education – Page 21 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Professionalism and academia

The Australia safety industry is being pushed by OHS regulators to improve its professionalism. Upgrading of qualifications in any discipline always generates conflict between the educated and the competent. OHS is no different.

In The Age newspaper on 20 July 2009 was an interesting article that provides a brief overview of postgraduate studies. The article makes no mention of workplace safety courses but provides an interesting illustration of the dichotomy above.

The full article deserves reading as it illustrates cost and time issues but there were several points made that seem pertinent to recent moves in the OHS profession.

The president of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, Nigel Palmer, is quoted as saying

“It’s clear that we’ve seen a dramatic increase in fees. Whether or not there has been a corresponding increase in the quality of those courses remains an open question”.

Most postgraduates undertake their studies while employed. This makes it much easier to manage time, if the company provides study leave options, and it provides a ready source of material for business studies, in particular. Some companies also assist with the payment of fees. This is not the case for those who are seeking employment or who are self-employed. The costs in money and time almost makes postgraduate study an impossibility.

The postgraduate courses themselves are often hard to define. Professor Richard James of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education admits that most institutions would have difficulty defining a master’s degree.

Holly Alexander chose to study outside the universities after completing a Bachelor of Arts degree. She found the practicality of her course immensely useful and the article identifies a crucial differentiation between academics and practitioners.

“Of critical importance to her was the fact her teachers practised their craft and provided invaluable industry contacts.”

The OHS profession in Australia is developing a “core body of knowledge” which seems to be vital to the profession but noone has explained why, even though hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on the task. And still there remains those experienced OHS professionals and practitioners who wonder why after twenty years of successful consulting and advice they need to benchmark themselves to “prove” their professionalism.

Outside the core body of knowledge, Holly Alexander’s point above is very important. The academics and educators in any profession need to have an industry network that functions in the real world and their professional skills must be able to be applied practically, otherwise the qualification is meaningless.

Kevin Jones

Being competent is more than just passing the competencies

The SafetyAtWorkBlog article on OHS professional competence has generated some lively debate on a discussion forum of the American Society of Safety Engineers. Jim Leemann makes a fundamental point

“Determining if someone is competent to do a job is totally different from determining if someone has mastered the competencies to do the job”.

This is an important element in the discussion on qualifications versus experience. Often it is the case of the technical qualifications gaining one an audience but experience that keeps the audience listening. Jim expresses it this way

“My empirical research on competencies that distinguish superior performance has revealed that performance is driven more by behavioral competencies than technical competencies. In fact, mastering technical competencies only earns an OHS pro a seat at the decision-maker’s table; it has nothing to do with distinguished superior performance. In fact, technical competencies do not do anything to distinguish superior performance because decision-makers expect OHS pros to have mastered their technical competencies before engaging them in any decision-making processes; hence the reason they have been invited to the decision-making table.”

One engineer expressed views that often come up in discussions in this area – the feeling that experience is less valued than technical qualifications or, in some cases, one’s sphere of influence.

“…I have been in the EH&S field in some form or another for 25 plus years. I believe there is much to be said of the school of hard knocks or on the job learning. Bottom line I would find it very hard at least in North America to have a new regulator show up at my door with text books in hand and try and explian(sic) some of the regulation that I have worked with for years and determine I don’t know my job.“

Jim’s points may be the issues that have underpinned concerns about the Australian processes for establishing a safety profession.

There is nothing uniquely OHS about this dichotomy but because health and safety in Australia has not matured to the extent it has in other countries the conflict is continuing. Australia needs, and deserves, someone to cut through the political and personal agendas to implement much needed reform. A good opportunity could have occurred with the establishment of Safe Work Australia but the heavy reform agenda of the Rudd government means that no department is going to taken on more than they have to.

Kevin Jones

Swine Flu – isolation – a personal view

Australia’s swine flu numbers are increasing and the government is introducing new measures regularly in response. I write this post from self-imposed isolation from the swine flu outbreak in my son’s high school. There are some interesting decisions that have been made which provide me with optimism but also illustrate some useful personnel management actions.

I heard about a confirmed case of swine flu at the high school at my son’s soccer match last Sunday. I was asked by a soccer mum whether my son knew a boy at his high school who was a confirmed swine flu case. He did and we had not heard.

When I returned home there was no message from the school on my answering machine and nothing on my mobile. I looked on the internet and the case was reported but more importantly the school was to be closed for a week. I confirmed the media report by looking at the local health department website. The case and control measure was mentioned.

However, what does it mean in the broader context when a school is closed? Is my son in “isolation”? Are the other family members? The websites could not help with this so I rang the helpline listed on the website. Yes, my son should have no contact with people outside the house and we should monitor his health, and that of others in the household, for symptoms.

