Asking OHS questions on LinkedIn
February 09, 2012
In case you’re thinking of joining the business-related social networking site LinkedIn – but haven’t checked it out yet – here’s an example of what it offers the safety community.
Once you sign up for LinkedIn (a basic account is free) you can join groups that focus on particular topics such as workplace safety. One such group, Occupational Health and Safety, has more than 2,800 members from around the world, including safety consultants and people from government departments, safety association, and safety product companies.
Just ask
An occupational health advisor at a UK factory posted this question to the group: “Can anyone recommend a back care/manual handling leaflet that would be appropriate to give employees following manual handling training? Any suggestions gratefully received.”
Image from WorkSafeBC
I suggested she check out Back Talk: An Owner’s Manual For Backs – available free online from WorkSafeBC. Okay, it’s not exactly a leaflet, but it’s still got a lot of great info and would work for people with computer access.
Another answer came from a senior safety specialist in South Carolina who suggested she try Back to Backs from Krames StayWell, a company that sells pamphlets in bulk for consumer health outreach. She suggested searching “back care” on the Krames site, where there are many more publications available on the topic.
A doctor of physical therapy in Florida agreed that Krames is good. He also suggested she search the titles at IMPACC USA, Saunders Group, and OPTP (Orthopedic Physical Therapy Products).
I noticed this same physician posted a suggestion on another question to this group, from a safety manager in Dallas who said, “Looking to initiate a pre-shift stretching program, anything you can share would be welcome.”
The Florida member posted a link to a program called Stretch It Out. Many others shared their personal experiences, and I decided to add my two cents by posting a link to Workplace Warm-ups and Stretches from FIOSA-MIOSA, which I wrote about at the beginning of this year.
Potential for answers
LinkedIn groups have a lot to offer, but it’s “buyer beware” when it comes to free advice. Many people use it as a forum for selling their safety products and consulting services, which may or may not be a good value, so you’ll have to rely on your best judgment, as you would in face-to-face interactions.
You’ll find a list of LinkedIn safety groups in this post – and I’d also like to know if you have any good sources for getting workplace safety information online. Add your two cents by commenting below. If you feel shy about it, you can always use a nickname and remain anonymous.
Kudos to bus drivers in the snow
January 26, 2012
Photo of snow in Victoria courtesy of the BC Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure
When the snow falls in Vancouver – as it has this January – the transit drivers have their work cut out for them.
They navigate challenging roads, where vehicles slide at odd angles, despite the City‘s good work clearing the streets. More passengers than usual line up at snow-lined bus stops, tracking mush into the aisles, taking extra time to get their fares out as they struggle with mitts and gloves.
One driver described an aspect of his job I hadn’t thought about. He wrote on Facebook: “I’m off to work. Tonite will be one of those nights where I got dozens of people just looking for a warm place to thaw out for a few minutes. I am glad I can help.”
Efforts from drivers like this are not going unnoticed. One passenger reported, via Facebook: “I found the bus drivers jovial and helpful – as always – but extra nice when it’s actually kinda stressful to drive in these conditions.”
@Translink on Twitter
Stressful indeed! Translink – employer of the bus drivers – posts regularly on Twitter, so I checked out their tweets to see if I could find out what it’s like for the hard-working bus drivers of Metro Vancouver. But mostly @Translink was updating passengers on things like “Skytrain is experiencing delays of approx 15 minutes due to a mechanical issue, Sorry for the delay.”
Photo credit: Presley Perswain on Flickr
I posted on Twitter, via @SpeakingofSafety: “I’m writing a blog post thanking bus drivers in the snow. It looks stressful to drive, but they seem very skilled. Kudos!”
The Translink employee writing on behalf of his organization responded: “Thank you for taking time out of your day to do that; they do work very hard especially on days like this.” Then he (or she) got back to the busy job of responding to individual’s complaints about their travels – like this one, in response to someone who tweeted “screw Translink” and said they’d been waiting 20 minutes: “Sorry you are waiting in the cold, where are you I can check for the closest 41?” came the reply.
Bus driver safety
I’m going to follow up on this with a story on bus driver safety. How do they prepare for driving in these conditions? How do they prepare for and deal with other safety issues, like violence?
If you’re a bus driver and you have a story to share about how you stay safe at work, please email me at susan@speakingofsafety.ca.
Free e-resource for supervisors
November 01, 2011
From Supervising for Safety
Today we have more ways than ever to share what we know. The web and social media make it easy to work with others to create change and exchange information that has social value.
A great example of this is a new, free e-learning resource from WorkSafeBC: Supervising for Safety, a nine-module online course for supervisors.
The program originated with a group of labour, businesses, and WorkSafeBC subject-matter experts – all who understand the challenges faced by new supervisors.
I read about the course in a press release, then I emailed Mike Tasker to find out more. He’s a WorkSafeBC safety officer based in Prince George and one of the program’s co-creators.
