Hidden risks can plague your organization, as unsafe behaviors and conditions may fall under the radar. To keep your employees and the public safe, it’s vital to be able to uncover these risks and do all you can to put the necessary corrective actions and controls in place to prevent them from occurring again in the future.
In part two of our five-part webinar series, Beyond the basics: Uncovering hidden risks from unsafe acts and conditions and preventing them, experts Kenderrick Simien, Callum Monteith, and Darren Smith dove into these concepts to help safety professionals build a more proactive approach to safety.
With nearly 30 years in the field of EHS, Ken, an active member of the National Safety Council (NSC) and the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), has created tools that have helped companies create a World Class Safety Culture and in one instance, helped a company reduce workplace incidents by 30%!
Callum Monteith, who is the general manager of health, safety and risk at YMCA Calgary, leads a team of 60 with expertise in public and occupational safety. Our very own Darren Smith, Senior PreSales Consultant at EcoOnline, offers more of a technological perspective when it comes to this topic, with over 25 years of experience in the software space.
Keep reading to find out their expert opinions on:
- What is hidden risk?
- How to design a program to stay ahead of such risks
- How to put theory into practice with examples from YMCA Calgary
- How software can help you stay proactive
What are hidden risks?
According to Ken Simien, a hidden risk is the result of an unsafe action or condition while working on site or simply, when something goes wrong. Think of hidden risks as things which are not immediately obvious or detectable and have the potential to cause harm. It’s vital that you have a strong process in place to recognize such risks.
What are the top contributors to hidden risks? Simien states a lack of communication, weak safety culture and behaviors, complacency, as well as environmental factors are the most common factors. These things can make safety professionals more reactive in the moment, putting controls in place after an incident or near miss has occurred.
In addition to causing your employees physical harm, hidden risks can also lead to monetary losses for your company. In 2021, for instance, $128 billion in ergonomic hazards was recorded according to the International Labor Organization. This includes overexertion, musculoskeletal disorders, etc. which fall under hidden risks because they’re not under production or operational-type tasks, which tend to receive more attention. According to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, $125 billion in chemical exposures was recorded in 2021. Hidden risks such as poor ventilation and certain chemical exposures can lead to cancer and several respiratory issues.
40-60% of hidden risks are also due to things like inadequate training and supervision, because of a lack of follow-ups or retraining. All in all, 374 million people were affected in 2021 with 2.87 people fatally affected.
Design your program
So, what can you do to stay ahead of hidden risks? Simien recommends designing your safety program in the following way
As Simien states, “find the fix before finding the fault.” So many organizations immediately react by blaming the worker instead of looking at possible contributing factors which could have led to injury or illness.
What’s the solution? Look at what else could have resulted in the incident such as the top contributing factors mentioned earlier and teach employees the safe steps and controls required for this task early in the process to help strengthen your safety culture.
YMCA Calgary's keys to success
When looking at how to design your program to stay ahead of hidden risks, it can be valuable to look at what other companies have done. Let’s take YMCA Calgary, for example. Callum Monteith, the general manager of health, safety and risk at YMCA Calgary, explained how they have been able to stay proactive and create a strong safety culture.
The first thing they have done is have a stable health and safety management software system, which allows them insight into data and information regarding their safety status. YMCA Calgary uses what they call “safety action plans”, which pull data from elements like safety audits, incidents, and inspections with the help of the software. This transparency helps them capture and guide their safety activities across the association to create a virtual to-do list to navigate their priorities over the next few years. These safety action plans are reviewed quarterly as part of their management safety meetings.
Their quarterly review cycle includes the following elements:
This cycle allows Callum and his team to quantify their safety focus and goals while capturing concerns. It also helps them connect with stakeholders to establish alignment.
Continuous improvement is a core part of this process to help the organization reach its full safety potential. And the proof is in the pudding:
“You can see we seem to be slowly spiraling upwards," shared Monteith. "We Leverage EcoOnline’s EHS software to report and track a huge variety of incidents and inspections across our association. You can see from the Y axis (in the graph) that we have a strong reporting culture... This reporting culture and ability to capture that incident triangle allows us to see a large number of minor incidents so we can prevent major incidents. If we have good visibility in this system, we can be proactive when it comes to major things...and use that information to guide our approach.”
What are some other key results the company has seen? Watch as Monteith explains their keys to safety success, including a 65% decrease in occupational injuries over the last two years!
How software can help
As Monteith mentioned, having a digital software system can truly help optimize your approach. Darren Smith dove into how a safety solution can help uncover hidden risks on site and strengthen your safety approach.
It’s no secret that paper and Excel based systems can stop people from being able to report hazards and risks quickly due to the cumbersome process. This slow communication inevitably delays implementing corrective actions and controls, as health and safety teams may be drowning in administrative tasks instead of out on the field. With a lack of real-time visibility, gaps can be seen, and hidden risks can run rampant throughout your site.
EcoOnline’s EHS platform gives you the ability to have all your safety data and information in one place. Proactively report near-misses through our desktop or mobile capabilities, carry out frictionless reporting through QR codes which allow you to quickly report and log hazards, and instantly deal with risks and hazards, while monitoring progress through safety reminders, with our action tracking module.
Smith explains our software capabilities best in the following video from the webinar:
It’s time to streamline worker safety and participation through easy data collection, increased hazard reporting, recurring inspections, improved hazard visibility, dynamic dashboards and much more with EcoOnline’s safety software!
The bottom line
With the right culture and system in place, you can stay ahead of hidden risks in the workplace. We can all learn from Callum Monteith when he states, “build relationships, engagement, and your story to work with stakeholders to tackle what matters most and keep our communities safe.”
Curious to find out more about creating a proactive safety approach from our experts? Check out our On-Demand webinar, Beyond the basics: Uncovering hidden risks from unsafe acts and conditions and preventing them.