DEC: Keeping staff focused in the holiday season

Keeping everyone’s mind on the job in the lead up to, or over the December/January holiday period can be a real challenge.  For many transport and logistics operators this is their busiest time of the year, and yet many staff are distracted by their personal circumstances, such as;

• Kids and school holidays
• Family commitments and/or social isolation
• Travel or holiday plans
• Increased financial expectations and pressures

“We saw a spike in incidents (mainly spills) from the end of October every year as people were mentally bankrupt at that time of year and the extra pressure of Xmas and family meant their minds were not on the job.”   Marty Corry, ex-Fleet Manager from IOR Petroleum

These things combined with the common built up end of year fatigue, can lead to much higher risk with your team.  Whether the team are generally fatigued, or distracted it can mean that they start to lose focus, rush things due to work-load pressure, or numbly follow familiar routines and fail to spot new risks/hazards. Having a false sense of security can affect everyone in the team; from those new to the task who don’t know better, and experienced team members.  

In spite of good intentions, it is common to see a drop off in performance, or increase in injuries or incidents at this time. Here are some of our top tips for leaders to help teams stay safe and productive around the silly season this year;

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Create awareness

Talk to your team about the likelihood of this risk due to fatigue or distraction.  Get your management team focused on prevention early and be open with everyone about near misses and incidents to raise awareness with the team.

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Step up your observation

If you have in place telematics or tools to monitor driver behaviour (over speeds, harsh braking, fatigue events, etc.) see if you can spot anything unusual or concerning.  Where you find a team member that needs support, debrief them quickly and have a conversation to dig into why this occurred.  

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Watch for signs of fatigue

Before, during and after holidays are all high risk times and whilst it’s important that everyone gets a chance to recharge, it’s equally important that those returning to work they are fit for duty.  A significant number of on road incidents happen when people are in the first two hours of shift, or returning to work after a break.

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Make your toolboxes active‍

Rather than just talking about risk and reminding people, why not try something different like running an observation session to get guys to spot hazards in a site they visit all the time, or your yard, or use a video of some in vehicle camera footage and get the team to identify and discuss hazards and risks.  Make it real for the team.

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Regular reminders

‍Plan a series of reminders over this period (try different ways to communicate such as social media, text, telematics notification, email, toolbox, etc.  Focus your communication on critical risks, or things they might see over this period, such as crazy holiday drivers, or for admin teams irate stressed customers.  

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Switch up routines‍

Why not change up your signs in the yard or on the noticeboard to refresh people’s attention to hazards, or procedures.  Consider whether it is appropriate to rotate the team through tasks – NOTE: needs to be carefully balanced consideration and willy nilly change can create more disruption and inefficiency.

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Support each other

Keep a careful eye on the broader team; talk to them about how they’re doing, and encourage staff to keep an eye on each other.  Get your driver trainers out of the road a bit more, or encourage your managers to spend time in the cab, in the workshop, or warehouse with the team. 

Whilst many businesses can operate safely without documented procedures and practices, because these alone are not enough to keep our people safe; it’s the culture of the business that influences the behaviours of our staff.  As leaders plan ahead, focus on the important behaviours and be watchful for signs of complacency to keep your team safe and productive.

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First published on www.transporttalk.co.nz.