Have you heard the term “Hobson’s Choice? I’ll give you an example: When I was a kid, my mother would often give me a choice regarding outerwear on very cold days, “Either wear your winter coat or don’t go outside,” she would say, effectively offering me a Hobson’s Choice - no choice at all. At the time, 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.

Now, some safety professionals hear the word “winter” and, all of the sudden, the mood in the room changes. Because they know their job has become even tougher. The challenge? Trying to find the easiest and safest ways to protect their employees who work in the ice and snow. So I’d like to ask you a few questions: 1) Are you tired of searching online, trying to guess which ice cleat or traction aid will be best? 2) Are you tired of buying a recommended traction aid, only to realize that your people HATE wearing them? If this all sounds familiar, ask yourself: 3) What do I need and want from a […]

Have you ever asked your employees for their feedback on the traction aids and ice cleats that you buy for them? If you have never done this, you are missing out on some very important information. This is one of the most critical and most often forgotten ways to increase employee buy-in. You will learn what is working well – and what is not – with the current ice cleats you provide to reduce winter slips and falls. Additionally, you will be building morale and reinforcing the notion that you care about employee safety.

I know a safety coordinator at a large Canadian company. The conversation I had with him one winter stuck with me. When we spoke, he was in no mood to discuss the use of an ice cleat or other winter traction aids. He admitted that he was sick of winter, in general, and sick of hearing about ice cleats, in particular. He was tired of having to “deal” with them all the time. Does this sound familiar to you? Here’s the interesting thing about what I do for a living: If you choose to ignore the problem of winter slip and falls on ice and snow, you’re in luck because eventually the weather will cha[…]

I have young kids at home. Every night, they eat dinner. Sometimes they eat their dinner early and sometimes it’s late. But every night they eat. So what would happen if I waited until they were starving to feed them. And at that point I said, “Okay, just spot me a few hours. I have to go to the market, buy some ingredients, come home, look up a recipe and then cook you dinner. Sound good, kids?” Just the thought of the ensuing tantrums is enough to ensure that this scenario never unfolds in my home.

If you’re bored one day, type “ice cleats” into your preferred search engine. How many results do you get? Hundreds of thousands. So why does this matter? Well, it means ice cleats are popular. Would they be as prevalent today if they didn’t work? Interesting question. Let’s look into this: If you analyze the 800,000 results you’ll find from your Google search, you will quickly uncover two major obstacles that make investing in ice cleats a difficult decision for any safety professional: