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RISK ASSESSMENTS, HAZOP - FMEA- ETA- HRA STUDIES, 5s, HEALTH SAFETY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM- FORMULATION- INTEGRATION- DOCUMENTATION- SUPPORT, AUDITS, EDUCATION AND TRAINING, OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE MEASUREMENT, CONTROL FORMULATION, LOCAL EXHAUST VENTILATION TESTING AND EXAMINATION
Not The Victim
Not The Company
Not The Other Employees
Accidents Aren't Good
For Anyone...
Tried and true approaches to safety have performed exceptionally well. The 90's workplace has never been safer-Yet, today this may not be good enough!
Financial margins can be wiped out through compensation claims resulting from unsafe work practices.
Financial survival can hinge upon a single catastrophic accident or even a series of much smaller ones.
Safety professionals will have to create organisational processes with safety seamlessly integrated. Leaders, supported by safety personnel, will use opportunity-risk concepts to achieve competitive advantages in the marketplace.
To achieve world class safety performance, safety programs must follow the trends in modern management - commitment to quality and customer, small work centre teaming, empowered employees as process and risk managers, and be part of a values-based organisational culture.
This is not another safety program! Accidents do not happen by accident; they are predictable as long as we recognise the behavioural foundations by which humans perform their functions at the workplace. We have grown up with a pretty good idea about the many physical hazards around us, but would it surprise you to discover the National Safety Council attributes 88% of workplace accidents to behaviour? Further, an impressive 95% of most behaviour occurs in the unconscious state. In other words, we humans have most of our accidents when were not paying attention!
Is this important? Is it news? Yes! To both questions!
Losses to injuries exceed £12 billion annually. Worse yet, these are the direct costs - indirect costs are even more impressive despite their elusive nature. For example, consider only the many inclusive cost to defend yourself against a lawsuit. Or, the costs of retraining replacements, increased insurance premiums, production interruptions, and poor morale. Again quoting the HSE indirect costs fall between four and 15 times the cost of the injury!
There are three good reasons to take an active role in accident prevention:
(1) Its the morally correct
thing to do.
(2) The law insists that you do.
(3) Its good business!
If we only address reason #3, we achieve 1 and 2. No meat packer stays in business long when human fingers come with the sausage! As disgusting as that sounds, every business man or woman absolutely must consider these possibilities. Now, once we look at the best reason to prevent accidents, lets focus on the best way to do it. After all, an accident is simply an event that tells us that our processes are out of control. You can gain control by looking beyond the "human factor" to the organisational root causes of accidents, and in doing so, will discover the route "doing things right, the first time."
