|
Recently, Geoff McIntyre (Director of Government and Inter-Society Services) and I attended the annual Inter-Society Forum in Washington, DC, hosted by the National Safety Council. The forum consisted of a roundtable discussion on key public policy issues, approaches to continued competency of safety practitioners, global safety implications, ethics in the safety profession, and the continued convergence of safety, health and environmental practices. A total of 14 U.S. safety organizations were represented by their presidents and executive directors.
One of the highlights of this year's forum was a group discussion with Edwin Foulke, assistant secretary of labor, OSHA. Foulke joined the roundtable discussion for lunch, and shared his views on the impact of safety in the workplace. The focus of his message, simply stated, was safety means success.
As we all know, it is extremely important to be proactive in introducing safety into any system. We have preached for years that the best mitigation for a hazard is elimination of its causes. Clearly, Foulke agrees with this concept. He emphasized that safety means success, and success can be achieved by following a simple process. First, a proactive safety approach will reduce the cost involved in system development over the life of the program. Second, reduced cost makes a company more competitive. With the increased emphasis on global competition, today's business leaders are looking for every edge to reduce costs and increase profits. Finally, competitive companies are successful. As costs go down and profits increase due to reduced expenses for injury, not only do the employees benefit, but the employers benefit also.
As safety professionals, we often encounter the mistaken concept that safety is just a burden on a budget that is already too small. The employer often takes the approach that he will put in just enough safety to satisfy the minimum requirements. This is where safety professionals must attack. We must continue to preach the message that minimum compliance is not enough. Safety means success! Management understands profits and losses. One of our most important tasks as safety professionals is to help our customers understand the importance of providing a safe product or system. It is not just a nice thing to do — it is the successful thing to do.
Like many of our fellow professional organizations, we are good at touting our specialized technical skills. As important as this may be, there is also a managerial aspect of our profession, and we need to help our customers understand not only what is needed but why it is needed. Safety is not an added expense that must be minimized to ensure profitability; safety is a key ingredient in successful competition. Safety means success! When we can show management the correlation between safety and success, everyone wins.
— Larry W. Jones
|
