NJAIHA - Business Value of Health and Safety Excellence

The following is a transcript of the briefing was given during the audio webinar prior to Safe + Sound week.

Thank you for allowing me to present at the National Safety Council (NSC) and OSHA's Safe Work and Sound Business session. 

Founded in 1945, the NJ section of the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s mission is to promote the industrial hygiene profession; increase the knowledge of principles and practice through interchange and dissemination of information; promote the study and control of risk factors affecting the health and well-being of workers; and collaborating with other business partners on the awareness and control of hazards.

As President of NJAIHA, we seek to network and collaborate closely with our membership, other non-profits, regional business entities, industry stakeholders, and regulatory bodies to drive safe and healthy practices in the workplace.  

NJAIHA is closely aligned with the Pennsylvania and NYC metro section of AIHA as well as the Penn-NJ and NJ chapters of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). They provide membership support for management programs, which can translate into a significant return on investment, improve morale and wellbeing of the workforce, improve human performance and productivity, reduce both indirect and direct costs, and champion a vested interest of sustainable continuous improvement for all stakeholders and shareholders. 

Other vested New Jersey organizations include the Mid-Atlantic Biological Safety Association (MABSA), Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals (AHMP), and Workplace Health Without Borders – US Chapter. The NJ State Industrial Safety Committee, under the auspices of NJ Governor Chris Christie, also provides incentive awards for member companies who seek to maintain or improve their lost-time injury and illness records or achieve the OSHA VPP or SHARP level of recognition.  

A whole goal of NJAIHA is to reach out to the membership with engaging speakers at monthly dinner meetings, informative newsletters, social media content and news, professional development courses, summer career path training for board certification, and hold an annual professional conference and exposition to discuss the many current issues that impacts all NJ business and industry based on the state of the economy, society, governance and political climate. All of this information can be used by business and industry to construct and manage their health and safety programs.  

Membership in NJAIHA as with many other stakeholders provides a strong voice on public policy, regulatory process, and access to resources for professional training and board certification to advance their career. Collectively, we share our body of knowledge about health and safety issues facing our membership; train future leaders in industrial hygiene and occupational health, provide training and education for career professionals and board certification, review compliance requirements; collaborate with other aligned business partners, and provide leadership skills to navigate the uncharted waters so that together, we can protect people, property, and our planet. 

Why is this important?

·       Nearly 50 workers are injured every minute of the work week. On average, 17 workers die on-the-job each day

·       Total estimated national costs of occupational injuries and illnesses in the US (2007) were about $250 billion. The cost of injuries was $192 billion and the cost of illnesses was $58 billion.

·       According to the 2014 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index, serious non-fatal workplace injuries cost nearly $60 billion in workers' compensation costs. This equates to more than a billion dollars a week spent by businesses on avoidable injuries. 

·       OSHA estimates a cost saving between $4-$6 for every $1 spent on health and safety management programs and worker training.  Now that’s value!!

Let’s put it in another monetary perspective:

To cover the cost of a $500 accident, an employer would have to:

• bottle and sell 61,000 cans of soda
• bake and sell 235,000 donuts
• deliver 20 truckloads of concrete

How can NJAIHA and other regional business partners help business accomplish the mission together?

1.     General Principles of Health and Safety Management

Every day, health and safety professionals need to brief their leadership about business value of what we do and why we do it. NJAIHA provides the tools for turning shared information into business opportunity for cost savings and cost benefit. In turn, top management must use available resources and human talent to demonstrate sustainable commitment, communicate safe work practices to workers, and set policy and program expectations and delegate responsibilities that engage and empower the workforce.

Managers at all levels should prioritize safety and health as a core organizational value, establish clear goals and objectives, utilize existing resources and support for programs, and set a good example by promoting a sustainable behavior both on- and off-the-job. Profits should never trump the uncertainty of risk or the liability of inherent loss. This downward spiral is a losing proposition.

2.     The Supervisor’s Role

Supervisors play a vital role in creating a sustainable business culture and facilitate enforcement of company policy, written programs, and standard operating procedures of their work group. Supervisors have a responsibility to drive how business gets done at all levels of management but more importantly influence organizational culture.

3.     Working Conditions and Environment

Improving hazard recognition skills by the workforce and leadership is a vertical up and down work in progress. It requires the financial assets, human talent, commitment and dedication to preserve the company brand while conserving allocated resources. The objective is to maintain working conditions and a work environment so that everyone who comes to work can return home healthy and safe. 

4.     Worker Participation

Workers and their representatives should share the same synergy in setting goals, identifying and reporting hazards, providing viable solutions, investigate the cause of incidents and near-misses, and track progress.  

