Situational Awareness for Workplace Safety

Situational awareness is, as the term describes, being aware of what’s happening around you. When an employee can adopt situational awareness in the workplace, he or she is more capable of identifying hazards and understanding what safety actions to take.

What are some things that employers can do to help encourage situational awareness?

Minimize distractions and multitasking. A workplace can never fully eliminate distractions. However, workplace distractions that pose the greatest risks can be minimized, or even eliminated, with the right steps. Avoiding multitasking can help employees stay focused on the task at hand, reducing the overall risk of injury on the job.
Make sure your leadership team is engaged. Safety culture begins from the top down. When company leaders model and encourage safe behavior, the trickle-down effect can be seen at all levels.
Ensure supervisor accessibility. Encourage a culture of employees being empowered to let supervisors know when something feels “off,” and allow them the autonomy to stop the task at hand, safely remove hazardous obstacles, and report the information accordingly if needed.
Implement daily huddles and check-ins. Supervisors should meet briefly with their teams prior to the start of each shift to review and communicate plans for the day, any issues, discuss safety and any other current issues that might lead to distractions or injuries.
Conduct comprehensive training. When employees are properly trained, injuries and accidents are less likely to occur. Situational training gives a very strong, clear message about safety, its overall importance, and how safety is implemented in that employee’s particular work area.

Need more summer safety training? Contact your Strategic Comp Loss Prevention Consultant for information about our Streamery library, offering access to more than 800 training programs covering a wide variety of hazard-specific and industry-specific topics.

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Loss control consultation services are provided to our insureds by employees of the Strategic Comp Division of Great American Insurance Company (“GAI”) in conjunction with a workers’ compensation and employers liability insurance policy provided by one of GAI’s insurance subsidiaries. As stated in Part Six (A) of that policy, we do not provide safety inspections and we do not undertake a duty to provide for the health or safety of our insureds’ employees or the public. We do not warrant that all potential hazards and conditions have been evaluated and identified, or that they are safely controlled. We also do not warrant that our insureds’ workplaces are safe or healthful or that they comply with laws, regulations, codes or standards. The liability of GAI (and/or its affiliated subsidiaries) is limited to the terms, limits, and conditions of the insurance policies that it writes. GAI assumes no liability beyond that provided under the terms, limits, and conditions of the policies it has issued, when engaging in loss control consultation services. © 2023 Great American Insurance Company, 301 E. Fourth St., Cincinnati, OH 45202 5726-STC (6/23)