There is an old saying, “haste makes waste.”  But to safety professionals haste makes incidents.  Today, companies are getting leaner and meaner.  They want more productivity with less expense, meaning less people.   A job that was performed by 3 people, is now done by 2, or maybe 1 person.   As a safety person, this presents new challenges to our job.  Not only does haste make waste, it cause injuries.  To work faster and be more productive you often have to use unsafe work behaviors.

Look around you, how many people are gone?  Are you working more hours and being asked to do more?  Most people are.  Talking to other safety people, we are now starting to see more unsafe work practices and more injuries than previously experienced in the past few years.  Statistics may not show this trend for a couple of years, and one reason is the decline in the number of workers in the workforce.   But just ask a safety manager what they are experiencing, and they will tell you they are seeing more injuries than every before and more serious injuries.

I believe there are 2 main causes of incidents in the current workplace or at home, HASTE (speed) and NOT BEING AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS.  As we work faster, we tend to think less of our surroundings and more about getting the job done.

When people try to do their job in a hurry, they tend to make mistakes.  Often these mistakes can cause a near miss and at other times it can cause an injury.  Most workers today do not report a near miss, which give us less opportunity to do a root cause analysis.  We have to wait until the near miss becomes an incident. 

We hurry or speed because we are required more things today.  When I teach defensive driving, speed is still the #1 cause of motor vehicle incidents.  Speed also keeps people from focusing on the task at hand.  Remember the I Love Lucy episode where the candy was coming down the conveyor belt?  The candy was coming down at a rate that made it impossible for Lucy and Ethel to pack it properly in the boxes.  Haste not only made waste, but look closely and you will also see possible near misses.

Think of your last few Slip, Trip or Fall incidents.  Our workplace had more than we wanted in the past few months.  Many were caused when someone wanting to get somewhere a little faster.  How about you, Mr./Ms safety professional?   It is finally time to leave work and go home.  What are you concentrating on:
· How fast you get out of the building
· Picking up your kids
· Making that one stop to get dinner
· Meeting someone someplace

 Whatever the case, you are probably not thinking of the ground around you, even if there is sow, ice or an uneven surface, and all of a sudden you slip and fall.
 As I stated above, haste keeps us from not being aware of our surroundings.  At home you need a box off a high shelf, so you pull up a nearby chair and stand on it.  Do you think about how unsafe this act is?  Probably not.  You cutting your lawn wear your flip-flops.  An unsafe act?  Your probably not thinking about this act either.  The company sales rep is trying to place and order and get to the next appointment at the same time.  Do you think they are thinking about their surroundings?  Bet not, until they have an vehicle incident. 

In today’s environment, safety people are dealing with these actions more and more.  What can we do to prevent more incidents?  The message has to start at the top with senior leadership.  While every CEO wants their company to be more efficient and leaner, they cannot proceed to a point where it promotes unsafe behaviors to be more productive.  The CEO must be the leader to make sure everyone is aware that safety is high priority.   The message should state that behaving in an unsafe manner is not acceptable and actually costs the company more when an incident occurs.

Managers and supervisors have to be held accountable that their employees are working safer and smarter.  The workers should understand to report if part of their job creates an unsafe work behavior.  In other words, EVERYONE has to be responsible for having a safe workplace.  Safety people have to make sure that workers are acting in a safe manner.  Slowing down enough to make their job safe and giving the worker an opportunity to focus on being aware of their surrounding.  Through training, reminders and other forms of communication, the message must be constant and often.

Hopefully as workers slow down and become more aware of their surroundings, we can eliminate the phase HASTE MAKES WASTE and replace it with SLOW, STEADY AND SAFE MAKES YOU MORE PRODUCTIVE.

It is estimated that over 40 million workers in the United States had to receive emergency medical treatment for workplace-related injuries in the year 2003. This is a staggering number when one considers the efforts most companies have put into maintaining a safe workplace. In modern times, a number of companies have been found liable for injuries sustained in their places of business. There is a relationship that exists between workplace safety and profitability.  As we know, over the past 10 years the number of work related injuries and deaths has declined.  In fact, being “at work” is the safest place many people can be.

Every company, especially those involved in industrial manufacturing, is constantly looking at ways to continuously improve their products and processes. They realize that their profits are directly related to the ways and means by which they produce their products. Unfortunately, too many companies get caught up in drive for higher profits and tend to allow workplace safety to become an afterthought.

The costs associated with operating a large manufacturing facility in America are astounding. Workplace injuries place a massive burden of expense and weakened productivity on a company. These injuries can be reduced with proper planning and careful attention to detail. Most workplace injuries are preventable. There are a number of factors to consider, but maintaining a safe and tidy work area is one of the best ways to prevent injury. Workers, too, have a responsibility in keeping themselves safe from harm.

Workplace injuries place a significant burden on health care providers and insurance companies. As companies continue to pay higher premiums for employee health care, one of the only means available for cost recovery is to increase the prices of the goods they produce. This places the burden of expense on the consumer, and allows companies to ignore the root cause of their workplace injuries. The focus here seems to be on maintaining a healthy relationship with shareholders, and not necessarily on maintaining a healthy workforce.

It is interesting to note that there are record numbers of jobs, especially in the industrial sector, being sent overseas. There are a number of reasons to account for this. One of the most significant reasons is that American companies are able to shave their operating costs down to a fraction of their domestic costs, by capitalizing on cheaper labor in foreign markets. Foreign governments, eager for investment, are all too willing to accommodate the interests of big western business. Far too often, this comes at the expense of workplace safety.

If companies want to be profitable in the long term, they need to reexamine their approach to workplace safety and the health of their workers. Many companies are sending jobs overseas, in order to take advantage of cheap labor and relaxed labor laws. American companies can be both profitable and safety conscious. Through directed education campaigns and preemptive planning, workplace injuries can be reduced in a significant way. Remember: a safe worker is a happy worker, and a happy worker is a productive worker.

During the past few months the country has focused most of its attention on our economy.   As the economy worsens certain parts of business and manufacturing are affected first.  Training and safety are part of these affected business units because they are considered non-revenue producing areas.   Safety professionals MUST (as OSHA says) be able to show how their department affects the bottom-line revenue for their company/organization.  You need to show the features and benefits of a good safety program and do it now.  If you wait too long it might be too late. 

The first step is to list every part of your safety program’s benefits and what bottom-line it produces.  The most obvious ones are the reduction in worker comp cost, increased productivity, and reduced health care cost.  Another interesting statistic is the average cost of an injury.  It is estimated (National Safety Council) between $20,000 - $25,000.  If your company operates at 5% profit margin you need and additional $625,000 in sales to break even.  This is a lot of sales for many companies.  Reducing incidents saves money that goes to the bottom-line. 

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