Why do owners and managers resist safety in the workplace?

The proverbial question pops up again in a LinkedIn group discussion, EHSQ Elite (#1 in safety):

In today's information rich world I find it difficult to understand the thinking of principles of companies that do not believe in instituting safety programs. Even if it is required! Is it me or do you find similar finding in your line of work?

Responses:

● Simple. 1) They are not educated to know how EHS can be a positive in their income statement; and 2) EHS people in their employment have not done a good job of educating them!

● In my experience owners and managers do not resist safety in the workplace. They may perceive risk differently, and they may well make decisions differently but they do not resist safety in the workplace. I agree if resistance is there then EHS has not set the agenda or the risk matrix out appropriately. The argument has to be made on a business level not on emotion.

● The CEO isn't a safety guy and not his concern, or understanding even. It's up to the EHS department to make sure their worth is known, in a way the CEO understands and respects.

● So what is a small business to do that is not big enough for a dept or even a person? It is those cases I have found the owner sees safety as an expense with little return or the worse case believes the loss in production is not worth the time or investment. It is only hind sight after a costly accident do they even begin to change their minds.

● Make sure the owner's views aren't out of lack of knowledge. Keep up on Industry newsletters in safety and point out the fines that are imposed on companies that haven't dealt with safety correctly. When showing these articles and news items, relate similarities to your company as well so he can see "This can happen to us."

If it doesn't sink through, then I would make sure everything the EHS manager does is very properly documented so if there ever is an issue, they are covered with proof that they did everything possible the company would allow.

● We've done a terrible job of educating leaders in our secondary educational institutions. Our "Management Related Degrees" include courses on managing people, finance and government but we spend little time educating them about risk management and health & safety systems.

Most management schools only include it as a footnote. It's fundamentally why I wrote my book..."The Emperor Has No Hard Hat". Most "Emperors" (CEO & Senior Management Teams) WANT their operations and corporations to be safe...they just don't know how to do it. Once shown what and how to do it most Senior Management Teams see H&S management not as a cost but an opportunity for their corporations to thrive. It's just good business management.

● In my opinion health and safety is all too often reactive and so in many cases it’s a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

So as a consequence of this people are often injured and in some cases die because of a failure by management of not taking the subject of health and safety seriously.

There is also little point in a company having a state of the art safety statement policies and risk assessments in place it no one knows about it, so communication is very important. There should be a buy-in by all concerned the views of employees should be taken into account as these are the people who work at the coal face and know better than anyone what the real hazards are in relation to there employment.

In most cases it's a matter of taking management by the hand and leading them inn the right direction, this in my experience is the reality on the ground.

● I believe owners and managers "resist" safety in workplace for the the simple reason of finances.

Too many HSE personnel want to qualify their value and the value of HSE by unnecessary adding to cost. Safety should be something that everybody want to maintain and not just the owners or managers. The safety responsibility do not have to have a cost to it but an attitude by all should be maintained by the HSE manager

● Plain and simple... Lack of knowledge... Also, a lot of companies that are not "service providers" to other businesses have not been forced to meet certain "safety performance" requirements in order to do business with the customer/client. If they were required to submit safety performance documentation to their clients and the threat of loosing business was on the line, then they would start to pay attention. Its sad that this is what it takes but money talks... We all know that. Only then will they see a benifit that makes sense to them. Some are just willing to pay higher insurance premiums and think they are saving money by NOT having a formal safety program run by a competent person.

If a company has a "safety person" in place, they are either there for show or the company is serious about safety and depends on that person for competent advice about what needs to be accomplished and how to do it. If that person is not competent and lacks experience, he or she will not help the company much.

That being said, I have always tried to go straight to the top when approaching a company. That is where the "buy in" has to start. When the management team says "they need leadership training but we don't", thats a clear sign that they are not serious about it.