"Working Smart is No Accident"
by Rick Johnson, Burns, OR
 
 
A state official recently wrote to ask me about in-home safety:
 
"We do not have any system or protocol to survey the home work environment to identify and reduce hazards associated with working at home or away from the office. Does your organization have any suggestions on this or resources we can turn to [to] develop a system whereby an employee can survey their home for potential hazardous conditions and situations to avoid while working at home?"
 
Although my primary focus for the last year has been on the safety and health benefits of telecommuting, I've decided to take a crack at answering this official's question. I have spent many years in the nuclear safety arena and recently helped the US Department of Energy implement a version of the "Work Smart" process for a nuclear facility in Washington State. If I can help make large nuclear facilities safer, then I figure I might just be able to help my fellow teleworkers improve safety in the home. Perhaps a "scaled-down" version of DOE's Work Smart process would be just the ticket for telework.
 
My first preference, however, for handling in-home safety is to let employers off the hook altogether. Let the teleworkers be completely responsible for their own in-home safety. After all, aren't employers already giving us a big safety and health benefit, just by providing the telecommuting work option? Employers who encourage telework are getting people off the highways, saving lives and reducing injuries.
 
But maybe some employers feel they just have to address in-home safety. Maybe they want to do more to ensure the teleworker is safe, even in the worker's own home. If that's the case, then why not try the Work Smart process? If the process can work in a major nuclear facility with a large number of work activities and hazards, it should work in your home, as well.
 
Rather than dictating to teleworkers what they should do to be safe, employers can encourage "Working Smart." Work Smart allows folks to become more involved in determining their own in-home safety. With Work Smart the people who actually perform the work are empowered with the means and responsibility for ensuring the work can be performed safely. This approach makes a lot of sense. Once workers are given the power to ensure their own safety and some training in the Work Smart process, they are in the best position to create their own safe work environment and to identify changes in that environment that require a change in work habits.
 
There are five elements to the Work Smart process:
 
1. Identify and document the work activities to be performed;
2. Identify and document the hazards associated with those activities;
3. Identify (or create) standards for safe performance of work to ensure that the hazards
identified in step 2 are mitigated;
4. Perform the work; and
5. Periodically evaluate the work, hazards, and standards to ensure a safe environment.
 
As you can see, it's not a very complicated process. But documentation is very important. Documentation provides both the teleworker and the employer with a written basis for safety.
 
All five steps in Work Smart are accomplished by the teleworker and approved by the employer. In a major manufacturing facility these five steps can take considerable effort and involve teaming, many meetings, expert consultation, etc. For teleworkers the process would be much easier to establish and maintain. This process would leave the worker with a feeling of responsibility and a good knowledge and appreciation of what constitutes a safe work environment. Teleworkers can use Work Smart not only to identify hazards in their specific work environment, they can use it throughout their entire home. Using this process everywhere in the home can improve the overall safety not only for themselves, but for family members and visitors, as well.
 
Work Smart should work well for teleworkers. It can improve safety while preserving teleworkers' privacy, preventing the need for in-home inspections by employers or outside regulatory agencies. If you're an employer, have your teleworkers follow the five steps of Work Smart. If you're a teleworker, you might want to suggest the Work Smart approach to your employer. By taking the initiative early to address your employer's safety concerns, you may ward off problems that develop later on. Remember the old saying: "Safety is No Accident."
 
[Note: the "Do Work Safely" image is from http://iosun.lanl.gov:2001/htmls/policy/lsp/lsp.html and is used by permission.]
 
 
Rick Johnson is founder of the Telecommuting Safety & Health Benefits Institute
 
Version 1.0 - December 16, 1998
 
 
Last revised: February 27, 2000
 
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