Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER March 7, 2016 FEATURES 15 2016 HRPA MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL CONTEST Contest begins Jan 20, 2016. Renew your 2016 HRPA membership today for best odds: www.HRPA.ca/2016Renewal WIN to your choice of four fabulous destinations: featuring Las Vegas, Orlando, San Francisco or San Diego. RENEW EARLY TO ONE OF 18 TRIPS FOR 2 Plus a chance at our GRAND PRIZE: a 7 Night Hawaii Escape in MAUI!! Hundreds of additional prizes courtesy of HRPA's member savings partners HEALTH &SAFETY Why do OHS injuries go unreported? Having safety goal of 'zero' can be intimidating to employees, say experts By Liz Bernier I t certainly has a nice ring to it: "Our workplace has had zero lost-time injuries." But the concept of zero — zero injuries, zero lost-time incidents, zero lost man hours — doesn't ac- tually promote workplace safety the way employers intend; in fact, it creates hidden safety risks, ac- cording to Alan Quilley, president of Safety Results in Sherwood Park, Alta. Workplaces that heavily pro- mote the importance of occu- pational health and safety are certainly to be admired and com- mended but, at the same time, it's important to be aware of the safety risks, incidents, accidents and near misses that occur so they can be prevented from happening again, he says. And too strong of a focus on "zero injuries" can unintention- ally discourage employees from reporting incidents, says Quilley. "Fundamentally, if you wonder why humans do things, it's because of what happens afterward — the consequences," he says. "Humans are driven by consequences." Employers often have all kinds of good intentions and say they want to know whenever an em- ployee is injured or has a near miss. at's unquestionably good information for the employer to know so, hopefully it can do something so that doesn't happen again, says Quilley. " e upside for a corporation is pretty straightforward — why wouldn't you want to know about the bad things that happen? Be- cause maybe then you can do things diff erently," he says. " e problem from an employ- ee perspective is 'What happens when I do (report)?'" Employees understand report- ing injuries or accidents is a good thing to do but they also know there may be consequences. " at's where a lot of corpora- tions go wrong — even though they intend it to be good, it's not. ey don't take a view from the employee point of view and if they did, they would probably react dif- ferently," says Quilley. "Corporations have gone out of their way to foolishly pick zero as this ultimate goal of safety, which doesn't make any logical sense whatsoever because just because you didn't hurt yourself, it doesn't mean you were safe. "We set up these goals that humans have to be perfect and never hurt ourselves, which has got nothing to do with reality." When employers are working within that system and the en- tire goal is to have zero injuries, and employees are rewarded, bonused or incentivized on that basis, no one wants to be the one who messes up the track record, he says. " e next thing that happens to me is I'm the guy who ruined everyone's bonus. Nobody wants to be that person." There's also the reputational risk an employee faces if he re- ports an incident and co-workers react badly, says Quilley. "(For instance), an electrician almost electrocuted himself and he told (his employer) — as he should have. It was only his insu- lated pliers that actually saved his life. He was using the right piece of equipment," he says. "He told people and now his co-workers are calling him 'Sparky.' That's an unintended consequence. And he said to me, 'If I had to do it again, I wouldn't (report it).' He's a good electrician, he's just a human who made a mis- take. And he doesn't want to be known as Sparky… He takes pride in what he does, and now he's be- ing insulted by the very people he works with." Another factor that can have a signifi cant impact in discouraging reporting is when a manager or supervisor reacts negatively when receiving the report, says Quilley. " e other thing is I go tell my boss and he gives me a great big sigh," he says. "If that's happened to me in the past, it becomes less likely I'm go- ing to (report) again when if I just don't tell, nothing bad is going to happen. "I don't tell and my life is sim- pler… I don't have to do the work that it takes, I don't have to put up with this negative reaction." Employers need to do away with the entire concept of zero SERIOUS > pg. 16 "The upside for a corporation is pretty straightforward."

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