By Mario Reyna, Dean of Business and Technology at South Texas College
As originally published by Texas Border Business newsprint edition May 2017
Safety is a management function that cannot be delegated to the lowest levels of the organization and expect impressive results. In the movie Top Gun, you might remember the hotshot pilot doing a flyby on the tower and he gets referred to the commander who tells him Top Gun safety rules are non-negotiable, and if he continued flying his plane in an unsafe manner, his wings will be taken away.
Employees that perform very sensitive operations that involve power tools, heavy equipment, transportation, or construction must have leaders with an attitude similar to the commander in the movie. Companies and organizations must have safety plans that take into consideration human, physiological and physical factors.
Human factors are not just about humans, but rather the systems that people work in. For example, someone working in a transportation company can be screened for drug use to ensure this individual has a certain amount of reliability. However, the company should continue to manage their personnel to ensure they remain drug free, and their safety plan must include random drug checks to keep this risk at bay.
Can you imagine what would happen if companies only checked their employees when they are being hired? Driving a $120K truck that transports expensive or sensitive cargo, and the liability of being on the road demands a strong safety plan that takes this human factor into consideration.
Work environments are also overwhelmed with physiological factors. Would you let someone that is emotionally disturbed by a human event operate a sensitive piece of equipment, fly a plane, drive a bus, or protect our community? The answer is clear. No! However, how do you know if someone has an issue? The simple answer is that management should have educational programs that teach their leadership team what to look for in their personnel to ensure that everyone doing their job is fully functional.
I know that in today’s sensitive environment people are not willing to confront, but we must confront to prevent major accidents from happening that might cost thousands or millions of dollars. How many times have we read the newspaper or seen a news channel report about someone going “postal,” and no one did anything in the company because management was afraid of a lawsuit? These are physiological factors, and our safety plans must account for them.
Are you concerned about physical factors in your organization? If you have a welding shop, are you going to allow your employees to work in flipflops, no eye protection or wear loose polyester clothing? I hope not because you are just inviting an accident to happen. Employees in this type of environment must wear personnel protection equipment to protect themselves and their fellow employees. Also, would you let someone work in a sensitive environment who has been up all night? No! Many of our occupations require individuals to sleep and rest for a certain number of hours to keep them alert to perform their given assignments.
Managers at all levels must take full responsibility for all the human, physiological and physical factors in their organization. Active leadership is required to ensure personnel follow written procedures, follow verbal instructions and use common sense.
Safety is a management function and employees have to be taught the reasons why they must follow company safety rules, and they must also understand that safety rules are non-negotiable.
Mario Reyna has served as the Dean for Business and Technology at South Texas College for 20 years. Dean Reyna is a retired Air Force captain with an additional 20 years of dedicated service. Thanks to his leadership, the South Texas College Division of Business and Technology has grown to serve more than 34,000 credit students in addition to creating partnerships with countless business and industry partners on both sides of the border. For more information, call 956-872-6116 or email reyna@southtexascollege.edu.
