2024 Safety Wrap-Up: Top Safety Failures, Trends & Solutions

Join us for this 2024 worker safety trend wrap-up, where we're discussing the top worker safety gaps and opportunities we personally saw ourselves in the field as safety experts.  Is this reviewing OSHA's list from Sept 2024? No.  Is what we're listing possibly some of the root causes for why OSHA issued the citations they did?  Maybe.  Stick with us until the end to see the actionable, budget conscious safety strategies for 2025 and let us know if we missed any that you saw!  Full episode description below: 

Key Points:
OSHA 2024 Most-Cited Issues- this video isn't covering that list released in Sept 2024 due to that can be looked up, but the gaps we saw likely contributed to system breakdowns that resulting in the citations they ended up issuing.  

1. Significant Procedure gaps were seen in confined space assessments, lock out tag out procedures, PPE assessments, SOPs, task procedures etc.

2. Stakeholder Involvement and Documentation-  Importance of engaging qualified stakeholders for accurate hazard evaluation, program and procedure development, and overall program engagement. 

3. Critical Technical Experience-Based Knowledge Was Lost to Turn Over & Retirement-  Addressing the loss of knowledge due to retirements and high turnover rates.  

4. Risks in Non-Routine Tasks, Team Members in Support Roles, and Multi-Employer Worksites- 
Identifying overlooked hazards in tasks performed during off-hours or by contractors and support roles at the facility. 

5. Technological Advances and Safety Challenges- Integrating robotics, AI, and advanced systems into safety protocols- implementation of new technology prior to the development of safety protocols and program updates.   

Resources:
Visit AllenSafety.com for in-depth audits, evaluations, and training.
Explore AllenSafetyCoaching.com for over 100 videos, free email coaching, and step-by-step safety guidance.

This video is intended for educational purposes.  Solutions offered are not designed to take the place of an attorney or medical professional, and should not be taken as legal or medical advice.  It is recommended that viewers consult a safety consultant, medical provider or an occupational safety legal team as applicable to help navigate their specific circumstances.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, this is 2024 trends in worker safety, so I
think Top five.
Top five.
So I think OSHA put outsomething around September of
2024.
This is not that.
So this is what we havespecifically seen and what we
kind of think might becontributing factors to what
OSHA put out, which was theirmost cited.
So here we go, let's go.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
All right, welcome back.
Go, let's go there, we go.
All right, welcome back.
It's 2025, it's january and wethought, you know what a great
that we could do would be tojust do a recap let's do some
risk.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, here we go.
Number one risk we saw bar noneneeders absolutely lockout, you
name it.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's my response, don't matter whatever that is,
it's like we have a piece ofpaper, but who validated it?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
who created it?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
it's not accurate.
We don't know who created it.
The person who created it andreviewed it.
It didn't have a clue what wasgoing on.
We didn't have the right peopleinvolved, not the correct
stakeholders helping guide us inthat creation is like we have
this document, we check theblock but it means nothing and
we can't use it for anything didyou do the annual lockout
verification?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
yes, how'd you do it?

Speaker 1 (01:18):
I dated it intern, an intern who's never worked in
this industry before it.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
It's something like that you got to have people who
know the operation of thatequipment and what it really can
do.
Be the one to help with these.
Even if we write procedures, wedon't do it by ourselves.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Absolutely.
So hang in there.
We gave you just a real quickone, but we're going to give all
of our solutions at the end.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
We're not just going to leave you kind of wondering
like, okay, that uh.
We're not just going to leaveyou kind of wondering like, okay
, that's great, what do we doabout it?
What's, what's your big idea?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
we'll give them at the end so here we go, so we're
going to run through these, andthere's some that'll reference
each other, because they just dothey do.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, they tie in.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Some of them do tie in, yes, any normal job that not
really normal, like outside thebuilding, the tractor running a
lawnmower.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
So we have production and then we have all the
support.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Clearing out snow on the driveway.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, we have a lot of support functions that go
into it.
So when I'm thinking likewastewater, rendering truck,
wash truck shop.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Somebody changing out trash cans maybe?

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, maintenance of the outside grounds.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
That's right.
Some plants literally have anoutside cruise.
That's all they do.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
We have a phenomenal job of maybe onboarding
production folks.
We have nothing and noprocedures.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
No training.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
No list of things that they do.
We haven't evaluated them inany way for hazards or PPE.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
really, oh, we did a tornado drill.
What about those people?

Speaker 1 (02:39):
We forgot to count those people.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
They got to go somewhere.
If they're way over there,where are they going to go
account?
They got to go somewhere.
If they're way over there,where are they gonna go?

