March/April 1992
The goal: accident-free quarters, reduced insurance premiums, and higher productivity. The means: a safety program with the full backing of top management.
BY PETER L. KRAMER
Peter L. Kramer is a Greenfield, Mass.-based consultant to the recycling industry.
Imagine two scrap processing companies, identical in virtually every measurable way. Both have the same number of employees and use the same processing machinery and support equipment. Both are privately owned and do about the same annual sales volume. Both handle the same commodities on comparable land and facilities. They even have similar traffic patterns and perimeter security and screening.
There's one thing, however, that differentiates one from the other: their accident records. Company A averages 1.4 time-loss accidents per quarter, plus 2.7 reportable accidents and 3.1 nonreportable accidents every quarter. Company B, on the other hand, is now in its third consecutive quarter without an accident of any kind and its seventh consecutive quarter without a time-loss accident.
The Rewards of Awareness
Although both firms have active, ongoing safety programs, only Company B has tailored its program to ensure that its employees are in what might be called "the safety zone."
It's like sports. When athletes are in "the zone" their awareness of everything that's going on in and around them is heightened to the point where concentration becomes instinctive and effortless. The result is that the athletes—and their teams—are rewarded with high-scoring games, sold-out arenas, fan support, and product endorsement offers.
Similarly, when a scrap recycling firm's employees are in the safety zone, it means they've acquired a natural sensitivity to all that is happening around them. Torch cutters who have reached the zone, for example, are instinctively aware not only of what kinds of materials they're processing, how their protective gear is fitting, and how their equipment is operating, but also of who and what are around them, what they're working on, and more. The rewards are substantial: accident-free quarters, declining loss ratios, reduced insurance premiums, higher productivity, and enhanced earnings.
A Program Is Not Enough
So what's the key to achieving the safety zone—to getting a metal sorter or equipment operator to be sensitive to more than the call of nature? Part of the answer relies on a thought-out safety program, but even more important is how management gets involved in the program.
For example, Company A hangs safety posters throughout its facilities, conducts regular safety meetings, has an employee accident review and disciplinary recommendation committee, pays cash to those who avoid accidents, and requires personal protective equipment at all times. In addition, the firm has had an industrial hygienist test the air and enforces strict personal hygiene rules.
Despite these measures, however, Company A's workers still slip on steps, get particles in their eyes, back into things, and step in holes. They also sometimes reach into pinch points, fall off platforms, and lift and twist from the waist—committing one mental error after another, or so it seems.
Company B also puts up posters, holds meetings, has a review committee, pays cash for good safety performance, requires personal protective equipment, has the air tested, and requires good hygiene. Yet its safety record is leaps and bounds ahead of its competitor's.
The difference lies in each company's management approach to safety. Company A has delegated the safety program to very competent middle managers and front-line supervisors. Top management can barely keep up with the trading, marketing, and regulatory compliance responsibilities already on its plate along with obligations related to neighborhood and community relations, legal affairs, and accounting. There is just no time for anything else, especially after factoring in breakfast and dinner meetings, out-of-town travel, and plant visitors.
Therefore, Company A's top managers are absent from safety meetings. They aren't present when the safety-reward cash is handed out and never sit in on an employee accident-review committee meeting. These managers never tour the plant with the front-line supervisors for safety checks, and when they do venture into the plant area to quickly check a load or say hello to a customer, they usually do so without a hard hat on.
The message from the top managers of Company A is clear: Safety is not important to them personally; other things are more important. While they expect the firm's laborers to be in the safety zone, they've failed to demonstrate their own sensitivity to what safety entails. This lack of awareness is contagious and spreads through the organization like a California brushfire on a windy day, reinforced and refueled daily.
A Different Attitude
Company B's top managers have the same responsibilities as their counterparts at Company A, so they have also delegated much of the firm's safety program to middle management. But somehow, Company B's top managers find time—maybe 30 to 40 minutes a quarter—to address the employees at a safety meeting. They tell the employees they care about their safety and health. They compliment and congratulate them on their great record, but still make sure the employees know top management will not tolerate unsafe work practices or conditions. They're even around to hand out the safety-reward cash personally. Top management is informed when and where the accident review committee is meeting and finds a way to drop by for a three-minute chat. And, on those days when they get a break in their schedule, they accompany a supervisor on a half-hour safety check.
No one knows when or where these top managers will show up, but everyone knows they could—at any time. Company B's top managers never walk through the plant without their hard hats on, not even to talk in front of the scale with a customer for two minutes. Safety is important to Company B's top management. In fact, nothing appears more important.
The employees at Company B are not aware of the myriad issues the company's top managers deal with hour to hour, minute to minute, but they are aware of the managers' awareness of safety. They know if they break a safety rule there will be consequences, and they know top management could be watching and will personally see the consequences enforced.
They also realize that if an accident does occur and the review committee meets to discuss it, top management will show up to find out who was involved, how it happened, and what steps have been taken to prevent it from happening again. The committee is, therefore, validated; its work is important.
The employees know that if they earn a cash reward for safety, these same top managers will be there to shake their hands, look them in the eyes, and thank them for their efforts. Thus, the employees and their safety endeavors are validated.
And when a top manager of Company B runs back to his office to get his hard hat when he decides to greet a good customer by the scale, word spreads, and employees realize that top management takes the time to be safe. They also recognize that if safety is that important to top managers, then it must be important to all of them. There is no more effective way to lead and manage than by example.
Safety comes down to one word: awareness—not only by the workers who must make sensitivity to everything going on around them second nature, but also by top management. Only top management can create the attitude that encourages employees to reach the safety zone. •
The goal: accident-free quarters, reduced insurance premiums, and higher productivity. The means: a safety program with the full backing of top management.