Making the most of Near Misses to Improve your Safety Record

Intro: Organisations often pride themselves on their timely and effective reactions to workplace incidents. However, a total safety initiative requires that attention is paid not only to those events which have resulted in death or injury, but also to those which haven’t – the "Near Misses". In this article we outline the benefits to the workplace, as well as to a firm’s profitability, of addressing this often over-looked, but crucial, safety issue.

Introduction

When it comes to addressing safety in the workplace, organisations fall into one of two categories:

Reactive – dealing with incidents as they arise; and

Proactive – taking steps to minimise incidents before they occur.

Ideally, all firms would be proactive in all areas of workplace safety. Indeed there are various regulative and legislative provisions which compel the implementation of preventative measures; these however, are few in number, and tend to be industry- or incident-specific. Overall, an organisation’s commitment to the safety of its environment is in its own hands.

A proactive approach fundamentally means that an organisation monitors, analyses and assesses the would-be incidents, as well as those which have actually occurred. "Would be" incidents are also known as "Near Misses": accidents which nearly happened, or which would have happened but for some timely obstructingevent.

Why Should a Firm Address Near Misses?

There are many reasons to monitor and react to near incidents – not least the creation of a safer working environment.

Various studies have shown a direct correlation between near-miss incidents in the workplace, and serious events resulting in death or injury. In a nutshell, major workplace accidents can usually be linked to a number of earlier near misses. This safety causation means that addressing the near-misses will impact the more serious events; preventative steps taken at an early stage will thus reduce deaths and injuries.

While workplace deaths are, thankfully, uncommon, they are a reality: in 2012, there were 4,628 worker fatalities in the US.

As well as having a serious emotional effect on the effected workers and their families, workplace fatalities and injuries have a substantial effect on an organisation’s bottom line. Direct financial impacts such as compensation claims, loss of man-hours and damage to equipment are relatively easy to quantify. However there are much broader financial impacts which are not so easy to measure, but which fundamentally affect an organisation’s finances. These include:

• Lost productivity
• Poor staff morale
• Damage to reputation / brand
• Cost of resulting investigation (both financial, and lost productivity)

Near misses should thus be seen as an early warning system, flagging later, more serious and more expensive incidents. Addressing near misses enables a firm to respond to them, thereby preventing later serious incidents – and the associated costs to the firm. To misquote an old adage: The cost of prevention is better than the cost of the cure.

Involving the Workforce – Implementing a ReportingSystem

To address near misses, there must be something to address. That "something" necessitates involvement from the ground up: essentially, it requires a system whereby all workers can report near misses.

Organisations are often loath to implement reporting procedures, viewing them as expensive, disruptive, time consuming, and counter-productive. Certainly, such requirements can be unsuccessful because of a variety of obstacles perceived by the workforce, notably:

• They are an unnecessary "hassle"
• They are needlessly time consuming
• They engender a blame culture
• They interrupt the work-flow and affect dead-lines
• An increase in reported incidents – even near misses – can effect a company’s reputation
• Workers may feel peer pressure not to highlight faults

All such obstacles to the success of a reporting system need to be properly considered by an organisation before the implementation of the process, and appropriate steps taken to diminish them. Essentially, managers need to create a positive safety environment, where reporting is seen as encouraged and a means to a beneficial outcome. To this end, a firm should:

• Bring the entire organisation on board –including all levels of management
• Highlight the proactive nature of the programme
• Reiterate frequently that it is not a blame-worthy or punitive process
• Lead by example – starting with upper management, and visibly involving middle managers and direct line supervisors
• If possible, implement a reward scheme for teams or departments who participate effectively and consistently

Managers should also be aware of the positive effects of reporting on a workforce. Implemented correctly, reporting will create cohesion amongst staff, with each worker striving for the same positive outcome. Encouraging near-miss reporting helps to make individuals more aware of the procedures they are involved in, more engaged with the work environment, and more accountable for their own role in the firm.

What type of Reporting System?

Equally important to the creation of a positive perception of reporting is the creation of an easy, streamlined reporting process. Such will communicate to staff that managers are aware of the workers’ concerns regarding effective reporting, and indicates their support for and encouragement of the reporting process.

To ensure success, a reporting system should be:

• Easy
• Quick
• Hassle-free
• Flexible
• Efficient
• Accessible

Once an issue has been reported, any system must have a follow-up programme, managing this information. Ideally, the information will be streamlined to flow through to a centralised data-gathering system, enabling it to be effectively analysed to prevent future accidents. This is done by identifying trends, detecting root causes, and finding – and executing - the actionable metrics.

When it comes to implementing a reporting / monitoring system for near misses, firms have one of two options: a paper-based system, and an automated system. (There is a third way – a hybrid paper / automated system, but in practice this largely amounts to a manual system, necessitating the input of information from the paper records into a database.)

Incidents can be reported manually on a paper-system and, if properly designed, such systems can be relatively speedy and easy to complete and lodge. However, the follow-up, post-reporting actions required are more often than not time-consuming and prone to errors, and do not allow for cross-form accessibility or transparency.

By contrast, an automated centralised system will provide:

• Real-time information
• Immediate accessibility for all relevant personnel
• Simple and quick metric creation
• Efficient follow-up corrective and preventative actions (eg, periodic email notification when action is required, to the pertinent person)
• Easily generated and distributed information and action reports
• Trend identification
• Easily created follow-up plans, which address root causes

Irrespective of the type of system used, unless reported near misses result in visible, timely reactions by management, all efforts taken in implementing the system will come to nothing. As mentioned above, near misses are an organisation’s early warning system. Reporting them is akin to waving a red flag.

Conclusion

To show genuine commitment to safety, and to make the most of near misses, an organisation must take the necessary steps to ensure that the near miss does not become another safety statistic. The first, and most important, step is reporting. The type of reporting system implemented, and the obvious and visible commitment of the decision-makers to its success will influence the entire safety culture of the organisation. As such it is imperative for a firm which has decided to turn near misses into real safety opportunities to invest time and resources in determining the reporting method and processes most effective and suitable for its needs.

About CMO

CMO is a world leader in the provision of software health and safety solutions. CMO advocate the importance of proper and effective reporting systems in the creation of safer working environments.

My name is Sohel Ather, software engineer by profession and a content writer by passion, Technical writings, blogging etc are stuff that I do as hobby.