Workplace hazards never take a vacation – neither should a shop’s safety program

Regardless of the stage of production, any manufacturer that has been ramping up might be relying on workers who had been furloughed, workers new to manufacturing, and temporary help more than usual as industry recovers from the pandemic. This is probably a good time to shake things up in regard to safety briefings. Getty Images

We’re almost a year and a half into the pandemic, and the spread of COVID-19 has changed nearly everything in our lives. Some of the changes have been superficial, like not seeing a movie in a theater in more than a year. Some have been downright tumultuous, like having children attend classes while staying at home. Early on, a few shortages developed. Many stores put a cap on toilet paper purchases, and the shortage of bicycles and adoptable pets threw a few of us for a loop. These were worse than inconveniences, but not nearly as bad as the shortages these days. Right now it seems that every industrial commodity is in short supply, leading to late deliveries and climbing prices.

Business is recovering, and it couldn’t be more clear that the fears of a long, slow recovery were unfounded. No matter how it’s sliced—by nation, region, or industrial sector—recoveries are fast and synchronized. The steep slowdown during the early and middle portion of 2020 was followed by a nearly simultaneous rebound. A combination of factors, such as equipment taken offline and workers furloughed, left supply chains vulnerable—and now they can’t keep up with demand.

Manufacturers have been dealing with a shortage of available skilled workers for decades, which means that many have been in a continuous state of training new workers for decades. The training covers many topics, of course, not the least critical of which is workplace safety. If your business was ran lukewarm last summer and fall and has been heating up through winter and spring, you might be dealing with the same problem as we cruise into summer.

Summer always tends to be problematic in regard to workplace safety. Whether it’s the distraction of nicer weather, anticipating more recreation on the weekends, daydreaming about an upcoming vacation, getting back into the grind after returning from vacation, the presence of temporary workers filling in, or some combination of all of these, workplace statistics bear this out. To quote an abstract on a report about this topic: “More injuries occur during the summer months than at other times of the year.” For more information, see “The Seasonal Timing of Work‐Related Injuries” by Brooks Pierce.

So this year, if you are relying on workers who have been off for a while, or recruiting even more workers than usual who are new to manufacturing, and relying more on temporary help, this is probably a good time to put a little extra focus on workplace safety.

You’ve probably already done a lot to mitigate or even eliminate workplace hazards, and you might already have a top-notch safety program. Even if you don’t see room for improvement, maybe consider shaking it up a bit: Change the format of your safety briefings, increase the frequency (or change the time of day), throw in a new topic or two—do anything to change it to call more attention to it. And while workplace safety is no laughing matter, maybe even use some humor. Enter “safety fail” into your browser and you’ll see no end to images you can use to spice up your next safety briefing.