occupational safety and health standards and all rules , regulations , and orders issued pursuant to this Act which are applicable to his own actions and conduct ”. ( USDOL , 1970 ) This law also covers required training for all staff to perform their job in the conditions and environment in which they will be working .
Note : You may ask , “ What is the difference between a reportable serious injury and a non-reportable minor injury ?” A non-reportable minor injury is “ an injury requiring first aid only ” ( USDOL , 1970 ) so it stands to reason that anything not matching that description should be reported and classified a ‘ serious injury ’.
2 . Continue Building “ Buy-in ”
• Build an alliance or partnership between management , the union ( if one exists ), employees and others on your site .
• As new subcontractors and staff arrive on site , they will require proper onboarding .
• A compelling reason for the change must be spelled out to everyone . People must understand why they are being asked to change what they normally do and what it will look like if they are successful . If people hear through the rumor mill that something is “ going down ” and haven ’ t formally been told anything , they naturally tend to resist and opt out . ( USDOL , 1970 )
3 . Safety Must Be Viewed as an Investment , Not an Expense
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• A safety program is an investment in your team and your company because employing safety procedures has proven to improve quality of work , employee retention , emotional buy-in for seeing the company succeed .
• When management demonstrates care for their employees , it builds employee trust in the company ’ s management .
• Safety and health must be considered during an event ’ s budget development process and funded accordingly .
• An often overlooked expense is staff training . Be sure to budget the funding , time and resources required to properly train staff in all company policies and procedures , especially safety .
• Perform an initial training of management and supervisory staff , union leadership ( if present ), safety and health committee members , and a representative number of senior employees . This should include both safety and health training and any needed management , team building , hazard recognition , or communication training , etc . This gives you a group of senior people to draw upon as resources and gets key personnel on board with needed changes . ( USDOL , 1970 )
• Establish a steering committee comprised of management , employees , union ( if one exists ), and safety staff . The purpose of this group is to facilitate , support , and direct the change process . This will provide overall guidance and direction and avoid duplication of efforts . To be effective , the group must have the authority to get things done . ( USDOL , 1970 )
• Clients usually assume health and safety programs are in place . Also , cybersecurity requirements are rapidly moving into our industry . These are all protections many clients now expect of us and generally have them in their contracts .
• Regardless of whether we are an individual or an organization , much of our work is project to project . Our industry is also very competitive .
• Here is the rub , increased health , safety and security costs means increased overhead . Because you are doing things right , your costs may be higher than a competitor ’ s who may not have a safety program . The client may assume both companies have comparable safety policies and based on price , the client may go with the lower bid . The company with an active healthy safety policy may lose the job because they are doing things right . This is when leadership ’ s commitment to the program will be tested .
• To level the playing field , the prospective client should be made aware you have a safety program , and how they benefit from that program .
• Depending on the client , consider including in your RFP response , a basic packet that includes key bullet points about your safety policy and state that your policy compares favorably against others . Ask them to verify the responses are apples to apples and how yours may include more protections for
“ Never mistake a clear view as a short distance .”
-- Unknown
4 . Vision the client . This influences the client to ask the next question “ Where is the other company ’ s safety policy ?”
• By providing answers to questions the client didn ’ t know to ask , you can inspire them to ask some tough questions of your competitors .
Here are some preliminary questions to get you thinking :
• Where are you now ?
• Where do you want to go ?
• How will you get there ?
• When do you want to get there ? ( Johansson , 2017 )