Pre-COVID Safety

February 08 2021
By: Terry L. Mathis

Before the pandemic struck, we had settled into a pattern of addressing safety. Not everyone was doing the exact same things, but we had not innovated our approach to safety in some time. Our performance and our cultures were relatively stable, and some were slowly improving. COVID totally disrupted our practices. We had to add the practices of disease control to our safety efforts: isolation, masking, hand sanitation, etc. Our communication practices were disrupted, and our supervision style had to adapt. Everyone who could do their job from home was forced to do so. Travel was greatly reduced, and our traditional meetings were replaced with internet meetings.

The pandemic disrupted safety and safety will not simply return to its pervious state. This is, at the same time, a problem and an opportunity. Excellent organizations will not go back but rather will move forward. This forward movement begins with realizing that everything pre-COVID is suspect if not invalid. Safety needs to move into the new reality of the post-COVID world and that will require innovation, not simply re-establishment. Safety leaders of the world put on your thinking caps!