SAFETY BLOG

Employee Health & Wellness

Research is beginning to shed more light on successful companies.  We are starting to find out that the general health and wellness of a company's employees directly relates to the efficiency and success of that company.  Healthy employees are efficient employees.  Tests have shown that employers who promote health and wellness among their employees have a more dedicated, satisfied, and successful workforce than those employers that do not.

Areas of health and wellness to promote in your company:

• Workplace Safety-
• The first and top priority in any workplace should be the health and safety of its employees.  Just like at home, an employee wants to feel nurtured and safe in their work environment.
• The first step is having a management staff that is committed to protecting their employees from all hazards and dangers.  They must practice what they preach.  If an employee knows that their management cares about them, then a level of trust will take root and the employee will dedicate more energy and talent to the benefit of the entire company.
• Next, comprehensive safety protocols must be developed to protect employees from known or potential hazards.
• Finally, training and education is the best way to increase knowledge of safe practices and to developing a safety-minded company.
• Aesthetics and ergonomics-
• The look and feel of the office or workplace can have a major effect on the emotional wellbeing of its employees.
• Limit restrictive barriers such as cubicles and solid wall offices in the workplace.  Maximize space in a way to promote socializing and idea creation.
• Maximize natural light and fresh air.  Encourage outdoor breaks, lunches, brainstorming sessions, etc.
• A fresh coat of paint with balanced color schemes can go a long way to substitute for the industrial feel of many workplaces.
• Utilize artwork that reflects the dedication and ideals of the company's employees.
• Many employees who are involved in repetitive movements can be plagued by soreness and long term injuries.
• Invest in a comprehensive ergonomics study within your workplace.
• Upgrade to equipment, furniture, and procedures that will minimize repetitive movement injuries.
• Mental and emotional health-
• Provide access to confidential mental health professionals that can assist employees with common life difficulties such as depression, divorce, death in the family, etc.
• Develop a comprehensive substance abuse program within the workplace.  This program must deter substance abuse among employees, educate employees on the dangers of substance abuse, and provide treatment and recovery options for employees that are seeking help.
• Physical health and wellness-
• Educate employees on the impacts of eating healthy, exercising and monitoring health.
• Set health goals as a company.
• For example, an office of 15 people will strive to lose 100 pounds in one month.
• Replace unhealthy foods and beverages in vending machines with fresh and healthy foods.
• Develop a healthy workplace program that will cover all areas of health and wellness for the work force.
• Provide interoffice wellness checks for employees on a regular basis.
• Blood pressure checks
• Influenza vaccinations
• Prostrate cancer screenings
• Breast cancer screenings
• Encourage yearly physicals for employees in high-risk operations.

 Take care of yourselves and your employees, they are the best asset you will ever have.

 Be safe out there!

OSHA has recently sent out letters to 13,500 specific employers in the United States in order to remind them that their reported illnesses and injuries in the workplace are higher than the national average.  Like they didn't know this already.  This is a prelude of things to come from government control over large companies.  It would seem logical that the fines, increased inspections, and increased medical and worker's compensation costs would remind them on a regular basis.  The Washington Post reported that OSHA is discussing the creation of a Severe Violators Inspection Program.  According to the article, OSHA plans to eventually turn up the heat on what they call "negligent companies" or companies that do not take worker safety seriously.  A similar version of this program was created in 2003, but has proved to be an OSHA failure.

On April 30, 2009, the Workforce Protection Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee met in order to improve OSHA's Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP).  The EEP was implemented in 2003 and has since proved to be a huge failure.  This program was designed to target companies that reported above average injuries and illnesses with increased inspections and stricter delegation of discipline.  OSHA has been analyzing the performance level of the EEP program and has found that since its inception, OSHA has failed to comply with program requirements in 97% of the EEP cases.  The Severe Violators Inspection Program will be a rebuild of the EEP.  They plan to re-engineer this program from the ground up, and make no mistake, they plan to enforce it.  Their plan is to concentrate attention on large companies and less targeting of smaller companies.

