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Latest Every safety system is a theory about how work happens. The gap between that theory and the work is where people get hurt.
Work as imagined

The gap between the procedure and the job

Safety systems describe how a task should be done. People do the task the way it can actually be done. Closing that distance, rather than denying it, is most of the discipline.

Every organisation of any size has documents describing how its work is performed. There are procedures, method statements, permits, inductions and checklists, and collectively they describe a version of the job in which the equipment is available, the weather cooperates, the previous crew finished on time, nothing is missing, and the person doing the work has as long as the task requires. That version is coherent and internally consistent, and it is not what happens on any particular day.

The actual job is done with what is present. A part is late so the sequence changes. A guard is awkward so somebody works around it in a way that is faster and mostly fine. A form is filled in at the end of the shift for the whole shift because filling it in as you go is impossible while wearing gloves. None of this is misconduct and most of it is competent adaptation by people who are trying to get work done under conditions the procedure did not anticipate.

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Risk

Hierarchy of control, and why substitution is skipped

Everybody can recite it. Most implementations start two thirds down.

The risk register that nobody reads

A document maintained for an auditor stops describing the operation.

Reporting

How to make a near miss report worth filing

People report when something visibly happens as a result.

Investigation that looks past the last person

The person nearest the harm is the easiest place to stop and the least useful.

Conditions

Contractors, and the duty that does not transfer

You can outsource the work. The obligation is shared, not moved.

Psychosocial hazards are hazards

The framework applies. The discomfort is in the naming.

Systems

Training that changes behaviour and training that produces a certificate

Both have their place. Confusing them is expensive.

The safety function's real problem is influence

Advisory authority over decisions made elsewhere.

About Institute of Work Health and Safety

Institute of Work Health and Safety writes about work health and safety as it is actually practised: by people with advisory authority, finite influence, and an operation that has to keep running. The intended reader is a practitioner, a supervisor, or a manager who has inherited the responsibility along with a role.

The editorial position is that safety systems are theories about how work happens, that the distance between those theories and the work is the most useful information available, and that punishing the people who reveal it destroys the only feedback the system has.

This publication is independent and not affiliated with any regulator, certifying body, insurer or consultancy. Nothing here is written on behalf of an organisation, and no coverage is paid for.

Nothing on this site is legal advice or a statement of any jurisdiction's requirements. Work health and safety law differs substantially between countries and between states, duties depend on the specific circumstances of a workplace, and the applicable legislation, regulations and codes should be read directly and, where consequences are serious, with qualified advice.