Ladder Safety Tips — Part 1

OSHA’s ladder safety requirements are arguably the easiest to comply with. Yet failure here makes it near the top of OSHA’s “frequent flyer” list every year. Failure here is also responsible for a large percentage of preventable injuries and deaths.

In future installments, we will look at specific practices for ladder use and how to solve ladder application problems both safely and efficiently. In the meantime, company managers and supervisors can use the following strategies to reduce ladder-related safety problems among employees:

• Look at the history of reported injuries that are ladder-related. Has anything been done to prevent the same kind of misuse that resulted in a given reported injury? Observe people in the field to see if they are rolling the dice this particular way.
• Look for obvious misuse. Have each manager and supervisor take turns on a two-week “ladder safety watch”. During this period, the person “on watch” will take some time away from other activities to personally observe ladder use in the field. Look for violations of common sense. These don’t get solved by training, because people already know they are acting unsafely. To solve these, stop each violating employee and ask them to show you a safer way to use the ladder.
• Review your company’s safety policy, focusing on the parts having to do with ladder use. Now repeat the previous step but look for behavior that violates the company’s ladder safety rules. If the rules are too vague to understand, make a note of what’s wrong and try to get the text fixed.
• Ask employees about ladder safety issues. Some will invariably complain they can never find the ladder they need for a given job. And in nearly all cases, they will be spot on. There’s a problem management can fix. Listen to all complaints and always ask for suggestions on how to fix whatever problem is identified. This isn’t a feel-good exercise to make employees feel listened to. This is a fact-finding mission so you can help keep them safe.