Workplace Safety and Health - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The presentation was first delivered at the OS+H Forum on Workplace Safety and Health 2022 on 16 Sep 2022. The forum was organized by Messe Dusseldorf Asia and Singapore Institution of Safety Officers. I have attempted to transcribe my presentation and appended the relevant slides for ease of reference. The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization.

Singapore has steadily reduced our workplace fatality rate since the enactment of the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Act in 2006. ?This was the result of concerted tripartite efforts to strengthen WSH regulations, develop capabilities, raise awareness and deepen industry ownership of WSH, which were guided by the national WSH strategies.

Unfortunately, despite stepped-up inspections and tightening of workplace safety controls recently, the number of workplace-related deaths has gone up this year. These have been highlighted by our Prime Minister as unacceptable and we need to work together to put this right. ?As our Senior Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad has highlighted several weeks ago, many of the recent accidents were down to simple and totally avoidable mistakes. While a shortage of manpower and time are contributory factors, basic lapses and a tendency to cut corners mean there is room to instill a stronger safety culture. And get everyone on board – from the lowest-rung worker to top executives.

I found a part of the speech which was presented in Parliament back in 2006 when our second reading of the WSH Bill was tabled by then Minister for Manpower Ng Eng Hen. The key message was that while there were workplace fatalities, it was important to take heed of the lessons learnt from the accidents which have happened and constantly remind ourselves that we ignore safety and health risks at our peril. We need to move from just words to action and create structures that will shape better behaviour and outcomes at the workplace.?

Fast forward to WSH2018, I found this diagram from our WSH2018 document particularly useful to explain what we are seeing currently. The key to sustainable improvement is to achieve a progressive and pervasive safety and health culture. The diagram illustrates how the establishment of a progressive and pervasive WSH culture is critical to achieving sustained improvements in WSH outcomes. The improvement cycle illustrates the relationship between WSH and business performance. Improvements in capabilities to manage WSH by devoting adequate resources for WSH can have a positive impact on business performance. ??However, the maintenance cycle shows that this relationship can be compromised by a sense of complacency and a lapse in vigilance. Expanding WSH capability building efforts beyond WSH infrastructure and competencies, to include cultivating the right mindset and attitude towards WSH, can help arrest this lapse into complacency, as illustrated by the entrenchment cycle. This will help ensure that our gains in WSH outcomes are sustained.

The Bradley Curve, developed by Veron Bradley in 1995, postulates that injury rates decrease with increasing levels of safety management. Using a four-stage model, the Bradley Curve proposed the need for a shift in mindset and actions over time in order to develop a mature safety culture within the organisation. On the extreme left is the Reactive Stage where there is an absence of OSH management resulting in high injury rate and low organisational performance. People act based on their personal experience and do not take responsibility. They view safety as a matter of luck rather than management, and management and are willing to accept that accidents will happen. On the extreme right is the?Interdependent Stage. People take ownership and responsibility for themselves and the people around them. They do not accept low standards of OSH and risk‐taking. They understand the point of view of others through active communication and partnership. They believe true improvement can only be achieved as a group. They believe zero injuries are attainable when they work together.

In developing approaches to support the implementation of WSH programmes, it is important to consider where your companies sit in the models and progressively nudge them towards better safety culture with suitable interventions. ?It can be useful to think of the companies you are trying to influence in two dimensions:

????????First, do they know (or not know) what they need to do to manage OSH – awareness ?

????????Second, are they committed (or not) to getting it right in managing OSH?

I shall now attempt to characterize them in these quadrants – the good, the bad and the ugly.?

First, let me start off with the extreme of the scale – the Ugly.? Such companies fail to see the value in maintaining a safe and healthy workplace.?They are??unwilling to shape up their practices and invest in sufficient resources to improve the working conditions of their workplace. Most of them are reluctant to put in place appropriate measures even if risk analysis showed clear inadequacies.?In colloquial terms, they could be simply described as “don’t know”, “don’t know how” and “don’t bother”. Accidents are brushed off as bad luck and are highly unlikely that it will ever happen in their workplace.?Such workplaces are not uncommon. If you have seen a recent post on the MOM Facebook, we have shared “appalling and unacceptable” conditions at their work sites of some companies. Inspectors found that basic safety precautions had not been taken, such as a lack of effective barricades and proper work platforms to protect those working at height.

