Bad Axioms Part 2 - "Safety First"

By Pete Melancon

     The second article in a “Tongue in Cheek” look at some of the more common sayings we hear in safety on a daily basis.  While well meaning these can diminish the credibility of a Leader or Safety Practitioner, hurt your safety efforts, and actually prevent your Company from achieving World Class Performance. 

“SAFETY FIRST”

     “Safety First!” is almost certainly the most used and popular slogan in the history of safety! My thoughts on this one will surprise some of you. Not only will “Safety First” not take you to world class, but it can be a major factor in your company, organization or team struggling to get there. Make no mistake about it, following Safety First will get you a good Safety Program. In 2017 if "good" is good enough for you and your organization, then Safety First will get you there. If you are really committed to achieving World Class Performance however, you are going to need to understand the message that “Safety First” gives, work hard to counter it, and do something else.

     The problem with Safety First is that when you put anything first it “forces prioritization” and forces something else to be second, third, fourth, etc creating stratification conflict. In engagement sessions in a nice venue it’s easy to say “Safety First” and to emphasize that under no circumstances will we compromise safety. In those venues it’s easy to “rah rah” Safety into first place on the “priority” list, giving a false sense of security that this will actually work in the real world with 100% reliability.

          What is invariably going to happen is that money and efficiency will be forced in to second place, along with overall project economics, forcing Safety on a BAD DAY to be pitted against money.   This means that on that bad day, when things are headed south, and profit margins are threatened, the conflict can and often will flip priorities, which by nature can change in a millisecond. This WILL happen with all but your strongest and most hard headed employees, and a potentially bad or even catastrophic day is born. On the jobsite, when the schedule has been challenged by Stop Work Authority, when job costs are piling up due to having to adjust plans, having to get more people and equipment, spending more money than planned, when the “boss” is ringing the phone every half hour demanding to know “what the heck is going on,” it is undeniable that there will be immense pressure to “flip the script” of priorities and cut corners. This is the true root cause of many catastrophic accidents. 

          So if not “Safety First,” what should our mantra be? It needs to be “Safety Always, and Safety For ME!” This is the foundation of “Values Based Safety.” It starts with instilling in each worker a keen cognizance of “Why” you come to work each day. The real answer is that workers at risk do not come to work to make the company profitable, though that is a good thing, they don’t even come to work to be safe, though that is a great thing.  The reality is that every worker, including you and I, come to work to make money. We are at the deepest level motivated by our value system of taking care of our own, and providing for those most important in our lives. When faced with pressure to take shortcuts, workers at risk DO NOT need to consider how much money the company will lose if we do not get the job done on time and in budget, they need to consider how their families will react if they are killed or injured at work while taking shortcuts, or in a well consequated (see my prior article) workforce, a knowledge that my boss will FIRE me if I take shortcuts, no matter what the outcome.

          While this at first sounds contrary to some, what you are instilling is this, “Do not be safe, do JSA’s, BBS, etc for “The Company,” do it for your family. At XYZ we will provide all the resources that YOU need to work safely, and support YOU in using them. We need YOU to say NO in the form of STOP WORK AUTHORITY whenever YOU feel like the situation may threaten your ability to earn (and take care of your family). We support YOU in that, we support YOU in executing the most critical part of the Personal Protection Philosophy we mentioned in the first article, “I Refuse To Get Hurt!”  By the way, YOU took shortcuts and saved me money?  If I find out about it I'm gonna fire YOU, the last thing I need in MY company is an employee who will compromise his family to make me a few dollars, not my kind of employee, thanks for the profit, YOUR FIRED. 

          What would you do for your family? Anything! What would you do for your children? Anything! Make safety personal, make it all about you and your family, be selfish! If you get killed at work we’ll mourn for you, we’ll cry, we’ll attend your funeral, we’ll do all of that stuff. By the way, the day after the funeral we’ll still be making money, while your family is still suffering, in a year we’ll be celebrating some other goal we achieved, probably a year since our last fatality with a party or celebration, we'll probably even reflect on you and shed a tear for a moment while saying grace before we eat crawfish and drink beer, celebrating that no one has been killed here since YOU. You’ll still be dead, your family still suffering and forever damaged. Again, when it comes to safety, be very selfish, make it all about YOU. 

SUMMARY

          Disagree with me and want to test this? Ask yourself the simple questions we asked in the first article, “if we got rid of Safety, how many of our workers would quit?” The answer is that some would, but some would also stay for the money, and the more money we paid, the more would stay, the real reason they go to work each day. Now ask yourself another question, “if we have the best Safety Program in the world at XYZ, but can’t afford to pay our employees, how many of our workers would quit?” The answer is, virtually all of your employees will quit.

          While this sounds contrary to some, it is based in reality and will resonate with your workers. A Leader can use this foundation knowledge of human behavior to integrate Safety and Economics, building a World Class Safety Program that resonates with the everyday worker, and becomes a key part of your company achieving World Class Performance in Safety and Economic Performance.

          “Safety First” will absolutely get you a good safety program and performance, if you want World Class, “Values Based Safety” is the way to go.