The onion theory or the dissolution of priorities.
The sad reality is that France is the worst in Europe in terms of fatal accidents at work.
Despite regulations, a complete labor code, safety training,mandatory regulatory checks, risk analysis, efficient safety manager, we can wonder about this sad result.
More and more, in companies, the subjects and the priorities pile up on the teams mainly on the managers and the safety managers.
The main subjects must be major risks, the risk analysis, the analysis of the facts of accidents with cause tree, the inspections and safety observations as well as the management of the action plans, but they must also manage the MSDs with ergonomics, causes of stress, occupational diseases, regulatory monitoring, chemical risks, noise, vibrations, addictions, harassment and a multitude of others topics.
In additionn they are often also EHS, QHSE, safety and other missions such as CSR for example. All these subjects are essential and important for the company, but how can we have the same levels of requirements to do all these tasks.
This dissolution of tasks and priorities leads to my onion theory. That is to say that the safety manager but also the company loses the notion of the major risk by stacking subjects and actions. The company as well as the safety manage forget that the absolute priority is to avoid fatal accident.
and so what ?
The famous “Back to basic and keep it simple!”
You always have to go back to basics: repeat, repeat and repeat again on the major risks. It is certainly ungrateful at times, but what satisfaction for an safety manager to have saved the life of one of these colleagues.