Speaker 1 (02:47):
yeah, it can't just be going the hallway here at the
plant.
And this gets particularlyinteresting when we have
multi-employer work sites or wehave several groups, maybe kind
of sharing a building, or we'renot really sure.
Is that a part of our company?
Well, not really.
Well, that's a different llcover there, or get over.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
This is my spot.
Yeah, I need to take shelteryeah, so there's there.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, that can get like who is really checking on
those people if we've gotmultiple llcs in one area.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
So that's what happens.
We always see that one personthat seems to be down the hall
doing something.
You find out a few days lateroh, that's a contractor.
Because you don't think aboutit.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
They're not employed by us.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
But there's no manager there, there's nobody
managing them, or they actuallyare employed.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
So security, sometimes it's ours.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Absolutely.
Sanitation, sometimes it isSometimes one year.
It is one year, it isn't, orsometimes it's both.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Sometimes we have folks doing specific job tasks
that might be classified assanitation, but they're actually
employed by us on day shift.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's correct.
So that's the normal jobs, butthe one-offs a little.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, so think about the entire property and checking
on some of those support.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
We lost a lot of knowledge when it came to the
turnover and the people retiringand we didn't capture all the
data yeah I'm gonna change tireson this piece of equipment.
Go to a place.
Say who did it.
Fred did.
Fred worked there for 30 years.
Where's fred?
Now he retired?
Who do you train to change outthe tires?

Speaker 1 (04:14):
right, so we don't anybody that's coming to us.
We're all thinking when we hirean individual oh, they've got
knowledge they know like I'mhiring for a safety role,
actually actively hiring rightnow, and I'm getting a whole
flood of folks coming to me andthey have safety backgrounds,
but not in food.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
And not for the job we're looking for.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, and not specifically.
You know, got the list ofthings worked in a food plant
extra years, sanitation, PSM,understand refrigeration,
understand all of the detailedand the technical things that
are required from the ag side,the farm side.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
If you're a safety manager and your job is to write
confined space for a mill andyou never wrote confined space
and been part of it, how can youwrite it?
How can you be the manager ofit?

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, so I think the biggest thing here is just
understanding that we need toreevaluate what our onboarding
options are and what that lookslike, because no one's there 30
years now and gets promotedthrough the rank.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
We hire them at that level now.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Lots of gaps, Lots of gaps of every two, three years.
We're having some turnover insome of these management roles.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
And the folks that are coming to us have never
worked in the industry before ittakes them six to eight months
to learn that part.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Then you got an annual review lockout in the
next year and by the third yearthey're gone.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Well, and I guess my thing is, is that if the folks
that are stepping into some ofthose roles don't understand the
equipment, don't understand thecycle, don't understand some of
the PMs and the non-routines,and the sanitation and how we
have to do some of the specificjobs.
There's a lot of risk that'sgoing unchecked there, correct,
and now you compile that with oh, we may have all of our
managers have under a year atthis facility, under a year

(05:54):
within this industry, under ayear, all of my operators for
refrigeration.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Are we in a place that had three or four months,
nobody knows, or none?
We've had some places with nooperators.
Now, yeah, I mean, we allcontract it now like every five
years is a pha.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
No one was there for the last, no one was there for
the last compliance audit or thelast mechanical integrity or
some of these, these periodicthings.
So absolutely, we need to maybelook at some baseline
information and got to changeyour, change your onboarding a
little yeah, just check andvalidate we're all, at least on
this specific page, before wemove forward one and third shift
.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
So third shift and the off days like sunday.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
We always do this, but no one's ever there to see
us always do that yeah, so wehave on routine tasks that we do
and now not normal hours maybeit's not my regular day shift
manager who has the most oh,let's put a new hire on these
shifts yeah, so we've got new,new managers managing it.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Right.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
And we're not always the best.
This kind of ties into numberone about the procedure part.
And so, because we don't havethe, this is the most efficient,
effective, safest way.
Here's all the hazards.
And, by the way, here's the PPEissue, where we don't have that
hammered out for a lot of ournon-routines.
Right, and theoretically we mayhave something like a pre-job
hazard analysis, but that onlyworks if you really understand

(07:12):
what the risk is and what how tofix it and sometimes you don't
know till you get into it.
I can tell you there's a lot ofprojects specifically around
this house where I'm like, oh,just do that real quick, and
then I get into it and it takesway longer or she has me do it,
and then it's never way moresteps than I thought and so,
again, you need someone whoreally has a very defined and
clear understanding of some ofthose non-routines to help you

(07:32):
fill out that form, to make sureyou're really capturing
absolutely.
I remember these are opinions,so yep, this is based on what
we've seen over the last 12months all right so seeing
through audits, safetyevaluations, training,
walkthroughs, acquisitions, justyou name it, all the things is
just what we have personallyseen ourselves.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
So my fifth one is the most interesting one.
It's all about the technology.
Yeah, I'm talking about robots,computer screens.
How do you lock out now if thecomputer screen goes down and
you can't lock it out?

