The PPE Challenge: Having The Right Safety Equipment Is Just One Step
 

Why is there dissension, lack of cooperation, and deceitful actions about something that may be a matter of life and death? Possible reasons may be that the workers do not understand or appreciate the hazards present in their task or work area, or believe that injuries can happen to them. It’s safe to say they do not want, or intend to get hurt. What they need is the information to make a conscious decision to wear PPE and to understand why it is so critical.

Making The Case For PPE
The information workers need is revealed when a hazard analysis – wherein each task is reviewed to identify the possible hazards and/or dangers -- is completed prior to the beginning of a project. These reports need to be checked for trends. Are there tasks that seem to produce more injuries, regardless of severity, than other tasks?

After doing a hazard analysis of each task, decide what type of PPE will be worn in certain areas and for certain tasks. Create or revise the safe work procedures incorporating this information, and order the proper PPE. Remember, the best way to reduce or eliminate hazards or potential hazards is through engineering controls, and PPE is the last step and an important one.

Before starting any job, the workers must be trained on any new or revised procedure. This can be accomplished through a safety meeting, toolbox meeting, or one-on-one discussions led by the supervisor. Workers should be informed of the exact PPE requirement and why it is required. Share the finding s of the hazard analysis with the workers, so they get a clear picture of all the potential hazards of the task. Include any trends in injuries and incidents that may have emerged. Provide statistics of the types of actual injuries that have occurred, as well as near-misses. Keep in mind that workers are usually not interested in the cost of an injury. This reduces them to a dollar value and doesn’t reflect concern for them by the supervisor and management. If English is not the first language of all the workers involved, consider having someone translate during the meeting.
The next questions to cover are exactly what and where PPE is to be used. Explain all of the places, tasks, and conditions that require a certain type of PPE. This is where the hazard analysis can be used to show how the decision was made for this type of protection. Include an explanation of the different types of protection they must wear (i.e., gloves, hard hats, shoes, etc.).

Leading By Example
Even with all of this information, some workers still may not wear the specified PPE – they may forget, or even quietly refuse to wear it. That makes it important for supervisors – who agreed to encourage, coach, and enforce safe work procedures when they accepted the position – to lead their workers by example. Supervisors must strictly adhere to the procedures and requirements to wear the PPE themselves.

This next step is very simple, but make sure that when the procedure and subsequent training are instituted, the specific PPE is in the hands of the workers. It makes no sense to institute a requirement for PPE, train the workers, and then wait for the PPE.

Why does it seem to be so hard to institute a requirement to wear certain PPE to protect workers from injury? It may be that the workers have not fully accepted the company’s philosophy of providing a safe and healthy workplace by incorporating safety into all aspects of the business. The first step is to ensure that managers and supervisors fully support the safety philosophy and follow all of the requirements of the safety procedures, before you impart it to the workers. Ensure that the workers understand that there is no job, no production schedule, no customer’s request, and no manager’s decision that is more important than their own health and safety. This can’t be accomplished in safety meetings or safety training alone – takes workers seeing their managers and supervisors considering the task at hand and making it as safe as possible prior to performing the task. The workers must believe that the effort is genuine.

Use Positive Reinforcement
The next consideration is how best to encourage and coach workers to wear PPE. Once training is completed, there is an opportunity for the supervisor to observe workers and give positive reinforcement. When s/he sees a worker wearing PPE s/he offers praise to encourage the worker to continue the effort. Workers should also be told to encourage each other to wear required gear. Peer observations and encouragement or correction can do wonders for changing coworkers’ behavior -- even when the supervisor is not in the immediate area.

With consistent and persistent supervisors, workers are more likely to accept that PPE is for their own safety and protection. The process of observation and positive reinforcement will work quickly for some workers and more slowly on others. Workers who still refuse to wear the required PPE need to be handled delicately, but firmly and swiftly. Some supervisors offer a grace period after which the worker is disciplined according to company policies.

By following these basic steps, it should be easier to get workers to wear PPE. The key to the process is giving the workers the information to make an informed decision and the impetus to make a conscious effort to wear PPE for their own protection.
 

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