Does Your Executive Management Prioritize Productivity Over Safety?

A recent survey by the National Safety Council found that 58% of workers in the construction industry feel that safety takes a backseat to production in completing job tasks.  In addition, 51% report that management does only the minimum required by law to keep employees safe, and 47 percent say employees are afraid to report unsafe working conditions.

4,836 people died in workplace incidents in 2015, and 937 of those killed were construction workers.  With all that has been said and done by OSHA to make sure that workers feel secure in reporting unsafe behaviors, the 47%, or any % for that matter, should be very disturbing. 

In contrast to the construction industry the report showed that only 36% of those employees

surveyed in fourteen other industries felt that their employers prioritize productivity over safety.  Nonetheless, 36% is overwhelming when you consider the comparison of choosing productivity to drive bottom line profits to potentially serious accidents or even death.  Obviously one doesn’t necessarily cause the other, but the potential is clearly higher when the concentration is on productivity.

As we spend most of our working day consulting with safety professionals about programs to reduce unsafe behavior and report unsafe conditions, our first impression was to question the above numbers.  We can’t remember the last time a safety professional told us that his executive management was more concerned about profits than safety, at least not to the extent of 50%!  Only you can speak for your own operation.

Other questions and responses from the survey that may be of interest include:

32% say management ignores safety performance when determining promotions.

62% feel that everyone is involved in solving job safety issues.

63% feel hey work in areas ergonomically correct.

48% believe safety meetings are held less often than they should be.

47% believe performance standards are higher for productivity than for safety 

33% do not feel that management has a written policy expressing attitudes about employee safety.

One thing is for sure, before you embark on any program to motivate safe behavior you might want to survey your own employees on some of these questions.  The results will certainly help you when you begin to design your own safety award system.

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