Do You Get It?:

Now that we have established a basic understanding of why we have a responsibility to build systems that can accomplish our Goal of Zero Incidents. We will discuss a belief system. With any established belief system there are tenants and laws governing its practice.

Ask yourself this question…. Which companies are the safest to work at? Right off the top of your head ……. (Jeopardy Music Playing)…

Excerpts from a Recent Article in Occupational Hazards Magazine, November, 27 2006

When it comes to safety, the 10 businesses selected to be Occupational Hazards' 2006 America's Safest Companies just plain "get it." … From their top executives all the way down to the factory floor, these companies get it. They get the importance of safety committees, training, job-hazard analyses, audits, stop-work authority and management visibility. They get the symbiotic relationship between safety and productivity, profits, morale and employee retention. As Koch-Glitsch President Bob DiFulgentiz puts it, the qualities that helped the company's Wichita, Kan., manufacturing facility become an OSHA VPP Star site are the same qualities needed "to deliver on time, have a high-quality product and have good productivity."
"Amazingly, when we focus on safety, all the other measurements improved," DiFulgentiz says. "It's just good for business." DiFulgentiz is just one of several company leaders in this year's class who want to have their fingers on the pulse of every injury, accident or near-miss. For example, EnPro Industries President and CEO Ernest Schaub requires all lost-time injuries to be reported to him - and other senior executives - within 24 hours. Schaub views this policy as common sense. Of course, accidents and injuries are rare at EnPro and the other America's Safest Companies. By just about every metric, these companies boast safety records that are in the upper echelon of their industries.

How do they do it? … we've found some common denominators. To name just a few:
_ Upper management commitment - At Noble Corp., executive management has spent more than $35 million over the past 10 years on EHS equipment, training and initiatives.
_ Comprehensive training - Rust Constructors requires its new hires to take part in a multi-stage training/orientation process that introduces and reinforces safety strategies.
_ Employee involvement - At OFG Jasper Cherry Street, employees lead and conduct the safety committee meetings.

The maxim "don't sweat the small stuff" isn't always applicable to safety. Wheatley, in fact, emphasizes to employees that the difference between a recordable incident and a first aid incident often is 1 millimeter. "If a small cut on your hand was just a millimeter deeper or longer, it wouldn't need just a Band-Aid. It would require stitches," Wheatley explains. "That's a recordable incident."… Such a philosophy is the basis of EnPro's emphasis on eliminating near-misses and first aid incidents – the leading indicators on the bottom of the "incident triangle," Wheatley notes. "For every 10,000 near-misses there are 1,000 first aids. For every 1,000 first aids there are 100 recordables, and for every 100 recordables there are 10 lost-times," Wheatley says. "We believe if we can reduce the number of near-misses we can reduce the potential for a first aid or a recordable." … Safety clearly is an issue that earns executives' full attention, and not just when there's a lost-time incident. When an EnPro site meets or exceeds the goals set in its safety plan for the year, Schaub and/or other senior executives travel to the site to present the President's Safety Award. During the awards banquet, the executives serve lunch or dinner to EnPro employees at the site.

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