Employees superior safety

Whatever the size of an organization—10 employees or 100,000—the foregoing principles apply to achieve superior safety results. Safety is culture-driven, and the board of directors and senior management define the culture and the expected pattern of behavior. 

Other JMI employees superior to Spees exhibited a similar attitude. Tom Freeman, the head of JMI s Safety Department, told Spees that this is a man s world and that the notes from Dr. Cardenas were not acceptable. Freeman s statement that he didn t know what he was going to do with Spees could be construed as further questioning her ability to weld while pregnant. Gunder, the night foreman and Spees s brother, also partook in the decision to transfer Spees. 

Supporting data appear Annexes A-C on Policy Statements, Roles and Responsibilities, and Employee Participation. Another good reference on management leadership and employee involvement is the chapter Superior Safety Performance A Reflection of an Organization s Culture in On The Practice Of Safety. 

If an entity wants to achieve superior safety results, safety must become a core value within the organization s culture. Safety is culture driven. When safety is a core value within a company, senior management is personally and visibly involved and holds employees at all levels accountable for results. The senior executive staff displays by what it does that safety is a subject to be taken very seriously, a subject that is considered in performance measurement ong with other organizational goals. 

Formal methods of operation and strict hierarchies can limit communication. When information is passed up hierarchies, it may be distorted, depending on the interests of managers and the way they interpret the information. Concerns about safety may even be completely silenced as it passes up the chain of command. Employees may not feel comfortable going around a superior who does not respond to their concerns. The result may be a misperception of risk, leading to inadequate control actions to enforce the safety constraints. 

Despite the lowest injury and illness rate in the semiconductor industry — and possibly the lowest rates in any industry — we continue to improve our illness and injury performance. In 2001, we reduced our already world-class OSHA recordable rate by an additional 33% to 0.19 injiuies per 100 employees. Said another way, Intel s safety performance is about 4,500% better than that of the average U.S. manufacturing company. [Editorial note Intel s Lost-Day case rate in 2001 was 0.04, which is truly superior.]... 

Safety professionals in the superior performing companies agree that effective employee involvement builds confidence and tmst in the organization. 

Each employee is responsible for ensuring that the work which he/she undertakes is conducted in a manner which is safe to himself or herself, other members of the general public, and for obeying the advice and instructions on safety and health matters issued by his/her superior. If any employee considers that a hazard to health and safety exists it is his/her responsibility to report the matter to his/her supervisor or through his/her Union Representative or such other person as may... 

In sports, athletic coaches normally have a higher status than their players. In the workplace, safety coaches are more similar to Player-Coaches they are at the same level as their coworkers whom they observe and provide feedback to. An employee does not become an expert or superior just because he or she functions as a safety coach. It is normally a peer-to-peer process. 

A safety director in a very large municipal organization with about 13,000 employees read an article this author wrote in which the necessity of having a positive safety culture to achieve superior performance levels was emphasized. That organization s work is considered high-hazard and fatalities and serious injuries often occur. The safety director had concluded that the senior executive in his organization, to whom he reported, was somewhat removed from the leadership necessary to further reduce fatalities and serious injuries, and that he did not hold the staff reporting to him accountable for their incident experience. 

Therefore, modifications are to be made to fit the culture and the inherent hazards and risks in an organization. For example, is it necessary that there be a documented occupational health and safety policy, as ZIO requires for every location Or, is it appropriate to recognize that for a small operation having as few as 10 employees, a verbal and demonstrated commitment by management to achieving superior control of hazards and risks is sufficient ... 

Employees cannot be expected to follow safe work practices if they have not been instructed in the proper procedures. They need to be made to understand when they begin employment that they have entered an organization that gives high priority to safe performance. It s typical in the superior performers to have a very thorough indoctrination procedure for new employees. As they pass through indoctrination and are assigned to a supervisor, they are able to evaluate the level of safety expected very quickly. 

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