Leaders Collect Information
Effective leaders are interested in the root causes of conditions and behaviors that result in accidents. They assume that root causes always exist and, therefore, prioritize addressing them.
Leaders gather information through inspections and analyses. Data on workplace hazards might already be available to employers and workers from both internal and external sources. To identify root causes, leaders should collect, organize, and review this information with workers. This helps determine the types of hazards present and identifies which workers may be, or potentially might be, exposed.
Leaders Inspect and Analyze
Effective leaders dedicate time to routinely inspecting the workplace, identifying and analyzing hazardous conditions and unsafe behaviors. Through these inspections, management can pinpoint areas of concern, allowing them to proactively address them before any incidents occur. Below are actions that leaders can undertake to demonstrate a strong commitment to hazard identification and analysis:
- Conduct joint management/employee inspections of all operations, equipment, work areas, and facilities.
- Always document inspections, ensuring that you can later verify the correction of hazardous conditions.
- Include all operational activities in these inspections.
- Regularly inspect both plant vehicles and transportation vehicles.
- Use checklists that highlight things to look for.
- Before changing operations, workstations, or workflow, seek the input of workers and evaluate the changes for potential hazards and related risks.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
2-5. Effective leaders are interested in the root causes and go after them first because _____.
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