Another year, new OSHA agendas, well-intentioned efforts to reduce risk and it feels like “déjà vu” all over again.

I keep waiting for more organizations to tackle the real issues in employee safety:

• Safety is a value – not a #1 priority
• Moving from “have to” be safe to getting employees to “want to” be safe.
• Safety is personal not just occupational – it must be 24-7

To be effective, safety must be a value interwoven into the organization’s culture. Note that this is not safety culture. Let us quit trying to make safety #1 at the expense of something else and recognize it for the organizational value it really is.

When we really care about people – and talk with them on an adult level – we open the door for employees to “want to” be safe and accountable for their actions. We plant that seed by getting them to think about the impact that a serious or fatal injury would have on their family and loved ones.

If we do the first two items, we can instill a family driven safety value that is 24-7. It is time that we move beyond the 4% of fatal injuries that are occupational and begin to tackle the challenges of safety at home and behind the wheel. Doing so offers the opportunity to improve the health and well-being of people on and off the job.

• When is the last time your organization tried to tackle these issues?
• When did you attend a professional conference that offered sessions tying all these issues together?
• Isn’t it time to try something different from what we have been doing?

I started my safety career in 1970 and it is nearly 40 years later. I am still hoping that the profession will one day opt for simple, proven approaches that can bring about real change in the thinking of a workforce. Hope I am not a naïve optimist….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 11:11 am and is filed under Accident Prevention, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Safety is a life value, not just a workplace obligation”

1. Jonathan Escalante says:

   March 12, 2010 at 9:19 am

   Excellent article. Hi my name is Jonathan and i am 26 years old, I started my career 6 years ago, and i am looking forward to accomplish my dream, to develop a program to make the Latino workforce to understand or like you just said, to move them from have to be safe, to want to be safe. Speaking like a latino, we are use to go to work, get a paycheck, and get home with the familiy, our culture does not include “safety” at all, and that is my challenge, I want and I will introduce the culture of safety in life among latino workforce, I am bilingual, wich makes me have that bridge between my position and the latino workforce. So far this year in my company I have not had any injuries and little by little trying to change their minds.
   Is articles like this when I read them, let me know I am not alone.
   Thank you