Most of you have a workforce that is required to work outside in winter. And your company has probably paid the price winter workplace safety hazards with slips and falls. A high price. So why is this still happening? Are you just too busy to address this problem adequately? Have you tried winter working gear like ice cleats or other traction aids that didn’t work? Have you given up because you are convinced that all ice cleats are the same? Whether you call them ice cleats, ice spikes or crampons, remember this: Just because other winter working gear like traction footwear looks similar doesn[…]

Believe me, I’ve heard them all. But there are a few common excuses why safety professionals might avoid buying ice cleats. Here are the top six: They’re too expensive. My employees won’t wear them. Can’t wear them indoors. Can’t drive with them on. Employees won’t take care of them. We've tried everything and nothing works in our environment.

On particularly cold winter days when I was a kid, my mother would often give me a choice regarding outerwear, “Either wear your winter coat or don’t go outside,” she would say, effectively offering me a Hobson’s Choice - no choice at all. Since I was just a seven-year-old kid, my mom wasn’t interested in empowering me or helping me to build my decision-making skills. She simply wanted me to be warm and not get sick. There are many companies that offer this same “no choice” when it comes to safety items – either comply with OSHA workplace safety or go home.

I was speaking with a corporate safety director the other day about the challenges his workforce faces with employee buy-ins and working in the ice and snow. He has used our ice cleats in the past with good success. Recently, his company started a new safety initiative: ZERO winter slip, trip and fall incidents. This can be hard goal to reach (but not impossible). After our discussion, he realized that just buying winter traction aids and making them available to everyone was good, but not good enough to achieve his goal. Things needed to change.

I recently spoke with a customer who has been buying our ice cleats for years. They’ve had a few slip and fall accidents on the ice and snow this winter and are, understandably, very frustrated. After the accident investigations, they realized each incident had the same the root cause: None of the employees who fell were wearing the ice cleats and winter traction aids that were being provided. Does this sound familiar to you? This is one of the most frustrating, but preventable, things a safety professional can hear. Have you ever noticed problems with employee engagement? Most likely, you hav[…]

Resistance to change is simply part of human nature. If you want to see that resistance in action, try introducing a new piece of PPE to an established workforce. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the following response when discussing ice cleats with a safety manager: “It’s not even worth buying ice cleats this winter. I know my guys. They’ll never bother to put them on.”