www.rockproducts.com ROCK products • August 2018 • 115
Aggregates Industry Almanac
Safety Training
employees' knowledge in this area is important because
Ragain (2016) found employees have a desire to speak
up, but often choose not to intervene because they are not
equipped to do so effectively.
From what was learned from employees during annual
refresher trainings and with NIOSH safety climate research,
it seems important to begin the process of growing a strong
culture sooner rather than later. Particularly, employees in
high-risk industries should feel supported and encouraged
to speak up when they see an unsafe situation or unsafe
co-worker behavior.
As a starting point, companies should consider conduct-
ing an evaluation of their safety culture, policies and best
practices to see if they need to be updated or changed to
allow employees to feel more comfortable speaking up if
they observe an unsafe situation. Only when employees feel
supported will they step up and say or do something if they
observe an unsafe situation or behavior. If employees know
they can approach their co-workers or supervisors and freely
discuss safety concerns, without fear of retaliation or losing
their jobs, positive changes in the culture and proactivity in
the workplace will begin.
In addition to evaluating their safety culture, policies, best
practices and skills of their leaders, companies must take
time to evaluate how they educate employees about the need,
intent and goals of all safety initiatives in which they expect
their employees to participate. This educational process
should include not letting our "ego" get in the way; being
humble, stepping up and becoming a leader when circum-
stance require it.
Too often programs or initiatives are rolled out with little or
no employee education and as a result, they generate mini-
mal participation or just "go by way-side." If employees are
not provided with the "why" or given direction, they will not
commit to following a program nor will the meet a company's
expectations. As Ragain said, "We need to stop assuming that
it is only a matter of motivation and start addressing the real
factors that keep employees from speaking up and doing so
effectively" (2016).
For the past 30 years, Joe McGuire, Ph.D, has worked in the
construction-aggregate production industry dealing primarily
with the planning/zoning process, environmental permitting,
compliance issues and educational/training, while also par-
ticipating in many aggregate mine-development and permit
requests at the county level, which required involvement in the
public hearing process.
Emily Haas, Ph.D, is an employee in the Human Factors Branch
of NIOSH's Pittsburgh Mining Research Division. She studies
organizational culture and risk management in areas specific
to leadership in order to uncover ways to strengthen safety
culture in mining workplaces.
Scott Bohm is safety manager for CRH Americas Materials. He
has been in the aggregates industry for more than 20 years.
During that time he has held several management positions
beginning in 2010 as a portable wash plant supervisor. In 2012
he accepted a safety manager position and in 2018 he was
placed in a dual role of operations manager overseeing two
portable plants while continuing in his role of safety manager.
He has received numerous safety-related certifications and is
used throughout the company to train employees including all
MSHA required training. Bohm has been very active in devel-
oping training materials, research and evaluation of MSHA
training conducted with employees.
Disclaimer
The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of
the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NIOSH). Mention of
company names or products does not constitute endorsement by NIOSH.
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