ADEQUATE preparation surely is the answer to many of life's challenges and dangers. It is well established that prevention's value outweighs the cost of incidents themselves (for example, the UK Department for Transport has calculated that the total value of preventing the 229,014 highway accidents in Great Britain in 2001, of which 3,176 were fatal accidents and 31,588 were serious accidents, would have been roughly $31 billion, or about $135,000 per accident).
FIRE, jolts, arcs, thermal burns, flash burns . . . . There are few workplace scenarios as potentially deadly as those that involve work with electricity or electrical items. Yet we all have a tendency to overlook the most basic of hazards in the workplace, too.
ARE you capitalizing on the benefits of the Internet to boost employee training?
OF course, we're not talking about your training sessions. And we're not talking about mine, either. It's those other guys--it's their safety training sessions we're talking about.
"GETTT iiittt done," one of our maintenance fellows good-naturedly growls at me as a "good morning" comment almost every day as he makes his job list for the day and walks a multi-story construction project in the pre-shift quiet. It seems to be the unspoken slogan for most maintenance men, from entry level to advanced engineers.
IT'S hard to judge from day to day how much you should invest in training. Even through you know training improves productivity, morale, and retention of key employees, the question of cost still remains.
MATERIALS handling often focuses on storage and transport by equipment, including forklifts. However, employee behaviors and work practices, such as using poor lifting techniques, also contribute to many injuries.
HOW many employers or employees were faced with the following scenarios in the last five years: a change in health plan vendors, a decrease in benefits coverage, or increased cost sharing for the insurance premium?
THE mission of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is to assure the safety and health of America's workers by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach, and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual improvement in workplace safety and health.
THE safe operation of a forklift is a skill that requires the ability to anticipate accidents. When this ability is learned through "trial and error," it is only evaluated when property damage or serious injury occurs.
AT the end of the day, the goal of occupational health and safety professionals is not only to keep all employees safe, healthy, and on the job, but also to send them home safe and sound to their families and loved ones. Getting to that goal has sparked numerous debates and philosophical discussions over the years.
THE number one cause of safety incidents isn't sprains, strains, repetitive motion injuries' or any other line item on a monthly incident report. It's a lack of commitment to safe work practices. No matter how you slice your safety statistics, virtually all injuries at any company are preventable with the right preparation and focus.
IN June 2001, a Marietta, Ga., worker was using his feet to tamp down cardboard inside a compactor when his feet became caught in the cardboard and he was pinned inside the machine.
IN our work with companies striving to become safety excellence organizations, we've learned the biggest impediment to achieving improved performance is an inability to overcome the conventional "wiz-dumbs" of safety (wrongheaded thinking that impedes progress in the right direction) that inhibit organizational change.
PERSUASION is the name of the big game in organizations. Safety professionals' effectiveness can ultimately depend on their ability to persuade others. This can encompass influencing senior management to actively fund and support new initiatives, inducing mid-managers and supervisors to visibly lead safety.
DURING the past decade, "e-learning" has become a familiar term and a routine part of many corporate training programs.
AT one time or another, most of us have secretly harbored the thought--or even boldly uttered the words--"If I were in charge around here, I'd _____ _____ ____ ____." (You can fill in the blanks yourself.) As for me, having been the only male in my class in nursing school, having fathered two (now grown) daughters, and having been married for more than 30 years, I long ago gave up any desire or hope of ever occupying a position of control or authority over anything or anyone.
AS a manager and leader, how credible are you? Put another way, how much do your employees trust you: your decisions, what you advocate, and even what you say?
ON June 20, 2002, President George W. Bush signed an Executive Order to promote personal fitness in the general public.