“When we talk to supervisors, many recount stories of fear when they took over. They talk about how scared they were of making a mistake and not really knowing where to turn when they had questions or problems,” Mike said.
“All too often a company will promote a long-term or productive worker thinking that he/she will automatically be an effective supervisor. But from our experience and from talking to other supervisors, we know that for most they flounder a lot in their first years – some for longer than that.”
WorkSafeBC Info-flip
Info delivery evolves with technology
Mike and others at WorkSafeBC responded to this need and created a two-day course that was delivered in person. Then they distilled the knowledge into an info-flip that became a top seller. Now, the new e-course is the latest manifestation of this knowledge sharing.
“We decided that we should broaden the access to the information and take it into the age of web-based communication,” Mike said. “We believe that if a company is going to be successful in safety, the key is to invest in their supervisors. We’ve often said that the employer sets the safety vision, but the supervisor gives voice to that vision.”
The e-course’s nine modules include:
- Safety Management Systems
- Keys to Effective Safety Supervision
- Communication Skills
- New/Young Worker Education and Training
- Substance Abuse
- Musculoskeletal Injury Reduction
- Workplace Evaluations
- Incident Analysis
- Claims and Disability Management Programs
Mike told me the online program – launched in September – has had interest from “around the world.” Stay tuned for news from a supervisor who used the online program and speaks very highly of it. If you’ve used the program, I’d be very interested to hear your view so please leave a comment here or email me.
Online community for workplace safety
September 06, 2011
Check out safetycommunity.com – a social network for people in the safety community. It’s like a mini-Facebook, created on the Ning platform for people to ask questions, post links, share photos, and join discussion groups. I noticed discussions on ergonomics, construction, machine safety, mental well-being, e-learning, and more – dating back to 2009. It looks like a great tool for building a community of like-minded people from different geographic places – sponsored by Ansell (a company that makes protective gloves and condoms). So… see you there?
Building the Speaking of Safety community
Photo credit: The Hamster Factor on Flickr
While we’re on the subject of community-building, I’d like to say something about this blog. I really want people to leave comments on my posts.
I want to know what you think about the topics I bring up. Do you have more info, ideas, links, questions, disagreements, compliments? Please speak up. I’d love to hear from you! Remember you can always post without using your real name.
Wiki-style OHS website launched
May 17, 2011
Nova Scotia launched a new health and safety website during NAOSH Week. It’s called Knowledge Base and parts of it allow users to contribute to, or amend, what appears on the site. It’s a wiki, like Wikipedia, where anyone can add or change content.
“The most important feature of the site is the ability for users to influence what they can find there,” said Marilyn More, Minister, Labour and Advanced Education, in a news release. “The site will change and evolve along with the needs of Nova Scotia’s employers and employees.”
The site offers information for individuals, employers, and organizations. So far, readers have posted questions about first aid, safety training, and personal protective equipment. This open dialogue format has great promise for connecting people with questions – and I will be curious to see how people use it.
Congratulations to Department of Labour and Advanced Education for this innovative addition to the online safety community.
Are you on Twitter yet?
November 18, 2010
Twitter is a great place for asking questions about safety – or anything else, for that matter. It’s a simple social sharing service that lets you read and post very short messages – 140 characters to be exact. That character limit helps keep messages focused on main ideas, like breaking news and links to interesting resources.
I started a Twitter account for this blog (@speakinofsafety) about six months ago and I’ve had a personal account since 2008. I’ve encountered so many ideas, photos, comments, debates, links, and invitations to events in real life. At first I thought “How can I keep up?” with all the info people will post – but you don’t have to keep up. You just look at it when you have a chance and see what people are talking about at that moment.
I’ve learned so much and made so many connections on Twitter that I urge you to give it a try, if you haven’t already.
Quick tips for getting started on Twitter
1. Go to twitter.com and click the Sign Up button.
2. Fill in the Signup section. (Don’t stress. It’s short – only four things to enter at first.)
3. Click the ‘Create my account’ button.
4. Within a minute or two, you will see a welcome screen. At the top are two headings: Interests and Friends. Click the Friends heading and enter “SpeakinofSafety” (without the quotation marks) into the Search box.
5. You will see my Twitter profile. Beside my avatar is a button: a green circle with a + sign in the middle. Click that button to follow me.
6. Click Timeline and you will see my latest tweets. Then start following other people (see Twitter names of safety folks below). The Timeline column is where everyone’s news appears – with the most recent news at the top.
What does it mean to “follow” someone on Twitter?
Just in case you don’t already know, to “follow” someone on Twitter means you sign up to see their tweets. A “tweet” is a single message from a person on Twitter, and it can be no more than 140 characters (which includes letters, punctuation, and spaces).
Safety people on Twitter
Here are some of the people I follow on Twitter. An @ symbol is placed at the beginning of each Twitter name.
