Productivity & Safety: Can You Have Both??

“Yes, You Can  !”

Satisfied with that answer? Ideally, a large percentage would answer that question with a “yes” but, in reality, many would answer “no.” Some would answer with the disclaimer “Yes, but you can sometimes just get too carried away with this safety stuff.”

The “No” Responses

Over the last several years, responses to this question were collected from managers and supervisors throughout the United States. Here are some responses from those who answered “No”:

“I have a production schedule to meet. The only way I can accomplish it is to have all of my employees there for a full 8 hours. Safety meetings and training sessions cut into that time.”

 “I spent a lot of time and money training these people how to do the job. They’re adults. All they have to do is do it the way I told them and they won’t get hurt.”

 “I believe in safety, but you can really get carried away. I’ve got a business to run. Being safe or unsafe is all in your head. It’s attitude. If you can tell me a way to get in their head, let me know. I’ll use it on my 15 year old son.”

 “Some people want to work and some people don’t. The ones who don’t want to work are usually the ones that get hurt and are my biggest safety problem.”

 “Safety guards don’t work. They just slow down the process. My father worked 30 years without using a guard on his table saw and he never got hurt. At 70, he could run circles around what most of these kids produce now days using guards and push sticks.”

 “We do all of this safety stuff because OSHA and the government wanted a bureaucracy that could rob business through citations and fines.”

The Underlying Objections

All of these “No’s” have boiled down to four underlying perceptions/observations:

1. There’s no causal relationship between repetitive safety training/meetings and preventing injury incidents.

2. Injuries occur because of “poor attitudes” and/or poor work ethics.

3. Safety standards decrease the efficiency of the production process.

4. Federal and State OSHA programs operate at cross purposes to business’ best interests.

 

Production Versus Safety--Why?

The overall attitude of those who believe that safety is an add-on, is that traditional “safety efforts” do more to complicate the production process than anything. This belief that the “No” people subscribe to is generally the result of years of reinforcement at the hands of “Safety Professionals” who answer most objections with the standard “well you need to because I know about safety and you don’t” or “you have to because OSHA requires you to.”

Granted, most in our profession would not use those exact words; however, the conclusion is still the same. One fundamental reason why productivity and safety seem to be at far ends of the playing field is that we separate them as groups of mutually exclusive tasks. All companies are in their business to produce a product or provide a service that has some salable benefit. Companies go through great effort to develop sales plans, tooling analyses, establish production objectives, conduct market research, etc. The production process is controlled by supervisors and managers who understand the work flow and the product expectations.

Safety is generally characterized by specific tasks that various people do whose purpose is to influence an occurrence which has not yet happened or to do damage control after the fact.

 Examples include:

• Performing investigations.

• Holding safety meetings.

• Conducting safety training.

• Inspecting work areas for hazards (behavioral and conditional).

Most “No” companies fail to see any cost effective relationship to these fundamental safety activities; often because none has ever taken the time to demonstrate one.

 Why the “No” Arguments Don’t Make Sense

• There’s no causal relationship between repetitive safety training/meetings and preventing injury incidents.

Most incidents usually occur because the employee performed the task in a way that was inconsistent with the way they were originally trained. Usually a shortcut was taken. Unfortunately, the employee’s incorrect task behavior wasn’t being observed or corrected prior to the incident. Repetitive safety training covering the same topic to the same people is counterproductive and generally boring. Wouldn’t it be idiotic if you had to study and take your driver’s test every month, six months or annually? We need to train our employees how to perform the task in the correct way. This includes observing them after the training has occurred to assure they know how you want them to perform the task. Rather than continually re-train and re-train, assure they’re consistently performing the way you want.

• Injuries occur because of “poor attitudes” and/or poor work ethics.

Injuries occur because of incorrect behavior. Although it would be nice if we could make everyone really like what they do and work as though theirs was the best company in the world, that would be an unreasonable expectation. People own their attitude. That attitude is a product of experiences and choices upon which you, as a supervisor, have limited impact. The work ethic in this country has changed in the last decade; and it will continue to change. It has been our experience that the environment you provide goes a long way in determining whether or not your workers are “on the team.” You can prevent incidents if you and your entire management team send the message that having them is an unnecessary waste of human resources and that Productivity isn’t more or less important than Safety. Injuries are inefficiency in the production process.

• Safety standards decrease the efficiency of the production process.

Although some may disagree with this statement, there is some truth to it. While some OSHA standards seem to have limited value in preventing injuries, the bulk of the standards are designed to clearly identify the safe methods which must be utilized throughout industry. With the advent of faster, more complicated production processes, the difference between having an injury or not having an injury can be one tenth of an inch or one hundredth of a second. These safe methods limit the production process, but they do so cost effectively. Workers’ compensation costs are generally the second or third highest expense of business today. That one tenth of an inch or one hundredth of a second can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars right out of the profit margin in increased workers’ compensation insurance costs.

• Federal and State OSHA programs operate at cross purposes to business’ best interests.

Sometimes they may; however, that’s life. Our advice is: Preventing injuries makes good business sense. Studies suggest that for every dollar of accident cost, most companies spend $2 to $7 additional in hidden costs that aren’t covered by any insurance. They come out of your wallet. We believe that it is wrong to describe the relationship between Productivity and Safety as separate. Instead, we would encourage you to focus your efforts on Safe Production.