Workplace Safety Culture

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How do people get to a point where they fear safety? How can something like a checklist or an SOP or a safety manager create fear? Our body is equipped with automatic protective wiring that reacts to scary stimuli with a fear response.

Recently a Hawaiian civil defense employee sent an emergency alert that a ballistic missile threat was headed for Hawaii, and that residents should seek shelter. It was a mistake, a human error. Panic ensued and it took 38 minutes to correct the error.

In our previous two columns on this subject, developing an actionable safety plan is covered in three parts. First Actions was explained in Part One (October 2017 ISHN) and Core Actions detailed in Part Two (January 2018 ISHN). The rest of this column focuses on Sustaining Actions.

To be a professional in the Environmental, Occupational Health, Safety and Security Career field is not something to be taken lightly. Professionals in this career field have to have a caring mentality about them. I personally am very lucky to love what I do for a career and take it very personally. I truly believe that it is possible for a culture to exist where people do not get injured by simply going into their profession.

Injuries in the workplace cost American companies billions of dollars every year. According to OSHA, it is estimated that employers spend 1 billion dollars a week on workers compensation costs in the United States. That is just the money going towards workers compensation. There are also costs that come from the days that injured employees miss work. Injuries and accidents that force injured employees to miss at least six days of work cost employers in the United States about 62 billion dollars a year.