What are the elements of a successful safety program?

Safety can be your first line of defense in your workers' compensation program. The following six areas need to be addressed for a successful safety program:

1. Written safety policy

2. Written safety program

3. Role of safety director

4. Role of safety committee

5. Effective safety meetings

6. Evaluating your program

1. Written safety policy. A written safety policy is the most important part of your safety program. Without a policy statement, a safety program is doomed to fail. The policy statement sets the tone and indicates what the consequences will be. When a program fails, it will be because people forget about the written policy statement. It does not have to be elaborate, but a written policy should reflect the following:

What is the purpose of the safety program?
Will the safety program cover only on-the-job safety, or will it include fleet, public liability, and property damage?
Who will be assigned safety responsibilities, and what will their responsibilities and accountability requirements be?
Will there be safety assistance in the form of a safety director and/or safety committee?
Who will have the authority to administer the safety program?
Which standards will guide the program?
When top management changes, have them sign off on the policy statement (or make changes to it). Furthermore, look at the policy statement yearly --if just for the change of signatures.

2. Written safety program. In a written safety program, accountability is the key. Some states allow for a reduction in a workers' comp award when an employee fails to follow a safety rule or fails to use safety equipment. Safety programs should not just be written; each employee should be given a copy of the safety program and should sign to show that a copy was received. Begin by analyzing past accidents or safety problems --if they happened before and they were not corrected, they will happen again. Next look at your industry as a whole, and then look at OSHA standards.

Make sure your program addresses the following:
Management commitment and support
Assignment of responsibilities
Maintenance of safe workplace
Employee training
Maintenance of good records
First aid
Employee incentive program

3. Role of safety director. The safety director investigates accidents, reviews safety analyses, and pinpoints accident frequencies, to name a few jobs. Safety directors need to understand production needs and be able to work with production to figure out ways to be safe. Production personnel have productivity and quality assurance goals that could get in the way of a safety program. Safety requirements may be interpreted by production as slowing down processes and compromising quality.

Using safety production methods does decrease injuries and lower workers' compensation costs. Helping production personnel to understand these facts should increase their commitment to safety. Another way to motivate production managers to consider safety first is to take workers' compensation costs out of their budget.

4. Role of safety committee. A safety committee should help create and maintain in all employees an active interest in safety. Take the position that safety is paramount. Be proactive. Review common methods of performing job tasks, safety plans, job descriptions, equipment, the physical environment and anything else that impacts on job performance. Retain outside consultants where practical but use common sense. Include employees in any consulting plan.

The committee should not be comprised of only managers and department heads; instead, your safety committee should be made up of those people bucking for promotion from the lowest levels --they will give the best of their talents. Use people that want to serve. Add union members if you have them. Supervisors might be added to your committee, but not department heads, because you do not want a "tribunal."

To identify recurrent types of injuries and illnesses, review employee medical records and workers compensation claims. Develop a team comprised of employees from line and management positions. These employees can look for any problem areas and recommend changes in procedures or equipment to resolve problems.

Formation of safety committees may be state-regulated. Sometimes state laws require employers to form safety committees. Oregon's worker's compensation law, for instance, requires employers with more than 10 employees to establish a safety committee. Employers with 10 or fewer employees must establish a safety committee if the employer has a lost workday rate in the top 10 percent in the industry or if the workers' compensation premiums are in the top 25 percent of all classes of employers. The committee must have equal numbers of employee representatives (either volunteers or employees elected by their peers) and employer representatives.

5. Effective safety meetings. Seek accountability. Meetings can get off track easily. Meetings can be used to review accidents. Review any accident to see if it was preventable or not. With an accident involving a vehicle, limit your review to whether the accident was avoidable or unavoidable. Make use of the safety rules that come with equipment.

Survey and involve employees. By using questionnaires and focus groups, employers can identify employee attitudes about health and safety issues. Surveys will also help management focus on areas that need improvement and may lead to employee suggestions for remedying problems. Safety and health programs will not be effective without employee involvement through participation, communication and line management encouragement. Because it is employees who know what will work and what won't, they should take an active role in implementing programs.

Safety solutions. In-house engineers and employees can work together to identify potential problem areas and solutions. Many solutions to workplace injuries can be based on simple changes like modifying procedures, adjusting equipment and rearranging workspaces.

Communication. Ensure that communications focus on safety. For example, reward employees for safety suggestions and good safety records. Celebrate periods of accident-free operation. This demonstrates the company's commitment to safety and involves employees in the process.

6. Evaluating your program. The measure used most often to analyze a workplace's safety record is the "incidence" rate. Loosely speaking, the incidence rate is the percentage of full-time employees (the number out of every 100) suffering a recordable injury or illness during a calendar year.

Computing the incidence rate. Once a given firm computes its incidence rate, it can use that bit of statistical information to compare its safety experience with that of other companies that are in the same industry and employment-size group. To find the incidence rate requires two figures --the number of injuries within a period of time and the number of employee hours worked during that period. All nonwork time (vacations, holidays and leaves) is not counted as time worked. The formula for calculating the incidence rate is:Number of injuries and illnesses multiplied by 200,000, divided by the number of employee hours worked, equals the incidence rate.

The 200,000 hours in the formula represent the equivalent of 100 employees working 40 hours a week for 50 weeks, and provides the standard base for comparing incidence rates.

The following example shows how the Bureau of Labor Statistics would compute the incidence rate for a hypothetical company:

Example : Friendly Furniture Co. experienced five (5) recordable injuries and illnesses during 2001 (from log and summary, OSHA No. 200). The total hours worked by all employees during this period were 125,000 (from payroll or other time records).

5 x 200,000, divided by 125,000 = 8.0

Friendly Furniture, therefore, experienced a rate of 8.0 injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time employees during 2001.

The formula used to compute your incidence rates can also be used to compute other safety data. The BLS says you can use the same formula to compute your firm's incidence rate with respect to (1) the number of lost workday injuries and illnesses; (2) the number of nonfatal injuries and illnesses without lost workdays; and (3) cases involving only injuries or illnesses.

Incidence rates have limitations. Finally, while incidence rates are widely used, they are often criticized for their limitations. Although they do provide some means of comparing the extent of one company's safety experience with that of a "similarly-situated" company, the resultant data actually does not represent exact percentages. For example, one employee, theoretically, could have more than one recordable injury during a given year. Moreover, the figures do not indicate precisely what the safety problems are; they can merely indicate that problems exist. Other statistics that pinpoint the causes of injuries need to be tabulated as well to give the company a clearer picture of its work place hazards.

Questions to ask. In addition to using the incidence rate to evaluate your safety program, ask yourself the following:

Is there an overall commitment to safety?
What is the organization's reaction if someone sacrifices speed for safety?
How do you convey the message that top management is committed to safety?
Where does safety rank in corporate objectives, strategies and policies?
Do you provide adequate personnel and resources to staff safety and health programs?
Is safety part of everyone's performance appraisal?
Are safety contests a part of your workplace?
Is safety training a part of all jobs?
If a manager saves on workers' compensation costs, is that manager's budget rewarded with the cost savings?
Does your safety plan have specific goals and a target date?