IDRL 308 Unit 3

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Athabasca University, Calgary *

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308

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Management

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Feb 20, 2024

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docx

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Introduction In addition to identifying and control workplace hazards, OHS practitioners engage in a variety of other organizational activities designed to prevent and respond to injuries and ill health. Interventions such as training, behaviour modification, emergency planning, incident investigation, and disability management round out the OHS function. Training is often cast as a panacea for all manner of organizational problems, including injuries. This perspective tends to attribute all problems to ignorance and miscommunication. While this is sometimes the case, workers and employers can also have conflicting interests—an issue that training (and communications, more broadly) cannot resolve. In reading about these interventions, keep in mind that the interests of employers and workers are not always perfectly aligned, and this can lead to conflict and resistance. After completing this unit, you should be able to answer the following questions: 1. What factors affect the effectiveness of training? 2. Can safety be improved by modifying workers’ behaviours? What are the risks of this approach? 3. What are the challenges associated with emergency planning? 4. What is the purpose of and what are the steps in incident investigation? 5. What conflicts underlie disability management programs? 6. Why might workers and employers have different perspectives on return to work programs? Lesson 3.1 – Training and Injury Prevention Reading Assignment Chapter 8, Foster & Barnetson textbook Please look at the reading for this lesson before delving into the Lesson Notes. Questions to Guide Your Reading 1. What are the purposes of OHS training? To control workplace hazards by providing workers with the knowledge, skills or behaviours to reduce the risk of a workplace injury. T ensure that work is

performed safely in the workplace and minimize the risks posed and harm caused by workplace hazards 2. What are the steps to planning an OHS training system? P172-73 Needs assessment to determine what kind of training is needed to meet organizational goals such as meeting legislative requirements of seeking to reduce injury rates, enhancing organizations reputation for safety. Planning the training program by identifying objectives and outcomes, best methods of instructions and by identifying trainers. Then the training program is implemented 3. What is the difference between training and learning? Learning is the process wherein we acquire knowledge and skills that can lead to behavioural change—is an important outcome of training. Training is the formal or informal method of of providing workers with the knowledge, skills and behaviours to reduce the risk of workplace injury. 4. What is an emergency, and how does emergency preparedness reduce injury? Emergencies are sudden events that pose a hazard to workers health and safety and require immediate action. Reduces injury by identifying what hazards might trigger and emergency in the workplace, consider how each cause (internal or external) might affect the workplace and consider how the underlying hazards can be controlled. This leads to the development of one or more emergency plans that outline steps necessary to respond effectively. All workers need to know what to do and where to go in the event of an emergency., emergency responders required additional training to spot hazards and respond. 5. What are the phases of an emergency plan? Activation: It is necessary for someone to recognize that an emergency is occurring, activate the emergency plan, and communicate the emergency to workers and any relevant authorities or other affected persons. An activation protocol may identify the circumstances that create an emergency (e.g., triggering events or circumstances) and the steps to commence the emergency response. Evacuation, rescue, or shelter: Emergencies may require the evacuation of some or all workers. Evacuation routes (including alternative routes), muster points, and a means of determining whether an evacuation is complete are important components of an emergency plan.

Depending upon the circumstances, an evacuation plan may also direct the shutdown of certain work processes and the treatment or further evacuation of injured workers. Some hazards— such as chemical hazards in confined spaces—may require specialized rescue skills or equipment in order to evacuate workers before further harm occurs. Other hazards—such as extreme weather—may require workers to take shelter on site. Ongoing management: A protocol for managing an ongoing emergency is helpful once the initial phase of the emergency has passed. While we tend to think of emergencies as single dramatic events, an emergency may entail an ongoing set of events such as the pandemic discussed in Box 8.5. Ongoing management might include plans to secure equipment and information, ensuring there is a means of communicating with staff and for staff to communicate with their families, a media relations plan, the provision of assistance to help employees cope with their reactions to the event, and a business-resumption plan. Lesson Notes Training is a central requirement in OHS. Knowledgeable workers are less likely to be injured. But as the assigned chapter notes, there is more to training than meets the eye. Most OHS training focuses on teaching workers specific skills and behaviours that allow them to work more safely. Less often (and usually delivered by unions) is training aimed at informing workers about their safety rights at work. The latter is generally not in the employer’s interest. Much of contemporary safety training is rooted in the model of behaviour-based safety, as was discussed in Lesson 1.3. It is anchored in a belief that workers are the cause of most incidents, and therefore the best way to reduce them is to train the “bad” behaviour out of workers. Focusing so heavily on workers’ actions risks losing sight of more structural and systemic problems in the workplace. Behaviour-based safety is also more likely to overlook hazards that lead to occupational disease—as these rarely can be fixed by altering worker behaviour. Not to mention, this approach overlooks the employer’s role in ensuring a safe workplace. Focusing so heavily on workers’ actions risks losing sight of more structural and systemic problems in the workplace. Recognizing both the importance of training but also its complexity, the chapter does not offer specific training tips and strategies. Instead it attempts to offer learning and instructional design

principles that can guide you in creating a training program that reflects the realities of your specific workplace and/or safety needs. The chapter also touches upon emergency preparedness. In a way, emergency plans are a form of training in that they ensure workers know what to do, and when. The need for emergency plans should be self-evident, as they mitigate potential harm to workers (and the public). Emergency plans will be specific to the conditions and hazards associated with the work being performed and might have to be re-worked frequently if the work changes often. Learning Exercise Spend some time online researching the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic that struck Canada in 2002 (there are many useful reports and timelines available). Write 100- word answers to each of the following questions: 1. Was the health care system adequately prepared for this emergency? 2. What do experts think were the shortcomings of the emergency plan? 3. What changes have been made since the outbreak to improve response to epidemics? Lesson 3.2 – Incident Investigation Reading Assignment Chapter 9, Foster & Barnetson textbook Please look at the reading for this lesson before delving into the Lesson Notes. Questions to Guide Your Reading 1. What is an incident, and what are the steps of incident investigation? An incident is any situation that can cause workplace injuries and illnesses and includes major and minor injuries as well as near misses, and incident investigations are intended to uncover al of the key facts about how and why an incident occurred so that action can be taken to prevent it happening again. The steps of an investigation includes a consistent process designed to uncover what happened, needs to be performed as soon after the incident as possible and completed as quickly as possible. The first step is the development of an investigative process and takes place before an event has occurred, identifies key questions such as types of incidents that trigger investigations, who leads and who

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