Second, the Bad.?This quadrant reflects companies who may be willing, but have little clue on what to do.??They have some capabilities but attitude towards good WSH may be lacking. They need guidance and assistance to build their capability.??They need to know how to manage a system where workers act within safety rules and the management put in place sufficient measures which commensurate with the risks which their workers face at work.?

?Third, on the enlightened group or what I would describe as the Good.?I hope most of you are either already there or would aspire to go there.??These companies would see how increased focus in WSH could lead to higher productivity, better efficiency, raised corporate image, increased social responsibility and improved competitive advantage. Eventually, these would bring about higher profit margins and business sustainability. For such companies, our role will be how to get them to move forward especially in getting them to influence others.?They are our ambassadors for getting more on board the journey to transform their organizations into ones with world class WSH standards.?

Mr Kevin Myers, then Dy Chief Executive?of Health & Safety Executive from United Kingdom once said that people change for two main reasons – ?those who “see the light” i.e. the benefits of WSH to their organization, and those who “feel the heat” i.e. the enforcement actions we have imposed on them.? At our national level, it has been an arduous task trying to convert those that respond to “feeling the heat” to “seeing the light”. The rise in the number of workplace deaths has led to calls for stronger enforcement and even harsher punishments.?

For the Ugly, despite the practical assistance and promotional efforts we have put in, some are still unwilling to take responsibility to shape up their practices and invest in sufficient resources to improve the workplace conditions. ?Making improvements in systems and processes at the workplace are usually the last thing on their minds. It is important to recognise that promotion and capability building will have limited impact for this group.?The most effective means is enforcement. MOM has indeed been taking tougher actions on companies and individuals who flouted the WSH Act, with increase in fines and jail terms.?We have also?launched a comprehensive measures to increase Ownership, Oversight, Enforcement and Empowerment (OE2).

Next, for the Bad quadrant. Some of them might understand the importance of good WSH outcome but may not know how to do so.?On the other hand, we have those who claim that they have no time, no resources and regard WSH as a low priority on the agenda.?The challenge for regulators like us is to show them the way.? When UK reformed their OSH framework in the 1970s, a Committee led by Lord Robens concluded that ‘apathy’ by employers and employees was primarily to blame for poor workplace accidents. After the Robens Report was released in 1972, there was a thought that compliance and enforcement burdens placed on employers of small firms have most affected them cost-wise.?A subsequent survey released?did not validate this.?Instead, the finding was that a major reason for non-compliance was ignorance

For the "Bad", at the individual level, our WSH Council have put in place a comprehensive WSH education and training landscape to inculcate WSH competencies.?In terms of strengthening organizational capability, we hope to consistently reinforce the message that safe operations should be at the heart of every aspect of the each organization’s undertaking.? For the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), we have launched programmes such as bizSAFE to help to build up their WSH capability especially in the area of risk assessment, and for those who lack the know-how, there is the START SAFE programme which companies could turn to.?

The BUS programme?helps companies with poor WSH records to develop or improve on their safety and health management system. Companies will undergo an initial assessment phase if they face issues such as fatal workplace accidents, multiple injuries, poor enforcement records, or accumulated demerit points(for construction companies) . During the assessment phase, we will conduct a thorough review on the company’s risk management and WSH management system. If the company demonstrates inability to manage WSH properly, or show signs of systemic lapses, it will formally enter and remain in the programme. ?While in the surveillance phase, our inspectors will conduct frequent inspections to verify the progress made. Once the action plans are followed through and we are assured that workers are well protected, companies will then exit the programme.

For the ones in the Good category, they have usually seen the light.?However, doing more of the same thing will not lead to further improvements.?The challenge lies in how to engage them in making a quantum leap towards the level of excellence. I am sure you have gleaned some insights from Mr Ong Woon Lit’s presentation on?Operational Excellence, Going Above and Beyond. As illustrated in this slide, beyond the traditional WSH issues, such companies look at how to harness technology to improve WSH, take a holistic approach to maintain employees’ wellness by focusing on mental well-being and total WSH.?

Vision Zero (at work) is based on the assumption that all accidents, harm and work-related ill-health are preventable. Vision Zero is then the ambition and commitment to create and ensure safe and healthy work by preventing all accidents, harm and work-related diseases and continually promoting excellence in Safety, Health and Wellbeing.?To support employers and managers to continuously improve the safety and health conditions in their enterprise in line with Vision Zero, the International Social Security Association has developed a practical management tool for developing a strong safety and health culture, based on comprehensive research of the most effective preventive measures. ??During this process, over 1,000 employers, executives, managers, prevention experts, workers’ representatives and labour inspectors have been asked about best practices. As a result, Vision Zero has been structured around these 7 Golden Rules.

