By Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP:
Workplace accidents are very common, even in the parking industry. But should it be? Workplace injuries are in the tens of thousands each year. Economically, over 50 billion dollars is lost each year in accidents.
Human factors are the cause in a vast majority of cases. But often there is a connection between human factors and other causes. Understanding how people work and creating safeguards (rules, safety plans and supervision) can go a long way to prevent deaths and injuries if applied correctly.
Many types of errors exist, managers don’t think about them often. Two specifically involve information processing errors and action errors. How a person interprets information impacts what they will do with that information. Consider an example of an information processing error: A worker may not understand why a certain procedure should be used. Also, the worker might not understand some key words that could lead to a wrong procedure being used.
In the area of action errors, it’s really about execution mistakes. The worker may lack the training or skill set to properly complete the task safely. Further if due to a lack of supervision many others perform a task unsafely without correction, the WRONG action will be presumed to be ok.
To improve prevention awareness, I suggest improving supervision, training and rule enforcement. For example, using plain, common language and discussing it in advance with workers to assure understanding. This is largely a management responsibility. Of course, managers need to be trained in the importance of understanding and applying human factors. It is time-consuming and can decrease production hours for a short time. In the long run there will be many less lost workdays.
Another area to consider improving is task design. This involves evaluating jobs to include less repetition, changing assignments to keep mental alertness. Regardless whether the employee is working on the street, in a parking garage or even in an office, thinking about how we train and supervise may save a life!
Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP, is the Director of Public Safety for Wesleyan University. Scott can be reached at srohde@wesleyan.edu.
Forum Question: Where do communication breakdowns most often occur in your operations?