Experienced Employees

Many accidents involve experienced employees, and planned safety observations can detect the reasons. Some workers who have been doing a job for many years will often develop short-cuts and effort-saving practices that are hazardous. Because accidents have not happened before, they will insist that the short-cuts are safe. 

Inexperienced workers usually follow examples set by supervisors or experienced workers. When these people work in an unsafe manner, it has an influence on the inexperienced worker. All employees should be included in the safety observation program so that all unsafe practices can be found and corrected. 

Detecting unsafe behavior and practices quickly in the inexperienced employee is important and will allow the snpervisor to take corrective measnres quickly. This will prevent accidents and will deter employees from developing nnsafe work habits. It is much easier and more effective to correct an inexperienced worker when he or she is observed performing unsafely. 

Inexperienced workers reqnire lireqnent planned safety observations to establish exactly what they know and do not know about doing their work safely. Further instruction and guidance are nsnaUy the required procedures after observations show the need for additional safety training. 

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If mentors and mentees are experienced employees such as managers and/or professionals, train them together... 

Opportunities for experienced employees to be on analysis teams for similar facilities... 

The composition and mandate of a team will vary depending on the specific incident. Within a large organization or a company with several very different processes, it may not be practical or desirable to preselect one team to investigate all incidents. Personnel should be selected to participate in investigations based on tbeir specific skills, experience, availability, and tbe team roles tbat need to be filled for a particular investigation. Over time, tbis approach will produce a pool of trained and experienced employees familiar with the investigation process. 

Identifyinft process and equipment hazards which could cause serious injuries, explosions, fires, or toxic material releases. These hazards may have been previously unrecognized or they may have been recognized and tolerated but avoided by skilled or experienced employees. 

Table 3.1 Parameters of experience and time to become an experienced employee in...

In addition, new concerns—such as the increased shortage of experienced employees— have come to the fore as challenges to continued improvement in process safety performance process. Nevertheless, the process industries (including the regulators) can take a great deal of credit for having made substantial strides in process safety during the course of the last two decades. 

IVainer—The process employee must use all the aforementioned skills to help train new process employees in their roles and responsibilities. This includes not just process training, but also safety and environmental training. Much of the training involving a specific process or unit is done one-on-one using experienced employees. 

When an experienced employee leaves the company, it is crucial to understand all of the roles he or she plays and ensure that these are adequately covered by remaining employees or his or her replacement. When considering the roles and responsibilities of an individual, be sure to include any unique skills, knowledge, and relationships he or she may have but which are not explicitly included in the basic job description. (Is he or she the only person who truly understands the idiosyncrasies of a particular piece of equipment Does he or she know where to obtain replacement parts which are not readily available Is he or she an instrumentation wizard whose expertise was just a bonus and not actually part of the job requirements )... 

Too much emphasis cannot be given to the importance of the supervisor in employee training, or to the priority given to training in those companies where successes in hazards management are noteworthy. Supervisors, as well as experienced employees serving as lead persons, are the role models that new employees will follow. 

Permit supervisors and experienced employees to initiate hazard correction actions. 

Everyone needs training for safety. Within a company there are new employees and experienced employees. There are supervisors and managers and special committees and teams. Product users and the general public need training in safety. 

Experienced Employees Experienced employees also need training. One important factor is learning how their work relates to other parts of the organization or to other work groups. Often workers in one work group do not understand how their work can affect the safety of others. 

Conducting a JSA can be a valuable learning experience for both new and experienced employees. Not only does it help them understand their jobs better, but it also familiarizes them with potential hazards and involves them in developing accident prevention procedures. Workers are more likely to follow procedures if they have a voice in planning. Finally, the JSA process causes employees to think about safety and how it relates to their jobs. 

With JSA/JHA, experienced employees can maintain safety awareness behavior and receive clear instructions for job changes or new jobs. Benefits also include updating current safety procedures and instructions for infrequently performed jobs. 

Internal safety inspections are important features in good safety practice. In daily production tasks, it is not always possible to detect all safety deficiencies. It is also well known that experienced employees can be too familiar with their work to note even imminent dangers. Regular walk-through surveys are therefore required. Safety checks may be conducted weekly, monthly or with some other level of frequency, depending on local risk conditions. It is usually advisable to use a checklist form appropriate to the plant, in order to conduct a systematic consideration of all of the relevant hazards. In the case of advanced safety inspection routines documented and issued using company systems, there is also a communication tool and checkout for the implementation of corrective measures by management. 

Mentoring is also used to transfer tacit knowledge from mrae experienced specialists to newcomers or less experienced employees. ... 

The same content can be delivered on- and ofif-the-job. On-the-job may involve one-on-one training under a supervisor or other experienced employee, but these should have had train-the-trainer training, i.e. training in how to train, and assess competency. 

Many companies also provide a period to test newly installed equipment. The company assigns its most experienced employees to watch for hidden hazards in the operations before full production begins. As with new facilities, the sooner hazards are detected, the easier and cheaper the corrections will be [2]. One of the best methods is to conduct a JHA (Chapter 15). 

In addition, contractors (temporary employees, subcontractor employees, visitors, etc.) may need specific training to recognize workplace hazards. One often-forgotten individual is the experienced employee who... 

Are new employees assigned to work with experienced employees for job instruction Y N... 

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