Accidents out of work, do you analyse the impact on your employees & families?

[Jack Kane]

There's been an interesting question asked on Twitter by Dr Karen McDonnell (@DrKMcDonnell), OSH Policy Advisor for RoSPA and I thought I'd ask you good people in here in case you missed it.

Does anybody have data and case studies to share about the impact of accidents that happen outside work on their employees?

Answers on a postcard please

If you do have something you could share, Karen would be keen to connect with you to see if there's opportunities we can all learn from your experiences.

We believe we have a really positive health and safety culture at my work, one which extends way beyond work and into our everyday lives. I often hear anecdotes of how employees have changed their behaviours and attitudes outside of work towards H&S because of our culture. Sometimes people talk about how they have intervened with complete strangers where they think there is a risk, sometimes they share a near miss or accident they have had to help raise awareness. I can't help but think there is something in these conversations we could tap into, something we could analyse to find out what 'we' are doing right, or what we are doing wrong.

If we could figure that out, we could better influence our home life, our leisure activities, hobbies, vulnerable groups etc.

What do you think? Do you already study out-of-work near misses, accidents and/or the impact to home life?

#WholePersonWholeLife

[Waterbaby]

Good Afternoon Jack

I have never come across this, in any of my past or present workplaces, nor have I read this topic in any of the medical / occupational health literature.

Will be interesting to hear from forum members

WB

[Andyblue]

That a can of worms. employee calls in to say they have twisted an ankle and won't be able to come in for a week. Apart from confirming that the injury exists, is there any more questions that could be asked and if so could and should they be recorded? Our employee, alternatively says they were at the fair having a go at the high wire and fell. With no further info, we might conclude a high risk (is there were no mention of safety harness etc) or very low risk (if they say it was a foot off the ground and fully managed harness was in use).
Not really sure how that could be reported upon with any value. Interesting question none the less.

[Blackstone]

Not heard of this before.

I barely get time to investigate the impact on the business, let alone the impact on the family of injured or ill employees.

I suppose it would show support to the employees but how far do you go?
Would be interested to hearing others thoughts on what benefits carrying out this exercise would give to a business.
I cant see a time/cost benefit from a business point of view for looking too heavily into it.

Regards

Glen

[Essex]

There needs to be a balance between what the company should and should not be getting involved in.

It is important in today’s world of stress and mental health awareness that employees feel they can leave a place of work and not be bothered by their employers about what their personal choices are.

[Rowebin]

Is the question about an individual as a whole - i.e. how it affected their home life & relationships etc or only based on how it impacted their work activities?

When I say impacted their work activities I mean along the lines of...George hurt his back playing Rugby on the weekend and his order picking in work this week was 40% slower than normal.

[Jack Kane]

Thanks for your comments folks, I'll try and open it up a bit

I think Rowebin hit the nail on the head...

Is the question about an individual as a whole - i.e. how it affected their home life & relationships etc or only based on how it impacted their work activities?

The question is more aimed at the bigger picture of finding ways of helping improve the health and safety of people in society as a whole. RoSPA and other organisations conduct research on H&S issues affecting us all, they collect as much data and case studies as possible and use that to help change Government Policy and raise awareness through all industry sectors.

If we think back over the years of what this kind of information has been used for, it's quite amazing to see how accidents have reduced.

Have a read of some of the successes over the years here - https://www.rospa.com/campaigns-fundraising/success/

Plugs, it's amazing to think back that fitting our own plugs was the norm. Thanks Mum...'blue to the left, brown to the right' was my mantra

1991 – A five-year campaign by RoSPA finally persuaded the Government to make it mandatory for all domestic appliances to be sold with fitted plugs. This removed an electrocution and fire risk as people no longer had to work out which wire went where in the plug.

I'm in a fortunate position where my job allows me to work with external organisations like RoSPA and the PHASS network where coming together to share what works can and does help influence real change for a safer society. At the end of the day, accidents and ill-health at work or not, still costs the economy billions per year.

[ssmith65]

A really interesting subject to talk about.

