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the snowcat starting to move. Human performance improve- • Employees can only perform as well as the environment
ment uses proven methods to identify latent weaknesses such and management that support them.
as these and take corrective steps to reduce the potential • Safety is not the absence of incidents, but the presence
vulnerabilities when people touch the system. of defenses to prevent or mitigate unwanted events.

Defining the Problem Managers, supervisors and employees must understand how
Not only do many traditional resort safety and risk manage- the full spectrum of work organization, planning, and imple-
ment programs concentrate primarily on compliance rather mentation can create either a safe operating environment or
than effective prevention, they also tend to be reactive in an error-likely situation at the worker level. The goal is to
nature, concentrating on events after they happen. These create and sustain the work environment in a condition
practices may result in resort leadership managing from a where normal behaviors result in expected results, or results
defensive position when in fact a more proactive approach that have low safety consequence.
is needed. While root cause analyses are essential, a cause This can be a significant challenge with seasonal
analysis is a post-event activity, and would not necessarily employees. Training programs for seasonal employees must
have prevented the incident. That is why a human perfor- be tailored so that they understand the basic concepts of
mance analysis is so critical in the first place. incident prevention as well as their accountability and
responsibility for keeping the system strong. Importantly,
The true causes of incidents are training is not a one-time experience. Supervisors must
continually look for latent conditions, reinforce positive
usually rooted in the management behaviors, and keep the pipeline of communication open

for seasonal employees to ask questions and report potential
systems that support the work problems. For supervisors, this is an acquired skill. A one- to
people do. As it turns out, very few three-day training session on how incidents happen, latent
conditions and behaviors, plus coaching and mentoring has
incidents are caused merely by proven to be an effective method of equipping supervisors
(and managers) to apply the techniques necessary to imple-
“bad behavior.” ment and sustain these programs.

Everyone must take an active role in mitigating con-
I’ve spent more than 25 years of my career focusing on ditions and creating defenses and behaviors that positively
human factors, human performance, and systems safety, and affect one’s work environment and work performance. There
have found that managers and supervisors don’t always know must also be an accountability to manage these defenses and
how to think of substandard safety performance as a systems behaviors proactively, and hold managers and supervisors
or process problem. They also lack the training, skills, and accountable for the safety of their staff. Accountability begins
sometimes even the motivation necessary to invest in and by clearly defining safety expectations in job descriptions,
implement effective and sustainable process improvements and allocating a meaningful percentage of a manager’s evalu-
and corrective actions. ation to safety performance and proactive prevention efforts.
A significant number of managers across many industries Throughout my career, I’ve seen a direct correlation between
simply don’t appreciate how incident situations are created poor safety performance and a lack of safety accountability at
and how behaviors trigger events, sometimes with life-altering the leadership, managerial, and supervisory levels.
consequences to employees and their families. Without a In my experience, an effective and proactive employee
systems approach to safety performance, there will always be (and guest) safety program consists of the following:
a weak link or latent condition that, when combined with • Reviewing past incidents and events (including workers’
a well-intended employee behavior (such as a “get ‘er done” compensation claims, “near-miss” incidents, unexpected
work ethic), may result in a serious injury or fatality, with operational events, etc.) to establish areas for immediate
all the consequential workers’ compensation costs, spikes in and long-term improvement initiatives (i.e., a post-
insurance premiums, and possible OSHA fines. incident root cause analysis).
• Developing and sustaining a safety culture where
What Can Be Done? employees are encouraged and rewarded for identifying
Here are two key elements to consider when making serious conditions and potential behaviors (e.g., fatigue, low
improvements to your risk reduction and safety performance: blood sugar, distraction due to mobile phones, poor

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