I knew my employer had issued an email from Human Resources in late April advising what to do in the case of an outbreak of swine flu. However, this is not much help for the days prior to symptoms or confirmation of the infection. As I am not in isolation I could be going to work as normal and potentially and innocently infecting work colleagues – not a good risk control. (I have written elsewhere on the matter of presenteeism, here was a preventative opportunity)

I put some risk management questions to the employer even though my advice would be to have me work from home. Within 12 hours, my employer had set me up to work from home for the rest of the week. The IT adviser emailed me a procedure entitled “Flu Pandemic Remote Access”. I commented that I was a little surprised that the company was this prepared. The IT adviser said it was only new and I was the first user.

My wife’s employer is still assessing the situation but we are of the same opinion that if work can be done from home, we should be located at home for the remainder of the isolation period. We are lucky that our occupations afford us this option.

On Monday morning the school rang me to answer any questions about swine flu. I didn’t ask any as we had done our homework and arranged to go to school to collect some of my son’s schoolwork for his time in isolation.

It could be asked why the school waited 24 hours to notify me? How does any company or organisation contact up to 700 people on the weekend? These are issues that are currently also being discussed in a Royal Commission into Victorian Bushfires in Melbourne. The school had all of its staff and teachers on the phones after a meeting at 9.00am that morning. The school’s website did not get an update until Monday morning but not everyone turns on their PC on a Sunday. In the context of the slow encroachment of swine flu in Australia, I think this was reasonable.

It should be noted that although my son was friends with the infected boy only the immediate classmates were provided with Tamiflu and that this occurred on the Sunday – a fair response.

Anticipating the family being at home for a week, I purchased some supplies including a thermometer as a useful way of identifying at least one of the swine flu symptoms.

Two days into isolation and there are no symptoms.

From a professional OHS perspective, communication has been acceptable. Available online information was okay and company support reassuring. At this early stage of the outbreak in Australia, we are optimistic and not worrying ourselves over issues over which we have no control.

Kevin Jones

New Youth@Work website

The South Australian government has launched a website focusing on young people at work, not surprisingly called Youth@Work.

South Australia has a habit of marching to a slightly different beat to the dominant Australian States on OHS. They did not follow WorkSafe Victoria’s “Homecomings” ads and they have been well ahead of anyone in researching and explaining the relevance of wellness as an OHS issue.

Kevin Jones posterA3v6 (2)

Blue Card training needs a review

Most workers meet OHS training through short courses, perhaps even inductions. Few have the time, the desire of the finances to pursue a tertiary qualification.

Australia has recently achieved a uniformity in its “card system” of OHS training for construction workers. The card concept originated from the Safety Passport used in some European industries and is intended to provide a common set of OHS skills to workers so as to reduce on-site induction time and costs. It is a worthy initiative and has improved safety awareness on work sites however any training program needs to include self-improvement.

(A national OHS induction system should be part of the Australian Government’s response to the recommendations of the model OHS law review panel.)

Current training seems to have reached the point where too much is trying to be done in too little time. Blue Card training can be undertaken in 6 hours and covers over 50 workplace issues!! Yes the training is only for “safety awareness” but 50 issues in around 5 hours is absurd unless the training runs something like

Smoking in the Workplace – DON’T DO IT
Job Safety Analysis – GOT TO HAVE ONE
Fatigue Management – GO TO BED EARLY
Alcohol and Drug – MAKE SURE THE EFFECTS ARE GONE BY MONDAY MORNING
PPE – WEAR WHATEVER THEY GIVE YOU

One would have to ask if this training is really worth it. The main reason the training is offered at all is that it is a mandatory requirement for many worksites and the construction industry. But what good is having a Blue Card if the training is too simple, too generic?

A universal/national level of safety awareness or induction would be ideal but the current system and its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Let’s hope that reform of this process is on the agenda of the new Safe Work Australia organisation.

Kevin Jones

Below are the components of a Blue Card safety awareness training program currently offered in Australia:

Module 1: OSH – The Law, Your Employer and You

legislation, regulations, codes of practice, guidelines and standards
right to refuse work
responsibility for regulation by WorkSafe
general duties of care – public safety, employee, employer, manufacturers and suppliers
safety and health representatives and safety and health committees
resolution of safety and health issues
workplace policies and procedures
reporting of serious occurrences, injuries and hazards
workers’ compensation

Module 2: Managing Risks in the Workplace

understanding the meaning of hazard and risk
risk assessment/management
control methods for managing risks
job safety analysis worksheets
five steps to complete a JSA
emergency procedures and response plans
emergency situations
emergency response training

Module 3: Staying Safe in the Building and Construction Industry

employee responsibility
effects of shift work
how to manage the effects of shift work
fatigue
your personal alertness
diabetes
obesity
depression
safety management systems
benefits of a safety management system
examples of safety rules – equipment and tool safety
performing high risk work
housekeeping
personal protective equipment
prevention of skin cancer, eye damage and mosquito born viruses
safe manual handling
alcohol and other drugs at the workplace
smoking
alarm systems and emergency exits/escape routes
responding to emergencies
fire equipment
first aid

Module 4: Environment and Other Considerations

the working environment and weather conditions
heat stress
hypothermia
safety signage
tag and lock out isolation procedures
environmental issues and responsibilities
vegetation
native fauna
water pollution
atmospheric pollution
entry into confined spaces
working at heights
safety rules for working on ladders
electrical safety
hazardous substances

Is there a Mars safety and a Venus safety?

