Focused Observation Best Practices

Contractor Safety Management

Focused Observation Best Practices

9:17

 

Contractor Assessment using Leading Indicators

 https://www.cqntraining.com/focus-observation-best-practices

Monitoring of work in progress occurs in a contract's active phase, where actions are taken to verify that contractors have implemented the worksite's safety standards.

While many monitoring activities can be used on complex, multi-employer worksites, Focused Observations can be uniquely valuable. Focused Observation is a contractor management best practice and a leading indicator of safety management. By concentrating effort on high-risk and critical safety program activities, focused observations give prime and general contractors actionable data. Once in hand, the data will guide adjustments in compliance management, training, and coaching up the project safety culture. The three areas of a worksite's operations where Focused Observation brings the most value are:

• tasks with high pre-identified risk, things like confined space entry and work at heights,
• tasks with previous high historical losses, like contact with electricity or chemical exposure, and
• safe work standards most frequently cited by OSH regulators (i.e. fall prevention training and

By proactively managing compliance to safe work standards, prime contractors demonstrate due diligence and help meet their OSHA obligations on multi-employer worksites. Further, worksites with high awareness of high-risk work and known control methods tend to have superior safety cultures.

The Focused Observation Process

A focused observation program aims to systematically observe pre-identified tasks and verify compliance using checklists specific to the work requirements. Proper checklist design allows calculating a 'percent compliant' of each Observation.

Checklist data is compiled and analyzed by stakeholders at all levels of the organization, including management, supervisors, workers, and safety committees. Assessment of the data contributes to action plans prioritizing the frequency and relative risk of the non-compliant observations. Higher risk and frequency mean more organizational attention is required to identify and correct the root causes.

Process Steps

1. Identify high-risk and high historical loss tasks and critical management systems.
2. Develop checklists identifying the sub-tasks/actions/requirements from existing legislation or safe work practices and procedures at the worksite.
3. Document terms of reference for the process.
   • Identify the management sponsor, the process owner, the day-to-day Champion, and the observers.
   • Determine observer training/competency requirements.
   • Establish data compilation and report formats.
   • Determine report distribution, data assessment, and action planning requirements
4. Observe, record, and compile data
5. Distribute reports, assess data, and formulate actions plans
6. Implement actions and track learnings/outcomes
7. Communicate outcomes to the worksite through management and safety committee (if/as practical)

High-Risk and Frequently-Cited Activities

• Fall Protection and Training Requirements
• Respiratory Protection
• Ladders and scaffolding
• Hazard Communication
• Lock Out/Tag Out
• PPE - Eye and Face Protection
• Powered Industrial Trucks
• Machine Guarding
• Confined Space Entry
• Excavation and Trenching
• Heavy Lifting
• Aerial Work Platforms

Checklist Design Best Practices

• Safety legislation and industry consensus standards are the baseline resource documents for checklist creation.
• Have subject-matter experts create the checklists. Use workgroup language.
• Limit line items to no more than under 15. Too many items make checklists impractical.
• Checklists force rigor. Training observers to consider each checklist line item is value-added as it helps scrub out familiarity bias.
• Each line item must be a single, observable condition, behavior, or state. Multiple items increase ambiguity and skews data. An example of more than one quantifiable item is 'Workers have been trained in fall arrest equipment and have a decal on their hardhat.'

Report Requirements

Observation data is displayed as a 'percent compliant' for each line item task or safe work requirement.

Percent Compliance Formula:

Suggested Report Breakdowns

• Worksite area (i.e. warehouse, maintenance shop, process unit)
• Day of the week and hour of the day
• Day shift vs. night shift
• By craft or discipline (i.e. electricians, ironworkers, maintenance tech)
• By team leader/supervisor
• By contractor/subcontractor

Suggested Report Distribution

• Group meetings
• Pre-job talks
• Worksite orientation
• Safety committee meetings
• Joint Labor/Management meetings
• Worksite newsletters

Data Assessment and Improvement Plans

The true benefit of a Focused Observation program is the ability to make informed decisions based on validated compliance data. The following information-sharing and work method improvement actions can be used:

• Actions assigned by management (includes prime and subcontractor leadership).
• Process Champion Report and Recommendations. As the Champion is the quarterback of the process, they typically have the best overall view of the findings and progress. They can be instrumental in highlighting the most urgent corrective actions.
• Review meetings with observation teams and senior supervision. Team problem-solving sessions effectively give the line supervisory teams ownership of the focused observation process and control of improvement activities in the field.
• Canvassing front-line leaders to provide improvement strategies for areas of low compliance based on input from informal observation of, and interaction with, field personnel
• Recommendations from the site safety committee and labor representatives for improvement opportunities.

Focused Observation and OSHA Most Cited Violations

We have created Focused Observations for the OSHA most-cited violations - a must-have due diligence package. Avoid the financial and reputational risk of high-profile incidents, and most importantly, improve conditions on your work sites. By proactively managing compliance to safe work standards, prime contractors demonstrate due diligence and help meet their OSHA obligations on multi-employer worksites.

Measure your contractor performance with the right things, in the right amounts, at the right time of the contractor cycle. Master contractor management.