As 2005 draws to a close, it's appropriate to ask: What does the future hold for health and safety management in the U.S. and Canada? If you can answer that question I'd like to borrow your crystal ball! But while nobody can predict the future, I do feel reasonably confident in the capacity of safety professionals to anticipate the trends and challenges they'll be confronting in the coming year. Rather than superior wisdom or ESP, this anticipation is based on efficient use of safety perception surveys. Here's a look at how to use these surveys effectively.

How Surveys Help

Historically, there have been endless names for these tools - opinion surveys and attitude surveys, to name just two. But whatever they're called their focus has been the same: To provide a snapshot of the company's safety culture. The purpose of the survey is to identify what management and workers perceive to be their most important needs and develop an action plan that responds to those needs.

Why is it important to know what the perceptions are? There is much truth to the old saying that perception is reality. This is particularly true in the realm of the safety program which relies to a large degree on what people think or feel. A safety system might have all the appropriate "technical" elements in place, including safety meetings, investigations, inspections, training, etc. But that isn't enough to ensure success. Even a technically sound program can be undermined by negative perceptions of its effectiveness.

Bridging the Gap between Management and Workers

One of the most effective ways to use a survey is to perform a gap analysis to identify any differences in perception between how workers and management view the company's health and safety system. Cynics might say that you don't need a survey to tell you this because there will always be wide differences in perception between workers and management. But my experience has not confirmed this. On the contrary, I've found that management and workers can reach general agreement on safety systems by engaging in honest, open and joint efforts to improve them.

On the flipside, if there are significant differences in perception, the safety perception survey will draw them out and pave the way for initiatives to narrow the "perception gap."

How to Craft Your Survey

Coming up with the right survey is very important. Check out the following web site for two very practical examples of safety perception surveys. One is based on the example, which I've profiled. The other is a safety perception survey which Creative Business Solutions Inc. has developed for a client to gauge safety perceptions about safety in a large federal government department.

http://www.incomesdata.co.uk/studies/empatt.htm
http://www.lg-employers.gov.uk/relations/surveys/
http://www.hr-survey.com/EmployeeAttitude.htm
http://www.questionpro.com/employee-attitude-survey.html

If you're looking at developing a safety perception survey, use these two as examples of the type and scope of questions which can be developed. The range of questions you can ask is unlimited. If you intend to conduct perception surveys on an ongoing basis, you also need to establish a series of baseline questions that you can ask at a later date to measure whether the "perception gaps" identified in previous survey have widened or narrowed.

Also keep in mind that once you achieve your level of "success", whatever that level is, you can consider developing a new host of questions to judge perceptions on other key safety issues.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you must act to eliminate the gaps in perception revealed by your survey and follow up on participants' suggestions. Otherwise, don't bother to do the survey at all. Asking for opinions without acting on them is actually counterproductive since it feeds the perception that you don't care about what your people think.

Conclusion

Taking the pulse of your existing safety culture through the use and development of select safety perception questions is key to the success of the safety program. Those who are better able to gauge the thoughts and opinions of their people on safety, and take initiatives or make adjustments in their safety culture will be in the best position to maximize the knowledge and skills of their workforce in 2006 and beyond.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE &THE WORKPLACE

By the Numbers

Workers who use drugs and alcohol are a threat to safety and a drain on the bottom line. Consider the following:

• In the U.S., alcoholism is responsible for 500 million lost workdays each year
• Alcohol and drug abuse cost U.S. businesses roughly $81 billion in lost productivity per year--$44 billion from illness and $37 billion from premature death
• Alcohol is a much bigger problem than drug abuse, accounting for about 86 percent of the losses
• Roughly 6.2 percent of full-time employees in the U.S. are heavy drinkers
• Drinking and drug use is most prevalent among white males ages 18 to 25 who lack high school education

Occupations with the highest rate of drug and alcohol use:

• Bartenders/food preparers/waiters: 19 percent
• Construction workers: 14 percent
• Service occupations: 13 percent
• Transportation and material moving workers: 10 percent

Sources: Hazeldon Foundation and the National Association of Treatment Providers

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