Water Well Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/498253
Y ou have OSHA regulations, insur- ance costs, human resource direc- tives, and more. But in truth I don't think any of those things really drives a company to embrace safety. Oh, they may force you to complete certain actions, but they won't really make a safer workplace. You may have to spend some time writing programs, but they're not going to make your workers feel safer on the job site. You might need to file lots of forms or buy some equipment, but those won't change the culture of your workforce. So why do we bother doing it? What's going to make a crew not only work safer, but embrace a safe working culture? You would think every worker would demand the safest workplace possible if for no other reason than to make sure they make it to their child's baseball game after work. But that mind-set is not what we find on far too many job sites. It is not uncommon to encounter a crew pushing back on safety require- ments at a job site. I have heard workers say, "I've been doing it this way for years, why do I have to change now?" and "I need to get this done. I don't want to slow down the project for some extra safety measures." Changing Your Point of View Unfortunately, safety is one of those things that doesn't have an end point. There are no bells or whistles that go off when an accident occurs. In fact, most successful programs will never see any reinforcement to continue on with all these safety efforts. It is not until a lawsuit occurs or if someone falls off a roof that many companies begin to embrace safer work practices. But research has shown these reactive motivations are relatively short lived. Without additional reinforcement in the form of another accident, the motivation quickly drops off. But there are ways to demonstrate success. We can document the absence of injuries. Traditionally, safety has been monitored by incidence rates, number of days without accidents, severity rates, and the like. But there is a growing trend to switch to leading indicators instead of the lag- ging indicators we are used to. In other words, we are tracking things that lead to safer workplaces, instead of counting the number of times we were not safe. Near-miss reporting, covered in pre- vious columns, is an excellent leading indicator. Another tracking measure is supervisor safe compliance reporting. With this program, supervisors are re- quired to record incidents of safe prac- tices. For instance, they may record the number of times they observe the entire crew wearing all their safety gear, or the number of times they hear a coworker stop another worker from doing some- thing dangerous. Making the Business Case Convincing business owners to jump on board can be a challenging project. Perhaps they will be motivated to make safety a top priority for all the right rea- sons such as protecting their workers or keeping their work sites accident free. But perhaps they may need a more fiscally oriented motivator. We discussed in last month's Safety Matters column how accidents can have a high cost. Direct costs of an accident include things like medical bills, work- ers' compensation fees, and medica- tions. These expenses can easily climb into the thousands, even for a relatively minor injury. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. The indirect costs associated with an in- cident have been shown to average three to four times the direct costs—and in some incidents have exceeded 20 times the direct costs! Indirect costs include: • Damage to the vehicle or equipment the worker was using at the time. • Loss of the worker's time. There may be loss of time by fellow employees and supervisors responding to the in- jury-causing incident, or transporting the injured employee to the medical facility. • Temporarily lowered morale, effi- ciency, and productivity by cowork- ers and supervisors. • Cost of hiring and training a tempo- rary or permanent replacement for the injured employee, with lower productivity during the hiring and training process. Also, the other em- ployees have to pick up the injured employee's duties while he is absent from work. • The cost of loss control to investigate the accident and communicate with the insurance company. • The time it takes a supervisor to complete the accident report and communicate with loss control. Other indirect costs include a sur- charge on the company's insurance pre- mium if the accident places you into a higher risk category. Costs may include civil or criminal penalties imposed by YOUR SAFETY PROGRAM: WHY ARE YOU DOING IT? It's important everyone in the company understands the thinking behind it. SAFETY MATTERS JACK GLASS 50 May 2015 WWJ waterwelljournal.com Safety is one of those things that doesn't have an end point.