I recently spoke with someone who attended my presentation, "Safety Program Pitfalls: Six Critical Missteps and How to Avoid Them," at the Wisconsin SHRM annual conference. She came away with a question that many safety managers struggle with. She had a one-page form for reporting near misses at work, but nobody was filling it out. Sound familiar?
We spent some time figuring out what was going wrong. It turns out that the "simple" form wasn't as simple as it seemed.
Why Nobody Was Filling Out the Form
Here's what the form asked for:
- Your name, the time, date, and location
- What type of problem was it
- A description of what happened
- What caused the problem
- How to fix it
- Who should fix it
- When it should be fixed by
- Your signature
No wonder people weren't using it! The form was basically asking regular workers to do a full investigation. That's not their job.
Keep It Really Simple
After talking it through, we realized the first report should only ask three things:
- What happened?
- Where did it happen?
- When did it happen?
That's it. You could put this on an index card. Alternatively, you could create a quick form that people can scan with their phone.
Let the safety team do the rest. They can investigate what caused it and figure out how to fix it. The person who saw the problem needs to tell you about it.
Make Names Optional
Here's an idea: don't make people put their name on the form. Many workers are afraid they'll get in trouble if they report something.
However, here's the catch - if they do put their name on it, they will be entered in a drawing for a prize at the end of the month. Maybe a gift card or something small. This way, putting your name is a good thing, not a scary thing.
Show People You're Listening
Nobody wants to report problems if nothing ever changes. So after your safety team looks into something, tell everyone what happened:
- "Someone reported water on the floor near the bathroom"
- "We checked it out"
- "Here's what we're doing to fix it"
When people see that their reports actually matter, they'll continue to report things.
Stop Punishing People for Being Honest
Remember those signs that said "47 Days Since Last Accident"? Those actually made things worse. Nobody wanted to be the person who ruined the pizza party by reporting an injury.
You can still celebrate being safe. But you should ALSO reward people for speaking up about problems. One company I heard about gives out free snack vouchers from their vending machines. The vending company provides them with the vouchers for free, so it doesn't incur any cost. It's just a small way to say "thanks for looking out."
Build a Better Safety Team
Your safety committee should include people who actually do the work every day, not just managers. The people on the floor see things the supervisors miss.
Try to get someone from each department. Consider rotating people through the committee, but avoid removing everyone at the same time. Perhaps consider having people serve for 9 months and replace one person at a time.
You could also invite anyone who reports a problem to attend the meeting where you discuss it. Let them be part of solving it.
Start Fresh
When you make these changes, please notify everyone about them. Explain that you're making it easier to report problems because you want people to speak up. Show them the new simple form. Remind them that reporting helps keep everyone safe.
What Really Works
Near-miss reporting works when you:
1. Make the form super easy (just 3 questions)
2. Let people leave their name off if they want
3. Actually do something about the problems people report
4. Let the safety team do the investigating
5. Reward people for reporting AND for being safe
Sometimes less is more. A tiny index card with three questions might get you more reports than a whole page of complicated questions ever could.
The goal isn't to have the perfect form. The goal is to find out about problems before someone gets hurt. And the best way to do that is to make it as easy as possible for people to tell you what they see.
What's your experience with safety reporting at work? Have you found ways to get people to speak up more?
