By Mike Starner

“Strive for Five” was an expectation set by my boss when I was a front-line supervisor for an investor-owned utility. He understood the greatest effect on worksite culture was field leadership. The more a safety leader visits workers in the field, the less it becomes a big production each time they do. Understanding that administrative burdens exist and are necessary, paperwork cannot be allowed to dominate your day.

In his mind, most of your day should be spent in the field engaging the workforce. You’ll notice I am using the term safety leader, that’s because it’s more about the interaction than the role. In an ideal world, every person connected to the work would view themselves as a safety professional. Having said that, the organization doesn’t just need safety mindfulness, it needs safety expertise. That’s where the safety professional earns their keep by monitoring the worksite and helping crews understand the hazard management concepts by applying their experience and training.

Monitoring the worksite gives the observer the opportunity to compare how the work being performed differs from how it was planned with the opportunity to address unsafe conditions and behaviors, as well as system failures. Above all, employers are required by law to perform regular and frequent inspections. The safety professional/leader spending time in the field is the employer’s best way of demonstrating compliance.

Understanding the importance of field visits, let’s talk strategies to get you away from the desk. First – “Strive for Five”. Start by managing your schedule in a way that allows you to address your administrative work early in your shift while reserving some time at the end of your day for tying up loose ends. Another good method is to dedicate a day of the week to administrative work.

This approach works well for tasks that require more of your attention – reports, data analysis, safety communications, etc. Work with your manager, peers, and internal customers to refine this scheduling plan by making it clear that your intention is to be in the field as much as you can be. I recommend placing your email on “out of office” to limit distractions with a note that lets everyone know what you’re up to. This will do wonders for keeping low importance tasks from creeping into your day, a simple note letting folks know that your busy protecting lives with assurances that you are available by phone for emergencies is all that’s necessary.

Now that you are in the field, what are you going to do with this time? It’s important to prioritize your time by observing tasks representing the highest risk to safety and health in your organization. By analyzing incident trends and outputs from incident investigations, near misses, and observations you can ensure your monitoring work will give you the best return on investment. This is a delicate balance since we know that absence of incidents does not equate to the presence of safety. An observation plan can make sure you’re not leaving any of your internal customers out.

While performing observations, engage with the crew, participate in the job briefing, ask questions without judgement, offer suggestions to reduce risk, and close out your visit with a quick discussion with the crew on what you observed and allow for a two-way conversation around successes and opportunities. Don’t let administrative tasks creep into your crew visit. Nothing is worse than a safety professional with a clipboard, instead take mental notes and complete your checklist or form later. Understanding that there will be times, especially following an incident, that you must shift your attention to capturing information accurately.

Finally, end your day by putting out any administrative fires that developed throughout the day, contemplate what you observed and document your findings. Follow up with stakeholders by sharing what you learned and provide technical consultation on how high-risk conditions and behaviors can be improved. Any system deficiencies should be addressed with an emphasis on having the issue corrected in a timely manner.

In closing, having a formal plan to get yourself away from the desk and into the field will not only keep you sane but will help improve the relationship you have with workers, earning trust and respect. “Strive for Five” or whatever works for you. In any case, the safety professional will need the support of the organization to reduce the overall administrative burdens they face. Start the conversation with your team today!