All workers, including contractors and temporary labor, must understand their roles and responsibilities at host employer worksites, and do what they need to do to protect their workforce, which may independent of the host employer’s obligations.

Workers should openly communicate with management by reporting concerns without fear of retaliation. Health and safety, by itself, should be a core value of corporate performance and personnel evaluations.

5.     Job/Work Task Analysis

Companies can use job safety and health analyses to define the individual steps, identify hazards and recommend the corrective action(s) necessary to ensure that the work is done in a safe and timely manner. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are useful tools to protect workers from exposure to inherent risk(s).

6.     Health and Safety Meetings, Briefings, and Tool Box Talks

Workers and managers should talk about health and safety at meetings, briefings, and provide tool box talks to workers so that can carry out their job task(s).  

Membership in NJAIHA and other nonprofits provides cost-effective training for persons with health and safety responsibilities. More managers and supervisors should receive training on health and safety concepts, understand their responsibility by position in the company, and respond promptly to real concerns.

Because after all, the most valued resource of any organization is its vested employees. All workers should be able to recognize workplace hazards and use the control measures to keep them safe and sound. When the risks become unacceptable, workers and their employers should consider a stand-down to reset and make things right again.

7.     Medical Treatment, Recordkeeping and Incident Investigation

NJAIHA has a vast array human talent and educational resources to discuss issues about medical treatment, medical surveillance and biological monitoring of chemical, biological, physical, and radiological hazards to complement routine physical exams.

Business needs a comprehensive understanding of timely medical treatment; handling the claims to get workers back to work; ways to reduce fraud and abuse; provide accurate information for mishap or near-miss investigations; and comply with OSHA recordkeeping requirements.

8.     Program Evaluation and Continuous Improvement

The Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) cycle is a four–step model for carrying out change. Just like a circle perimeter has no end, the PDCA cycle can be repeated again and again for continuous improvement.

Membership in NJAIHA or other nonprofits provide gainful information on engineering and administrative controls to reduce risk, limit liability, and understand how best to protect workers. This resource also can be used to help identify gaps in policy, program and procedural shortcomings.

Recent analyses of business interventions identified several key factors that play a crucial role in operating cost. These factors were classified from the perspective of the company, workforce, economy, and society as a whole. The model for these business interventions is represented in the flow diagram. There are four essential elements in this framework:

(a) Capital expenditures for equipment and labor as a positive component;

(b) Degree of effectiveness of controls to prevent avoidable cost of injuries and illnesses;

(c) Increased productivity from innovation and technological design or retrofit of machinery and equipment, and 

(d) Protection of workers from increases in productivity due to the intervention.

So why are we talking about this issue?

Despite emphasizing the business value of protecting workers and driving innovation and technological enhancements; many organizations still operate in a vacuum. As a result, opportunities for cost benefit, effectiveness and savings, lower liability and risk with workplace improvements, and reduced injury and illness are missed.

Interest in health and safety measures, as indicators of corporate governance, are gaining more traction among business leaders. By establishing a robust strategy; programed inspections, surveys and audits; and performance metrics – the new-found earnings can be used to hire workers, purchase new or additional machinery, and open new markets or locations.

The goal for all stakeholders is to understand that real business value directly correlates to good policy, programs, and procedures that are tied to leadership commitment and investment, worker participation, and a systematic approach to find, report and fix hazards in workplace.

Shareholders also can reap the rewards from high profit margins, reduced operating cost, liability and risk, which translates into a better brand, image, and reputation, social responsibility, and sustainability that can attract more lucrative investments and growth.

Workplace health and safety is a sound business practice that conserves limited resources and maximizes business profits. Well written and enforced programs can control systematic hazards before they can cause short- or long-tail injuries or illness, property loss, unnecessary capital expenditures, and damage reputation and future earnings.  

Participating in Safe and Sound Week and working with NJAIHA and other stakeholders can help start or re-energize your existing program. Also, there are many governmental and online resources available to help companies understand and control the risks facing their business or industry. NJAIHA and other business partners provide the capacity to network with board certified and career health and safety professionals for additional guidance.

Organizations of any size or industry should grab this bonafide opportunity to engage and empower their workforce and showcase their internal and external commitment to excellence. Because in the end, health and safety is about business relationships and networking to protect people, their lives, and their livelihoods as well as the product used and manufactured, public health and the environment. If more effort was given to this endeavor; more businesses could reap the financial reward for greater profitability, prosperity, social responsibility and sustainability on a global scale.

Thank you for allowing me the time to deliver this important message.