@Preventable
British Columbia, Canada
Campaign against preventable injuries (#1 killer of BC people between the ages of 1 and 44)
@icbc
North Vancouver, BC
Official ICBC account, from senior communications specialist Karin Basaraba
@WorkSafeBC
Richmond, BC
Workers’ Compensation Board of BC (sponsor of this blog)
@RYHMovement
British Columbia
Campaign for young workers safety
@SafetyDrivenBC
Trucking Safety Council of BC, communications specialist Leasa Hachey
@OHSCanada
Toronto, ON, Canada
Canada’s Occupational Safety and Health Magazine
@HearForeverOrg
USA, Hearing protection news from Howard Leight (maker of in-ear hearing protection)
@CCOHS
Hamilton, ON, Canada
From the communications dept of Canada’s national resource for the advancement of workplace health and safety.
Need help?
Please email me if you have any questions about using Twitter. I would be more than happy to help!
Six safety groups on LinkedIn
November 04, 2010
LinkedIn is a social media web site where people go to network – kind of like Facebook for your professional life.
It’s free to sign up and create a profile that details your career experience, and you can join groups that are a great forum for conversation. These groups let you post and answer questions from others in your field. You can use them to recruit new staff, find new clients, or seek employment.
Here are six LinkedIn groups that focus on the topic of safety.
Workplace Health & Safety Professionals
Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE)
Environmental Health & Safety Professionals
8 great safety channels on YouTube
October 28, 2010
These YouTube channels offer general and industry-specific videos for safety meetings, training sessions, and new worker orientations, available in a variety of languages.
WorksafeBC
Workers’ Compensation Board of BC
safetycareonlinechannel
Burlington, Ontario company that produces OHS videos
NIOSH Safety Videos
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, based in Washington, DC
Work Safe For Life
From the Workers Compensation Board of Nova Scotia
Shine At Work
From the Workplace Safety Council of Singapore
National Safety Council
Based in Chicago, Illinois, USA
Ontario WSIB
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, based in Toronto, Ontario
Seattle Red Cross
Washington State headquarters
Five safety blogs to check out
September 02, 2010
Image credit: Christina B on Flickr
The workplace safety community is venturing online quickly – sharing news, views, videos, photos, tweets, and more from around the world.
Here are five blogs (from Melbourne, Arizona, Birmingham, London, and Massachusetts) that cover workplace health and safety issues in their jurisdictions and in general. Some evaluate regulatory changes (in great detail) and all are updated at least twice a week
Subscribe with Google Reader (or whatever you use for reading blogs) and stay on top of workplace safety news. See how it compares with your region and maybe you will have some ideas to share in the comment section. Remember that, with few exceptions, bloggers (including me) love getting comments.
Here are the five blogs to check out:
SafetyAtWorkBlog
Edited by Kevin Jones, this daily blog is based in Melbourne, Australia. Kevin is an OHS consultant and freelance writer who writes much of the content, along with guest contributors. He is @SafetyOZ on Twitter.
What’s new at HSE?
The Health and Safety Executive of Great Britain is “the national independent watchdog for work-related health, safety and illness.”
“We are an independent regulator and act in the public interest to reduce work-related death and serious injury across Great Britain’s workplaces,” reads the blog’s About section. The HSE website has a large selection of resources in support of injury prevention.
Latest Construction Health and Safety News
Construction incidents are detailed in this blog updated several times per day by Philip Poynter in Birmingham, England. PP Construction Safety is an OHS information and consultancy service. He’s @PPConstruction on Twitter.
Workers Comp Insider
This blog covers workers’ compensation, risk management, business insurance, workplace health & safety, occupational medicine, injured workers, insurance webtools & technology and related topics. It’s written by Lynch Ryan, a consulting firm in Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA.
The Safety Blog
Training tips, news, and how-to’s for different safety topic are presented in this blog created by Safety Services Company, based in Yuma, Arizona, USA.
Care to recommend any others?
Do you watch safety videos on YouTube?
July 28, 2010
Do people watch safety videos on YouTube? Aren’t they too busy on YouTube laughing at funny videos or singing along to their favorite tunes? Apparently not.
In the past two years, more than 2 million people from around the world have viewed and downloaded safety videos from WorkSafeBC, sponsor of this blog and my long-time client. Some of their videos show graphic injuries and are not for the squeamish. Check out Video: Nail Gun Safety (1 of 4) – Graphic Content!
Here’s a few more sites for you.
YouTube’s Five Most Useful Government Safety Sites for Humans
According to OHS Magazine Online ( Sept, 2009):
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board
National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Centres For Disease Control and Prevention
The U.S. Department of Labor offers these OSHA videos.“Respirator Safety” shows how to put on and take off common types of respirators. – “The Difference between Respirators and Surgical Masks” explains how to prevent exposure to infectious diseases.
How about you? Seen any good workplace safety videos lately?
