Safety
One of the biggest questions every business owner often asks themselves is, "Can we afford to pay for safety?". The simplest response is, "Can we afford not to?".
It is a well documented fact that you will pay for it, one way or another. Injuries cost money. Whether it is in claims cost, insurance premiums, lost productivity, lost opportunity, or loss of goodwill. Employee injuries can, and often do, account for the single largest controllable expense on a company's bottom line.
It is a well documented fact that you will pay for it, one way or another. Injuries cost money. Whether it is in claims cost, insurance premiums, lost productivity, lost opportunity, or loss of goodwill. Employee injuries can, and often do, account for the single largest controllable expense on a company's bottom line.
Safety Philosophy
There are many ways to classify a company's safety efforts, and they are all valid. One simple way is to look at the underlying philosophy behind it. In general, there are three simple categories into which a business safety philosophy can be placed:
Most companies employ all of these philosophies at one time or another, or may use multiples all at once. For example: A company may have safety practices that have to look good for a customer, but behind the scenes are mostly focused on preventing injuries to keep cost down. Even when injury prevention is the primary focus of one's efforts, oftentimes when changes occur within their organization (i.e. when profits drop significantly, or if new management takes over) the philosophy will adjust.
- "Window dressing"- Simply put, it looks good. This is a very common philosophy. In this type of safety, it is all about appearances. Often times this philosophy is adopted as the result of outside pressure. In the construction trades this might be for pre-qualification, and in any business it might be because an insurance carrier requires it. This philosophy is often identified by a lack of meaningful support (financial or otherwise), and a cultural apathy (or even hostility), toward safety efforts. Many times this philosophy results in policies or procedures that don't fit the environment, or don't solve problems. Few safety professionals will tolerate working in this environment for very long.
- "Compliance"- A relatively common practice, the hallmark of a compliance philosophy is the focus on regulatory text. In this type of system, new initiatives are usually justified by OSHA regulations. While it does help prevent injuries, it doesn't address prevention effectively. Since OSHA regulations are the bare minimum, this philosophy is the equivalent of a high school student shooting for a D. Some safety professionals work their entire career in this environment, but are rarely happy doing so.
- "Injury prevention"- This is an exceedingly rare philosophy. The focus of an injury prevention philosophy is on employees. There are many justifications for this type of practice, and they aren't always altruistic. But, irrespective of motive, they are always very demanding of resources. Companies who engage in injury prevention philosophy are comfortable with data heavy research, and long term solutions. For most safety professionals, this is the "gold standard" and if they aren't working in this type of environment, they desperately want to.
Most companies employ all of these philosophies at one time or another, or may use multiples all at once. For example: A company may have safety practices that have to look good for a customer, but behind the scenes are mostly focused on preventing injuries to keep cost down. Even when injury prevention is the primary focus of one's efforts, oftentimes when changes occur within their organization (i.e. when profits drop significantly, or if new management takes over) the philosophy will adjust.
