Near Misses

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

One of my favorite parts of being a former arborist turned insurance agent is when I join tree care companies for their safety meetings. Seeing first hand how dedicated most tree care companies are to improving their safety culture and being a part of that is extremely rewarding for me. It also is great to see the variety of safety meeting formats, both in length and structure, but one common item almost everyone includes is a discussion on near misses. 

OSHA defines ‘near miss’ as a potential hazard or incident in which no property was damaged, and no personal injury was sustained, but the easier definition is that of a close call. Something happened whether it was intentional or not, that could have caused an injury or accident. 

Near misses are great learning opportunities for everyone within the company as it creates discussion around what could have or should have been done differently to avoid the close call.

Do you discuss near misses at your company? 

If you haven’t incorporated a discussion on near misses into your safety meetings yet, don’t fret, here are a few simple tips. 

1. Establish the Purpose and Ground Rules – To be effective, a conversation about near misses needs a defined purpose and ground rules set by you, the leader of the organization. Make sure to explain that the purpose of this conversation is simply to help others avoid an injury or accident by learning from someone who had a close call. The ground rules are also simple but also very important. You must establish the trust within your team to let them know that they will not be punished for sharing a near miss and you will not tolerate anyone belittling someone for sharing details of a close call. Without an open trusting environment, your near miss discussion will not be effective. 
2. Start with a Personal Example – As the leader of your organization, you may not be involved in the day-to-day production work anymore, but everyone of us has had a close call to recount or can think of one from their personal life. When the leader begins to share and makes him/herself vulnerable to their team, it sets the stage for anyone in the organization to be able to share a near miss situation. 
3. Ensure Everyone has a Chance to Share – Without letting the meeting get too long, it’s important for everyone on the team has a chance to share their near miss. When someone feels like they didn’t have a chance to share when they were ready to, they are less likely to share the next time around. 

If you are struggling with what to include during your Safety meetings or how to begin discussing near misses with your team, reach out to an ArboRisk team member or sign up for our Thrive Safety Package today.

Job Briefing

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Job Briefing. Job Hazard Analysis (JHA). Job Safety Analysis (JSA). Pre-Work Checklist. 

There are many names that tree care companies use to describe the activity a crew goes through before they begin working at a jobsite but for the purpose of this article, I’m going to use the term Job Briefing. 

Before I get too far along, it is important to note that the technical function of a JHA is slightly different to a JSA or Job Briefing, but the concept I want to dive into is…

What should a tree crew discuss before working at a jobsite?

For starters, the Job Briefing may be the singular most important moment of each job. It is the time for all crew members to understand the work that will be done, the specific site hazards involved and create an emergency plan for an accident. 

Let there be no doubt, Job Briefings save lives. On top of that, the Job Briefing helps each job be completed in a more efficient and profitable manner than a job that didn’t have a briefing. 

So what should your crew be discussing during their Job Briefing? The Job Briefing doesn’t need to be a long drawn meeting, but it should address several key items including specifics about the work to be done at this location, and site specific hazards and special equipment needed along with a discussion about the work zone setup. The crew should also discuss emergency procedures, who will call 911, who is the backup caller, where is the nearest hospital or urgent care clinic, where is the first aid kit. 

To help your crew remember to discuss all of these topics, utilize a paper or digital form that each employee signs to acknowledge that they understood the specifics of that job. You can include more than this, but in my opinion, the bare minimum information that should be on your Job Briefing form should be:

• Date
• Jobsite address
• Start time
• End time
• Crew Leader
• Physical Hazards/Obstacles specific to this location
• Simple description of Work Plan including a sketch of work zone
• Questions/Comments from the crew
• Signature lines for each crew member 
• First Aid kit location
• Who will call 911 and who is the backup caller?
• Specific equipment necessary for the job
• Specific PPE requirement necessary for the job

A copy of the Job Briefing should be kept on file in case an accident does occur as this can be a key piece of defense that your tree care company will want to have if being sued by someone after a job-site incident. 

Lastly, don’t over complicate this process for your team. Make it easy enough for them to do before each job, yet detailed enough to get the right information to everyone. 

If you are struggling with what to include during the Job Briefing or how to improve your pre-job meetings, reach out to an ArboRisk team member or sign up for our Thrive Safety Package today.