I know. It seems that this blog and all of the information you get about occupational health and safety give all you safety officers even more work to do than you already do every day.
I know you work extremely hard every day making sure that everyone stays safe in their work areas. And I also realize that in some ways you have to be right every single time or you don’t get appreciated by your supervisors and the C-suite.
Well, I am here to tell you that you are appreciated in ways that no one can even fathom. And you know who agrees with me? Fred Manuele, president of Hazards Limited, who wrote a piece in the January 2016 issue of Professional Safety magazine that serves as a pep talk for all of us who could use some perspective on our jobs, how hard they are, and how good we are at them.
![[Image courtesy of Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik via a Creative Commons license]](http://www.safetymatterstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/Applause-by-Joe-Shlabotnik-e1456355748480.jpg)
[Image courtesy of Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik via a Creative Commons license]
First, the Great News
Manuele is giving all of you a ego stroke, but it’s not to say it’s disingenuous. In fact, it’s the opposite.
According to some of the latest data figures, the number of fatalities on job sites has dropped 67 percent since 1971, even while the labor force has grown by more than 70 percent during that time. Just imagine. Forty years ago there were nearly 14,000 workplace deaths in the U.S. within a workforce of about 81 million people. That calculates to a fatality rate of about 17 per 100,000 workers. Today, that rate is down to just 3.3 per 100,000 as the raw fatality number is down to about 4,500 within a workforce of nearly 140 million people.
Just bringing down the fatality number within the 1970s workforce is impressive enough. But to see the number fall so much even as the total number of workers has risen so dramatically? Everyone deserves a pat on the back and a round of applause for all that you have done! You have all been heroes!
How We Do So Well
Of course our hard work and concern for our fellow man is a large factor in the success we have had over the last generation. But we all have to admit that trial-and-error and technology has helped pave the way for such successes.
Over the years, we have become very smart people, We learn what works and doesn’t work in our safety protocols and procedures, we talk with each other and we share our knowledge and educate others so that we all have effective safety programs and dynamic safety cultures in our organizations. By the same token, however, one of the things that has changed the most in our workplaces over the years has been that many dangerous activities on worksites have been taken over by automation and robotics, which at least reduce the risks of injury and fatality in work places if not serving as a direct catalyst to lower numbers.
But suffice it to say that automation does not by itself reduce injuries and fatalities; it merely reduces the general risk factors when robots and automation take some of the more dangerous tasks out of the hands of humans, who are prone to mistakes. The rest of the reduction is in our due diligence to make the very best safety cultures we can and supporting them every year.
Where Can We Improve?
While we have made extremely positive progress over the years, and we should definitely be proud of that fact, our progress has plateaued in recent years. Since 2009, the fatality rate has not gone down appreciably but has remained pretty flat at around 3.4 per 100,000. While that is a very low number, the plateau does indicate there may be some areas where we could do better.
Some of this is self-assessment of what we have in place, and some of it is a cultural thing – as in, the safety culture and any pre-conceived notions that may need to be shaken.
First of all, Manuele in his article wrote that we should all ask ourselves two fundamental questions in our self-assessment: First, are there current safety management systems that have worked and could still be improved? And second, what are the systems that have not worked, or what could still be implemented? Answering these questions honestly and objectively can be a first step toward breaking through the plateau because it will involve some out-of-the-box thinking.
Some other thinking needs to be changed, and that is addressing some pre-conceived notions about incidents and injuries. One of the ost important Manuele writes about was covered in this blog earlier – the actual disconnection between the overall incident rate and the fatality rate. Too many who aren’t in the know about safety just think that if you reduce incidents, you will automatically reduce serious injuries and deaths. But as was covered before, studies have shown that while incidents go down, serious injuries and death rates don’t actually go down as quicly – meanign that more and ore incidents that do occur are more likely to be the serious-injury-or-worse severity.
While we may be very successful at our jobs, it is always a good idea to look at what we do with fresh eyes every so often and make sure we are doing everything we can do as well as we can so that we can continue to prusue the concept of having fatality-free zones in oru workplaces, if not incident-free ones.