‘Buddy system’ approach to worker safety comes with caveats

September 4, 2024

Safety professionals have lauded using a “buddy system” to mitigate workplace injuries in high-risk industries as a best practice, but the move to establish such work teams doesn’t fit all situations, experts say.

Concerns over issues such as passing on inconsistent safety practices and the expense of such programs need to be considered, they say.

In a report issued Aug. 20 by Pinnacol Assurance, buddy systems, where workers are paired, were listed among the recommendations for preventing heat-related injuries. The report, which culled data from the Denver-based insurer’s workers compensation claims, stated that workers are 52% more susceptible to workplace injuries on hot days, including strains, cuts, falls and injuries that occur when an object strikes a worker.

Monica Cabrera, a Pueblo, Colorado-based safety learning specialist with Pinnacol, said “buddy systems are great for monitoring and managing workload and high-temperature environments.”

“For example, if an employee has to go into a confined space, the buddy system benefits them,” she said.

The system also allows for early intervention if a worker shows symptoms of heat-related illness or any other illness or “if they’re just having a bad day and they’re making more mistakes than usual,” she said. “Somebody else can notice that before they actually get injured due to their distraction.”

Kevin O’Sadnick, St. Louis-based risk control manager for workers comp insurer Safety National Casualty Corp., said that while he likes buddy systems — especially for workers in remote areas — employers may be hindered by the expenses associated with deploying pairs of people to do a job that often requires just one worker.

Another concern is when a newer worker picks up the bad safety habits of a longer-tenured worker, he said. “One bad apple turns into two, and you could potentially have a new employee learning bad work habits right out of the gate. … That’s maybe where management would come in; where there’s a lot of checks and balances that maybe need to be in place.”

Buddy systems risk excluding management when communicating safety, said Chris Hayes, Hartford, Connecticut-based risk control assistant vice president for workers compensation and transportation for Travelers Cos. Inc.

Such a system “can help support a risk management program, but on its own, it really lacks the things that we would look for in any serious, very structured risk management program,” he said.

“When you put all the emphasis on peer-to-peer coaching, you lose a lot in translation. If you have peer-to-peer coaching, you don’t have any sort of consistency in what’s being coached.”