"Working with both employers and employees, the Department of Labor will not be satisfied until there are no workplace deaths due to failure to comply with safety rules."
-- U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis

I think we all agree with Secretary Solis when she said, "With every one of these fatalities, the lives of a worker's family members were shattered and forever changed. We can't forget that fact."

Following a speaking engagement several years ago a CEO approached me and said, "You talk like we can end every injury tomorrow!"

My response, "…and why do you have a problem with that?"

"It takes years to reduce workplace injuries. People are going to get hurt."

"So what you are telling me is your company is not doing a good job of identifying hazards and ensuring your employees follow safety procedures and have the correct PPE to control those hazards."

He thought for a minute and said, "That's not what I am saying." (This comment was a result of good media response training and coaching by corporate attorneys).

As we talked and made plans to discuss further the concept of zero injuries on the phone, he admitted that he needed some help in targeting zero-injuries in his workplace. Most leaders are busy planning the company's growth and balancing resources to keep shareholders or owners financially happy and don't really think about safety issues until something happens to get their attention.

When I receive a call from someone who says, "What does your schedule look like for the next week?" My first response is, "What happened?" More times than not, the answer is, "We have had a fatality" or "We have had a serious injury."

Now the rush is on to make sure all the bases are covered so that when the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), state or federal, arrives the company leaders can show them what was done to ensure employee compliance. The old cliché, "Too little, too late" comes to mind.

OSHA's preliminary Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries of 5,071 work-related fatalities in 2008 is down from a total of 5,657 work-related fatalities reported in 2007. Secretary Solis stated, "…one is too many."

There Is No Better Time Than Now to Prepare for the Future
OSHA is coming to a worksite near you and you better be ready. Most employers will react and say, "We are ready" and they may be correct. But what OSHA is going to be looking for may not be what you think. How would your employees (in a closed door interview with guaranteed anonymity) answer this question: "Have you been expected to violate a safe work practice to finish a job on time in the past 90 days?" In my professional opinion, this will be a key question. Most companies will say that their safety reports all meet state and or federal standards. Great, but how do you use the reports to ensure employee compliance to prevent injuries? Moreover, how accurate are your recordables?

It has been my experience that most company executives and managers want their supervisors to "hit zero recordables" and don't really care how it is done. For example: a worker with a crushed finger walks into the supervisor's office to report the incident, and his or her supervisor asks, "Do you need to go to the doctor?" The answer they are hoping for is, "No."

Executives and managers who are not auditing these supervisory behaviors may find themselves in front of a board of inquiry who are asking some tough questions.

Be Prepared
OSHA is going to be looking less at the records and more at the behavior of leadership. The term "Safety Ethics" may become a part of Sarbanes-Oxley training requirements for all management personnel. Being prepared in the future for an OSHA visit will require proper safety leadership.

Secretary Solis also stated, "While the decrease in the number of fatal work injuries represents change in the right direction, it does not lessen the need for strong enforcement to ensure that safety is a top priority in every workplace. In fact, today's report prompts us to step up our vigilance, particularly as the economy regains momentum." The 3 E's of Safety (Evaluation, Education, and Enforcement) are going to be very important to being prepared for the coming workplace safety audits.

The 3 E's of Safety

Evaluation
Every workplace is going to be asked to show how the workplace is evaluated for known hazards, safety culture, and behavioral observations. OSHA has recognized that when the company safety process reflects ANSI Z10 for continuous process improvement the result is drastically reduced injuries and zero-fatalities.

Education
Safety, health, and technical training that target real-time issues that are pertinent to an employee's job description must be in place to ensure compliance. In this way the company can clearly communicate workplace expectations that will lead to zero-fatalities.

Enforcement
Some leaders are quick to say that they hold employees (including supervisors, managers, and other executives) accountable to workplace expectations for safe behavior, but have difficulty providing examples of fair and equitable accountability. This is a tough task. Enforcement is a means to hold people accountable for clearly communicated expectations. When OSHA shows up to hold your company accountable, they will be prepared to enforce their expectations.

Preparation is the key to success for every company. The best advice is to provide your leaders with safety leadership education that helps them to take personal responsibility for safety and teaches them how to behave at their level of the organization to fulfill their role in targeting a zero-injury workplace.

About the Author
Carl and Deb Potter are available to advise your organization in these challenging times. Their Simply Seamless Safety® Leadership Development Process has already prepared hundreds of company leaders to meet this challenge. For more information, visit www.potterandassociates.com/.

For more information about OSHA's Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, visit www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm. For more information about OSHA, visit www.osha.gov/.

Editor's Note: For related information, read Carl's OSP Safety Online column for October 2009: "Worksite Analysis" at www.ospmag.com.

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