Every credible chemical site in America appoints someone to be ultimately responsible for the safety of its workers, its operation and the community it impacts. Since 1971, for a number of companies, that person has been Ed Tyler.
“You need to keep safety real,” said Tyler, sharing his definition of a good safety administrator with delegates to the Texas/Louisiana EHS Seminar, held recently in Galveston, Texas. “It’s real when someone gets hurt and has to go to the doctor or to the hospital.”
Currently an environmental, safety and health engineer with Dianal America, Tyler told the story of a worker, who had injured his hand in a conveyor mechanism, he accompanied to the hospital. As the worker was being examined, his wife arrived at the hospital.
“The first thing she did was apologize for being late. She was obviously very pregnant at the time, and she had to get somebody to take care of her two small kids so she could come to her husband,” Tyler recalled. “To see the anguish and worry on this lady’s face while her husband was getting checked out is something I don’t want to do ever again.”
Accompanying injured workers to the hospitals, staying there with them as long as necessary and communicating with them and their families “keeps safety real,” according to Tyler. “You never want to forget why you’re in safety,” he said.
Beyond compliance with OSHA regulations, implementing world-class training and being recognized by industry peers as having an exemplary safety site, the No. 1 goal of any company’s safety program is for no one to get hurt.
“Prevention is the only credible goal to have,” Tyler said.
The unfortunate reality is accidents occur. Tyler stressed the importance of conducting incident investigations as soon as it is practical and safe to do so.
“Find out what happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” he said.
Investigations should be conducted by a small group of employees who are not only familiar with the procedures and environment in question but also open to receiving input from experts, Tyler added.
Another attribute of a good safety person, Tyler said, is good presentation skills “with heart and soul” to effectively convey accurate information.
“They don’t have to be a gifted orator or a song-and-dance man,” Tyler said. “They just have to know how to get people going.”
In other words, Tyler said, the most effective safety administrator “has a little Baptist minister in them.”
Throughout the years practicing the safety measures he preaches, Tyler has witnessed a number of incentive programs adopted by companies to encourage optimum safety among their employees and contractors. Companies may sometimes dole out various expressions of recognition and appreciation in the form of expensive, extravagant prizes, gift certificates and even cash to those with stellar, no-injury performance records. Tyler considers these practices to be counterproductive.
“Most companies are getting away from this,” Tyler said, explaining the pursuit of compensation based on a low number of accidents or near misses may result in incidents not being reported.
“And that leads to more people getting hurt,” Tyler added.
Being adept at root-cause analysis and disaster response, safety training as well as fostering a spirit of cooperation are all characteristics of a “good safety person,” Tyler continued. Foremost, he considers attention to prevention and well-developed communication skills to be a safety man-ager’s most desirable traits.
“You’ve got to listen, listen, listen” to employees’ concerns about their welfare, Tyler concluded. “You learn more with your mouth shut than with your mouth open.”
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