Implementing a Safety Program – Everyone Would Be On Board

Safety E-Quick Tip

OWYN Safety Mgmt Platform

You Would Think Everyone Would Be On Board

When word gets out that a company is focused on implementing a safety program or updating workplace safety and compliance, the reception is typically not what you might expect.

You would think that employees would be onboard and be willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

It’s their well being at stake so that would make sense, right?

But they use the same old excuses we’ve all used in the past. The safety equipment is uncomfortable, I’ve done it this way for the past 10 years and never been hurt, safety is just common sense, and I don’t need anyone telling me how to work safe.

Upper management should be onboard because they see all the costs associated with accidents in the workplace.

Key workers recovering from an accident when they are needed most, work slowdowns, damaged equipment, increases in workers compensation and general liability insurance rates, damaged reputations from pictures and comments posted online along with those in the press that keep them from bidding opportunities, and those costly OSHA citations.

But they also come up with their own set of excuses that have been passed down from generation to generation. We really don’t have that many real accidents, we don’t have time to deal with safety when we get busy, no matter what we do OSHA will always cite us for something, accidents are just a cost of doing business, and we don’t have the time.

Middle management on the other hand could see both the positive and negative sides of the process.

On one side they might see how implementing a program would help keep their employees safe, and with the current shortage of qualified help that would be a plus.

On the other, the process of implementing the program will probably fall mostly on them and they don’t have enough time to get their job done without that extra work.

No wonder it is rare that any workplace safety and compliance initiative ever gets off the ground.

So how do you offset all the negative excuses that employees and middle management come up with for not implementing workplace safety and compliance? How do you make them see that, if implemented, safety and compliance initiatives would protect a company’s most valuable assets: Employees, Reputation and Profits.

You build your program in a way that everyone is comfortable in being a part of and you do it one step at a time.

Employee QuickTip

We can always come up with an excuse for not working safely, but wouldn’t it be better if we set our excuses aside and worked in a manner that prevented an accident in the first place?

Employer/Management QuickTip

When it comes to workplace safety and compliance most of the work falls on middle management. Doesn’t it make sense that middle management gets their say on how workplace safety and compliance is implemented?

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