New prevention plans focus on employee safety

In the last several months, ITD employees worked together to retool the accident-review process to make it less punitive by emphasizing prevention to improve employee safety rather than assigning blame.

The update to the review process began with eliminating the titles "preventable" vs. "non-preventable" accidents and discarded a points-based system that focused on disciplinary recommendations rather than solutions to address safety concerns.

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The old process had a tendency to make employees feel like it was a “Gotcha!” moment. Most importantly, while accident reviews generated possible reprimands for an employee, it did not trigger a prevention plan.

“We had to find a way to close the loop,” said District 1 (North Idaho) Safety Compliance Officer Keith Viebrock. “There wasn’t any follow through, and we’d see the same accidents over and over.”

To find a solution, Viebrock and a district-based group of diverse employees spearheaded a process that looked at the root cause of an incident, set a goal to prevent future incidents, and assigned actionable controls to meet that goal.  

“Whoever implements the plan has a say in what it looks like,” Viebrock said.

Once executed, a plan can be assessed and possibly shared within the district as a best management practice. From there, it can be circulated to other districts and transition into policy.

District 1 created the first prevention plan in March, and Viebrock intends to upload future plans and related safety incidents to ProjectWise as a collective resource for safety shares.

“This new form will put all of ITD’s safety officers on the same page,” Viebrock said. “It also allows us to incorporate and share best safety practices from around the state.”

Viebrock and the committee will evaluate and measure District 1 prevention plans and make any changes to the program. Depending on its success, other districts may adopt the process.

Published 06-29-18