The Absence of Accidents or the Presence of Safety?

For a little levity, take a look at this short clip about a safety pizza party brought to you by Madtv.  https://youtu.be/rK8UIGkzsf8

It’s fun to watch for those of us who have been involved with safety incentives for years.  But it does bring up a point we have been preaching for a long time.  A great safety culture is not about the absence of accidents, it’s about the presence of safety. 

In over 30 years of implementing safety incentive systems, we’ve seen hundreds of safety incentives just like the one you saw in the skit.  Regardless of OSHA coming down hard on safety incentives based on lagging indicators that do nothing to foster safe behavior, $$ millions are spent each year on safety awards that do just that.

An example in the extreme that too poignantly magnifies this problem is the April 20, 2010 disaster that occurred on the BP Horizon oil rig where 11 men died from one of the worst safety disasters in history.  Prior to the accident, this rig had a perfect safety record for seven years running! Did you know that after analysis of the accident it was reported that over 400 maintenance items had not been corrected, and two of them could have given the workers more time to leave the rig and may have prevented some of the deaths?

Having signs that count the number of days without an accident, and dinners or pizza parties or tee shirts may be great ways to communicate the need for safety and even to thank your workers for being safe, and they are perfectly legitimate ways to foster a safe environment.  But they don’t change behavior? Or merely promote the absence of accidents?

If you want real behavior change you need to continuously observe and recognize safe performance.  Only then will that performance turn into a safe habit.

Values and Practices that Make the World’s Safest Organizations.

Ten years ago, Williams International and O/E Learning Inc., benchmarked companies with excellent safety records to determine the values and practices that made those companies excel in safety performance.

After refining what they learned from reviewing the common practices of safety inspections, hazard investigations, strategy development and safety workshops, they came up the following six values.

While your views and opinions might differ in part or priority of these values, we submit that they would make a great starting point for any organization wishing to reengage or improve their safety culture.

All injuries are preventable—no one really wants to be injured, corporate processes aren’t designed to hurt the workers, so injuries should be predictable and avoidable.

Compliance is not enough—the world’s safest organizations believe that compliance is the starting point, but recognize that it takes more than VPP certification to protect workers.

Prevention is more valuable than correction—Best in class safety organizations spend their safety budgets on eliminating hazards before a worker gets hurt.

Safety is everyone’s job—workers at the world’s safest organizations understand their ongoing roles in keeping themselves and others, safe.

Safety is a strategic business element—corporate leadership needs to believe and continually communicate that safety needs to be managed as professionally as every other strategic objective.

Safety should be a part of Operations—the area of the company that has the greatest control over the safety of the workplace is Operations; while other departments, such as HR or Finance may play an important role, Operations should have the responsibility over the safety of the workforce. 

For more information on AwardSafety products or services or other white papers please contact us at awardsafetyinfo@cox.net