2010 has been a rough year for worker safety; miner deaths in West Virginia made people reexamine the safety of mine workers, then deaths associated with the gulf oil disaster called the company’s preparedness and response to the disaster into question. Many companies large and small are looking at their safety and wondering whether a similar tragedy could befall them. Even as the economy continues to sputter, companies are considering investing in improving worker safety. Unfortunately, not all organizations are ready for a world-class safety system and many will waste their investments.
As organizations grow, their views on worker safety evolve according to where they are in the maturation cycle.
Once a company has reached a certain size, it realizes - either because of rising occurrences of injuries and workers’ compensation costs or OSHA citations - that it needs to implement safety policies and rules. Companies in this stage tend to measure safety in terms of OSHA compliance and see safety efforts as a nuisance or a necessary evil. These companies focus on minimal compliance and nothing more. Safety professionals are often little more than the “rules police” and are typically seen as an impediment to business and are generally at loggerheads with operations. Discipline tends to be draconian, and rules are seldom enforced, except after an injury. As rules are ignored, stricter rules with harsher punishments are implemented.