As a health and safety professional I believe I act with integrity all the time I am at work. I will have issue with anyone that likes to 'cut corners` so to speak. Outside of work I am far more inclined to take risks that I wouldn't dream of letting someone do at work. Why? I have no idea. I would then attempt to defend my actions but ultimately it would be completely my own fault. Is anyone else like this or is it just me?

[bernicarey]

A really interesting subject to talk about.

As a health and safety professional I believe I act with integrity all the time I am at work. I will have issue with anyone that likes to 'cut corners` so to speak. Outside of work I am far more inclined to take risks that I wouldn't dream of letting someone do at work. Why? I have no idea. I would then attempt to defend my actions but ultimately it would be completely my own fault. Is anyone else like this or is it just me?

I think like any profession, we have more of an understanding than an outsider. It's like an electrician making a bit of a bodge on some wiring at home. It's their home, it may not be fully to IEE Regs, but it's safe.

Part of the thing with one of us doing something 'at home' is that it's a one-off, we understand the hazard/risk and we complete it safely. If that same situation happened in the workplace, it becomes 'normal practice' and then accidents happen.

[ssmith65]

A really interesting subject to talk about.

As a health and safety professional I believe I act with integrity all the time I am at work. I will have issue with anyone that likes to 'cut corners` so to speak. Outside of work I am far more inclined to take risks that I wouldn't dream of letting someone do at work. Why? I have no idea. I would then attempt to defend my actions but ultimately it would be completely my own fault. Is anyone else like this or is it just me?

I think like any profession, we have more of an understanding than an outsider. It's like an electrician making a bit of a bodge on some wiring at home. It's their home, it may not be fully to IEE Regs, but it's safe.

Part of the thing with one of us doing something 'at home' is that it's a one-off, we understand the hazard/risk and we complete it safely. If that same situation happened in the workplace, it becomes 'normal practice' and then accidents happen.

I believe the opposite is also true, there is many an accident that happens in the home because people think they are safe and know what they are doing and clearly they don't. I was trying to find a link to a story where some guys roof collapsed after he cut off all the purlins holding the roof up. I think the word stupid is often used to describe people of average intelligence and we forget that stupid people actually do exist.

[Alexis]

Following on from SS comments on stupid people actually do exist..........Don't we all have a bit of "stupid" in us, whether of average intelligence or genius members of Mensa when outwith our H&S workplaces? Sometimes, if we are truthful, we can even wear it as a badge of honour when the inevitable happens.

Jack mentioned the old electric plugs (from his childhood) with the three different coloured wires, which I, in all my wisdom of being a Mum, never needed that electrician as I had cracked the coded of no-matter what the "odd" colour was (red or multi-coloured), as long as it was fixed to the plug last, we could not be hurt and the way to remember and implement such safety code was the b-L-ue to the L-eft and the b-R-own to the R-ight, we were sorted! Not the first time either that I actually used 2 matchsticks to hold wires in sockets as a temporary measure when I had run out of plugs, remembering, this was in the days when electrical items were sold WITHOUT plugs. (and I wonder why Jack is soooooo passionate about safety!)

Haven't we all at some stage used that old rickety ladder that we would demand to be trashed in the workplace to the point of "challenging" just how long those dodgy rungs will hold our weight before we NEED to replace it and avoid that broken leg or hip?

[IonActive]

Its an interesting question - have enjoyed reading the replies thus far....

Makes me then ask myself :

1) Are employees from a company that has a well developed and accepted safety culture / system more safety aware outside work, than other employees with poor H&S at work? I would like to think that we all carry good H&S practice out of work, into the home and elsewhere. But I wonder if we do?

2) For safety practitioners, I wonder if we practice what we preach (!) outside work as well as inside the workplace?? Again, I would like to think so, but I look inwardly and wonder how well I do? I wonder if you are 'risk aware', are you more likely to potentially downplay that very risk? It's like mowing the lawn with an electric lawn mower and avoiding the electrical lead.. I am aware it is there. I know what it will do to me if I run over it and cut it? So the fact I have lost my power breaker - I will just get on and mow the lawn... .... get my drift?

I feel a blog post coming on

Mark