Safety Doesn’t Happen by Accident

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What is situational awareness? Simply put, situational awareness allows workers to identify hazards in the moment and take the necessary steps to mitigate them. 

Workers across the entire forest products supply chain face a myriad of complex and unique workplace “situations,” from logging professionals who sustainably harvest tree crops and truckers who transport them to mills, to the pulping, paper, tissue, and converting plants and mill employees who turn them into usable products. What all these professionals have in common is that they work in environments that have any number of potential hazards. 

Promoting Proactive Safety 

Situational awareness in the forest products industry isn’t optional – it’s essential. Workers always need to know what’s happening around them to avoid injury, prevent accidents, and keep operations running smoothly. The SLAM method is a simple acronym used by numerous safety-based companies to keep their situational awareness top-of-mind in the workplace:

• STOP – Think before you act: Take a moment to consider the current assignment.  Before you act, ensure you know exactly what must be done.
• LOOK – Observe carefully: Look closely at the work area to spot any potential dangers. Visual inspection is essential for identifying and averting hazards.
• ASSESS – Evaluate hazards: To guarantee safety, assess hazards that have been identified and make sure you have the necessary equipment, knowledge, training, and personal protective equipment (PPE).
• MANAGE – Take required actions: To maintain a safe work environment, take proactive measures to implement improvements, ask the right questions, and carry out necessary actions.  It takes constant adaptation to operate securely in the face of changing conditions. 

Cultivating Situational Awareness with TAPPISAFE 

Situational awareness isn’t a one-time achievement. It’s a mindset of alertness, responsibility, and quick thinking. With its basic safety orientations, site-specific modules, and refresher courses tailored to the global forest products industry, TAPPISAFE helps teams keep safety top-of-mind. 

TAPPISAFE trains workers to recognize the types of hazards they are most likely to encounter onsite, whether it’s moving machinery, hazardous materials, or confined spaces.  Workers trained with TAPPISAFE step onto a job site already knowing the site-specific safety rules, layout of the facility, and the emergency procedures. This foundational knowledge reduces uncertainty and builds a shared safety culture across teams of employees and contractors. 

If you want a workforce that sees problems before they happen, TAPPISAFE is a smart place to start. 

TAPPISAFE is a web-based safety orientation program that allows the workforce to take industry-specific training online, so they arrive at the site ready for gate entry. Learn more at tappisafe.org. 

Note: This article was originally published in Paper360° Magazine.