Knowing Your Abilities – Mercer’s 5th Life-saving Golden Rule

At Mercer, the Life-saving Golden Rules are critical to our high-risk workers. While simple in nature, not following them can have serious consequences for our employees and their teams. Many of the rules focus on following safe-work processes, personal protective equipment, and incident reporting – all very regular for industrial workplaces and where a lot of focus can be placed during orientations, regular training, and safety meetings.

But what do we do about the instances where, even while wearing the proper PPE and following all safe work processes, our workers are unsure about their skills related to the task at hand?

For that, we have the Life-saving Golden Rule #5 – I only conduct work that I am authorized, trained and qualified to do, following safe work instructions.

Growing with Experience

When starting a new role, employees want to make a good impression. To show their capabilities and their aptitude for the work. This is only natural. Even seasoned workers want to make this impression. However, we must be careful that this goal must never hinder their safety or the safety of their teams.

Knowing how to perform a task safely comes with time, training, and experience. The 5th LSGR recognizes this, reminding our team members not to rush into tasks – instead, take the time to reflect on if this is work that you have been trained to do. Does your role give you the authorization or the qualifications to complete the task? Is there someone who is better suited or more qualified for the task? What is the learning opportunity here?

Safe Work with Mercer Forestry Services

Mercer’s operations contain a variety of work settings, with tasks varying from site to site. Mercer Forestry Services is one such operation, with the necessary equipment, environment, and qualifications changing from employee to employee. Relying on their training, their day-to-day focuses on ensuring they can complete their work safely – and stopping the work when they feel unsafe and unprepared.

Today, they’re here to share their experience with the Life-saving Golden Rule #5.