Does Poor Safety Equal Poor Management?

Safety Signs, photo by mikecogh via flickr.com

Seeing accidents as inevitable, or devaluing human capitol, might be at the heart of poor safety culture decisions. As with any aspect of a business, if it's pushed down the ladder or put off for the future, it can be overlooked. With safety, that can have serious consequences. Read more about the connection between poor safety and poor management on EHSToday.com. See an excerpt below.

Many high-ranking leaders in various organizations have been quoted as saying that poor safety results are an indicator of other poor management practices. In interviews with top officials, the majority indicated that they demand excellence in safety from contractors and suppliers for the very reason that they view poor safety results as a warning sign of other management or performance weaknesses. Following this lead, many contractor management firms have vaunted safety as a primary condition of being included in the list of approved providers. But is safety necessarily linked to other performance areas, and if so, which ones? And what is the link?

To better answer this question, consider the potential causes for poor safety performance:

• Leaders of some organizations simply view safety as a low priority. This view can originate from other, more-valued priorities or from a philosophy that accidents are inevitable and unavoidable. Sadly, some organizations value the management of capital or technology more than the management of people and don't appreciate the importance of human capital.

Read the full article on EHSToday.com.