Proponents of the program state that there are too many large companies in the United States that do not take safety seriously and endanger their employees on a regular basis, therefore, violating the General Duty Clause to provide hazard-free work environments.  They blame the Bush Administration for the EEP's failure.  They state that the former administration was overlooking safety enforcement to protect big-business.  Skeptics state that this program will inadvertently target compliant companies that have more reportings because they report all incidents including minor injuries and illnesses.  They also state that this program will deter larger companies from reporting in order to stay clear of OSHA's radar.  It would appear that bipartisan debates have spilled over into workplace safety.

Either way we slice it, we will most certainly see increased regulation of workplace safety in the near future.  Our current administration appears to have declared war on big-business and large corporations.  Now is an excellent time to evaluate your company's safety policies, procedures, training programs, and commitment to workplace safety.  Become proactive rather than reactive. Make the changes now that will not cost you later. 

Contractors need to understand their role in ensuring construction safety.  Construction sites are dynamic in nature, and generally are plagued with multiple serious health and safety hazards.  All employees are entitled to a sanitary and non-hazardous work environment.  OSHA's 1926 subpart C defines the basic responsibilities of the construction contractor.  The following is a list of basic safety standards that contractors must meet to increase safety on the job site.

• Initiate and maintain programs as necessary to maintain safe work environment
• Provide for frequent and regular inspections of job sites, materials, and equipment to be made by a designated competent person
• Machinery, tools, materials, or equipment that is out of compliance must be identified by tagging as unsafe, locking the controls to render them inoperable, or physically taking them out of service
• Shall permit only those employees qualified by training or experience to operate equipment and machinery
• Instruct each employee on how to recognize and avoid unsafe conditions
• Inform employees of the regulations applicable to his/her work environment
• The goal is to eliminate or control all known hazards through employee instruction
• Instruct employees on hazardous or harmful chemicals and how to protect themselves
• Make employees aware of harmful plants and animals
• Make first aid accessible
• Require personnel to wear appropriate PPE
• Instruct on confined or enclosed spaces, the hazards, necessary precautions, and comply with regulations pertinent to that condition
• Instruct employees on safe handling and use of flammable liquids, gases, and toxins

Contact a reliable safety consultant to get more details on how to initiate these basic safety programs.

 

Worthington Industries presents an outside the box solution to safety programs.  An article in EHS Today by Terry Leberfinger reported that Worthington Industries has been using a radical program for increasing safety and lowering accidents and safety related costs in their workplace.  A leading diversified metals processing company with 8,000 employees and 64 facilities worldwide have been relying on their employees to define safety in the workplace.

Traditional safety programs start from the top and work their way down to baseline employees.  Company administrators decide where the hazards exist, create policies to manage those hazards, and implement trainings and media to enforce the policies.  Since 2001, Worthington has been working from the ground up.  The train-of-thought here is that safety programs need to be defined by those that are facing hazards and responsible for abating them.  They call it the Safe Works program.

Highlights of Safe Works:

• provides standardization and sharing of company-wide best practices
• program is rooted in employee empowerment and communication
• voluntary safety councils are made up of employees at all levels
• program focuses on developing safe behaviors and the preventing of injuries through positive reinforcement
• PPE is tried, tested, and selected by the employees themselves
• zero incidents are rewarded in a comprehensive reward program

In the seven years that Worthington has been supporting the Safe Works program they have had:

•  one-third reduction in serious injuries
• 27 percent reduction in total injuries (OSHA recordable)
• 22 percent decrease in number of worker's comp claims
• reduced cut-related injuries by 41 percent

This form of proactive, outside the box thinking is starting safety down a new path.  Congratulations to Worthington Industries to a job well done.

Read the whole article at EHS Today.  http://ehstoday.com/safety/best-practices/workplace-safety-trust-employees-0309/ 

Safety trainings in Ohio are becoming more common as liabilities have increased throughout the years.  Ohio is listed as a federal OSHA state and uses OSHA standards as their own.  More and more contractors in the State of Ohio are requiring their subcontractors to have OSHA safety training certificates to perform work on their projects.  These certificates equal a reduction in liability insurance and potential safety related problems for the contractors.  If you are a company that is engaging in a lot of work in Ohio, chances are good that you will be asked if your employees are OSHA safety certified.

