Volume 8 – Mechanical and Electrical Services - Malaysia Geoportal

Indirect promotion approach
Chapter 4 OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
An indirect promotion approach is one in which you use a secondary means to influence the behavior
of the primary concern. The use of contest to improve safety performance is an example. The safety
contest has become widely used means of promoting safety throughout industry.
There are pros and cons concerning the use of safety contest to promote safety. Many companies
have used a variety of safety contest as part of their on-going safety program. The premise for using
a contest to stimulate safe work performance is that employees will enjoy competing for the
recognition or prize and that the competitive drive will favorable influence safety performance.
Safety contests have proven to be very successful in many major corporations and have been part of
their ongoing safety systems for years. Others companies have used safety contests as a kickoff for
a new safety effort or commitment, while some have been successful in using safety contests as a
quick-fix for turning around unfavorable safety performance levels.
b) Safety organization and management
This topic is intended to remind management at a more senior level of organization they need to lay
and to achieve a safe and healthy site. It will also, however, inform workers and supervisors of the
necessity of a proper safety management system.
The improvement of safety, health and working conditions depends ultimately upon people working
together, whether employers or workers. Safety management involves the functions of planning,
identifying problems areas, coordinating, controlling and directing the safety activities at the work
site, all aimed at the prevention of accidents and ill health.
Accident prevention is often misunderstood, for most people believe wrongly that the word
“accident” is synonymous with “injury”. This assumes that no accident is of importance unless it
results in an injury. Managers are obviously concerned with injuries to the workers, but their prime
concern should be with the dangerous conditions causing the injury – with the “incident” rather than
the “injury”.
On a work site there are many more “incidents” than injuries. A dangerous act can be repeated
hundreds of times before it results in an injury, and it is to eliminate these potential dangers that
managers’ efforts must be directed. They cannot afford to wait for human or material damage before
doing anything. So, safety management means applying safety measures before accidents happen.
Effective safety management has three main objectives:
- to make the environment safe;
- to make the job safe;
- to make workers safety conscious.
c) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
The working conditions in work site are in most cases such that , despite all preventive measures in
project planning and work design, some personal protective equipment (PPE), such as a helmet,
hearing and eye protection, boots and gloves, is needed to protect workers.
Wherever possible, it is better to try to eliminate the hazard rather than providing PPE to guard
against it. Some PPE such as safety helmets and footwear should be used on all work sites. The
need for other PPE will depend on the sort of work being handled. Remember too, that proper work
clothes will provide protection for the skin.
March 2009 4-3