How to Make Hazard Reporting an Easy Button

We can’t find every hazard in the workplace ourselves.  This is why encouraging employees to report hazards is more effective.  But how you set up your hazard reporting program can determine how successful it will be.

Employees are the ones closest to the job.  They are keenly aware of what’s working well, what’s dangerous, and what isn’t working at all.  The last thing you want is for them to keep it to themselves.

Needless to say, we fixed that. But this is what happens when you have a lousy hazard reporting process.

HAZARD REPORTING EASY BUTTON

When you are creating your program, the first thing you need to consider is how your employees are going to report them.  Keep these tips in mind.

1. It must be easy
2. It should only take 90 seconds to complete
3. Don’t make it complicated
4. It should be convenient and readily available
5. It must be super easy (worth putting in here twice)

Humans are lazy by nature. We will always take the easy route, especially for a non-urgent issue. 

We’ve short term memories. We get distracted and forget. When I see a hazard, I need to be able to take action NOW – not 2 hours from now when I take a break.

HAZARD REPORTING IS ABOUT THEM, NOT YOU

Remember, the goal of hazard reporting is to improve the safety of the workplace, get input from employees, and build culture by showing them you’re listening to them.

When you make them jump through hoops for it, they won’t do it, and your program will fail.

If you can’t come up with a simple, easy method for reporting hazards, then ask.  You have a workplace full of experts that can tell you the best and easiest way for them to tell you what needs fixing.

IF AT FIRST IT DOESN’T SUCCEED…

Try, try again. Sometimes you put hazard reporting methods in place, and no one uses them.  They’re duds. 

That’s OK.  It’s not a failure, its an attempt.  You learned of a method that didn’t work. Try something else.

INCLUDE SEVERAL DIFFERENT WAYS OF HAZARD REPORTING

There should be more than one way for employees to report hazards.  Everyone feels comfortable reporting stuff differently.  Some just want to tell you, others will write it down, and still, others will complain to their friends and say nothing to anyone in power – go figure, right?

The key to success is not forcing them into one method.  And not using methods where their report goes unresolved.

Here are some common ones and my favorite one:

THE BEST HAZARD REPORTING IDEA

The best idea I have seen was not necessarily a method of reporting, but the form they used. 

This ingenious company and safety manager made up a short form that had the employee describe the hazard the location, and included a million-dollar question:

Yes, I’m smacking my head, and I’m jealous I didn’t think of it myself.  Talk about GREAT safety culture.  This put the investigation into the employee’s hands.

There were several other great tidbits on the form too – but that was the winner.

ALWAYS HAVE AN ANONYMOUS COMPONENT TO YOUR HAZARD REPORTING

Not all employees will feel comfortable reporting hazards, they don’t want anyone to know it was them. Maybe they feel like snitches.

There could be bad management practices going on they want to make you aware of.

The point is, always have a way they can report it without their name.

“No Name – No Blame” was the title of my reports.  I always made the name optional.

To take it a step further, I made sure they could type in the hazard to disguise their handwriting. Or have someone else call it in to mask their voice.

Most importantly, the security cameras can’t be pointing at the hazard reporting box and still call it anonymous reporting.

PROMOTE HAZARD REPORTING AND TRAIN ON IT

Now that you have several ways for employees to report issues, make sure you communicate it regularly. This must be part of new hire orientation, but refresher training is also a good idea.

How to report hazards is a great toolbox talk safety meeting.

To promote your safety culture even further, have supervisors remind employees about the process when they don’t use it.  A comment like “You should fill out a slip and put that in the suggestion box” tells employees you want them to report these things.  Even when you are making a mental note and handling it anyway.

INCENTIVE HAZARD REPORTING

I am a massive fan of proactive safety incentives and using employee reports of hazards is one the best ways to accomplish this.  You could make it your top way to earn incentives.

Some ideas include putting everyone’s name who reported a hazard in a box and picking one winner a week. Selecting the hazard report that had the most significant risk potential.  Or even just giving reward points to every hazard turned in.

Anonymous hazard reports can’t be incentivized, but, that’s OK.

Attaching a possible reward for reporting a hazard will definitely increase the likelihood of getting the reports in the first place.

TAKE ACTION

Take a moment to look at your current methods for hazard reporting.  Are they easy to use, immediate, and eliminate the chance of forgetting to report?  Do you have an anonymous component?

Over the next few weeks, make some changes, promote it within your company, and make reporting hazards commonplace at your facility.

Keep an eye out for next week, where we’ll take hazard reporting one step further.  I’ll help you create a process to follow once you receive the hazard report.