Reasons workplace accident keeps repeating itself.
With improvement to learning and careful follow up of past events, workplace hazards or accident still occurs, people often wonder why a certain workplace accident which happened some years, month, weeks or days ago may occur again. Accidents at time can be unpreventable, but safety measures must at all time be prepared as a part of the plan for emergency situation. While professional and safety practitioners have taken time to study and understand the need to curb the reoccurrence of safety accident, it is also very important that everyone in the field of safety understand why certain safety issues keep repeating itself.
An organization will only learn from past accident if they have the accident details, reflecting on the accident, drawing lessons from the reflection, and implementing the lessons learned in the workplace. This requires organisations to adopt “double-loop learning” instead of “single-loop learning.” The latter is focused on the specifics of a situation whereas in the former, the organisation reflects on the values, assumptions and policies that influenced the actions that led to the outcome.
Below are reasons workplace accident keep repeating itself.
Lack of Adequate/understandable safety culture.
Every organization aiming towards safety must have a culture priotized towards safety. One of the loop holes of safety cultures most times in safety organization is – “Is it adequate? Can their safety culture really prevent the occurrence or can it reduce damage likely to be done? Another question is, is it understandable? Do safety workers or officers understand the technique, method and why this culture is been put in place? Do workers have an understanding of what might happen if the culture is violated?
2. Organization has short memory.
One of the main reason workplaces accidents would keep repeating itself is the inability of organization to keep up with memory of how, why and when it happened the last time it did happened. There is a saying you cannot prevent all accident but can limit the level of destruction they can cause. Most organisation are often out of memory once the situation is under control, the need to revisit and check ways and methods the accident can be prevented in nearest future are often neglected.
3. Inability of Managers to step up.
Most accident in industries and safety organization are often managed and taken care of my safety officer and random individuals, the needs for managers, supervisors and people of higher ranks who have deep understanding om the effect of continuous workplace accident on the staff and the environment must be worked on. Safety Professional must understand the need for them to be involved in reflecting on accidents, evaluating work procedures and implementing the lessons learned to ensure good practices are institutionalised.
4. The need for cognitive mind.
Cognition is defined as ‘the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. The need for professionals with cognitive mind is very important in curbing repetitive workplace accident. A thoughtful safety professional would likely consider what and what might happen, their effect on the environment and mental state of staff before they take any decisions relating to safety.
5. Critical background check on workers.
Most safety companies do not consider the background check of individuals before employing them into the safety industry. While safety and it maintaining, compliance and follow up is very important. It is also very important yo understand that the mental state of the personal who is supposed to consider the practice of those safety requirements is important.
After all is said and done, the need to employ individual withthe mindset and goals on how prevent the reoccurrence of accidents in the workplace will make a very good Impact on the industry.
