Video: Are You Putting Your People At Risk?

Are You Actively Putting Your People At Risk? from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.

Workplace Expert, Kevin Burns argues that companies who do not care about their people enough to ensure that they follow safe procedures it could be argued do not care about their customers either. How you do one thing is how you do everything. How can you say you care about your customers but not the people who serve your customers?

Security, Safety and Middle-Age

How old is Middle-Age? Is it 40 or 45 years-old or even 50? Isn't middle-age supposed to be the mid-point of your life? If you die in a car accident at age 40, was your middle-age then twenty years ago at age 20?

I ask this question because I was recently driving along a busy four-lane roadway with plenty of traffic signals and a lot of traffic. Traffic was moving at just under the posted speed of 60 kmh but there were lots of vehicles making lane changes, turning onto and out of side streets and, as a driver, you had to pay close attention.

Scanning my lane and the other westbound lane on my right, I caught a flash of a cell phone being used through the driver's window. As I pulled up alongside, the woman driving was texting on her phone. She was about 40 years-old - middle age.

I laid on the horn in an effort to scare her into paying attention to her driving. She got the message right away, dropped her phone into the passenger seat and shielded her face with her hand.

C'mon folks, safety isn't just a discussion for "boots" (people who wear work boots), safety is a discussion for "suits" too. Your family's future security depends upon your safety attitude in this moment.

How ironic would it be to be killed in a car wreck because you were texting new instructions to your Financial Planner about your retirement security?

Smarten up. Stop thinking safety doesn't affect you because you wear a suit to work.
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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711

Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

Texting While Driving? Wake Up!

This is a video that every single person who believes they can text while driving needs to see. Make sure you get this video into the hands of your children and all teens and early 20's people. This video is disturbing ... be warned.



Safety Attitude includes making sure you look out for the people who don't bother to look out for themselves. As the video shows, one person texting can have dire consequences for others.

Tell me you won't hear, "I want Mommy to wake up," after you're done watching this video.

Safety Training Must Account For Interruptions

On one of my most recent airplane flights, as I sat myself into my aisle seat and secured my seat belt, the chief flight attendant began her announcements including the safety demonstration required on every flight. You know the one I am speaking of: seat belts, oxygen masks, floor-track lighting and emergency exits. I could probably demo the safety demonstration if the airline were in a pinch having heard it so many times.

Just prior to the safety demonstration, the flight attendant welcomed a few new “first-time flyers.” As I pretty much live on airplanes some days, it always amazes when I see mature adults taking their first flight – or should I say, finally getting around to taking their first flight. I can only imagine what it is like to experience a flight for the first time in mid-life. (If you’re 45 years old and have never been on a plane, then you wouldn’t really understand the jokes about airline service would you?)

As we were taxiing into take-off position and as the safety demonstration was taking place, a group of three men, in the emergency row, were having a great old conversation amongst themselves and loud enough that I, three rows ahead of them, was having a hard time hearing the safety demonstration. That’s not a problem for me as I’ve been through the safety demo thousands of times, but what about the first-time flyers on the plane? Wouldn’t this be the first time they’ve ever heard the announcement? Wouldn’t this be important information?

SAFETY ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Does your safety training account for interruptions? Interruptions distract people from getting ALL of the information. A cell phone ringing during a toolbox or tailgate meeting distracts just enough that not every word is heard. Side-talking during a safety meeting means the person you’re talking to and yourself are not getting all of the information. Muttering under your breath impairs the attention of others if they can hear something. A safety attitude is an attitude of courtesy – to ensure that others AND yourself are safe. You can’t do that if you’re distracting others. And if you're distracting others, you're a hazard on the job.

Supervisors, before you hold your safety briefing, make sure you minimize as many distractions as possible – cell phones off, full attention, quiet place away from traffic and other noises as much as possible. Remember, interruptions impair learning. When learning is impaired, that’s another hazard on the job.