Where Are All the Safety Professionals?

The safety profession is a relatively new career field to many industries. While I have been in the field for over 38 years, the profession is still unknown to many. For many companies, hiring a person to “do” safety is as simple as assigning an employee “extra duties”. These entities (both large and small) may view safety as a burden or just another way the government is trying to tell them how to run their business.  They see safety as a cost and know that after all… “Safety is just common sense”. These companies historically will spend more money trying to avoid safety rules than they would have by just becoming compliant.

In the past, businesses would buy an insurance policy that would cover the anticipated cost of injuries, deaths, or litigation involved in a project. That policy would allow them to pay for any losses due to accidents, injuries, or litigations and was considered “just a cost of doing business”. However archaic that may sound, many companies today consider accidents, injuries, and OSHA fines as a “cost of doing business” and build managing those costs into the price of their goods and services. What these companies and others are missing is the understanding of the profession and how to properly utilize a safety professional’s knowledge, skills, and abilities to create an effective workforce. To better understand this paradigm shift you will have to accept a few beliefs as “facts” in order to see the logic in the argument for hiring a safety professional. You don’t have to agree with the facts as stated, but just because you don’t agree with a concept does not make it less true.

1.      (Fact) The position of Safety Manager is an executive level position which is equal to or above production managers and should only answer to senior management or above.

·        When you hire a Safety Manager and place them lower down the decision making chain you send a message to the company that employee safety is not as important as production, sales, or any other department they are a part of. Safety managers need authority and upper level support in implementing policies and procedures that are intended to make a company more productive, effective, and safer.

·        The Safety Manager represents the owner of the company. OSHA allows certain special inspections, rules, and procedures for companies that have designated safety professionals in charge of jobs, tasks, or processes. Their rules require observable management support, authority, and designation in order to qualify. A shift in how OSHA looks at employer responsibilities can be found in their policy on Multi-Employers and focuses on accountability of ones actions. The basic premise is that no employee is ever unsupervised in one way or another and employers are responsible (accountable) for creating a workplace (environment) that is safe and free from recognized hazards. It is the employer that has to pay the fine or even go to jail if it is determined that their actions did not recognize, evaluate, prevent, or mitigate a hazard or condition. A “Certification of Hazard Assessment” (which is an official document) is required to be conducted and kept on file. Other OSHA requirements (some requiring executive signatures) involve, required training, equipment, and communication of hazards to employees. The employer is directly responsible for this being done and documented. Many of these inspections and certifications are performed by a Safety Manager acting as the designated agent for the employer.

2.      (Fact) Safety Managers should be professionally trained for their position.

·        Most safety managers, specialist, and technicians come up through the ranks and bring with them a lot of experience of the job, policies, and procedures. While this is needed in understanding the job, professional safety training is needed to understand safety procedures, concepts, regulations and practices. You would not want someone performing surgery on you solely because they have the most experience in working on an oil rig. So while experience is invaluable, education is essential in performing the required duties of a safety professional. This is the conundrum; many companies know they need processional help but do not want to pay for a professionals service. Instead, they hire from within and expect the new manager to acquire the required knowledge while doing the job as an additional duty. This leads newly assigned safety personnel to struggle with the requirements of the old job and the new job while still working for the old supervisor.  

·        Safety professionals must be knowledgeable or know where to find information on OSHA, EPA, DOT, NFPA, Workers Comp and other regulations. They must have people skills and an understanding of Human Resource requirements. They should have good writing and technical communications abilities while developing policies, procedures, and technical instructions for JSA’s and other training instruments. Most of all they should be developed as leaders and have an understanding of worker behavioral traits or (why people do what they do)!

3.      (Fact) Safety Managers are leaders and influencers for both the company and its employees.

·        It is said that a safety profession is the preverbal “guy in the middle”. They protect the company from the workers while protecting the workers from the company. With this being said, Safety Managers should be developed (trained) as leaders. Leadership is not a born trait but rather an ability that can be learned and applied. While it is true that certain people may acquire many of these traits at an early age; leadership is something that has to be honed and shaped into a tool that can be wielded.

·         The title “Influencer” is a relatively new term (initiated by millennials and Gen Z’ers) that describe individuals that people want to mimic or follow. They observe how this person acts, dresses, speaks, and interacts with others in order to determine if they want to act, dress, etc. the same way.  What this means is that these individuals are watching and observing those in a leadership role to determine proper responses to work environment situations.

·        One of the biggest complaints about millennials and younger generations is that they lack drive and dedication to tasks. Many managers state that they do not have enough time to do their job and babysit younger employees in order to get them to work. While there are always exceptions to any generational rule, what these managers don’t consider is where they learned this trait. When you don’t have time to train a child in how they should respond to a situation, they will seek out another source of learned response. Video games, television, social media, and reality TV are the initial influencers of many. Once they get to the workplace they again seek out examples of how to act in a work environment. What they get from some managers is don’t bother me… just do your job (which they have received little or no training). This can be frustrating and many resort back to their initial spheres of influence. If you have a professionally trained safety manager, they could observe a leader that follows the rules, looks out for others, and believes in responsibility / accountability for ones actions. Where is the downside to that?

4.      (Fact) Safety Managers should not be the bad guy or “Mr. No”.

·        In some cases, “perception can be reality”. How employees view safety professionals is in direct response to how management perceives safety as a whole. I acknowledge the fact that there are both good and bad safety professionals. There are both very knowledgeable and dumber than dirt people in safety positions. There are both safety trainers that make you want to change the world as well as those that will put you to sleep faster than a shot of whiskey and a hammer. This is where selection of someone to lead your safety program requires some forethought. Many times I see companies hire the first person or 3rd. party company that offers to “do” safety for them. The outcome most of the time results in disappointment from both parties. The bottom line is that there are individuals and companies that get into safety for only the money. It is up to the employer (remember these individuals represent you) to determine if the individual is both knowledgeable and competent to perform their duties.  Look for credentials, ask questions, and talk to references to get a feel if the individual / 3rd. party company is a professional or a professional BS’er. 

Well I could go on for another couple of hundreds of pages but I will close with these thoughts. When it comes to hiring the right safety manager…… hire the professional you would want to be!

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Michael O’Berry is a 38 year veteran to the safety profession. He has been a state and federal safety inspector, college instructor, company owner, and is now currently the Director for the National Center for EHS Education (NCEHSE). He still teaches Occupational Safety Engineering and Environmental management classes for numerous colleges and universities such as Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell, New Mexico Junior College, and Texas A&M -Engineering Extension Service (TEEX). He is active on the web and consults for many corporations / government agencies both large and small. #michaeloberry