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, so we did a while back a couple of episodes
on the robots and the AI comingin and how is that going to work
with safety?
But I think specifically whatwe're seeing is we used to have
some kind of non-regulated,non-psm related management of
change tool, something that wasa checklist.

(08:22):
Yeah, that was like hey, didyou update your emergency maps?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Did you do?

Speaker 1 (08:25):
did you get the procedure?
Did you do the training?
Did you do the training?
Did you do a PPE evaluation Allthe people that would normally
sign off for something like amanagement of change, for
something that affects theammonia system.
We have that same type ofdocument.
We make any kind of change tomake sure that we're capturing.
Did we do a lockout?
Did we train people on thelockout?
Do we need to make sure thatthe lockout's accessible?

(08:47):
Maybe I need to figure out nowfolks are having to go to an MCC
room or whatever.
We just have to have a methodto capture that.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
You can drive a new forklift with the new computer
systems.
People think there's absolutesto them.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
You could override them.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
So you got to learn the equipment.
You got to learn the equipment,yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
And so that really ties back into that onboarding
process of we're seeing morerisk than I think we ever have
before because we've got lots ofnew technology.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
So is that our biggest solution of all these?
I think, yeah.
I think all of them tie in toone thing you got to re-look at
your onboarding of the process.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Whatever that looks like, I think people really have
to, yeah because we've got morerisk than we ever have, because
we've got new folks, new to theindustry.
Don't really understand allthat's involved all the time in
terms of like the utilities andthe maintenance and the
sanitation and the intensifiedcleaning and where they didn't
work five years and then move up, and then move up.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
That's not there.
So you've got to change that.
Now we've got new equipment.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Maybe we're installing because of some of
the turnover new equipment.
We're not getting the rightdetails captured in the
procedures, or no procedure atall.
We're not getting the rightdetails captured in the training
, or maybe training at all.
So I think we really got to goback and look at the basic
foundation of our programs andinstead of just yep, I've got a
safety program.
It's kind of peace.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yep, I did angel lockout yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
I came and I'm going to bring this.
I like this paragraph of myprograms.
I'm a third and now it's amixture of you got to back up
and look at it.
Yep and really make sure weunderstand the jobs, all of them
, the routine and thenon-routine.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Don't do it as a silo .
Get people involved.
Get people involved.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
And then make sure absolutely the right
stakeholders are involved.
So safety may only be astakeholder in some things.
They may not be the person thatis in that program or those
procedures.
They may just work with and incombination with maintenance,
utilities, production.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Absolutely.
That's what we got today Allright.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well, that's our opinion.
If you want more information onthis, you can head over to
allen-safetycom.
We would love to do somein-person stuff for you audit,
safety evaluations, any kind ofprocedures, ppe, lockout, you
name it.
Otherwise, if you are like youknow what, that's not really in
the budget to have you guys comeand work with us, but we do
want the data.
We've got a whole bunch ofdifferent over a hundred

(11:04):
different videos on ourallensafetycoachingcom site,
which also comes with freeemail-based coaching, which is
awesome, so you can talk to Joeand I for free if you are a
member of the Allen SafetyCoaching community.
So we would love to see youover there.
And, other than that, have agreat week, everybody, and we'll
see you next time.
Thank you for listening to Safe,efficient, profitable a worker
safety podcast.

(11:24):
If you're looking for morein-depth discussions or
step-by-step solutions on all ofthe different safety and
regulatory topics, please visitus at wwwallensafetycoachingcom
for web-based virtual coachingand training, or at
wwwallensafetycom to book ourteam for onsite services,
training sessions, to ordermerchandise, to learn more about

(11:46):
our team and what services weprovide in the field, or just
simply to request a topic for usto cover on our next podcast.
If you found today's podcasthelpful and would like to
support our podcast further,please help us by subscribing,
liking and sharing this podcastwith anyone that could benefit
from the information we coverhere, as that helps us to
continue to put out this freecontent.
Thank you.