

As workplaces continue
to adjust to the “Next Normal”, there are several
hurdles that will continue to emerge.
Most Leaders (and indeed, most people)
already recognize things are not likely to be the same, and Workplace Health
and Safety must be adjusted to meet these changes. Among many sayings, “There
is nothing more constant than Change”, may be one that rings so true in
this worldwide pandemic and eventual post-pandemic world. Another coined phrase,”
. . . with change, comes
opportunity” may actually inspire leaders towards moving their businesses ahead
of the competition as well as forward of the position their businesses held
prior to mid-March, 2020.
The
term, RACE, is a phrase common among those familiar with workplace health and
safety; RACE is the acronym for Recognize, Assess, Control and Evaluate. Now
more than ever, this comes to play as the workplace, community and global
environments continue to deal with COVID-19 and related changes in the
workplace. Unlike other health and safety factors that may differ between
workplaces, this one is common, yet still different. Putting RACE into action
for your workplace sets focus on what you have now and face, going forward.
Let’s look at each portion/phase of this and break it down into practical terms
to allow the aforementioned “constant” and “Change . . . Opportunity” components.
Recognize
Identify
what you are facing relative to where the potential of harm may reside.
Listing
each factor and being brutally honest through this process sets you up for
success as you proceed and work through all stages of the following
phases.
Utilize
your workplace resources to assist in identifying impactful factors. Your
workers, supervisors and if available, health and safety professionals and / or
Human Resources expertise should be engaged to assist.
Your
people have great internal knowledge and utilizing their input will allow you
to gain tremendous insights of the identified hazards and then again, on each
of the remaining phases.
Assess
With
each item listed above, gauging the impact through a consistent approach in assigning
a “value” as to the impact, will set
your workplace up to establish rankings and those, in turn, will direct focus
as to the areas of levels for attention to dealing with the next step.
There
are a number of tools that can be employed as part of this stage.
Consideration
of the following factors are typically employed:
o Likelihood – how likely – range from rare to almost
certain
o Consequence – degree of outcome – range from negligible
to catastrophic
o Sample Risk Matrix
Likelihood |
Consequence |
||||
Negligible |
Minor |
Moderate |
Major |
Catastrophic |
|
Almost
certain |
Medium |
Medium |
High |
Extreme |
Extreme |
Likely |
Low |
Medium |
High |
High |
Extreme |
Possible |
Low |
Medium |
High |
High |
High |
Unlikely |
Low |
Low |
Medium |
Medium |
High |
Rare |
Low |
Low |
Low |
Low |
Medium |
Control
Here,
a structured approach will again drive the outcomes to ultimately deliver net results
that favour protection appropriately suited to ensuring protection that best works
towards effective and efficient management of identified and assessed hazards. What
better outcome, than to properly protect workers, ensure ongoing healthy and
safe work, minimize negative impact, and propel a workplace to thrive and
compete, as well as demonstrate innovation for future prosperity?
Ø The “Hierarchy of Controls”, controls at:
o The Source – elimination of the source of
hazard/harm
o Along the Path – physical barriers between the
source and the worker
o At the Worker – PPE (personal protective
equipment), procedures, instruction
Moving
the control upward (on this list) sets one up for greater, more effective controls
and lessens the probability of misses and struggle associated with those listed
on the lower levels of the hierarchy of controls.
-
for more details associated with “Hierarchy of Controls”, you may
want to refer to a highly trusted resource.
Evaluate
As part of this phase,
each selected and applied control needs to be gauged as to its effectiveness. Cycling
back through the previous phase or phases may likely be applied. As with each
previous phase, brutal honesty and transparency is crucial to establishing the
best available outcomes.
Internal resources
through your workforce will capitalize your overall success. Approach personnel
through mutual support and in the end, the development toward positive results
will set everyone up for favourable results.
Along with each of the
previous stages, this step is vital and often the most neglected. Without the diligence
of application here, overall deficiency of positive health and safety results is
likely and often leads leadership to contemplate the inevitable failure and
ongoing struggle to successfully compete and succeed.
Periodic cycling
through these phases, demonstrates commitment to continuous improvements and
perpetuates confidence with everyone within the workplace.
Ultimately, following
this approach is deemed to be taking reasonable precautions towards addressing health
and safety issues in a proactive manner, averting potentially costly issues, positively
impacting overall health and safety and setting the stage for an improved
position in your business. On a psychological level, your workforce’s morale is
also positively influenced.
Now that you have the
foundation to working on your workplace’s RACE to success, this process can easily
become “organic” in that it develops into a natural progression from which your
competition may very likely wonder, “What happened and how did they
get ahead?”
Not only has this
pandemic created challenges, opportunities have also arisen.
Now, where do you see
your workplace moving ahead?
Has this (and other
opportunities) resulted in making your workplace better than before and
positioned you for future success?
Great leaders are
inspired by their circumstances and boldly move into where these situations
transcend the current state into a future of greater prosperity. - The RACE is on!
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