Most people will read that title and think it is the craziest thing they have ever seen. Employees make their own decisions all of the time, how can you take it away from them? After all, you hired these workers to complete a job. For the most part these are not robots—there has to be some aspect of decision-making almost every day.
Don’t Make Your Employees Drones, Make Them Follow Safety Protocol
My point is to not make your workers thoughtless drones pining away day after day expressionless and miserable. My point is to have protocol for everything. There is a proper way to do things. In any scenario, everyday, there is a correct and proper way to complete a task or job assignment. This includes troubleshooting malfunctioning machines, maintenance issues, and so on. It is when workers deviate from protocol that they usually get in to trouble—or worse get injured as a result of their actions.
Think about this: Most injuries come to fruition as a result of an employee’s independent decision making process. If you have a protocol in place for every task on the job floor then it is impossible that you are planning on someone being injured doing said job. It is when the worker deviates from the process that they become injured.
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Real Claim Example Of Preventable Injury
Case in point—and I will use a real claim as an example. This worker’s job is to run a machine. They run the machine every day. They have been trained in proper lock out/tag out procedure. They have been trained in machine operation and malfunction and they know what to do should some sort of jam or malfunction occur. This is an employee that has been doing this job for a few years. They have spent countless hours on this machine, performing this job day after day.
On this particular day, the machine looked as if it was going to jam. Some parts were coming off of the press and they did not look the best. For whatever reason, this employee went into the machine cell, did not lock out the machine, and was trying to clear some scrap away from the press. Inadvertently he placed his left hand into the press to steady himself while he leaned down with his right hand to clear some debris. The press then came down and amputated the majority of his hand.
It is easy to say this was an accident, and it was not done on purpose. But you have to remember his job is not to clear the machine of debris. He knew proper protocol, had been trained on what to do should this situation occur, and still did not pay any attention to his training and it ended up costing him his hand.
“I have no idea why I did that, I was just trying to be productive”
Why would an employee do this? The adjuster asked this question, and his answer was simple: “I have no idea why I did that, I was just trying to be productive and not slow the machine down because to stop the machine is a major pain to my other workers and I was just trying to keep it up and running.”
So is this claim compensable? Should you the employer have to pay this massive claim on a 29 year old kid who made a horrible mistake? In this jurisdiction, the adjuster looked at the misconduct of the worker. He went into an area where he was not supposed to be. He disregarded his safety training. He did not follow machine protocol. He did not lock out the machine. He did not alert maintenance to the issue. Instead he took it upon himself to violate every safety protocol in the book. He willfully placed himself in danger, and the end result was deemed willful misconduct on the part of the employee. He knew better, and he was properly trained, but yet disregarded it. This employee made a conscious decisions on his own behalf that cost him his hand. This case was in litigation at the time I am writing this but the facts remain—he did not follow protocol. His decisions cost him his hand, and the carrier disputed the claim as being “In the course and scope of employment” because of his willful misconduct. Whether that defense holds up in court is yet to be determined.
Failure to Follow Protocol & Training
Anyone can say this is an extreme example, but this is a failure to follow protocol and training.
The question I ask is where is the supervisor in this situation? How is the employee able to make this decision on his own without repercussion? The default response is that a supervisor can’t be everywhere at once, but I do not buy that. Every worker has the responsibility to work safely, and to follow protocol. I bet if I asked them if they had done this before, or observed other workers perform the same behavior without discipline I would bet the answer would be yes. This is where this behavior comes from. It comes from unsafe behavior observation and a failure to discipline violation of safety protocol.
Creating protocol is simple. You have to create rules. If the mop is not in your hand mopping, it goes back in the mop bucket. If the machine is jammed, you contact maintenance. If you are to use a pallet jack to move objects over 50lbs, you wait until one is available. You do not make decisions on your own, and if you do violate protocol you are disciplined accordingly. It is not to create a mindset of being a robot at work, but rather to protect you from injury.
Author Michael Stack, Principal of Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. He is an expert in employer communication systems and helps employers reduce their workers comp costs by 20% to 50%. He resides in the Boston area and works as a Qualified Loss Management Program provider working with high experience modification factor companies in the Massachusetts State Risk Pool. As the senior editor of Amaxx’s publishing division, Michael is on the cutting edge of innovation and thought leadership in workers compensation cost containment. http://reduceyourworkerscomp.com/about/. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
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