A research paper released last month in Germany caught my attention even though it does not relate directly to research undertaken in a work environment.

There seems to be an established train of thought that men and women choose to take risks based on some sort of gender criteria.

Alison L. Booth and Patrick J. Nolen have published “Gender Differences in Risk Behaviour: Does Nurture Matter?” They researched risk behaviour along gender lines in secondary education, a different sample choice to other researchers who mostly looked at their university students. Booth and Nolen found

“…gender differences in preferences for risk-taking are sensitive to the gender mix of the experimental group, with girls being more likely to choose risky outcomes when assigned to all-girl groups. This suggests that observed gender differences in behaviour under uncertainty found in previous studies might reflect social learning rather than inherent gender traits.”

Gender studies are fraught with ideological baggage and it is a brave person who chooses this line of study, as I learnt through studying sociology and Russian literature at university (but that’s another story).

The full report is heavy going for those with no sociology background but the research flags an issue that could be useful to pose to the growing band of workplace psychologists and culture gurus – what are the gender-based variations in unsafe behaviours in the workplace?

Could the available research mean different safety management approaches in workplaces with different gender mixes?

When people talk about workplace culture, could there be a male culture and a female culture? (We certainly refer to a macho culture in some industries) In other words, is there a Mars safety and a Venus safety?

Workplace safety tries hard to be generic but has variations based on industry types. Perhaps we should be looking more closely at the demographics of these types and varying our safety management approaches?

Kevin Jones

Safety Qualifications

Each year Australian recruiting company SafeSearch releases a remuneration survey. This year the report was released in late-February 2009.

A media release from SafeSearch reports that

“Almost all HSE Managers hold formal safety qualifications with 90% reaching Diploma level or higher.”

In Victoria, in particular, there is a strong professional community generated from the Victorian Institute of Occupational Safety & Health, located at the University of Ballarat. The OHS studies at VIOSH have always been the course of choice because it is one of the oldest of the OHS courses and it was given a high profile by the lecturer also being on the national OHS body, Professor Dennis Else.

The standing of VIOSH graduates is high but it seems that part of the reason is that the students have always been drawn from the already-employed. The course has also required a four-week residency that may generate considerable focus on OHS and has the benefit of established a camaraderie reminiscent of boarding school. Many students seem to be drawn from those corporations or government departments that allow for study leave.

The SafeSearch report says the trend to degree-qualified safety professionals is only a recent phenomenon. The Director of SafeSearch, Julie Honore said

“While we have always seen a strong requirement for Environmental professionals to be degree qualified the trend for safety professionals has only been evolving and becoming stronger more recently.

Whereas once our clients were prepared to consider unqualified people, that is no longer the case. We are seeing a trend of experienced Managers enrolling to take on more studies to ensure they are competitive in the market.”

Honore also warns about students implying a greater level of knowledge than reality

“We have had numerous instances where candidates have included qualifications on their resumes but once these are checked out further, you often find that they have only recently commenced studying towards a qualification as they have recognised the need for formal qualifications to assist in making them marketable. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is important that this is correctly stated on the resume”.

From the recruiter’s perspective, verification of qualifications is very important but, more broadly, it is important to look at the quality of the course in order to gauge the quality of the qualification. Is one diploma of OHS the same as another? – No. Is the quality of instruction the same across tertiary institutions? – No. But is this important? Perhaps we should be assessing the person and not the paper.

But how do we do that with a new recruit? Wouldn’t it be helpful to have an external assessment of safety management skills? Perhaps, a registration system? But many of those stem from a base qualification of a university degree.

Safety qualifications and competencies is a difficult area to understand and most of the people investigating the issue are from academia and so have a vested interest in the research.

The Safety Profession is at risk of limiting its selection criteria too narrowly and developing irrelevance. It is similar to the operation of political parties where candidates for election on the conservative side come mostly from law practices and employer associations and those on the left of politics come from law practices and trade unions. The politicians may still be able to represent their constituents but they do not reflect the electorate and, it could be argued, represent narrow desires of the electorate.

The Safety Profession needs to draw from a much broader pool of skills, understanding and experience if it is to continue to develop and improve. It should not only draw upon those who can afford a tertiary qualification or who is supported by their employers financially or through study leave.

Even if the bulk of the profession is tertiary qualified it must actively seek those from outside the established structures. Any profession that does not recruit widely and wisely runs the risk of becoming too “chummy”, elitist and, eventually, irrelevant.

Kevin Jones

Note: the author is one unit shy of a Graduate Diploma in Risk Management (OHS) from Swinburne University

Category: education

Professionalism and academia

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Being competent is more than just passing the competencies

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New Youth@Work website

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Blue Card training needs a review

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Is there a Mars safety and a Venus safety?

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Safety Qualifications

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