To illustrate my point on how influence is exerted throughout the organization, let me use the hundredth monkey phenomenon. In the 1970s, two writers, Blair and Watson stated in their publications that unidentified scientists were conducting a study of monkeys on a Japanese island in 1952. ?These scientists purportedly observed that some of these monkeys learned to wash dirty sweet potatoes.?Gradually, this new behavior spread through the younger generation of monkeys—in the usual fashion, through observation and repetition. Watson then claimed that the researchers observed that once a critical number of monkeys were reached—the so-called hundredth monkey—this previously learned behavior gradually spread across the water to monkeys on nearby islands. Of course, the influence I was trying to illustrate here should be a positive one.?Otherwise, the organization would exhibit a degenerative safety culture in no time.

At the international level, the International Labour Organization has added the right to a safe and healthy working environment to its Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work .?This is a landmark achievement which signals a renewed commitment to improving Occupational Safety and Health for workers worldwide.??The ILO Member States commit to respect and promote the fundamental right to a safe and healthy working environment .This further creates a burning platform on why we need to improve.

Many of you in the audience today are leaders in your own ways. Whether you are a EHS manager, WSH officer or WSH auditor, safety is everyone’s responsibility. Leadership drives culture, which in turns drives behaviour. Safety leadership is a key component in a successful safety culture. On the last part of my presentation, I thought it would be useful for me to distill into specific actionables contextualized to the operating environment we are in now. – to uplift our companies to the “good” quadrant.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has shown that we need to continually be prepared to improvise and be agile to changes to regulatory framework or business operating environment. ?A safety leader is somebody who not only exhibits personal safety behaviours, but inspires others to do the same. Some WSH Professionals could be used to certain ways of responding to issues at the workplace. However, the biggest challenge is often doing more with less and having to meet the expectations of great outcomes. WSH is sometimes viewed as a necessary evil versus a value-added commodity with long term positive impact.???As we work towards embracing the Future of Work, it is timely to challenge status quo, and to capitalize on the opportunity to make improvements to WSH.

In my course of work as an WSH inspector or an adjunct faculty, I have come across safety professionals who are not aware of regulatory changes or best practices. Not too long ago, I gave my students a problem statement on solving IAQ problems at their workplace. A fair share gave me a templatized answer which I recognize it as the Annex from the WSH Guidelines we have published. ?The point I am trying to drive here is that we have moved away from being prescriptive because every workplace is different. Even as WSH officers, auditors serving different workplaces, it is important not to prescribe a one size fits all solution for all your clients.? For some, safety is a necessary evil while for others, safety is a necessity or competitive edge. ?

The period of heightened alert would also translate to a period of complexity and change for some of you. Some may be in a dilemma. ?But I wanted to say that Covid burnout is real. For some, it has been a struggle to stay in the WSH field where you are consistently viewed as the bad guy. You probably feel strained and helpless when it comes to adjusting to the dynamism. ?But you must remember. You play an important role to safeguard the health of the workforce, regardless of where you work. And you should press on

Last year, I shared an insight from Harvard professor Ronald Heifetz‘s adaptive leadership model, which I think is still relevant to today’s context. To understand periods of complexity and change, he encourages people to remove themselves from the dance floor to get onto the balcony to observe the surroundings - a metaphor to encourage people to detach themselves from an immersive environment, and get onto the balcony for a gallery view of things.

Now, at the concluding slide of my presentation and I wish to end on a positive note. Singapore has made significant gains in our WSH standards and outcomes over the past few years. However, the imperatives behind the new operating environment, which is after a long battle against the Covid-19 pandemic – the need to engender a strong safety culture means that leaders like yourselves have a vital role to play. I share with you an extract from the National Day Message where our PM encouraged us to set our sights on the next frontier and search for better solutions and fresh possibilities.?

With the correct focus, right mindset and strong belief, we could work together to convert the ugly to bad, and the bad to good. These would eventually contribute to advancements in the WSH landscape in Singapore?Thank you for your attention and let us continue to persevere to create a healthy workforce in safe workplaces, and make Singapore a country renowned for best practices in workplace safety and health.