The Near Miss Challenge

As safety professionals, we need to deal with three different situations: near misses, first aid injuries, and recordable injuries. Where the latter two are easier to understand, the concept of a near miss may be less so. So what is a near miss? A near miss is a situation where an injury could have occurred. Near misses are the shocking points of our day where a car nearly hits us, or you dropped a plate right next to your foot. When we record near misses and take corrective actions to ensure the event will not occur again, we reduce our chance of getting injured. That being said, whenever there is a near miss in the plant, we want to know immediately and we want to fix it fast. I created a program, similar to the Safety Olympics, in which employees can fill out a form reporting just the near miss for 1 point, offering a solution for 2 points, and even going further and answering a series of why-did-this-happen questions for 3 points. Points can accumulate until a recordable injury occurs, at that time (or before at the discretion of the employee) all points must be "spent" on fun prizes, like embroidered Unilever blankets or free pint of Ben & Jerry's coupons. When employees report a near miss, I immediately record it in a spreadsheet, which I've designed to be continued far after I leave here, and then email the near miss and offered solution to all the managers, expressing the need for a quick response. So far this program is amazing. After only starting it two weeks ago, I have already had 16 entries turned in. Likewise, the response time by the managers is always within an hour and most near miss cases are closed within a week. I am so proud of this program and I am happy to have found a solution that works well for our plant. I know that this new found awareness of near misses will really reduce the hazards around us and keep our workplace safe :)