Incident Reporting
Reporting incidents and injuries helps us to eliminate hazards and to improve as a company. As part of our safety culture, all employees have the right, and expectation, to report incidents, injuries and unsafe conditions. If you feel you are being hindered from reporting, please contact the Safety Director immediately. As described in the roles and responsibilities in the Employee Handbook. It is the responsibility of the worker and/or Supervisor to immediately notify the Safety Department of safety hazards or violations and incidents, near misses or injuries.
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An incident is any unplanned event that disrupts normal work activities and may or may not result in injury or property damage. All work-related incidents, near-misses and injuries must be reported to your supervisor immediately, no matter how minor.
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If an incident, near-miss, or injury (that does not require professional medical treatment) occurs, the Supervisor should be informed immediately so that an Incident Investigation Report/Review can be completed. If first-aid treatment is needed, a competent person with the necessary training should administer it.
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If an injury occurs which requires professional medical treatment, the worker shall inform their Supervisor immediately. The Supervisor will contact the Safety Department and receive instructions. The worker will be transported to treatment.
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If a severe incident occurs that threatens the life or health of one or more employees, CALL 911! (or site specific emergency protocols) Inform the Supervisor immediately and follow the emergency procedures as outlined in the Supervisors Safety Book.
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Fred Shearer and Sons works on multiple sites with different general contractors, site specific incident responses may be required based on site specific plans developed by the general contractor. If there is a site specific plan, that plan should be followed. Note that incident reporting should always include contacting your Supervisor.
Incident Investigation
Incident investigations that focus on identifying and correcting root causes, not on finding fault or blame, improve workplace morale and increase productivity, by demonstrating an employer’s commitment to a safe and healthful workplace.
Incident investigations are often conducted by a supervisor, but to be most effective, these investigations should include managers and employees working together, since each bring different knowledge, understanding and perspectives to the investigation.
In conducting an incident investigation, the team must look beyond the immediate causes of an incident. It is far too easy, and often misleading, to conclude that carelessness or failure to follow a procedure alone was the cause of an incident. To do so fails to discover the underlying or root causes of the incident, and therefore fails to identify the systemic changes and measures needed to prevent future incidents. When a shortcoming is identified, it is important to ask why it existed and why it was not previously addressed.
For example:
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If a procedure or safety rule was not followed, why was the procedure or rule not followed?
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Did production pressures play a role, and, if so, why were production pressures permitted to jeopardize safety?
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Was the procedure out-of-date or safety training inadequate? If so, why had the problem not been previously identified, or, if it had been identified, why had it not been addressed?
These examples illustrate that it is essential to discover and correct all the factors contributing to an incident, which nearly always involve equipment, procedural, training, and other safety and health program deficiency
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Addressing underlying or root causes is necessary to truly understand why an incident occurred, to develop truly effective corrective actions, and to minimize or eliminate serious consequences from similar future incidents.