack of injury and not the existence of safety.

It’s a big mistake to focus on the lack of injuries as the measure that we’ve been safe. Every person I’ve ever met can tell me about a situation where they’ve taken a terrible risk to their well-being and gotten away with it. Of course we should be happy when we’ve gone a period of time without anyone being hurt, but that doesn’t mean we’re “safe.” Safety cannot be defined as the absence of injuries. Safety is created by what we do, not what we avoid.

Too many companies reward the “lucky ones” who didn’t get hurt while unsafe and the “liars” who don’t report injuries to avoid being the employee who breaks the safety record. We need more focus on making our workplaces safe by doing the security activities necessary to create safety. Safety celebrations should be shared with those who have helped keep our workplaces safe and not those who have just gotten lucky.

(2) Make security for our employees and not with them.

Rules imposed by others often do not gain the buy-in needed to actually change behavior. Involving employees in the process of establishing safe behaviors and rules that apply to their workplaces makes it much more likely that those rules of behavior will be followed. Challenging employee groups to set and review performance standards engages them in the essentials of safety.

(3) Make security for the government.

Companies that are in the early stages of developing their safety cultures often make the mistake of being “reluctant compliant.” They are doing security because the government is forcing them to do so. The value of managing security is really beneficial for the productivity and performance of a company. The sooner a company starts doing security for the added value of its performance, the sooner it will start performing! Safety is about getting everyone home every night. Of course, the way we do this must comply with applicable laws related to OSH. Do not make security for the government, make your work safe and legal… your company will prosper financially thanks to it.

(4) Ignore the importance of proper tools, equipment, materials, and work space.

The historical myth that unsafe behavior causes 88% of the incidents we experience is simply NOT true. Unsafe behaviors are involved in EVERY incident we experience. The other part of the formula that is often ignored in believing this myth is that unsafe conditions are also always present. We need to focus our efforts on both safe behaviors and safe conditions (tools, equipment, materials, and work environment). If we only provide broken tools to humans, we shouldn’t be surprised when they get hurt. If we don’t provide an easily accessible lifting machine for employees to use, we shouldn’t be surprised when they get hurt from lifting too much. Good tools and equipment increase the chances that workers will do their jobs by not taking unnecessary risks.

(5) Ignore the culture of unsafe behavior.

Not having safe personal behavior and not holding each other accountable for making it safe at work is a big mistake. Allowing our co-workers to continue unsafe behavior is often disastrous. We are our guardian brothers and sisters. Just like when we play team sports games, we should take the opportunity to coach our co-workers who don’t have the safe behaviors they need to come home safe every night.

(6) Miscalculating the power of groups that actively care about each other.

Inviting co-workers to give us feedback and guidance when they see us doing something unsafe is a wonderful way to increase the team’s focus on safety. Unless invited, our co-workers may be reluctant to bring our mistakes to our attention for fear of a bad reaction. We’re in this together, so why not open up the discussion and invite each other to help us overcome the challenges of behaving safely?

(7) Deliver Safety Programs to passive employees.

I’m not sure what happened historically to make us believe that we could provide employee security like a pizza. The sooner we hold everyone accountable for safe production and not just production with added safety, the better off we’ll all be. Challenging employees to find ways to make their jobs safe is well documented as a sure way to increase their safety performance.

(8) Measure the results and not the activities that generate security.

Companies that define security activities for all staff in their organizations (including the CEO) are safer than those that do not. Requiring that the measure of doing a great job include performing safety tasks such as: investigations, hazard assessments, inspections, and attendance at meetings, gets what needs to be done, actually done. Failure to do this ensures that security activities are always relegated to production.

(9) Manage OHS differently from the way we manage the other parts of our business.

Why would a successful, profitable company with a clear track record of management success implement a “safety program” that doesn’t replicate EXACTLY why they are successful in the first place? Manage security exactly as you manage your business and you’ll get similar results. Too many companies manage security differently from your business, jeopardizing your security bottom line.

If you know how motivated your employees and management are to give you production, why would you settle for doing anything different to get safety results?

Too often, companies take a very positive and proactive approach to motivating productivity activities, yet do the exact opposite when it comes to security, providing only negative reinforcement for security. Security is a condition of employment is a commonly used threat. Of course it is, and so is showing up on time and getting the job done. Too many companies in their orientation focus on making negative consequences the key messages during orientation instead of telling employees that we need your help to make it safe here and that we are counting on you to help us with safe production. Of course, you can’t ignore unsafe behavior any more than you would ignore behavior that doesn’t meet your productivity systems. Stop making security feel like a negative. There is nothing negative about doing our work with a focus on safe production.

(10) Hold safety meetings that everyone wants to avoid.

I’ve talked to tens of thousands of employees in my career about the functionality of the “safety meetings” they attend. Most people tell me that they don’t really like what goes on in these meetings. The natural question is “Why do we go to a meeting and we don’t like what’s going on?” Just fix it! At your next meeting, get up and tell people you’d like to discuss how to improve these meetings. Let’s all set ourselves the goal of not sitting quietly in a meeting that doesn’t address our needs. Just say NO to failed safety meetings!

Well, there you have it. I hope you have some ideas to think about to improve your safety culture. Own the security process, participate in its creation, stand up and be counted. We need to do this together and stop doing things that we know are wrong. Let’s be successful together…it’s very important to you and the people you work with!

Why do I now feel like I should be throwing a 3X5 cue card through a fake window while listening to the sound of glass breaking like David Letterman would? I’m certainly not the only one missing Dave! Dude?