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Hazard Identification and Reporting
No action is more important that identifying a hazard.
What is a hazard? A hazard is something
that can potentially cause harm to a worker
(or a customer or visitor to your attraction
or property) or damage to property. Some
hazards are obvious: a puddle on the floor,
a broken ladder, a burnt out light bulb in a
storage area; some are less obvious: stiffness
or soreness that you feel after performing
a particular task (like performing repetitive
tasks, standing or sitting for long periods of
time), suspicious activity you observe when
you're working alone, a chemical odour in
the air.
Make it part of the daily routine: take five
minutes at the beginning or end of each
shift to talk about hazards — ones that
you have observed, ones that employees
have observed, maybe just talk about
hazards, in general.
Talk about solutions — the process doesn't
end once the hazard is reported — that's
just the beginning!
Make it easy for people to report hazards:
Do you want them to call you? Send an
email message? Record it in a central
location? All of the above? You want to
keep track of the hazards being reported
because that will help you to identify
trends, it's also part of your "due diligence".
Keep track of your solutions as well.
Empower employees to take corrective
action. Report the puddle on the floor —
and then make sure it gets cleaned up.
Step 4: Health & Safety in Action
