The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster that should not have happened. Although the investigation into the cause of the spill is not complete, the preliminary investigation has revealed that some policies were not followed and some corners were cut by management to save time and money. This is typical of many accidents; it’s Murphy’s Law and he is camping out at all your jobsites just waiting for someone to take a chance.
Accidents occur when management accepts departure from established procedures and practices. In other words, accidents are not inevitable, they are caused. We know what causes accidents, which is why we establish safety policies, procedures and methods to eliminate or control the situations that occur in the field.

Unfortunately, many employees, including managers, believe that cutting a corner here or there will not result in an incident occurring because they have done it so many times before. If employees are led by safety-conscious managers who followed the established accident prevention methods without deviation, incidents could be avoided. Above all, preventing injuries and catastrophic events requires rigorous oversight, participation and leadership from senior management.

Management Must Lead

Senior managers must lead middle managers who, in turn, must lead employees. The decisions they make, the things they say, the policies and procedures they implement and the value they place on safety affect the organization’s safety culture, work practices and workers’ motivation to implement hazard prevention procedures. Managers who deviate or permit others to deviate from safety policies and practices, even occasionally, sends an adverse message to workers in the field that it is okay to take chances when necessary to accomplish a task or save money or time.

In order for a safety culture to develop and expand managers at all levels must comprehend and/or demonstrate the following qualities. A successful manager:

• Knows and understands the organization’s safety history. Knowledge of the history will give the manager a better understanding of what accidents the company has experienced in the past, how the accidents occurred and who was injured. New managers should be informed of or seek out this information. Knowing the name of workers who were involved in accidents in the past helps managers personalize the importance of safety activities.
  
• Places a high personal and organizational value on safety. Managers must recognize that a safe operation is important not only to the success of the organizations, but also to the safety of each and every employee and wellbeing of their families.
• Demonstrates an emotional commitment to safety and health activities. There is more to safety than just compliance and accident statistics. One factor that makes the importance of safety stand out is management’s demonstrated concern and commitment to preventing accidents and catastrophic events. Keeping personal information in front of leaders reduces the likelihood that they will become detached from accident prevention and increases their motivation for taking the lead to ensure that safety policies and procedures are implemented and enforced.
• Maintains an awareness of how their decisions and actions affect the organization. Every manager must make decisions daily that can affect the welfare of the employees and the organization. Therefore, it is extremely important that managers at all levels consider the consequences of their decisions before implementing them. For example, a decision to permit workers to enter into an unprotected trench, even for a short time, can result in a catastrophe that can result in fatalities and severely damage the company’s reputation.
• Knows the major sources of exposure. Managers must understand the exposures that have occurred in the past and the potential hazards that could result in serious incidents. Prepared with this information, managers are in a position to review potential hazards and to determine if the exposures are being properly managed.
• Knows fundamental safety concepts and major sources of exposure. Managers should be educated in safety fundamentals and safety rules and regulations. For example, senior managers should be required to attend an OSHA 30-hour Construction Outreach program or equivalent. Foremen and supervisors should at a minimum attend an OSHA 10-hour Construction Outreach program. They should also be educated about environmental, fleet and other areas that can affect safety within the organization. They don’t have to become experts but without basic knowledge about the rules and regulations, how can senior management simply expect managers to effectively oversee safety within their operational control?
  
• Is willing to ask questions of middle managers and workers and be ready to listen to the response. Senior management should discuss safety issues with their managers at all levels. Ask questions to find out if near misses have occurred, equipment has failed, workers have been observed taking chances, etc. Ask what problems have been encountered in the field that affects safety. Determine if managers are doing their jobs as they relate to safety. They shouldn’t rely on the number of accidents that have occurred — accident statistics are post accident. Senior managers need to know if there are problems before accidents occur so action can be taken to prevent accidents. Find out what is really going on and don’t avoid potential safety issues.
• Supports thorough investigation of accidents to fully understand both immediate and root causes. All accidents should be investigated to determine not just the obvious action or condition that caused the accident, but why the situation got that far in the first place. It often appears that the worker is at fault; the question is why? The root cause is the initial chain of events which lead to an outcome or consequence — the accident.
  
  • Was the worker distracted? If yes, why was the worker distracted?
  • Was a safe work procedure in place and being followed? If not, why not?
  • Were safety devices in use and in proper order? If not, why not?
  • Was the worker trained to perform the task safely? If not, why not?
• Maintains a sense of vulnerability and urgency to safety even when all appears to be operating smoothly. Every manager at all levels must realize that an accident can happen at any moment when least expected. Even if the company has a good accident record, managers should not let their guard down. Safety is still important and the company is always vulnerable to potential accidents or catastrophic events.

Managers at all levels, starting at the very top, have a responsibility for safety whether they want it or not. It cannot be handed over and forgotten — just watch what happens with the Gulf oil spill. Senior managers should discuss these qualities with middle managers, foremen and supervisors. They should include safety discussions in all management meetings.

Safety professionals should facilitate conversations with managers at all levels about these concepts. Don’t just talk about the number of accidents that have occurred or how no incidents have occurred in X number of days. Discuss what could have occurred recently, what near misses did occur, ways to identify potential hazards, what actions should be taken when a hazard is perceived and ways to eliminate or control hazards. Obviously, there is a lot more that could be discussed. It is all about knowing and taking the proper actions.

Don’t let accident prevention revolve around time and money. Compliance with OSHA, EPA, DOT and other regulations is important but safety needs to be more about leadership and preventing accidents and catastrophic events. There is no doubt that everything takes time and costs money but when safety truly becomes part of every job, every managers agenda and the organizational culture then and only then will disasters and catastrophic events be prevented.

But don’t forget, Murphy is still hanging around.

George Kennedy is NUCA Vice President of Safety.