Launch a Safety Program

03/05/07

June is National Safety Month, which makes it a perfect time to start thinking about launching a safety-awareness program in your organization.

Although OSHA dictates many safety regulations, it’s up to you to figure out how to integrate the principles of safety into your employees’ work ethic. Use the following suggestions as a start. They can help you affirm and reinforce your commitment to workplace safety and heighten safety awareness at every level.

First: Procure Potential Partners
Because it has a vested interest in your company’s workplace safety, your workers’ comp insurer is one potential partner in safety-awareness training. “Your workers’ compensation carrier will require you to have mandatory safety meetings and document employees’ attendance,” says John Famulare, president and CEO of Industrial Roofing Specialists Inc. “Training is necessary to get and keep workers’ comp coverage.” Consequently, ask your insurer to provide loss-prevention engineers or other staff experts to conduct safety workshops and refresher training on your premises.

In addition, contact organizations such as the National Safety Council and the Red Cross about holding seminars to address specific safety concerns from first aid to emergency evacuation plans. Your local fire department may also offer advice on maintaining and using fire extinguishers, policing your workplace for potential fire hazards, and correct methods of storing, handling, and disposing of hazardous materials.

Finally, your trade association should have proven methods of promoting safety awareness that have been developed for your specific line of business.

Exploit the Power of Print
Although oral presentations are a vital part of promoting safety awareness, nothing beats the power of signs, posters, and banners for getting your message across, day in and day out. Some prime places to display these eye-catching messages include:

• High-traffic locations such as time clocks, break rooms, and outside entrances all places employees will see them several times a day.
  
• High-risk areas such as loading docks, departments with inherently dangerous equipment, and close to operations that involve hazardous materials.
  
• Conference rooms and other places where workers meet regularly and where new employee orientation sessions are held.
• Bulletin boards in supervisors’ cubicles or offices.
  
• On easels set up for department meetings and safety-awareness seminars.

Appoint a Coordinator
Although you might be tempted to lay all the responsibility for increasing safety awareness on your supervisory staff, a program coordinator can help to ensure that your safety messages are communicated uniformly across the board. The coordinator can also see to it that they reach workers at every level — especially those on the front line, who tend to have the greatest exposure to accidents and injuries.

Your coordinator should not only assemble safety-related information but also organize and conduct formal presentations at the departmental level and distribute safety materials to supervisors or team leaders. This person, who may also develop and oversee your ongoing safety training programs, could appoint departmental liaisons to relay information and materials down to lower levels.

Supervisors Must Walk the Talk
Supervisors are your key contacts with the rank-and-file. They set the tone for safety awareness by default — which may be good or bad, depending on their commitment. Bosses who discount the value of your safety-awareness campaign undermine its success, while those who buy into it and “walk the talk” lead by example. They can enhance its value many times over.

It’s essential, then, that supervisors repeat and ratify your safety-awareness campaign at the grass-roots level. If they don’t, employees may merely view it as just another Fad of the Month.

Looking for powerful, proven materials to get your safety messages across effectively? G. Neil has an outstanding array of products to choose from:

G.Neil’s laminated Safety and First Aid Posters give your workers instant access to the latest safety procedures and information.

Reinforce safety procedures with our durable, self-adhesive Safety Shower/Eye Safety Floor Signs.

Declare war on workplace injuries with these Safety Banners — over forty to choose from!
Indispensable: Rugged, wall-mounted First Aid Kits.