As businesses change, running leaner, and more responsibilities are added to individuals, there is greater separation of management from day to day activities. As this occurs, the management team can become short sighted or complacent with regard to the hazards in their facility. So it is interesting that management will complain that they cannot get employees to follow safety guidelines when the effort is not put forward. However, as management does not perform the task regularly, they may not have the correct perception of risk, based on their increased responsibilities, or the scope of hazards that employees face daily. Financial, purchasing, other commitments of sales or production may obscure what conditions really are. When times are good, production is up and products must be produced, therefore the probably of injuries may increase. It is important to address safety concerns immediately to understand the condition and the reason that employees are not following the safety rules.

To understand these conditions, managers must have an understanding of how the overall business operates, the pulse of the operation. They must provide the vision and the resources as they feel that it is needed. Employees who work in the organization have a more detailed knowledge of each operation and task because they do these tasks day in and day out. It is important for management to understand that unless they have recently performed a particular task over and over employees will know the job much better than they do.

In fact, employees who understand specific hazards that are associated with the workplace will realize that they have the most to gain from preventing or controlling exposure to identified hazards. Employees who are knowledgeable and aware of hazards tend to be safer employees and also good a resource of ideas for better control of hazards.

One thing to consider: Decisions that are made in the confines of an office, without employee involvement, using a spreadsheet may or may not be as effective when implemented. This is the key to employee participation, getting them involved. Just as the quality management process stresses total participation, the broaden approach benefits safety process.

We as humans naturally resist change. On the other hand, we have a tendency to support ideas that we help to develop and implement. Employees who are allowed to participate in the development and implementation of safety rules and procedures have more of a personal stake to ensure that these rules followed.
In these times with the changes in businesses, employee participation can be used to help identify and solve safety issues. Employees who participate enjoy their work more than those who simply do what they are told. When employees enjoy their work, they take a greater responsibility in their jobs and tend to produce a better quality product. Reduced employee turnover is a potential benefit of increased employee participation.

Reference: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Cooperative Programs, Occupational Safety and Administration (OSHA), Managing Worker Safety and Health, November 1994.

Oklahoma Department of Labor, Safety and Health Management: Safety Pays, 2000, Chapter 4, pp. 21-23