Changing Attitudes in Electrical Safety

By: Mike Enright

“Safety is our top priority.” A phrase that is said so often that sadly it starts to feel like background noise. How are you taking steps to reduce risk? What are you doing to ensure that your safety program is actually followed? What do you do if the mentality starts to slip?

Rarely do unsafe behaviors start with an egregious violation; it often starts with a worker toeing the line—still technically following the rules. Sadly, the mentality starts to snowball, and toeing the line becomes a worker just focusing on not breaking the rules, rather than acting safely.

There are many ways to address this. Today, we would like to discuss the many paths toward promoting and enforcing safe behaviors—whether you just started at the job or realized you need to enforce a real change.

Sometimes, It Takes a Nudge

Whether you’ve entered the position in a management role or skilled professional who notices a less than full commitment to safe attitudes, if you start challenging people, they are extremely likely to get defensive about their practices. A recent article from EC&M discussed this lesser-asked question about electrical safety: What do I do if I’m the new person on the job and recognize an unsafe behavior?

This is a tough question to ask, because no one wants “the new guy” to come in and start railing on the processes, behaviors, and attitudes that the company has held for months or even years.

More likely than not, you don’t want to walk in and start telling people they are wrong, as this leads to more disdain than appreciation for your commitment to safety. In this, EC&M recommends the following:

• Avoid coming across as critical, especially since you’re “the new guy.”
• Ask questions in the context of job briefings or work performance, as if you are seeking advice. For example, “Can you see how we can make this task safer?” or “How do we identify the potential dangers here?”
• Talk with other supervisors, one at a time. Bring up something specific in NFPA 70E, and ask a question about implementation. For example, “I’m not sure what the procedure at this company is for lockout/tagout. I was looking at Informative Annex G of NFPA 70E to see if we’re safe enough there. Can you help me figure this out?”
• When you see an unsafe act, don’t react in a rules enforcement mode since the mentality of just barely not breaking the rules is in play. Ask the person to stop for a moment, and then ask in what they might be doing the task unsafely. Then ask how they might do it more safely. This way, you make your point and you have the person identifying and solving the problem rather than “getting caught” almost breaking a rule.

However, if you’ve been on the job for a while or start seeing behaviors that break the rules and create an unsafe environment, this is when you need to take real, meaningful action.

Other Times, It Takes a Shove

More often than not, however, you’re not the new guy, and the behaviors are worse than ‘not breaking rules.’ This is when it takes a bit more than just nudging workers toward safe behaviors—it’s at this time you need to take action. Part of a larger safety culture, the development and enforcement of an electrical safety program is not only an employer’s legal responsibility, it’s a moral responsibility as well.

Even if you have a program in place, once one thing slips, behaviors start to snowball. An employee takes a shortcut, sees that it saves him or her time, and repeats the behavior. Other employees see this and start to emulate it. The unsafe practice becomes ingrained in behavior and soon, employees start to believe that “it’s the way we do things around here.”

It’s only a matter of time before a near miss, an OSHA citation, or worse. While there are times when nudging may work, there are other times you need to take the initiative and take control. While we will discuss the process of developing and enforcing a true safety culture in an upcoming whitepaper, here are a few tips to take control:

• Ensure the Message is Clear: One of the biggest parts of safety is ensuring that your message is clear and understood—we don’t tolerate unsafe behaviors.
• Keep Motivations Aligned: Sometimes, as a supervisor, you may accidentally be part of the problem. Are you giving your employees ample time? Completing proper briefings? Ensure you are motivating them to be safe.
• Remind Employees about Danger: Employees can complete a task 10,000 times correctly, but it only takes one wrench slip to irreversible damage. While fear should never be the number one motivator, reminding employees about the realities of arc flash incidents or electrocutions are not only common, they are deadly.

Often, You Just Need to Listen

One of the biggest shortcomings we’ve seen in years of safety is the lack of two-way communication. Why aren’t workers doing a task correctly? Why aren’t they wearing the right PPE? Being able to ask these questions and listen to employee concerns (without seeming accusatory) is often a critical step in implementing a truly safety-focused program.

In fact, at Enespro PPE, we entered the electrical PPE market largely on the realization that there was a lack of ‘listening’ in electrical safety. As we discussed in a recent blog, the excuses employees made for ignoring PPE requirements didn’t change for nearly a decade and a half—with one of the top reasons being that their equipment was uncomfortable, heavy and restrictive..

No Matter How You Look at It, It Takes a Commitment

Nudge, dictate, or listen, a commitment to safety starts from the top—and includes everyone. At Enespro PPE, we believe in the power of a safety culture, a workplace belief system where safety is ingrained in the behaviors and attitudes of employees.

PPE is your last line of defense in the hierarchy of controls, and while you should always take steps to work de-energized and minimize risk, we developed PPE products that ensure that workers don’t dread having to use it.

We are proud to provide a full line of arc flash PPE for all of your electrical needs, offering 8 CAL, 12 CAL, 20 CAL, 40, 55 and 65 CAL Arc Flash kits that are more comfortable, less restrictive, and an excellent choice for your electrical PPE needs.

From Programs to Culture: Developing an Electrical Safety Culture

It’s likely you have a safety program in place—well documented policies and procedures, personal protective equipment on hand, a training program that ensures employees are well informed about their rights and responsibilities, and penalties for not following the rules. However, programs only go so far, and too often, compliance starts to falter. If you are looking to go beyond programs and implement a true culture of electrical safety, we’ve written a guide that can help you. Developing a Culture of Electrical Safety explores the differences between a compliant program and a true culture of safety while offering tips that can make your people safer. Preview this guide below and download it here.

Learn more about our selection of innovative, comfortable, and compliant personal protective equipment.