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Safety Economics
Debunking the Myth that Safety Doesn’t Make Money
Companies have historically regarded safety expenditures as a necessary evil rather than a profitable investment. In modern times, companies have begun to wise up and understand that spending money on safety is “good for business.” But even among the enlightened, the perception persists that safety doesn’t actually make money; it just helps prevent losing it. [...]
Putting a Dollar Value on Hardhats
Head injuries are expensive. Wearing head protection prevents head injuries. Therefore, making workers wear hardhats will save your company money. The logic is undeniable. But if CEOs complain about the cost of hardhats, logic might not be enough to overcome their objections. Now if you could put a dollar figure on the benefits your company [...]
A Primer on Integrated Management Systems, Part 2
The experience of companies—large and small—in implementing quality, health and safety, and environmental (QHSE) management systems has given rise to an understanding of the importance of system integration. The overriding lesson is summed up in a single word: “compatibility.” Companies that achieve compatibility in their management system are the ones that reap the rewards of [...]
FDA Warns Consumers about Buying Flu Drugs Online
For months, governments around the globe have been beating the drums about the H1N1 threat and the need for flu vaccination. Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers to be very careful about buying flu drugs online.
Many of the web sites that sell drugs on the internet aren’t properly licensed to [...]
A Primer on Integrated Management Systems
What is an integrated management system and why does a company need one? Those are a couple of questions I plan to address in a soon-to-be-published book I co-wrote with Terri Andrews. Here’s a little overview of what we discuss in the book.
What Is an Integrated Management System?
Simply stated, an integrated management system is the [...]
The Aberfan Landslide: October 21, 1966
Until 1966, very few people outside of South Wales had ever heard of Aberfan. But the horror that unfolded over the course of 5 minutes on the morning of October 21, 1966 would bring the peaceful Welsh village to international attention.
The tragedy was literally five decades in the build-up. Over those 50 years, coal mining [...]
Selling Management on the Value of Safety Perception Surveys, Part 2
Do the perceptions of workers have any impact on the organization’s actual health and safety performance? Last week, I discussed a study from Purdue University addressing that issue. Let’s now look at the results of that study.
The Study’s Results
Of 3,116 surveys distributed to workers, the company got 1,414 responses. (The surveys were supposed to be [...]
Results of Purdue University Survey
Here’s a chart summarizing the results of a worker survey used by researchers at Purdue University to measure the impact of worker perceptions on an organization’s health and safety performance.
WORKER SURVEY RESULTS
Subject for Which Perceptions Were Measured
% of Positive Responses
1. Management Commitment to Safety
80.7%
2. Education and Knowledge
81.3%
3. Safety Supervisory Process
78.4%
4. Worker Involvement and Commitment
84.6%
5. Drugs [...]
Selling Management on the Value of Safety Perception Surveys
As safety budgets shrink, companies are under mounting pressure to ensure that every dollar they spend on safety programs, activities and equipment directly helps to improve safety performance. But in making decisions about how to reduce injuries and illnesses, companies often overlook a crucial factor: the perceptions of their own workers. Studies show that workers’ [...]
3 Approaches
One of the keys to getting the most out of a Safety Perception Survey is to create the right questionnaire. Safety professionals use three common formats to create Perception Surveys:
1. Yes/No: The simplest Survey format involves asking questions that can be answered YES, NO or UNSURE and then tally up percentages of each response by [...]
