I am sure many business owners and managers will be glad to see this year end. The year didn’t start out real great and the closing months are proving to be the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression due to brutal beating the economy is taking which is affecting everyone. Believe it or not the number one New Years Resolution you should make for your company is to improve your safety record by reducing injuries and all accidents in general.
The most important assets of your company are the employees. Without them showing up on the job with their skills and experience to make your business viable, profitable and competitive all of the high tech equipment is just paper weights.
Some businesses take advantage of slow times in the economy by getting ready for the next upswing which will come, as it always does. They update processes, procedures, repair tooling and equipment, etc. so when business starts to increase again they will be ahead of the competition by being more efficient. And this includes updating (or implementing) their safety program and training. Why do they update (or implement) their safety programs and training? If safety isn’t updated and their accident rate starts to increase instead of decreasing, all of the additional efficiency and reduction in the cost of goods sold is negated by the increase in accidents rates.
I still find it amazing that after 38 years since the signing into law the OSHA Act of 1970 by Congress and President Nixon, the number of employers who don’t know or ignore their legal responsibilities to provide a safe and healthful place of employment for their employees.
Some of the standard excuses for not having a comprehensive safety program are: “I have been in business for x number of years and not one injury”, “I know we need a safety program, but we don’t have the time”, “We keep buying safety equipment and give it to the employees, but they won’t use it”, “We are a small business and OSHA isn’t going to take the time to inspect us”. All business owners, and management have to remember this, without a comprehensive safety program, not updating and enforcing a current safety program the question is “not if, but when” is a major accident or injury going to happen. And along with that you need to ask yourself, “If a major injury or fatality happens, will my company be able to survive the financial consequences”?
When I conduct safety training classes I always have a slide in the presentation at the end that says, “Learn from the mistakes of others, because you won’t live long enough to make them all yourself”.