Many contractors will require your base employees to have OSHA 10 certification and your management staff to have OSHA 30.  The 10 hour certification is a general introduction to the identification and abatement of hazards in the workplace, and the 30 hour certification is a more detailed examination of hazards and the OSHA standards that regulate and protect workers from them.  So the question arises, who can train our employees to get this safety certification?

You will not have to look far to find a OSHA Outreach trainer, but you will want to get an idea of how the information is presented.  Most people who sit through these trainings will tell you that it was the most boring training they have ever endured in their life.  Listen folks, it does not have to be that way.  To make this training a rewarding experience for your employees, you should be asking safety trainers for their experience and methods before deciding on which trainer to use.

Ask them if they have any personal experience mitigating workplace accidents or injuries, and whether or not they have been responsible for the safety of others in a workplace.  Generally, trainers who have been responsible for others or have dealt with workplace accidents tend to have more passion for the importance of safety.  That passion leads to more commitment to the education of employees.

Lastly, ask them how the information is conveyed to the trainees.  If the trainer says, "I use a power point presentation", that should raise a red flag to mean that they are going to just flip through slides and read what is on them.  Look for trainers that use multimedia and group activities in their trainings.  A mixture of power points, videos, case studies, group worksheets, discussions, and reenactments is an excellent way to convey important safety information and all the while keeping the audience engaged, thinking, and involved.

Bottom line, boring safety trainings identifies safety as a burden in the workplace.  Your employees will feel as though it is a burden that they are forced to carry.  Remember, being proactive instead of reactive in regards to safety is what you should be striving for.  Locating safety trainers that are not only experienced but entertaining as well, is a proactive step in lightening the load of safety in the workplace.

Webster defines integrity as: 1. completeness 2. unimpaired condition; soundness 3. honesty, sincerity, etc. What a great word.  Today, words such as integrity and sincerity are used as catch phrases or ad words, but where is the substance or meaning.  The essence of words such as these are not reflected by the people using them.

American businesses used to pride themselves on the meaning of integrity.  If you stopped to get fuel fifty years ago, someone would pump your fuel, wash your windows, check under the hood, and put air in your tires.  Today, we are grossly overcharged for fuel, we pump it ourselves, we're lucky to have window washing fluid in the bucket to wash our windows with, and we have to pay for air.  See a problem here?  Our needs as clients have been dropped as a priority for successful businesses.  This is only one example being used as a model.  Nevertheless, most American businesses operate under these very same principles.  It should not be surprising that there is no consumer trust in American business these days.

"The client knows best" is a phrase that most people cannot remember anymore.  Well, it's time to jar their memories.  What do you want your business reputation to stand for?  Integrity?  If so, its time to get back to putting the client first.  Go the extra mile.  Include extra services at no charge.  Talk to your clients on a regular basis.  Make them feel like they are your only client.  In the words of Jerry Maguire; "less clients and more personal attention". 

Ask yourself, where have all of our business heroes gone?  I think they still exist, but have been silenced by cost-cutting practices, corporate influence, and the devastating current American business trend of maximizing profit margins.  Centering on your clients will reinvest their trust in your company, thus securing your client base, and eventually increase your word-of-mouth leads.  It is up to every American business owner to personally take the steps to reinvent the client-based business.  Once this trust is established, the health & safety of American business will be secured. 

In these tough economic times, it is our business relationships that are going to save and sustain small businesses.  Competition is getting pretty cut throat out there.  Supply is up and demand is down.  Ouch.  Most small business professionals are sitting at their desks staring at the phone waiting for it to ring.  Will it?  It's time to go on the offense and start placing those calls.  Break out the rolodex people and get back to basics.  Dust off the business card file and rekindle those old business contacts that used to be so vital to the early days of your company.  During down time, get online and start engaging social media outlets.  Build new relationships on these sites and turn them into leads and word-of-mouth traffic.  With today's technology, business networking has never been easier.  It will truly be the fail-safe of the next few years.