5 Keys to Bridging Productivity and Safety
All too often I hear safety professionals lament that safety is compromised for increased productivity. They tend to be dismayed by the fact that the focus of the operations managers and corporate level executives are to maximize efficiency and productivity as much as (humanly) possible. For the safety professional, the focus is on employee health and safety. It’s not the safety professionals don’t want profits and it’s not the corporate executives want injured employees, however if the corporate executives are forced to choose between safety and productivity the choice will almost always be productivity. After all, if the company doesn’t make profits it won’t matter how safe it is as it’ll be out of business. (unless it’s the government…but that’s a topic better saved for another a blogger)
As safety professionals we need to ask ourselves how we can bridge the gap between safety and productivity. Here are 5 key areas in which to focus your efforts at your company:
1. Start with yourself!
Safety professionals need to realize it’s not just about safety. We need to look at safety issues through multiple lenses. How would the CEO look at this issue? How would the Lean team look at it? We need to start quantifying how safety directly affects productivity. Which leads me to the next point…
2. Build strong business case
The bottom line of any business depends upon the difference between revenues and expenses. Where does safety typically fall within the finance ledger of company? It is an expense. How can you build your case on the revenue side? Will eliminating the injury hazard also add to the ability of the employee to do that task faster?
3. Make it a point be involved with “performance excellence” team
The number of companies that employ process improvement and lean specialists has sky-rocketed in the past 10-20 years as companies realized they had to get lean and mean in order to survive. Many times these individuals on associated with process or performance excellence. Why isn’t safety a part of it? A department or a process can be improved or leaned while at the same time creating a safety hazard. Make it a point to attend their meetings, even if not formally invited. It is important to note that a company will never be able to truly achieve maximize performance without making sure their employees are safe and comfortable.
4. Educate them
Have you ever taken the time to think about why the corporate executives and operations personnel don’t value safety as much as performance excellence? Why has safety been stereotyped as a cost or something that slows things down? Find out why as that will determine your game plan on how to educate them and break down those stereotypes.
5. Repeat steps 1-4
Changing the stereotype of safety as the “ugly step-child” of the company will not come over night. They key is to be persistent in the way you think, speak and act about safety to yourself and to others.
In closing this post we must realize that the journey may be long and it’ll its ups and downs. My dream and hopefully yours, is to see the CEO of every company view their safety (productivity) professionals as vital to productivity and profitability of their company.