Value of a near miss article with description

I ghost-­‐wrote this article on behalf of the President of McKinstry, a sustainable design-­‐build company based out of Seattle.

The final article was published in a trade publication, the Daily Journal of Commerce, on July 12, 2013.

The Value of Near-Miss Reporting Anyone in construction can tell you that it’s impossible to build a structure without the foundation. When it comes to building a world class safety culture, my 30-plus years in the industry have convinced me that nearmiss reporting is a key part of the foundation. Consistent near-miss reporting gives visibility to the depth of safety awareness in an organization, including whether individual workers are acting to prevent injury to themselves and others. Furthermore, it builds trust between management and employees, creating a cycle of communication, partnership, and mutual responsibility that improves safety outcomes and business opportunities.

Near-misses are the accidents and injuries that luckily didn’t occur. Although they appear not to require immediate attention, reporting near-misses enables staff to respond with appropriate corrective and preventive measures. When McKinstry employee Brian Sierzega pulled a stop-work card after identifying a critical safety risk on a recent project, he initiated a review of the engineering documents during which his concerns were validated. Consequently, a scaffolding deck was re-plated to appropriately support the load it would ultimately carry. In the end, Brian’s personal investment in the safety cause and subsequent action avoided placing our field staff in a potentially dangerous situation.

The value of near-miss reporting has been widely debated in the safety and health industry, but I believe that every company – regardless of the industry – needs a robust near-miss reporting program for the following reasons.

Near-misses are avoidable future injuries. Imagine creating a highly-effective safety program that has helped your company reduce its overall injury rate by 50 percent. Now what? The remaining injuries seem random, without pattern and difficult to avoid. Not true! Near-miss reporting typically shows that the apparently random injury has almost happened many times but was often avoided by pure luck. Reporting reveals a pattern, and revised work procedures can eliminate the potential for another large percentage of injuries. As safety programs evolve and fewer injuries take place, near-miss reporting is essential to provide visibility to the injuries that almost happen, thereby allowing further improvement.

Communication about near-misses fosters trust. Leaders who demonstrate that they value employee safety and well-being above profit and deadlines earn their employees’ trust. Focusing on near-misses is one way to demonstrate this commitment to employees. As trust increases, employees will more openly share the risks they encounter on a daily basis. People begin to demonstrate additional responsibility for their safety and the safety of others. More potential risks are brought to light, and as a result, more injuries can be avoided.

Near-miss reporting improves the bottom line. First, as with every aspect of safety, a focus on nearmisses spurs project planning activities and a search for safer installation procedures on each project.

Coincidentally, safer installation procedures are often more efficient and produce higher quality work, both of

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which improve the bottom line. Second, in comparison to the alternative of limited or no reporting, a robust program looks even better considering that the business cost of a near-miss is near-zero, whereas the cost of a recordable incident can be significant. And last, it should come as no surprise that other businesses want to work with companies that consistently safeguard their employees. As a company’s safety performance improves, so do business opportunities.

Weaving near-miss reporting into competing organizational priorities can be daunting, but it is a necessity. It requires leaders to honestly assess their company’s safety performance and to communicate openly about opportunities for improvement. When company leaders make near-miss reporting meaningful and begin to practice stopping work for safety, recognizing individuals who report, sharing the examples to prevent future incidents, and persuading everyone to “buy in” to a shared vision of zero incidents, the number of injuries and incidents can be drastically reduced. And with each employee, like Brian, who takes responsibility to address near-misses as they occur, we are one step closer to a culture of zero injuries that sends every employee home safely to his or her family every single day.

Doug Moore, P.E., is President of McKinstry, a 52-year-old design, build, operate and maintain company with more than 350 professional and field staff in Oregon.

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