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The Business Of Safety
Your Plan For Extraordinary Results

BY JOE TAVENNER

In recent years many new approaches to enhance safety management programs have been developed, from behavior based safety, lean six sigma safety, 3Es of safety, ergonomics, incentive programs and several others that can be found via any Internet search.

While most have merit and several can impact injury reduction it is important to incorporate them into a multi-disciplined approach and not as a stand-alone effort.

Many organizations spend a lot of time and energy implementing standalone approaches to answer all their safety problems, jumping from approach to approach with little success or conviction.

The constant change without conviction sends a mixed message and often de-motivates employees. Looking at safety as a business concept can help organize your approach into a safety management system within the framework of a business plan. By utilizing a business plan you develop an approach that is multi-disciplined, focused and presented in a language that management understands and will support.

Essentially, you treat safety as a business within your business. Your customers are your internal employees and your partners are all the other departments. This develops a topdown and bottom-up approach to successful safety management and cultural development.

Your safety business has specific departments much like the ones in your organization.

A safety business plan is used to develop these departments into a safety management system. Department examples include the following:

• Finance Department;

• Sales and Marketing Department;

• Goals and Objectives Department;

• Planning Department;

• Product Line / Production Department;

• Customer Service Department;

• Shipping Department.

The above departments are commonly used but should be customized to fit your specific business and industry.

Finance Department: It is a matter of common sense that business leaders want no physical harm to come to their employees. The balance between making work areas safe, getting product out the door and the bottom line makes seemingly easy decisions difficult. The dollar and cents of any program has to be justified. Financial justification can help provide buy-in from upper management when determining budgeting needs. Direct costs, indirect costs and return on investment (ROI) are commonly used metrics.

(Direct costs of claims x Indirect cost multiplier) + direct costs of claims = total cost;

• Estimated reduction in claim cost x total cost = cost reduction;

• Estimated budget for improvements / cost reduction = ROI payback period.

Sales and Marketing Department

Everyday sales people go out and talk to the customer. While they may take different approaches to getting the sale, they have a strategy and a plan. When it comes to safety, the customers are the employees and we need to sell them our product – safety.

It would seem like selling safety would be the easiest thing in the world. Who wants to get hurt? However, it is just not the case. Culturally we are almost always programmed to “get the product out the door,” and the perception is safety adds work and hinders our ability to perform.

A sales and marketing plan for safety should consider the following key areas:

• Message or slogan - Simple message that is easy to remember and repeatable. An example could be “Zero Injuries – Yes We Can!” This simple message sets the expectation that no one gets injured and we can do it! Dispelling the myth it can’t be done.

• Communication methods - The message and slogan is worthless if it is not properly communicated. Many times organizations will simply hang banners and call it a day. After time, these tend to gather dust and lose effectiveness.

Utilize several methods to promote your slogan. Ideas might include starting each day with the safety slogan or have all employees sign a copy of it and hang it in their work area.

Goals and Objectives Department: Goals should be developed with lagging and leading indicators. A healthy balance of both will help keep you moving in the right direction. Examples of lagging indictors are traditional safety measurables such as but not limited to:

• Frequency rate = OSHA Recordable Injury or Illnesses X 200,000 / Total man-hours.

• Lost time frequency rate = Lost Time injuries X 200,000 / Total man-hours

Leading indictors are drivers to get your lagging indicator results. Example of some leading indicators are outlined below but not limited to:

• Audit scores;

• Survey results;

• Employee participation percentage;

• Completed tool box talks.

Developing a way to track your measurables and hold people accountable is key to success. This is your safety business and you need your partners in each department to perform. Their performance has a direct correlation to your ability to meet objectives.

Planning Department

Planning for safety in many organizations is a once-a-year or less activity.

To be successful you must plan for it, measure it and track your progress. When you are in the planning phases don’t just think about this year. Stretch your thoughts and plans out to include two and three years out. Remember this is a dynamic process that is never ending – Plan – Implement – Adjust – and start over from the beginning.

Product Line / Production Department

In many cases, people view safety management as meeting OSHA compliance regulations. Compliance is just part of a successful program. It takes the entire business plan and not just program manuals and compliance training to be successful in the long run.

When establishing your product line you should include programs that touch on each of the critical areas outlined below. Program starters – programs that kick start your safety process. Safety programs and initiatives can get stale quickly. Having programs that help turn the mundane into exciting dynamic events is important. It could be as simple as having senior site leadership review why safety is important at quarterly meetings or having all employees do a scavenger hunt for safety hazards.

Whatever you decide, it has to be there to start your program and restart the program so employees know why they are doing it, why it is important and how they are involved.

Communication Programs – It is common to see a gap in management’s expectation and employee perception of what is expected. Developing communication programs that constantly clarify expectation is important.

The use of monthly meetings, tool box talks, and paycheck stuffers are ways to communicate and send a regular and consistent message.

Personal Accountability Programs - Safety has to be everyone’s responsibility and not just management’s problem. Safety is a team game; training employees to TAKE ACTION is a key component to building a safety culture. A sample personal accountability program is developing a schedule where all employees have to talk about what they did to take action for safety on a given day or a behavior based safety approach.

Empowerment Programs - Empowering employees to participate in the decision making process builds a team approach. This is a key step in developing a safety culture that doesn’t put responsibility for ACTION onto management alone. Programs must empower employees to not only report issues but FIX them. A safety committee that is project based where employees identify projects and work on them to completion is one way to empower employees.

Traditional Safety Management Programs include regulatory compliance, safety training enforcement programs and auditing programs.

Customer Service Department

Listening to your customer is an important component of a successful safety program. Everyone wants to be heard, and all ideas are important.

However, we often put responding to employee- provided ideas and concepts on the back burner. Taking the time to listen and respond appropriately is extremely important.

Listening, providing feedback and honest communication helps reinforce expectations. When people feel they are being ignored the expectations you set soon becomes lip service and distrust develops. Providing good customer service is a must for success.

Shipping Department

Developing a strategy and plan to get your product line to your customer in an effective manner is a critical element. No longer can one person be responsible for all safety activities. Sending the actual message and pushing safety on a day-to-day basis must be accomplished by supervisors and fellow employees.

Pushing these responsibilities down into the organization will increase ownership and build a safety culture at all levels. When you develop your plan to ship products to the customer, make sure you utilize all your employees and not just management.

Safety business plans can be a starting point for your organization to make lasting sustainable change with an easy to use and understandable approach.

Business plans speak the language of senior management while developing a top-down and bottom-up approach, transforming struggling programs into successful safety businesses. FSM

Joe Tavenner CSP, CFPS is a loss prevention specialist and consultant for Cassady Neeser & Brasseur, an independent insurance agency in South Bend, IN. He has years of experience, bachelor and Master degrees in Occupational Safety Management and an MBA in Management. For more information contact him at (574) 233-9443 or jtavenner@cassady.net