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7 Tips for a Successful Good Catch Near Miss Program

The Bureau of Labor reports an average of 150,000 injuries on construction sites each year. With the careful implementation of a Good Catch Near Miss (GCNM) program, many of these injuries can be prevented.

A GCNM program requires cooperation from management teams and the field to collect data on incidents that nearly resulted in injury and incidents that avoided any damage. Compiling this information provides an understanding of where exposures are, and how to address them to reduce risk.

Here a few considerations for implementing and maintaining an effective GCNM program: 

1. Senior management commitment

Senior management plays a crucial role in the implementation and enforcement of a GCNM program. They need to communicate to the field why the program is important to create buy-in among all participants. Management must also foster a culture that makes people feel comfortable in coming forward and reporting incidents.

2. Change management

Trade partners working on a project also need to be integrated into the GCNM program. To coordinate these different groups, it’s important to have an effective communication strategy and change management plan in place. The plan must include consistent communication with the field about why GCNM is important and how the program will be rolled out.

3. Training

In implementing a GCNM program, it’s essential to train field leadership and crews. Field leadership teams must be trained on how to support a culture that encourages submissions and how to behave when someone reports a failure. Crews must be trained on how to describe the event and mitigation tactics in a meaningful way.

4. Data structure

In order to maximize the value of the data you collect, you should pick data criteria and stick with it. Pre-planning what data you want to gather is key. This effort in planning ahead ensures data will be consistent over time, making it more easily actionable.

5. Reporting

Developing a reporting strategy should be built around business questions you want answered. Some examples might be:

  • What are the most common hazard events that happen on our job site?
  • Are hazard events more common with a particular trade or activity?
  • What type of education do I need to focus on to reduce serious injury and fatality (SIF) potential?

6. Actioning data

Data without action is meaningless. To capitalize on your data, develop an action plan from the GCNM submissions. For example, if you identify a behavior that’s leading to potential accidents on your site, you can use this data to inform your training programs moving forward.

7. Software

When implementing a GCNM program, software can be leveraged to accurately and efficiently collect data. There are many factors to take into consideration when choosing a software to assist your GCNM program, including:

  • Ease of use
  • Cost
  • Accessible mobile forms
  • Process of aggregating data
  • Integration with other platforms

MindForge offers several options to fit with the budget and needs of your job sites. A lower budget option builds forms on software like Google Forms and collects this information into a data lake for easy access.

MindForge can also work alongside software solutions built specifically to gather and report GCNM data. MindForge supports change management by helping you communicate the how and why and establishing a culture that encourages feedback.

At the end of the day, a successful GCNM program is based on a culture of trust. With a bit of effort put towards open communication and honest reporting, you can achieve performance excellence and reduce SIFs on your job sites.
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