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Chip is a safety management consultant in Rochester, NY. He manages health, safety and environmental training and consulting for the Rochester Business Alliance—the regional Chamber of Commerce. Chip is retired from Eastman Kodak, where he was director of industrial safety at Kodak’s primary plant. He can be reached at ChipDawson@aol.com.
Lately, I've been doing a fair amount of management training in the past few months. What I often see is safety folks, both full-time and part-time, who are struggling to do the compliance thing and a management team that is perfectly happy to let them struggle. Essentially nothing has changed in the 44 years I've been doing occupational safety. The problem is most basic---no one wants to see people hurt but neither do they see safety as a core element of their company culture.
Many of the workplace safety problems we face can be easily avoided with knowledge, ethics and a modicum of legal savvy. After 38 years in the corporate and consulting safety business, it’s time to share some wisdom acquired from mistakes and observations.
Corporate emergency management is a big deal at least for the 72 percent of companies large and small that actually have a plan to deal with emergencies. But it’s rare that one finds a flawless response to the disaster of the moment. So what goes wrong?
