As we look back at the year that has gone we have 8 top safety articles that were widely read in 2022. Our aim for this article is to provide a summary of each piece and link it back to the original article, to aid safety practitioners in the valuable work they do. We hope this article becomes a resource that you can use in the future.
Top 3 Safety Articles
Our most-read article for 2022 was 8 Working At Height Safety Myths.
For this article, we looked at eight working-at-height safety myths to improve safer practices:
- It’s Just a Quick Job
- I’m Not That High Up
- Fall Protection is Too Expensive
- The Safety Harness Will Protect Me
- Working Safely at Height is Common Sense
- I Don’t Need to Inspect My PPE
- Emergency Services Will Save Me if I Fall
- My Reactions Will Save Me
There are some significant measures that you can put in place to reduce these fall-from-height risks, including:
- Installing edge protection which incorporates a guard rail, mid-rail and toe board to the edge of any scaffold platform, fixed stair, landing, suspended slab, formwork, or falsework, where there is a risk of a person falling two or more metres.
- Providing a fall injury system, including fall arrest PPE where it is not practicable to provide edge protection.
The second of our top safety articles is, Your WHS Frequently Asked Questions Answered.
Using the SafeWork Australia guidelines, we have put together some of the most Frequently Asked Questions we receive to help you better understand your responsibilities and some strategies you can use.
Our third most-read article for 2022 was Can We Use Data to Improve Safety Performance?
When asked how health and safety managers would like to use data to improve safety performance they want to:
- predict workplace injuries,
- monitor and benchmark their safety culture,
- improve their compliance, and
- tie safety to productivity.
This article discusses how to measure safety performance, what to do with the data that you collect, and how to develop a safety scorecard.
A Focus on Supervision and Training
The next three top safety articles looked at the nuts and bolts of managing safety in your organisation.
The fourth most popular article for 2022 was Workplace Injury: How Important is Your Supervisor?
Because of their day-to-day presence and close relationship with workers, supervisors have a significant influence on workplace safety performance.
Supervisors who encourage safe working practices, prioritise safety, provide tools and safety equipment, respond to safety concerns and reward for safe behaviour, see a decreased level of injury in their workplaces.
Our next most-read article was Making Toolbox Talks Effective Safety Training.
Regular toolbox talks are an opportunity to bring together the team of workers to discuss safety requirements. Familiarisation with site safety is particularly crucial for less-experienced workers. When delivering safety toolbox talks, it is vital to consider the training delivery because it has a direct influence on its effectiveness.
For this article, we review research that compared the impact of delivering toolbox talks with and without questions and answers from the group.
Finally, you were most interested in our article, How Do You Write an Engaging Safety Induction?
This article discusses what should go into an engaging safety induction, not only to meet compliance obligations but also to ensure your new employees understand workplace hazards and how to keep themselves and others safe.
Health and Safety Obligations and Attitudes to Safety
The final two top safety articles to round out the eight look at organisations’ health and safety obligations and workers’ attitudes to safety.
Our readers were interested in How to Improve Worker Attitudes to Safety.
For this article, we review some recent research that investigates changes in attitudes to safety after employees complete mandatory site safety training. The research finds that training delivery methods are critical in improving workers’ attitudes to safety.
Our final article in our 8 top safety articles for 2022 is What Are Your Workplace Health and Safety Obligations?
For this article, we take a look at the responsibility of both employers and employees, managing hazards, and the critical role of training.
Finally…
We’d like to acknowledge and thank our regular readers and wish you a safe and happy holiday season!