Are your employee safety initiatives enough?

When we come to work, we expect it to be a safe environment. Although employee safety is largely up to employers to structure and enforce, it is also the responsibility of employees to take those initiatives seriously to ensure their own safety.

In manufacturing, logistics, and other industries, where employees are either operating heavy machinery, or handling hazardous materials, it’s critical to have a multi-level safety plan. The list below is just a snapshot of initiatives that should be in place to protect your staff.

Leadership training. Every successful safety plan needs to undergo continuous improvement to keep up with the needs of the company. This responsibility should be given to a head of operations or an executive team member that is dedicated to the initiative. This includes attending OSHA classes and other training to learn about best practices in safety that they can bring back to their team.

Employee training. All new hires should be trained on a company’s safety topics starting on day one. This includes completing any special certifications, such as forklift training, before they can hit the ground running. Safety training should also be kept top-of-mind by holding monthly refresher courses with employees on a variety of subjects.

Get employees involved. Leadership should ask for employee volunteers interested in additional OSHA safety training. These “safety advisors” will act as an extra set of eyes checking for hazards in the work environment. Employees not designated “safety advisors” should still be given regular, structured opportunities to voice any concerns they might have regarding safety in the workplace. You might be surprised what they uncover.

Utilize audits. An audit schedule should be put into place to keep employees focused on continuous improvement. Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) audits not only highlight food safety, but also personnel safety. Behavior Based Safety (BBS) audits ensure that employees are behaving as they were trained, to remain injury-free.

Injury diagnosis. When an injury does occur, utilizing a PC365 nurse (24/7/365 nurse hotline) allows for injuries to be diagnosed on-the-spot. This ensures an employee will get the proper care following a serious injury.

Although it is now against OSHA guidelines to incentivize employees to prevent injuries, it’s important for companies to set high, yet attainable safety goals so that everyone has a number to work toward. After all, safety is a team effort, and requires both leadership and employee cooperation in order to make work a safer place to be. 

Don’t let pests hitch a ride into your facility

The changing fall colors don’t just signal the coming of winter. In the supply chain industry, fall also means pests will be seeking shelter in your facilities. Among these pests are psocids, which are tiny insects that eat mold and mildew and love damp environments.

Often these hard-to-see pests will hitch a ride into production areas and distribution centers on pallets. However, a few simple steps can help supply chain professionals prevent them from entering facilities.

• Never store pallets outside. Leaving pallets out in the elements creates the perfect environment for psocids.
• Always use dry pallets. Again, dampness is the enemy. Bring damp pallets into your facility and you’ve opened your doors to psocids. Send product out the door on damp pallets and you are extending their domain into the supply chain, leaving them free to roam inside trailers and the warehouses receiving your product. Don’t do it.
• Inspect trailers before receiving product. Remember, a food safety plan is only as strong as its weakest link. Even the cleanest facility is under threat when something enters. Make sure to inspect shipments and trailers before receiving product. Reject anything that looks suspect.
• Training. Staff should know exactly what they are looking for when receiving product. Implement a set training plan and solid SOPs to provide staff with the tools to keep pests out of your facility and supply chain. Don’t forget to test them periodically to ensure SOPs are being followed.

If you are interested in learning how to properly inspect for Psocid bugs, there are three simple videos linked below. These videos will show you how to inspect pallets and what a Psocid looks like. The key to avoiding these pests is controlling the source of your pallets, making sure the wood is fully dried in the pallet construction process, and never using a pallet that has been stored outside. Please note that Psocids, though important to control, are not harmful to food products. 

Psocid Inspection
Psocid Inspection Part 2
Identifying a Psocid With a Flashlight 

Are you using the best techniques to make decisions?

We make hundreds of decisions every day. Some of them require little thought, while others need to be tackled more strategically in order to get the best result.

Before understanding the different factors that affect decisions, it’s important to know the four main decision making types, which include:

Authoritarian – Is made by a person who is in a legitimate position of power. The authority makes the choice based on the information that they have at their disposal.

Consultative – Is made by a person who is in a legitimate place of power, but seeks the opinions of others before rendering a decision.

Delegated – A choice made by a person in authority to assign control to another person.

Group – When two or more people follow a method that results in a mutually agreeable decision.

There are different factors that influence which decision making type you should use. It’s important to asses a situation and understand which of these factors exist in order to take the most effective approach.

Time – If time is of the essence, an authoritarian decision type is recommended.

Existence of expertise – If there is an individual who is a subject matter expert, the delegated decision type should be used.

Importance of decision quality – Generally speaking, group decisions tend to produce higher quality outcomes because they are more thought out, produce a greater selection of choices, and obtain group support. 

Support and participation – When a decision requires a great deal of support from multiple people, a group decision is highly recommended.

Lack of existing information – When there is a lack of expertise on a subject matter, using a group decision making process can be a beneficial way to gather and organize information necessary to make an informed choice.

By understanding the different types of decisions, and the factors that influence their use, your decision making will be much more efficient.